Follow Up & Maintence of Good Relationship (life insurance)

Today, I would like to share my knowledge in insurance selling. Having spent a number of years in insurance training and coaching, I think it would be good if I could share some of my thoughts in this product. The following article was originally written in Chinese and I translated it into English with some amendments.

1. Follow up

One leading life insurance company in USA found that among all lapsed insurance policies, 60% occurred right after second premium payment. This company discovered that policyholders who had made four premium payments or more were less likely to discontinue the payment which leads to policy termination. What is the significance of this finding? It shows that customers must consistently feel convinced that they had made a right decision in purchasing life insurance policies, otherwise there will be no subsequent purchase.

During the last stage of selling – follow-up, life insurance agents/sales personnel can influence customers' satisfaction and convince them that they have made a right decision in purchasing the insurance policies.


The Scope of Follow-up

Assuming that you have one client who purchased very little life insurance from you last year, and was basically
the least among the rest of your clients. This client's future purchase is not likely to substantially increase. On the other hand, assuming that you have another customer who brought you high profit and contributed nearly 23% of the your total unit sales. Between the two, which type of follow-up and services, respectively, do you need to provide? Naturally, you shall focus more on the second customer who gave you higher profit and return.

Life insurance sales personnel should analyze all customers in order to tailor-make follow-up rate. For passive customers who are about to stop purchasing, postal or telephone correspondence will suffice. For active customers who are still keen in purchasing, setting up regular appointments to meet up with them will be necessary. As for the customers who had, or have the propensity for huge purchase in the future, then more services shall be catered accordingly.

A lot of insurance personnel notice that 80% of the customers only contributed 20% of the sales. Ironically, approximately 80% of the sales are contributed by 20% of the customers. This phenomenon is known as the 80/20 Rule.


The importance of follow-up

The sales personnel’s main objective is to sell products or services in order to gain profit. He/she must have this unwavering objective in mind when servicing their customers. Although the agents have very limited time, they have to understand that the time spent with the customers is an investment for future sales and greater profit. If good services and follow-up activities can change a customer’s perception and attract him/her o your company, then even a passive customer or anyone who lacks buying potential can be transformed into a big buyer.



2. Maintaining good relationship

Appreciation letter

The easiest but regularly omitted way of maintaining good relationship is to follow up a sales presentation with a thank-you letter, email or card.

Writing an appreciation letter is part and parcel of sales personnel’s job. Sales personnel can design a new format and further personalize it based upon customer’s criteria.

Sales personnel can send birthday card to customer, at the same time, reminding them on the expiry date of their road tax. Hence, sending birthday card is a good way of maintaining a good relationship, while reminding them of you.



Always remember your customers' names

When having a conversation, don't you notice that we feel closer to those who address us by our name? To many, “name” is very important, as it is a way of self-identification. Sales persons must learn to memorize customers' names and use it adeptly during a conversation. It makes most customers, even those with bias, more receptive towards your sales presentation.

There was a former politician in our country who was able to remember supporters’ names. This ability was instrumental in bringing his political career to a great height!

To the majority, remembering names is not a subconscious ability but a developed skill. Scrutinize the following tips and you will learn how to make the memorizing process easier.

When someone are being introduced to you:

Politely ask the person to spell his/her name (how to write) if you are unsure
Regularly mention the person’s name during the conversation
Relate the customers’ name with something easy to remember
Find ways to address the customer’s name
If you forget the customer’s name, please do not hesitate to request the customer to repeat.
Place his/her name card on the table and refer to it regularly.

Service at the doorstep

Personally delivering the product to the customer’s house/office is one way of improving customer’s satisfaction. For example, insurance agents will usually hand-deliver the policy to the customers. The main reasons of hand delivery are:

To emphasize the policy uniqueness
To further convince the customer that he/she has made a wise decision
To motivate the customer in purchasing more life insurance policies

Do not waste time on unfruitful interview/sales presentation

When sales persons are following up with customers, they must be convinced that it is “not a waste of time”. Before the interview, ask yourself, “How can my customer benefit from this interview/sales presentation? What is my goal?” As mentioned earlier, short interviews are more favorable. Do remember that customers are not interested in highly pressured interviews that they may be made to believe you are hard selling to them.

