The most productive insurance agents could well come from the Kotak Mahindra stable following the setting up of Club 51 by the life insurer. | |
| Most insurers boast of their "active" agents being those who sell one policy a month. Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life has changed this with some of its Club 51 members selling as much as four policies a month, which means one policy a week. |
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| "Ninety per cent of our agency force works part time. This means, our life insurance advisor does not work for 8-10 hours a day," said Gaurang Shah, managing director, Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life. |
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| The company's recently opened branch in Kerala has seen its agents sell 8 policies a month. The way they go about it is by making 15 calls a day, visit 3 prospective clients daily and aim at converting one of these calls into a policy. This at least gets them a sale of one policy a week, he added. |
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| Kerala is seen as a goldmine by most industries and insurance is no exception. Lots of money comes from the Gulf, and tourism is a growing industry with a lot of visitors from within and outside India. |
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| Of late, Kerala has also flourished on account of the IT sector and has always been known for agri-products such as rubber. |
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| The credit for driving up agents' productivity goes to Andre Classans, an Old Mutual hand. Taking the cue from its foreign partner, Old Mutual, Kotak Mahindra hopes to modify what today is termed as an active agent - one that sells one policy a month - to a Club 51 agent, who sells one policy a week! |
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| In South Africa, Old Mutual agents belonging to Club 51 sell 51 policies in 11 weeks. South Africa's largest insurance player - Old Mutual - mops up nearly half of the Life Insurance Corporation of India's (LIC) premium. |
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| It has a tied agency force of just 2,900, against LIC's 10-lakh odd. Admittedly, South Africa is not a large market, but the per capita income there stands at $5,000 against India's $500, said Shah. |
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| More importantly, majority of Old Mutual agents sell 16 policies a month. Those who are not "as productive" sell about 8 policies a month. |
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| "We have diluted the target for Club 51 members in India considering that the average "active" agent sells one policy a month. Our target is that our agents sell four policies a month," said Shah. |
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| In a recent interview, Max New York Life new CEO, Gary Bennett, said: "Our active agents sell one policy a month, and the productivity goes up with some of agents selling as many as two a month." |
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| This means that if Kotak Mahindra can pull it off, its agency force would be the most productive in the country. |
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| Results are fairly visible with the number of agents qualifying having risen from 51 in the first quarter of the calendar year to 100-odd in the second quarter. |
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| Since inception, Kotak Mahindra had recruited about 10,500 agents. Of these, 3,000-odd either resigned or were asked to leave as they were not productive. |
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| After taking on additional agents this year, Kotak Mahindra has an agency force of about 7,500. But only about 4,600 are active and, of these, just 2,000 agents are productive on a monthly basis. |
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| "We want this number to rise to 4,600 with the introduction of Club 51," said Shah. |
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| Ensuring high productivity is essential if an insurance company is to justify the training cost and manhours spent behind recruiting agents. |
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| "If we can drive higher productivity, taking a lower average premium of Rs 20,000 and each of our 2,000 'active agents' selling 8 policies a month, we can improve our performance considerably," said Shah. |
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| Today among the various players, Max New York Life's agency force is considered to score the highest in terms of productivity. |
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