Marketing Life Assurance Causes of Success and Failure in Assurance Salesmen

Abstract

Investigates effective sales performance in life assurance representatives, assessing relative contributions of individual characteristics and organisational factors. Examines the data that were gathered from a large well‐established life assurance company selling its policies direct via its own sales force. Selected for interview two area managers, four branch managers, three assistant managers, four team managers, six senior staff with salesforce responsibilities, fourteen successful representatives, seven average and fourteen less successful – the interviews lasted around 90 minutes and were completed between December 1974 and February 1975. Gives a breakdown of the interviews and results. Concludes that the studied organisation could be defined as a successful one in both size and profitability but needs to change methods of operation to reduce the number of less successful representatives and become more competitive.

Citation

Poppleton, S. and Lubbock, J. (1977), "Marketing Life Assurance Causes of Success and Failure in Assurance Salesmen", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 11 No. 6, pp. 418-431. https://doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000005025