There is hope in Vietnam

Recently I traveled to Ho Chi Minh, the largest city of Vietnam.

The country was occupied by Chinese for more than 1000 years since Dynasty Tang. Vietnamese language then was Chinese Language. Thereafter it was colonized by France for another 100 years. During the occupation of France, French helped Vietnamese to invent their language that is similar to the French language. From thereon, Chinese Language started to diminish in Vietnam.

Vietnamese spent 9 years fighting with France to gain independence. The Vietnam War which took another 21 years saw the Northern Vietnam declaring war with Southern Vietnam. Millions of people were killed in the war. Vietnamese launched the guerrilla wars against the American. They managed to chase American away.

US suffered major loss in Vietnam War. In fact, American not only suffered loss in Vietnam, but also Afghanistan & Iraq.

In 1988, Vietnamese government (The Communist Government) allowed Vietnamese to learn foreign languages and started to liberalize the economy in Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh (used to be called Saigon) is the earliest city to be allowed to practice market economy in Vietnam.

There are altogether 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam (China has 56 ethnics) with Buddhism as the main religion.

Before I went there, I used to think that Vietnamese are like Mainland Chinese. My impression of China is that the people there were generally quite rude and not that sincere in doing business. (So sorry, this was the experience I encountered in China many years ago. Of course, this is only a small group of culprits.) However, the encounter that I had in Vietnam was excellent. The people there are sincere in doing business, very warm towards tourists and are very helpful. They gave tourists very good hospitality.

Back in 30 years ago, the Vietnamese refugees were being chased out by their government (some actually chose to run away from the country) from their country and quite a number of them came to Malaysia to seek shelter. I remember they were placed at Bidong Island at Terengganu (or Kelantan?). The Malaysian government even built a special Vietnamese village at Sungai Besi (near the current Sg Besi Toll) to be their home. There was even one boat full of refugees were drowned in the South China Sea near Malaysia Sea. You see, how pitiful they were!

Many years later, the Vietnamese all over the world (most of them are in the US and Australia) managed to earn good living in these countries and are able to build homes for their children. Some become rich businessmen. Some got themselves involved in the local government administration and were elected to be the local representatives (or members of parliament). They developed and built Vietnamese Towns. That’s why you would find that besides China Town, there are now lots of Vietnamese Towns in US and Australia.

Vietnamese are people who are hardworking, resilient, energetic and full of creativity. For a race who has gone through hardship and difficult times, they appreciate the value of freedom and understand that there is no short cut to success. They are willing to work very hard and go extra miles in achieving their career goals. They venture into business, learn foreign languages and most importantly, willing to leave behind the historical and cultural burden and move on to strive for greater success in life.

When times are bad

When times are bad, what should I be doing? This is the common question in most of our mind. Should I look for a better job? Should I be complaining everyday? .....

My advice is rather simple:-

1. Improve yourself, be it command of languages or communication skill.

2. Love yourself more. Pamper yourself by going holidays. If money is a concern, why not have holidays locally?

3. Contact all your existing friends or those who have not been contacting for a long time. Probably there would be some business proposition or career advancement opportunities.

4. Do not spend too much money on unnecessary things.

5. Don't go for big car.

I went through late 80s and late 90s. Those were the times we had financial turmoil. I am sure this crisis would go away, probably after 1 year.

The most important thing is that you must remain positive and optimistic. Nothing could make you inferior.

Muar Town

Wonder whether you have visited Muar Town before? A small town in the Johor State of southern penisular Malaysia. You will find Melaka town at the north and Batu Pahat down at the south.

From Tangkak interchange, you can drive all your way to Muar town. There are two bridges, the old Muar Bridge and the new second linked brigde.