Insurance agents evolve fast to serve 21st-century consumers in China

China's insurance sellers are evolving from insensitive, pushy peddlers characterized by unwanted phone calls and unscheduled visits to qualified and thoughtful professionals, industry insiders said.

This group will now offer premium and personalized services to customers, experts said.

Taikang Insurance Group, a Chinese insurer, has recast insurance sellers as "health and financial planners." They will provide insurance consultancy, wealth planning and health management services for clients.

To become an HFP, a person has to pass certain courses. By 2019, there will be over 1,000 such planners across the country, according to Cheng Kangping, general manager of Taikang's life insurance subsidiary.

New China Life Insurance Co Ltd also announced in November that it is building a risk management team to help customers avoid potential risks relating to birth, aging, illness, disability and death.

Insurer AIA began to weigh clients' experience when evaluating salesmen's performance in April.

MetLife Insurance allows its life insurance planners to serve clients only after 200 hours of training, role-play and examination.

China has up to 8 million insurance agents. They contributed 48.3 percent to total premiums from January to September, data from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission showed.

However, more than 65 percent of salesmen have received education only till high school or below, according to the Insurance Association of China.

Their annual income is also relatively low－half of them earn less than 42,000 yuan ($6,097) a year.

The mobility rate of life insurance salesmen was roughly 50 percent from 2015 to 2017, IAC data showed.

Shi Qiang, an official from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, said most of the insurers do not have a high threshold when hiring salesmen.

Agents join and leave insurers frequently. Some even mislead customers with fake or invalid information in order to promote sales.

The regulator encourages insurers to tighten evaluation of salesmen in terms of service, enhance their training and have zero tolerance for any market misbehavior that violates regulations and the law, Shi said.

Arthur Bi, a partner at McKinsey and Company, said a traditional method of expanding business was to ask a massive number of agents to promote insurance sales. But that method can no longer meet the diversified demands of customers; nor can it aid the development of the industry.

With more middle-class people and high net-worth individuals－an HNI is one who has a net investable wealth of $1 million or more－gradually becoming the major buyers of insurance, agents should improve their sales skills and broaden their ken in order to provide customized services, as per clients' age, gender, job, and so on, he said.

"There are three levels of insurance salesmen: the first is insurance expert, the second is financial adviser, and the top level is life assistant who may keep decades of relationship with clients, similar to the family doctor."

He said salesmen would do well to focus on a specific category of clients, such as professionals or owners of small and medium-sized companies.

"The role of salesmen should be transformed from hunters who hunt whatever is in the view to farmers who are patient and have the time to till one piece of land at a time."

Zhou Xing, insurance industry leader at PwC China, said the skills and image of insurance agents should be improved to win clients' trust as the typical profile of an insurance buyer is that he or she may be aged around 37, well-educated, and cautious in making decisions.

"Customers are buying insurance they need the most, not the cheapest or most expensive financial product," she said. "The trend to cultivate highly qualified salesmen will further stimulate demand and lead the market in a healthy direction."