Finance Weekly (ID:cjtxzk)
Wen | Ni Yuping
Editor| Yang Jie
In a year, 2 million insurance agents have "left" the industry. Among the front-line practitioners who stayed in this industry, some carried Moutai to "sell insurance", and some people began to do live broadcasting on Douyin.
In 2021, the scale growth of the insurance sales industry will gradually slow down. In a year, 2 million people have "left" from the industry.
According to data from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, as of June 30, 2021, there were 7.7 million insurance sales employees registered in the insurance intermediary regulatory information system, compared with 9.712 million in the same period last year, a decrease of 2.012 million.
The listed insurance companies have also publicly stated that they should take the initiative to clear the false manpower, compact the insurance team, and increase the per capita production capacity. Behind the gradual disappearance of the "demographic dividend" of insurance agents, the adjustment of the industry is also accelerating. In 2021, the regulator issued a number of new regulations, from the product end to the sales end, all of which are guided and supervised.
At the end of 2021, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued the Administrative Measures for the Sales of Life Insurance (Draft for Solicitation of Comments), which clearly pointed out that "self-insured parts" and "mutual insurance pieces" cannot participate in performance appraisal, or even count promotion appraisal indicators. The commissions of many insurance agents have also plummeted.
For insurance agents who still remain in the industry, whether it is the need for the industry to maintain high-quality development, or the intensification of internal competition brought about by the decline in commissions and the increase in pressure, they have put forward higher requirements. How should those who remain on the front lines of the insurance industry view the changes they face in the industry and themselves?
Carrying Moutai to sell insurance
Lin Wanchun said that before and after the Spring Festival, he is usually busier than usual.
Because at the end of the year, insurance agents will focus on sending gifts to customers as a thank you and maintain customer relationships. But every New Year's Holiday is sent, and after a year, the cost of insurance agents spending on this piece is not low. "Instead of spending money on gifts, I'd sell them myself." Lin Wanchun said. He chose to do the liquor business because he "had been drinking for a while before he sold insurance."
He said that in fact, he has been doing the liquor business all along, and there are all kinds of liquors he handles, but he mainly sells Maotai. Carrying Maotai to sell insurance, he felt that it was better to do things. "There's no conflict between selling insurance and selling alcohol, and a lot of my clients are friends I've known when I've sold alcohol before. By selling alcohol, I can also access more customer resources. ”
Lin Wanchun said that in the past two years, due to changes in the environment and the impact of the epidemic, insurance policies have also decreased. But fortunately, his company is a comprehensive financial platform, and he can also choose other businesses other than personal insurance.
"Last year I focused more on property insurance." Lin Wanchun said, "Like the shopping malls we usually visit, the small and medium-sized businesses in them need to insure public liability insurance, which is also a hard and fast rule for them to carry out business." Then if I talk about this business, it will be better to talk about than personal insurance. In the past, we had to go door to door in the mall to ask, but now, I have customers who are small and micro business managers, please ask them to introduce, it will save a lot of time. ”
In addition, Lin Wanchun will also talk with some construction teams about engineering insurance business. "This kind of property insurance business is less concerned and less popular, but there will be a relatively large market space."
Lin Wanchun said that in 2021, he feels that another more obvious change is that the proportion of bank loan business has also increased significantly. The loan business that he did was both personal loans and corporate loans, involving amounts as small as 100,000-200,000 yuan and as large as tens of millions of yuan. In his view, helping customers to do loan business is also to prepare for better communication of insurance business in the future. "Slowly, when customers have insurance needs, they will also think of coming to me."
At the end of the day, insurance agents do a variety of other businesses, mainly to promote the sale of insurance. "As Luo Zhenyu said in his New Year's Eve speech, you always have to find a business and connect yourself with customers. Whether it is to pull deposits, lend money, or sell alcohol like me, in short, it is to chat with customers more and appear frequently. Otherwise, as soon as you meet with others, you will only talk about insurance, and others will be annoyed. ”
In general, in Lin Wanchun's view, life insurance policies are not easy to do, just find ways to do some other business, and not let their overall income be too affected.
(Source: Visual China)
Someone scolded me for 20 minutes, someone left me at home for dinner
Last year, Chen Xin jumped to the new company and transferred to the exhibition department, and her daily work was mainly to serve the old customers of "orphan orders". The so-called "orphan policy" in insurance companies generally refers to the insurance policies that need to be arranged for other personnel to dock after the original marketer leaves, including the insurance policies of customers who have lost contact with the company for a long time due to various changes.
Most of Chen Xin's work is to "check and fill in the gaps", that is, to re-establish customer contact, see and solve problems in the insurance policy, and minimize various disputes in the subsequent claim process. For example, the determination of the beneficiary of the policy, the change of occupation category, the reminder of short-term insurance renewal, etc., these details are not paid attention to when applying for insurance, but it will be more troublesome when encountering problems when taking out insurance.
"Many times, contact these old customers, may not be willing to communicate. When I'm exaggerating, I get a phone call and I'm scolded for 20 minutes. Because these customers also have a lot of grievances: either they have been left unattended for so many years, in disrepair, and can't find anyone to take care of the insurance policy; or they are too frequently contacted, which has caused him trouble. Chen Xin said, "But I am very clear that these emotions of customers are not rushing to me, but caused by many agents who have not provided adequate services in the past, and I will not be angry." As long as I do my own service and exert my professional ability, others will see it. ”
In addition to these policies, Chen Xin will also provide other assistance to customers. For example, social security contributions, insurance industry policy changes, etc., there will also be people to consult about medical services. Especially from the end of 2020 to the beginning of 2021, when the new regulations on serious illness insurance were switched, Chen Xin said that many customers could not sit still, came to the company or asked online, whether to add insurance.
