Agent sales constraints...

by darnardo1 » Mon Jun 15, 2009 04:59 am

What are some constraints that an agent has when selling life insurance products? Example, Time etc.

On average how long does it take to fully explain each life insurance product?

Term Life
Whole Life
Endowment
Variable Life
Universal Life
VUL
Annuity (Fixed)
Annuity (Variable)

*If I have left out any major life insurance product please let me know

Thanks for answering all my bizarre questions on this forum

Total Comments: 8

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 05:09 am Post Subject:

Some of the constraints would include time, level of understanding, client objections, agent knowledge, and agent motivation. An agent must be motivated to even have the sales appointments in the first place, and then must have adequate knowledge (and sometimes patience) to accurately describe it to the client.

As far as the average times to explain each life insurance product, it really depends on the client and their level of knowledge / understanding. A client may have extensive knowledge or personal experience with some of the above products, and then again a client may not know about anything but term insurance. Of all the ones you listed, the Term Policies are probably the easiest to explain, but the length of time required to explain it still depends on the client!

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 05:24 am Post Subject:

Hi daranardo1,

On average how long does it take to fully explain each life insurance product?


If the client is knowledgeable it would definitely take less time for you. But you'd also need to be a good listener in order to identify his areas of concern. Cutting it short instantly and letting him express his concern would save time and also help you to retain the control of the point of discussion.

Now, do you think you'd invite more questions from your customer while selling an annuity product than a WL policy?

Steven

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 05:27 am Post Subject:

Hi Danardo, probably another challenge insurance agents face is to have the market to sell insurance. Some insurance agents may not have natural market to kick start their business. This however can be overcome by doing cold calling or getting leads.

Anyway, why are you concerned about the constraints an agent has when selling life insurance products?

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 06:16 am Post Subject:

I understand a lot would depend on both the client and agent's level of understanding but please bare with me; imagine average Joe the sales agent(With average years of experience and motivation) speaking with the average client from a certain age group eg.

18 to 24 years
25 to 44 years
45 to 64 years
65 years and over
85 years and over

I am attempting to find the optimal sales mix by using the solver program on excel and factoring a list of constraints...so far I have consumer demand(using aggrigated sales figures as a proxy for demand), time by age group and channel (telephone, internet, face-to-face)

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 08:53 am Post Subject:

Well Darnardo, it'd also depend upon how well aware the client is about his needs. If he can be explicit with his requirement to the agent, the agent can then easily point out the product that they must need.

IMO the clients belonging to the age group of 25 to 44 and 45 to 64 are easier to deal with since often time they are aware with the market trends, have aptitude to receive and analyse information.

Seniors, on the other hand, may take more time in understanding things.

May be you too would share your view in this regard.

~Jeremy

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 01:00 pm Post Subject:

Hi Darnardo1,

I am attempting to find the optimal sales mix by using the solver program on excel and factoring a list of constraints.



Do you really believe that a system-generated algo would get you the best sales-conversion ratio?

Then why did many of the giant sales-concerns find their sales-figures to remain unaffected even after so many projections?

I've seen so many of them working upon their past records and try to make it better gradually with time..

18 to 24 years
25 to 44 years
45 to 64 years
65 years and over
85 years and over



Well..I don't think you really can categorize people who'd be 'easier to convert'. I say this because apart from factors like age-group and consumer needs, it would also depend on the personal skill set of an agent. It's not that people who're 65+ have less knowledge on any product, rather it's the nature of the product which determines it's necessity towards a particular generation or a section of the society.

You could sell admission tickets for amusement parks to someone who falls in 18-24 age-group. On the other hand, a purchase-discount with Walmart or K-Mart may seem more attractive for someone in the age-group of 45-64.

Don't you think it's more than the client being explicit with his agent, the agent should be skilled enough to create or identify the needs?

Steven

Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 12:32 am Post Subject:

This always happens when one tries to generalize >.<

I agree Steven the sales turn over to sell annuities to 60yo would very very different than to 18yos

Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 04:55 am Post Subject:

Thanks, I'll wait to hear more from you once you're done with your solver problem..

Steven

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