Mr Rotha Chan, Chief Agency Officer at Manulife Cambodia, sold the first policy, handled the first claim, recruited the first generation of advisers and built the first agency leaders in the life insurance history of Cambodia. He shared the need to find your "why" and the golden rules of sales management he abides by at the 17th Singapore Agency Mangers' Conference organised by Financial Services Managers' Association (FSMA) Singapore.
Source: Rotha Chan facebook
The winner of the Special Jury Award (Insurance Agency Leader of the Year) at the 2nd Trusted Life Agents & Advisers Awards organised by Asia Insurance Review, said that having a strong “why” will provide the direction and motivation to persevere when faced with obstacles.
“Why”
A career should not be for money alone and insurance is a big mission in his life, he said.
Sharing his growing up years, he said he moved from his rural home to the city where he spent about 1 year to attend English classes. As he could not afford it, he worked as school janitor in exchange for the English classes. He was so poor he had to use natural moonlight to study.
Owing to his diligence and progress, he was informed of and applied for a scholarship. And that’s when he had the turning point of his life, as he won the scholarship among 3,000 applicants.
“Education is the thing that changed my life,” he said. And for Cambodia to grow, he believes that “as long as you have good education, you can change the community, change the country”.
He said: “I may not be able to change the country, but if I ask every parent to ensure that their kids get a good education, this country will move forward.”
Which is why for the last 5 years, he has sacrificed family time and almost every weekend for the growth of the industry, to share the benefits of education and how life insurance can guarantee that one can provide the best education for their kids throughout the country.
It is his mission to use this platform and to share the benefits of insurance and financial planning to make a big impact for his country.
Golden rules
On the golden rules for sales management that he abides by:
- Sales management is the skill of achieving pre-determined results with and through other people.
It is about through other people. You cannot be a hero only on your own but you have to help your team be heroes and heroines.
- Praise in public, criticise in private
We have the tendency to criticise and speak immediately when noticing a problem. But make it a point to only criticise in private and attack the problem not the person.
- We can only manage activities and not results.
- Management cannot afford to waste time with people who cannot and will not perform.
Acknowledging that a career in the insurance industry may be tough, especially so for agency leaders, he ended with this quote: “The brick wall is there not to keep us out, but to give us a chance to show how badly we want it.”
You can watch his Award acceptance speech here.
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