What is employee marketing?

China's life insurance market has two driving forces.

-Interview with Bob Gibson, General Manager of Hengan Standard Life Insurance.

In the past decade, China's life insurance industry has grown at an average annual rate of 30%, making it the fastest growing market in the world. According to McKinsey's forecast, by 2008, China's life insurance market will become the fourth largest in the world.

When foreign life insurance giants came to China, they also brought some new ideas to the competition. 15 years ago, AIA introduced the agency system into China, which brought about the rapid expansion of the insurance industry. Now, Hengan Standard Life hopes to reshape the new life insurance order in China through the employee system.

Recently, Bob Gibson, general manager of Hengan Standard Life Insurance, accepted "? An exclusive interview with the reporter of Oriental Weekly.

《? T Look at Oriental Weekly: What do you think of the development of China's life insurance market?

Bob. Gibson: The life insurance market is related to the maturity of a country. With the development of economy, customers will gradually understand the value of life insurance. Life insurance companies need to provide education and information to the public and inform them of the functions and significance of life insurance.

China's life insurance market is driven by two factors. On the one hand, pensions need privatization. China is facing the problem of aging, and we predict that it will continue to face this situation in the next 30 years. Local governments are also balancing fiscal revenue budgets, and part of the burden of providing for the aged will be placed on individuals.

On the other hand, with the rising number of middle class in China, these people have investment funds, and the life insurance industry can provide protection for them and their families.

《? Outlook Oriental Weekly: Compared with other countries, what are the differences in China's market development?

Bob. Gibson: The situation in China is similar to that in the UK market 15 to 20 years ago. For example, the sales level and reputation of salespeople are not high, and they are oriented to product sales rather than customer needs.

First of all, we should improve the professional level of sales staff and strengthen the reputation of the whole industry. The reason why we adopt the employee marketing model is to establish a very high marketing level.

Of course, one company alone cannot reverse the reputation of the whole life insurance industry. We hope to show regulators that a high-level marketing team can be established, and then the CIRC can formulate corresponding high-level industry standards, which can also be adopted by other companies.

《? T Look at Oriental Weekly: What model does insurance marketing generally adopt in Europe?

Bob. Gibson: Different countries in Europe have different marketing models.

In some countries, such as the Netherlands and France, the most important thing is bank insurance. Insurance companies are under the control of banks, which only sell this insurance product.

In Britain, the most popular way is independent financial adviser. All business of Standard Life in the UK is marketed through this independent financial advisory mode. A life insurance company authorizes its insurance products to an independent financial consultant for marketing, and this financial consultant can sell the products of several insurance companies. The supervision of which insurance companies independent financial advisers can cooperate with is very strict.

《? T Look at Oriental Weekly: What is the social status of these independent financial advisors?

Bob. Gibson: Their qualifications are very good. Regulators will strictly manage. They provide financial advice to customers, not just selling products. Social status is very high, and it has improved significantly in the past decade.

《? T Look at Oriental Weekly: The social status of insurance salesmen in China is not high. What do you think is the reason?

Bob. Gibson: For the training of life insurance agents, the standards set are relatively low. It is relatively easy for people without higher education and low quality to become life insurance salesmen. The company's sales level of agency marketing mode is not very high.

《? T Look at Oriental Weekly: What problems can the employee system solve? Why did the China life insurance market introduce the employee system with "agent" as the main marketing mode?

Bob. Gibson: By hiring salespeople, providing training and long-term career development, their professional level will be improved accordingly, they will be able to sell higher-value products, their insurance policies will be kept for a longer time, and customer satisfaction will be higher.

《? T Look at Oriental Weekly: Due to the high cost of recruitment, training and welfare, will this model affect the speed of team development?

Bob. Gibson: No, we are the most capital-rich life insurance company in China, and we have received strong support from shareholders. Adopting this marketing model will cost a little more money than the agency marketing model, but it will also get good returns. On the one hand, it will produce high productivity, on the other hand, the retention rate will increase, so it is very worthwhile to invest a lot of money in the training and promotion of business personnel.

《? T Look at Oriental Weekly: How has the company's marketing team developed since the implementation of the staff system? How did this team perform?

Bob. Gibson: At present, there are five marketing organizations in China, with a total of 2,000 people, with high production capacity. We will continue to expand our team in 2007.

《? T Hope Oriental Weekly: Does the innovation of this marketing system promote the design and service of insurance products?

Bob. Gibson: When we provide financial advisory services, we need to be able to meet the needs of all-round financial management. We need a very good product line to meet this requirement. We believe that our product line can meet the different needs of different stages of life, whether in terms of living security, financial security or savings security.

《? Outlook Oriental Weekly: What do you think of the development prospect of "employee system" in China?

Bob. Gibson: The high-quality sales level of financial consultants will have a certain positive impact on the life insurance industry.

Focus on the "staff system" Hengan Standard Life has accumulated a lot of money.

China insurance date: March 2007-1

Our reporter Duan Qingwen

From 20 people in 2004 to more than 65,438+0,400 people in 2006, Hengan Standard Life quickly copied the "employee-based" marketing model to the newly established organization. Bob, the general manager? Gibson hopes that this new marketing model can help Hengan Standard Life to establish a differentiated competitive advantage in China insurance market.

On February 8th, a special lecture was held at the Tianjin headquarters of Hengan Standard Life Insurance Co., Ltd. The speaker was Chen Yuting, the chief life insurance consultant from Prudential International Life Insurance in Taiwan Province Province, and the audience was nearly 800 financial advisors from Hengan Standard Life Insurance North Agency.

