When Discussion turned around a slow Insurance Sales Engine in Banking 💫

Two days back I met my old colleague whom I had suggested on fixing his insurance sales in banking, he had approached me around a year back to discuss his issues leading to slow sales while he was heading insurance distribution in a private bank. 

I had guided him for 2 months in solving his sales, distribution, and customer alignment problems that time, 💡 I thought it was good time to recall and brush up the strategies along with feedback on his implementation.  

✍️Sharing a few points which we discussed to fix his issues:

❓ 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠

Instead of rushing in with solutions, I asked him to align his top leaders to branch managers, relationship officers, even tellers to understand the issue and a clear pattern emerged which we worked upon to put into practice to boost his sales.

1️⃣ 𝙍𝙚𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠 𝙤𝙣 𝙄𝙣𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜

I had suggested him to randomly visit some branches and check the staff preparedness, It was found that staff hesitated to pitch insurance due to lack of clarity on customer's queries and it was a recurring fear. Complex jargon in brochures didn’t help.

It was easy to find that all missed conversations were actually missed conversions. Post finding, I asked him to push a modular and role-specific training program. Simple changes he made like, Tellers were trained to identify cues. Relationship managers learned how to embed insurance naturally in wealth planning chats. 

🔸Increase of real-life success stories as case studies helped the staff confidence.

🔸As advised to sustain learning, he ran WhatsApp learning groups and quick weekly coaching huddles.

🔸And yes, the change was visible to him, staff not only pitched but they owned the conversation.

2️⃣𝘼 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙘𝙩 𝙞𝙣 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩 & 𝘾𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙧

Another thing I found it in discussions was the bank’s insurance products were good but too generic and sales team was not sure whom to approach, everyone was pitched same. They were not resonating with their real audience: middle-income families and SME owners.

🔸As advised to him, He drove a product-market alignment exercise. We simplified the messaging and repositioned plans highlighting its benefits rather than plain pitches of life cover.

🔸Focus on value was enhanced with relatable examples, local language collateral, and emotional storytelling.

🔸Customer listened, connected and understood.

3️⃣𝙈𝙞𝙨𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙛𝙛 𝙍𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙜𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙄𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙩

The bank's reward system and recognition was favoring loan products more. Naturally, staff prioritized loans to target his KRA/KPI.  Insurance though important was getting pushed to the bottom of the list killing cross sell.

🔸I had suggested him to take help of senior management and redesign the scorecard to give equal weight to insurance and introduce monthly awards and regional leaderboards with more visibility.

🔸This helped him boost up his insurance sales into top priority list of the branches.

📢 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐰𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫:

🚀 Insurance sales grew, Cross sell ratios improved, Employees looked more aligned and interested.

🚀 It not fixed his sales issues, it reignited his belief and he even had implemented this across other regions as well.

Over the years, I have led similar turnarounds across my journey by experimenting and transforming sales culture, redesigning strategy, and scaling distribution with purpose. This success story and small experience reinforced in my learnings that fixing sales is not always about more leads but its simply:

🏹 Aligning incentives with business vision

🏹 Listening really listening before acting

🏹 Equipping people with confidence

🏹 Making products easy to relate to

I would love to hear your perspective. Share your biggest sales challenge. If you are building high-performance teams or scouting leadership talent for BFSI, Insurance or fintech, let’s connect.

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