In fact, Chen Xin said that after job hopping, his work mentality has also changed a lot. "I don't feel as anxious and eager as I used to be. The title and position are all virtual, and what is really in hand is still a solid business ability. Good service, there will always be gains. Why there are many people in the industry who can't stay, I think, or they just want to make quick money and leave without waiting for the approval of customers. ”
She feels that this is actually related to the change in the entire industry. "Since last year, the whole industry has been tightening its ranks."
In order to rectify in accordance with the requirements of the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, some life insurance companies are also carrying out agent reform to "clear the false" and select the best.
Chen Xin told Caijing Tianxia Weekly that the first thing she felt was that the company's assessment of agents was obviously more stringent. At the meeting, the company stressed that the approval of personal leave for agents has been tightened, and sick leave must also be certified by a doctor.
Secondly, the assessment threshold of the company's organizational structure is also increasing. Especially in the second half of 2021, the industry and supervision are also regulating "captive insurance" and "mutual insurance", with reduced premiums and a large reduction in personnel. Chen Xin pointed out that this also triggered the "butterfly effect": because each level has a strict number of people, the number of people at the bottom level is less, the supervisor will be demoted; the level of the supervisor falls, and the department manager will also be demoted, "just like this, with a series of demotions, click Under the previous organizational structure, some people may be confused, but now it is not."
In short, under the action of multiple factors inside and outside, they have promoted the compaction of the insurance team. "It's a trend to brush off people who don't fit or don't take this as their main business. This is also a process of precipitation. ”
Chen Xin said that it is interesting that in this process, she found that the attitude of many customers has also changed by 180 degrees. "Some customers used to scold people when they answered the phone, but now that I go to his house to make insurance policies, he even leaves me for dinner. Of course, the important thing is not a meal, but I feel the recognition of the other party, which is quite a sense of accomplishment. ”
Chen Xin said that if someone learned about the industry from her, she would reply with eight words: gradual compliance and development.
Before selling insurance, you must first understand insurance
Why is there a large number of "downsizings" in the ranks of insurance agents? In the past few years, the number of insurance agents has snowballed, but the "sea of people tactics" of agents have made many customers resist it, and among them, the individuals who can continue to create higher value for the company are always a minority.
However, in the case of the continuous loss of insurance agents, the premium growth of insurance companies is still under pressure.
Chen Kun, the founder of Dongwen Wealth Risk Management, said that last year, he handled a very impressive claim case. One of their clients placed an order for critical illness insurance at 11:30 p.m. on the first day, and the policy took effect at 00:00. But early the next morning, they received a call: the client had fallen injured unexpectedly on his way to work and was now in a deep coma. "At that time, the partners who received the call in the office were confused, and we were also very nervous, so we bought it for half an hour and took effect, and in the morning we took out the insurance, so in the end could we settle the claim?"
However, the result was relatively smooth, because the accident liability of critical illness insurance did not have a waiting period and became effective. "We have helped to sort out the information and submit the materials, and we have paid 200,000 yuan in compensation, and 400,000 yuan in claims are also being processed." This also shows once again that as long as the application process is reasonable, according to the terms of the contract, there is no problem with the payment of compensation. Now the client has been discharged from the hospital and is still in a coma, and the subsequent recovery is uncertain. But for customers, there is at least one insurance claim to cover most of the medical expenses and living expenses. Chen Kun said.
Chen Kun's feeling is that in recent years, with the improvement of education level and social progress, consumers' risk awareness is improving, and objectively speaking, the demand for insurance is still there.
However, in Chen Kun's view, the more important problem is that specific to different individual customers, they may not know what their real insurance needs are. Therefore, it is necessary to guide customers to look at insurance allocation from the perspective of wealth management.
Throughout the year last year, Chen Kun also did a lot of live sharing of insurance knowledge on Douyin. "After every live broadcast, there will be a full screen of questions. Once, I did a live broadcast with the theme of 'How to do a good job of family wealth management', and the number of viewers suddenly grew to more than 40,000, which was the highest number of viewers in my live broadcast. Many people will leave a message to ask questions after reading it, such as whether the house should be sold, whether it will appreciate in the future, etc., indicating that everyone is still very concerned about this aspect. I was still relatively happy with that live broadcast. ”
But through live broadcasting, Chen Kun still prefers to influence more agents. In his view, only agents can make changes to provide insurance services to more consumers.
At the end of the day, he said, insurance is a very professional and complex financial instrument, but now many agents can't even understand the terms of the contract.
"It's like on TikTok, some people wear sunglasses and masks and scold 'Insurance King Bastard!' There are a lot of people below who like it, 'Well said!' He in turn sells you an insurance policy. The popularity of this type of video is very high, and the transaction volume is quite large. But in the end, this has affected people's perception of the insurance industry. It's like, the ability is just to drive a tractor or even a cyclist to run to the plane, there is no problem. ”
"In order to continue to develop, in addition to the professionalism of the personnel, the expansion of the team size is also an important aspect. But the problem of recruiting new people is also limited by: on the one hand, the society's sense of identification with the profession of insurance agent is very poor, and many people will still think that insurance is deceptive; on the other hand, our own recruitment requirements are relatively high, which also actively gives up a large number of people. This year, I still hope to attract more like-minded people and help them become insurance professionals rather than simple sellers. Chen Kun said.
(At the request of the interviewee, Lin Wanchun and Chen Xin are pseudonyms)
This article is originally produced by AI Finance and Economics, an account of Caijing Tianxia Weekly, without permission, please do not reprint it on any channel or platform. Violators will be prosecuted.