Bob, general manager of Hengan Standard Life Insurance? Gibson called this day "a very important day". "I'm glad to see so many professional salespeople attending the class and sharing the successful experience of' Insurance Queen' in Taiwan Province Province." Bob said in an interview with reporters.

Although the "employee system" marketing model initiated by Hengan Standard Life Insurance is still in the exploratory stage in China life insurance market, Bob, who has nearly 30 years of financial experience, firmly believes that this is the right way.

Face to face with the "insurance queen"

Chen Yuting is known as the "insurance queen" in Taiwan Province. As the chief life insurance consultant of Prudential International Life Insurance in Taiwan Province Province, from June 1992 to July, 2006, she continuously achieved "3W" (that is, taking care of three families every week and realizing three insurance policies), becoming the only Chinese in the world who continuously challenged the "3W" for 6 18 weeks.

From a poor family in Taiwan Province to being a receptionist to becoming one of the most successful salespeople in the world, Chen Yuting set an example for salespeople. As she said in her speech: "On the road of insurance, I am wearing a halo and hiding my sadness. Actually, we are all the same. I am happy to tell you how I succeeded. "

Talking about the original intention of inviting the company to give a speech, Yuan, general manager of the company's marketing department, said: "Good quality, sincere and diligent attitude, professional service, excellent skills and firm and lasting belief are all the qualities that Ms. Chen has, and they are also the necessary qualities for financial consultants trained by our staff company."

Robert, senior sales and training manager of Standard Life UK, also appreciated Chen Yuting's speech. He said that Chen Yuting could set an example for our company's financial advisers. Her enthusiasm for life insurance, work habits, beliefs and skills will inspire our company's financial consultants.

Chen Yuting's Taiwan Province Prudential International Life, also an "employee system" company, agrees with this marketing model. In her speech, she emphasized that it was the support of the company that made her successful. The welfare benefits provided by the "employee system" company made her feel a sense of belonging to the company, and a good training plan also improved her sales skills.

The "staff system" has begun to take shape.

After more than three years of development, the "employee system" marketing model independently innovated by Hengan Standard Life has begun to take shape. According to Yuan, the financial advisory team of Hengan Standard Life has grown from 20 in 2004 to more than 400 at the end of 2006. Due to the success of the staff system, the premium income of the company's individual insurance channels has increased substantially. And copied the "employee system" marketing model to Tianjin, Beijing, Qingdao, Jinan, Nanjing and other regions, winning the trust and support of local consumers.

Yuan said: "Under the traditional agent model, the overall turnover rate of insurance salesmen in China is higher than 50% every year, which is not conducive to team building and the formation of a good faith culture. The staff system provides protection for the basic life of salespeople, and signs labor contracts with the company, so that salespeople can reduce the pressure of survival, concentrate more on analyzing customer needs and improve their own abilities. For insurance companies, policyholders and sales staff, this is undoubtedly a' win-win' situation. "

Hengan Standard Life Insurance is currently implementing a manager training program called "Xuanzang Road" to recruit high-quality personnel with no life insurance experience. After 19 months of systematic training, they have become the backbone of the company's sales management personnel.

Bob made no secret that "employee system" means high cost. He told reporters: "With the' staff system' marketing model, the company has invested a lot in employee compensation and training, and it takes a long time from investment to return, but we think this kind of investment is worthwhile and can forge a high-quality sales team."

Bob admits that the current situation of China's life insurance market is very similar to that of Britain 20 years ago. The social status of life insurance practitioners is very low, and college graduates are unwilling to take insurance sales as their lifelong career. This situation should attract the attention of the regulatory authorities.

"I hope that the CIRC can set an entry standard for insurance salesmen from the perspective of supervision." Bob said, "At present, the social status of insurance salespeople in Britain has been greatly improved compared with that of 20 years ago, precisely because the regulatory authorities require that only those who have passed the relevant industry qualification examination can do this job. At present, financial consultants with high quality and professional background have gradually become the mainstream of sales staff. "

Li 2007

In 2006, Hengan Standard Life completed the strategic layout of Beijing, Jiangsu, Shandong and other provinces and cities. In 2007, the company's strategic layout will be further extended to Liaoning and Sichuan.

"2006 was a very good year for Hengan Standard Life. The company's manpower and standard premiums have more than tripled. " Bob said, "In 2007, we made an ambitious sales plan. To achieve this plan, we need a successful sales model. "

The day before the interview, Standard Life, the foreign shareholder of Hengan Standard Life, just released its global performance report for 2006. Bob revealed that Hengan Standard Life's performance has grown rapidly, ranking first among its Asian institutions.

Bob has great confidence in the development prospect of Hengan Standard Life in China. He told reporters that the goal of Hengan standard is to be among the top five joint ventures within five years, but his personal goal is "joint venture first".

654381October 27th, Hengan Standard Life was awarded the title of "China's most trusted foreign life insurance company in 2006" through online selection. This selection focuses on investigating insurance companies from the perspective of insurance customers' feelings. Key indicators include: the humanization of insurance product design, the professional quality level of insurance company sales staff, the distribution of service network, the convenience of insurance claims service, the service innovation ability of insurance companies and the future development potential of insurance companies.

Jia Xiaolin, deputy general manager of Hengan Standard Life Insurance, said that Hengan Standard Life Insurance was honored to be awarded the title of "the most trustworthy life insurance company" by netizens. As a joint-venture life insurance company with the largest registered capital in China, Hengan Standard Life will continue to accelerate the pace of strategic expansion with its unique advantages in the future development.