Training Edge

To combine quantity and quality, companies have their own training modules added on to the IRDA-stipulated minimum 100 hours of training. NIS Sparta, which trains agents for ICICI-Prudential, HDFC Standard Life, Birla Sun Life, and RSA among others, is asked to conduct additional company-specific training by its clients. Most of this training, says Vijaylakshmi Vishwanathan, Chief Marketing Officer, focuses on orientation in products and on behaviour. HDFC Standard, for example, claims to have spent 20 man months in developing its training programme to train the 'financial consultants' in the entire gamut of HDFC investment products. Asserts Pankaj Seith, head of marketing: ''This training will be critical in generating high quality consultants.''

Not everyone outsources training. Dabur CGU is setting up its own training academy. MNYL has its own in-house training programme in which agents are put through intensive drills in the classroom and the field. First, the sales manager makes a call on a prospect while the agent observes him. Then the agent makes a call on three prospects with the sales manager observing him. Says Paul Colgan, Executive Vice-President & Head of Agency, MNYL: ''Our training makes the agent realise that he has to earn every referral, and has to work towards it.''

It's not as if companies aren't trying out other distribution channels like banks and corporate agencies. RSA has taken the lead, tying up with four foreign banks-ABN Amro, Citibank, Standard Chartered and American Express-where its literature is displayed and specific employees to sell the products to bank customers. It has also been using the banks' client database to send out direct mailers. Adding to RSA's reach are the 105 branches of Sundaram Finance, spread across the country besides the rural areas of Tamil Nadu. iffco-Tokio has tied up with finance company Peerless Finance for now and is exploring other alliances. It's waiting for the day when cooperatives will be allowed to become corporate agents. In one swoop, then, the company will be able to access the 35,000 cooperatives under IFFCO. Says Vice-President Atul Chandra: ''We'll achieve a much larger semi-urban and rural share in our portfolio than what is stipulated by law.''

Banking On Banks

Not many life insurance companies are looking at bancassurance in a big way since face-to-face interaction works better here. ING-Vysya Life may turn this theory on its head. The company, though, is using both the Vysya Bank network and agents for distribution, relying on the bank in south India and using agents in the north. The Vysya Bank network could queer the pitch for Dabur CGU which has tied up with Lakshmi Vilas Bank, another bank with a strong southern presence. Dabur CGU is also talking to several private sector banks with strong regional links.

Cross selling can be a key strategy in selling insurance but it doesn't seem to be more than a buzzword right now. Akash Rao bought an Indica from Concorde, a car dealership joint venture between the Tata group and Jardine Matheson group. He should have been a soft target for Tata AIG to sell car insurance to. No one even approached him. Says Parekh: ''Everybody is talking about integration, but no one is doing it.'' Indeed, RSA is the only one who's bundling in car insurance with car loans from Sundaram Finance.

One reason why cross selling isn't happening is because of restrictions on the functioning of corporate agencies. Once these curbs are lifted, the market is expected to see a wave of cross-selling. RSA, for example, will offer household insurance with Sundaram Finance housing loans and sell customers of Sundaram Finance mutual fund a whole range of insurance products. ICICI-Prudential and HDFC Standard will tie up with their parent companies to use their network as well as offer a range of financial products.

One area about which companies aren't upbeat right now is the rural market. IRDA regulations specify that companies must log five per cent business from socially weaker sections and rural areas in the first year, 10 per cent the next year and finally 15 per cent in the third year. Most companies have offices in the metros and large towns, though they claim they will reach out to the rural areas from there. But they admit that covering the rural areas will be expensive. Companies which may find it easy going will be those who already have some kind of a presence in the rural areas: Dabur CGU, for example, thanks to the Dabur brand name, or RSA, because of Sundaram Finance's network, or IFFCO-Tokio. That's why products for the rural market are also few and far between. But the eagle eye of the IRDA will ensure that companies stick to their targets.

For now, they are all readying their battle gear, preparing for the bloody battle that's bound to begin soon.

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