Monday, February 04, 2008

Higher productivity in insurance sales

Mr. Tan,

It seems from your postings, that you are against insurance agents. If there are no insurance agents, how will the insurance company get its sales?

REPLY

I am in favour of insurance agents who play a useful role by offering good value products to customers for a fair rate of commission.

I am against insurance agents who explot consumers by offering poor value products, so that they can earn a high rate of commission. They are trained to find ways of pushing these products to a unsuspecting consumer.

I hope that the selling of insurance can achieve the same level of productivity as the selling of shares. The commission rate earned by stockbrokers has reduced by 70% in recent years. The stockbrokers are able to make an adequate income on a reduced rate of commission by working more efficiently and by handling a larger volume of sales. They are able to bring down the transaction cost for consumers.

It is possible for insurance agents to find a more efficient way of marketing and similar value to consumers.

If insurance companies offer good value products, consumers will buy the insurance products willingly. There is no need for insurance agents to spend a lot of time to push these products to them.
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr Tan,

I share your wish that one day, the selling of insurance will be more efficient and that the price of insurance will come down.

It is quite wasteful for an insurance agent to spend one day at the MRT station and push their policies, only to sell just a small number of policies, to earn a large commission.

Surely, the high commission has to be paid by the customer out of the high premium? No wonder most people run away from insurance agents at MRT stations.

February 05, 2008 6:38 AM

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