The business of selling insurance requires consistent hard work and dedication. Sumit Shrivastava knows this first hand. He started his career in 2006 going door-to-door to sell shampoos and vacuum cleaners. Soon, he began working with a couple of general insurance companies including IFFCO Tokio and Universal Sompo.
“I wanted to set up a source of passive income to become financially secure and retire early,” said Shrivastava, founder and CEO of Bima Gurukul, an insurance training company for more than one lakh agents.
Life insurance agents are paid commission renewals for as long as a sold policy is in force, creating a passive income stream. Srivastava initiated his career in life insurance as an executive under a development Officer at the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), at a salary of Rs 2500. After saving money for 6 months, he decided to start life insurance selling business.
But the road to success involved a lot of hard work. The turning point for Shrivastava was a meeting with a senior life insurance agent who told him that it would take him 10 years to achieve success as a life insurance agent and reach the prestigious Million Dollar round table (MDRT) — an exclusive forum for the world’s most successful life insurance and financial services professionals. Membership to MDRT (USA) is based on agent productivity and includes criteria for commissions and premium.
Building a business
Shrivastava wanted to achieve the 10-year-target in one year. He would not leave a chance to speak to a prospective client anywhere – be it housing societies or hospitals. He also hired a couple of tele callers, sent bulk SMS and gradually, people began buying insurance policies from him.
Within his first year, he was a part of the prestigious MDRT.
“People would say that to be successful in the life insurance industry you have to wait; I didn’t accept that because I believe when you are passionate about something then time and money are not constraints,” Shrivastava told Moneymonc.
Despite his success, most people thought it was a fluke and he would not be able to repeat the feat. So he embraced the challenge and decided to become a continuous performer, enlarged his team of tele-callers, motivated them and pursued the leads generated by them.
He also started putting up retirement planning kiosks in housing societies, met HR managers of companies in Gurgaon and sold group schemes. Shrivastava sold term insurance along with a guaranteed savings product to ensure that his customers had a decent life cover and their returns were protected.
He would explain to his customers that like developed countries, many of which have very low interest rates, India too was seeing falling interest rates. This hit returns by bank fixed deposits and other fixed income mutual funds.
Therefore, guaranteed return life insurance products would be the best as they could create a fund for their financial goals rather than relying on equities which may yield higher returns but also carry high risk.
He managed to achieve Double MDRT (USA) in the second year and Court of Table or (COT) in just the third year where the criteria are even tougher with significantly higher commissions and premiums being required to qualify.
Currently, the minimum commission to qualify for MDRT is 61,000 dollars of eligible commissions paid and for COT, the requirement is a minimum of 183,000 dollars of eligible commissions paid.
Bima Gurukul – creating consultants, not agents
Shrivastava’s company Bima Gurukul is the first choice for those who want to understand concept selling and become into professional consultants and not just insurance agents.
Shrivastava says that while there are 20 lakh plus agents in the Indian life insurance industry, not many are full time agents and very few, in fact, achieve success. He also felt that many agents were not confident and proud enough to mention to anyone that they are life Insurance Agents. They used to hide this in the initial introduction. He also found it common that consultants were paying rebate to the customer for buying a policy from them.
After tasting success as a life insurance agent, Shrivastava started his own Youtube channel in 2017 and Bima Gurukul in 2019 to train, inspire and motivate insurance agents to meet their milestones.
In one out of his 120 odd YouTube videos, many of which have over a lakh views, Shrivastava talks about why Arjuna achieved success in the Mahabharata. “His advisor was Lord Krishna who lifted him when he had doubts or lacked the conviction to fight and win the battle against Kauravas,” he said.
“Through Bima Gurukul, we are trying to provide practical hands-on training and knowledge to put them on the right path and handhold them to ensure success in the agency business. More than 1 lakh life insurance agents are being benefitted from our courses and our YouTube channel,” he added.
He says one of the mistakes that most life insurance consultants make is to stick to selling offline and lack the zeal and willingness to learn and adopt technology.
With the Covid19 pandemic increasing digitization, he emphasized the importance of being where the customers are on social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, having a website, Google, YouTube and wherever the youth of the country are present.
“In the Indian insurance market digitization will play a very important role so we have to prepare for it. One of the most important aspects for an insurance consultant is to be well versed with knowledge about their products and do need-based selling since they are selling a concept and not a product,” he adds.
In the event of death, it is the life insurance agent’s job to help the customer’s family access the life insurance claim. So those coming into the life insurance industry must recognize that the work is also a social cause.
“I’ve seen so many widows who have a ray of hope because of the financial security due to life insurance. No one can replace the person who is gone but if there is financial provision/security, they can think about their future, they will not have to suffer. They can arrange the higher education of their children, be confident and think about their future.”
He says the earning potential in the life insurance business is immense as agents earn lifelong commission (passive income) on policies sold apart from the upfront commission on policies.
“If you are a great writer then you write a book and on that basis every month or every year you get some money as royalty. Same if you are a good singer. If you are a good life insurance agent, then also you can be sure of good income.”
He says one can earn anywhere between Rs 1lakh to Rs 1 crore a month as a life insurance agent.
“So many insurance agents earn over Rs 1 crore a month. The sky is the limit. If you are passionate about it if you are ready to learn new things, interact in the market, then it can be a great idea; there is a lot of passive income,” he adds.
He says that while he aimed to be financially free at the age of 40, he has achieved the target at 36 years of age while many of his friends in jobs are still living with EMIs.
With immense scope of penetration of insurance in India, increasing Foreign Direct investment, Shrivastava fees for the youth those who are passionate, must explore the possibility of a career as an insurance consultant which comes with the perks of having a marvelous income and serving a noble cause.
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