Emerging Insights #45: Train to a hire level

Train to a hire level

Many microinsurance providers need to hire sales staff with no previous sales experience. In a review of sales force development practices, none of the organizations interviewed listed previous experience with insurance sales as a selection criterion, highlighting the difficulty in finding experienced candidates. GRET in Cambodia, one of the organizations reviewed, provides a tip that can be used to overcome this limitation.

GRET integrates training into its recruitment process. All candidates complete a one-week initial training process before they are hired. When selecting an initial pool of 20-25 candidates, GRET requires only a minimum of reading and writing ability. It then uses a week-long training to narrow the pool of candidates, hiring the top 15 performers from the pool. The training focuses on all tasks associated with the job, such as providing product information and conducting enrolment. Trainers assess candidates based on candidates’ performance in exercises that test, for instance, knowledge of the product, sales skills, and understanding of the claims process. GRET believes that the additional cost of training extra candidates pays off in the long-term as the best candidates are more likely to be hired. 

For other tips on sales force recruitment, training, incentivizing and monitoring, see Microinsurance Paper No. 16 - Selling more, selling better: a microinsurance sales force development study.