“Good morning Sir. I hope the Lord has been merciful and kind to you thus far!” the guy mumbled! At first I didn’t hear what he said so I asked him to repeat himself. This young man was probably in his early 20’s fresh out of college and raring to go out to make an impression in this big bad world selling life insurance. Why does everyone think that Bank Managers are always in need of life insurance and are therefore the first port of call for any aspiring insurance salesman?
Back to the young man! I stopped him dead in his tracks after he repeated his initial greeting unsure of what I had just heard and then proceeded to lecture him about his sales technique. You see, in sales and unless you are very sure of the affiliation of the party you are selling your products to never, ever invoke religion as a tactic to get empathy or whatever from your potential client more so now after Pastor Kanyari has been exposed for what he is though I digress!!
Invoking the name of the Lord to help you sell your product is unnecessary and unprofessional simply because you are telling the person you are selling to that you do not respect their religious beliefs. They could be atheists, agnostics, pagans, Hindus, Zoroastrians or Hare Krishna’s for all you know meaning that reference to the Lord could inevitably create a barrier with them. The fact that you have pre-judged a person as being of a Christian persuasion simply because of an assumption based on predominance, name and vocation is wrong and unacceptable and is like assuming that all those people that you meet in a bar are there to partake of an alcoholic drink!
I continued with my lecture to him that at the age of many Bank Managers it would be very expensive to purchase a life insurance product on account of our relatively advanced age and having been in the financial services sector for a considerable length of time then they would have long realized that the employers pension was never going to be enough on retirement and would have therefore already taken out a long term investment linked life policy as they plan for their retirement. In any case, I went on, I already had employer group linked policies for personal accident, medical and life and in addition I had three separate investment policies (one of them with his employer), a personal accident policy, a Domestic package policy, a motor policy, a separate medical policy and a golfer’s policy! All I now need is an insurance policy guaranteeing a reduction in my handicap in future!
The fact of the matter is that anyone over the age of 45 years is probably already in a relationship with one or more insurance companies on a long term investment policy to mature when they are in their 60’s. The focus therefore for the young aspiring insurance salesman should be on their age mates fresh out of college with hardly any commitments and get them to buy into a term life investment linked policy however small the initial premium. It looks like they believe that only the Bank Managers who can afford higher premium policies are the quickest way to riches! No wonder insurance penetration has been hovering around the 3% mark in Kenya for such a long time!
But this young guy was persistent I must admit and he must have been in the front row of his insurance sales class because after I was done, unfazed he asked me for references………………….. after offering to sell me WIBA! What, hadn’t he heard a thing I had said about age? I was now tempted to boot him out of my office because my friends are my age mates and the same argument as above holds true with many of them already having investment plans in place and sending them a fresh faced insurance salesman to sell them another policy would just piss them off royally!
What I told him in resignation at his persistence was that he was better off looking for people his own age that he could engage with and fascinate with the insurance products that he had to offer and forget about the guys who were already through with education policies and school fees policies because this is where many of my age mates are since they in all likelihood were already investing considerable amounts in investment linked life policies.
So my friends, you are safe because I decided a long time ago that I would not provide insurance references of my friend to salespeople to come and bother you in your offices. This is out of empathy since I know you feel the same way that I do when confronted by them yet you feel you are upto your ears in premium payments already.
Do however take out inpatient medical insurance for your aging parents since there are still some insurance underwriters that accept to have someone on cover so long as they have not surpassed a certain age. If my memory serves me right the one with the maximum age limit allows those upto the age of 75 to continue on cover so long as they signed up before that age but subject to certain restrictions on the scope of cover.
It would be appreciated if the same spirit of not referring me to any insurance salespeople would also be observed as a quid quo pro and with all due respect to the hard working people in insurance sales out there!
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