At Day 2 of Insurance Inspired: Winning in the New Normal, Asia Advisers Network again got together a great mix of subject matter expert, serial entrepreneur, top financial agents and agency leaders, and a senior executive to bring lessons from different perspectives and countries to help you survive and thrive going forward.
“Are you ready to win more sales in the new norm?” Jason Tan, leads generation architect, and speaker from Jensen Siaw International, asked the audience, kicking off the second day of the Insurance Inspired Virtual Summit.
He shared tips on how to use digital platforms to connect with customers and get more sales. Among the total digital strategy tips he shared include social proof and how to get client testimonials to convince customers to “buy from you only”, searchability in having a strong online presence so customers can find and read up about you, and creating posts that will get customers’ engagement.
Before the customers are convinced, help them find you, he said, explaining that with the mere exposure effect, prospects will “develop a preference for your services because they are familiar with you”.
Winner of InsurTech of the year 2019, GoalsMapper’s CEO Wayne Chen, talked about the secrets to his business success, the framework and the seven pillars that drive the results.
On meeting millennials’ expectations, he said financial planners targeting millennials need to re-orient their customers’ orientation and build effective communication capabilities; and to increasingly adopt real-time accessibility and innovative engagement models to engage this group.
“The key is to be willing and daring to try out new things,” he said. Without innovation, a business will be stagnant. He shared that to build a culture of innovation in the various businesses that he runs, his teams embark on at least two innovative projects each year. He strongly urged everyone to take time and commit to being open to innovation in order to transform and move with time.
Achieve MDA (million dollar agency) and year-on-year promotion to directorship, is it possible? “It can be done,” said Agnes Ng, winner of rookie insurance agency leader of the year 2018, sharing that the award has spurred her sales and management journey.
She highlighted five points to building a sales team. They include values and culture, selection in recruitment, be open-minded as agency leaders, genuinely believe in and care for your FCs and lead by example.
“With the right fundamentals and foundation, cultures and values, these things will not change, even in a financial crisis,” she said, adding that along the way, certain strategies might need to change like for example getting referrals and closing sales online right now. But the fundamentals do not change, she said.
She left the audience with a quote from John Quincy Adams: “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
From an ordinary housewife in India to a high flyer insurance professional, Divya Tusnial, winner of Inspirational Agent of the Year 2018, Insurance Agent of the Year 2017 and newly-minted Insurance Agent of the Year 2020, recommended the use of a proven scientific technique A.I.D.A - attention, interest, desire, action, to double sales production.
She highlighted action has five steps to note including creating scarcity, social proof, likability, objection handling and giving clients limited options.
As things change constantly because of a V.U.C.A world that is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous, she encouraged the participants to gear up and move beyond limit.
She said this is a great year to achieve multiple MDRTs, TOTs, COTs as MDRT has reduced production criteria. So especially for those who have missed by small margins, this is the time to achieve all the goals.
V. Viswanand, deputy managing director from Max Life Insurance India, discussed can COVID-19 be a catalyst for growth and are the industry’s best days ahead? Typically, life insurers will call out four key stakeholders: shareholders, regulators customers and agents, to be the most important. He pointed out that regulators will remain focussed on cybersecurity and even more so as digitalisation gets more pervasive and customers get more vulnerable.
He described there are 22 life events that will trigger people to buy life insurance and the two central triggers are the fear of life and financial loss. Demonstrating how his mission possible team engineered the shift from face to face (F2F) to home to home (H2H) selling and problem solving approach, they applied the three principles: simplify, do it yourself (DIY) and emotion. The entire idea is to reduce efforts, increase emotion or empathy at the same time that has led them to the doorway of innovation - the innovation inflection point, he called.
“Don’t let this opportunity in these challenging times simply passes by. Now is the time to find your innovation inflection point,” he said.
With some 25 years of sales and management experience, Tan Lay Seong, winner of Insurance Agency Leader of the Year 2018, talked about how to achieve breakthrough, recreate success and achieve sustainable growth.
He divides his team into four groups: newly recruited adviser, adviser to producer, producer to high performing producer and high performing producer to a top producer/manager. Training from start to end is very different and must be tailored. A champion himself, he believes the spirit of a champion can be passed on across generations and encourages everyone to fight for it at least once in their career and lifetime.
In fact, the life insurance profession is comparable with other professionals like doctors, lawyers and even engineers, he said. And to increase the social status of agents and advisers for the good of the whole industry is one of his life’s mission.
Currently with more than 30 group managers and business directors and close to a thousand business partners, as an entrepreneur in the insurance industry, he likened the insurance agency model to be that of an enterprise that can grow to a big corporation, and challenged financial practitioners to think bigger and to think like a top business owner.
The three-day Insurance Inspired Virtual Summit (28-30 July) concludes on 30 July. Here’s your final chance to catch the final full day online LIVE event on 30 July, starting at 9.30am (GMT +8) at Insurance Inspired.
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