Insurance is a complex industry, and customers are often not convinced of its value to their lives, especially in India. Less than 3% of the population has life insurance - indeed, the average insurance agent sells less than 3 policies a year. Apart from convincing customers of the utility of insurance, agents also have to suggest the right kind of policy to each customer. For this, insurance agents on the field find themselves having to master dozens of insurance products - which undergo frequent updates as well. In an industry facing high consumer skepticism, the scope for errors is low.

For our client Kotak Life Insurance (KLI), one of India’s leading insurers, this complexity was hindering the agents’ effectiveness in their conversations with customers. One of the main stumbling blocks was that much of the sales content created by the product and marketing team is static in nature. While that is powerful in a pre-sales context, such content does not address the specific needs of buyers, thus dimming the chances of making a successful sale. For sales conversations and post-sale follow up, the standard sales content has to be reconfigured for individual customers. This blog explains how sharpsell approached the problem and delivered a custom-built solution.

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Understanding the Problem

Several studies have shown that content personalization raises the effectiveness of a sales pitch, and the chances that the buyer will sign on to a policy. However, personalizing content for each customer is very time-consuming. The need felt at KLI was to help agents personalize content  sales pitches and dynamic presentations for each prospect much faster, so they could spend more time selling. At sharpsell, we shadowed hundreds of KLI agents over six months to identify critical problems, which are listed as follows:

• Content not engaging enough: The content given to agents by the centralized marketing team was often difficult to master or explain to clients, was too long and unexciting, and did not allow any option to address each customer’s direct needs. The need for personalized, byte-sized collateral was felt keenly by the agents.
• Need to memorize: While KLI had products that would suit the needs of most customers, the agents had to memorize all their features in order to pitch them to customers. Also, when customers raised doubts or objections, answers were not immediately available. Agents felt the need to have easy access to information, so they could focus on the conversation rather than the collateral.
• Lack of access: While agents knew they could access content from KLI’s database, when on the field, internet connection speeds were highly variable. They wanted an option that was easily accessible offline.
• Poor shareability: Much of the content was not suitable for WhatsApp, which is now the largest medium of digital content in India, and the medium on which customers preferred to receive content.
• Difficulty of communication: Field agents have to frequently communicate with their managers to report their progress. However poor connectivity and the large number of apps they were using for various sales-related purposes made it hard to keep track.

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The Solution

Having understood the needs of agents, we devised an app for KLI - based on the best features of sharpsell. For the convenience of field agents, we made sure that the entire platform was Android-first, as an Android mobile phone is the device most commonly used by them. We also made sure that the app could be used even when offline, and be able to update its content when connected. The app was deployed on the Android Playstore and was downloaded by more than 10,000 agents. As this review implies, the mobile-first approach was appreciated:

“It's a good application as in a pocket portable office on the go…” ~ Sara Gonsalves (November 30, 2019)

The principal features, along with agents’ reactions, are listed below

• Byte-sized content: The Sales enablement platform breaks down the product information into over 1,200 byte-sized pieces that can be 100% personalized on the go and shared with customers. One such content type is ‘Poster of the Day’, which is instantly personalizable and shareable with customers.  This makes the policies easy to explain and understand.
  

According to agent Mohit Udhwani (February 13, 2020), “App is very much informative and useful. With the help of this app we can explain features of [the] plan to prospective clients so that they can plan for future needs like marriage , education, expansion of business, secure their life, saving for children which can be utilised at the time of unforeseen circumstances. Life is uncertain, if anytime casualty strikes in the home, then dependents can survive the unbearable loss. If policy is taken with riders then they can get additional benefits.”

User Parikshit Sharma (March 31, 2019) was satisfied with the ability to access the latest plans, “A lot of new and fast selling plans have been added. The updated feature of the app really makes the advisor experience amazing and boosts the go-to-market efficiency.”

Daniel Allen William (February 16, 2020) reports that the platform custom-built for Kotak Life Insurance was a “Smart way to reach customers’ needs and provide solutions. Marketing collateral is easy to advertise our products and services to customers.”

• Answers at fingertips: The content was also made searchable, so that agents can retrieve answers to any objection during the actual sales conversation, gaining the trust of customers and also not having to memorize large amounts of information. As the following reviews testify, this feature answered the need most keenly felt by the agents in the field:
  

Agent Rahul Dixit (September 29, 2018), found the app to be “Superb work....it has all thinkable things that a person sitting before the prospect can think of....marvellous piece.. in my close to 20 years of life insurance experience, I have never seen a software like this which is so user friendly & innovative. .hats off to its makers & project head.”

Similarly, Ravindra Kumar (August 29, 2019) found that, “It's a useful tool for having clear information at hand without having to run around and ask people.”, as did Jaya Arya (August 24, 2019): “very helpful app... it has all what you want & user-friendly.. [You] can share greetings, videos [and] product details to [the] client, which helps you in selling and customer support.”

A user who went by the name of Rick Man on the play store (August 8, 2018), wrote, “Very handy, useful, information on fingertips, very well segregated options, totally loving it. …”

• Need-based recommendations: During a conversation, most sales agents can infer which product a customer is showing interest in. With the platform, they are able to immediately retrieve relevant collateral, customize it with illustrations and calculations and share it with the customer immediately - this helps sustain customer interest.
  

Agent Shivakumar Thagadasetty (September 14, 2018) reports that “For a Kotak Life Advisor, this App keeps information as a Ready Reckoner while dealing with policy holders on smart Kotak Insurance plans and it's benefits and premium aspects to apprise them in [a] satisfactory and assured manner.”

Geetha Bhaskar (August 16, 2019) left the following review: All demonstrations are excellent. Clear-cut illustrations are shown. Image quality is great.

• Shareability on WhatsApp: Poster of the Day and other content is instantly shareable on WhatsApp from the app, making it immediately accessible to thousands of customers, who may not have access to other forms of communication such as email.
  

This feature was appreciated by Shiva Prakash Uppu (February 18, 2020), “Very good App...all in one place to learn and execute... Mainly daily posters are very impressive…”

• Easy interoperability: The Sales Enablement platform integrates easily with other apps, so that the sales agent is not hindered in their work.
  

Ponnuchamy Ramanujam (December 13, 2018) found this feature most useful, “Kotak Bank staff & Advisors, and other agent Partners coordinate property and [are] guided smoothly.”

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In the few years since our sales enablement platform has been deployed by KLI, it has been widely used by agents, powering 6.2 million sales conversations and a rise in visibility by 6 times. With 21 trackable metrics, it has helped the business managers assist the field agents better. Subhasis Ghosh, President at Kotak Life Insurance, had this to say, “[The app] is a powerful tool that the field sales force and the advisors have been using for quite a few years now. It helps to bridge the gaps between us and the consumers. It helps to generate leads, pitch customized solutions and engage with the customers in a way the customer looks forward to. In fact, I can say this, much before Covid, because of [the app], our people have become digitally savvy. This has helped them to make life easy for them when they could not meet people during the Covid times.”

The last word may be left to Ashish Saurabh (October 31, 2020): So much user friendly within seconds. It listens [to] our commands like Artificial Intelligence. I wanna give it 10 stars if possible.