Our reporter Leng Cuihua

  The "Circular on the Practice Registration of Insurance Company Sales Practitioners at the End of 2021" (hereinafter referred to as the "Circular") issued by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission shows that by the end of 2021, insurance companies nationwide will be registered in the insurance intermediary supervision information system. hereinafter collectively referred to as "insurance salespersons") was 6.419 million, a sharp drop of 3.311 million, or 34%, from the peak of 9.73 million at the end of 2019.

  The decline in the number of insurance salespersons is not only affected by external factors such as the epidemic, but also an inevitable result of the development of the industry.

According to industry insiders, the landslide has not bottomed out, and the number of insurance salespersons may continue to decrease this year.

In order to change the current development predicament of the insurance industry, insurance companies need to further promote the reform of the salesperson system, and also need to make proper arrangements in terms of product design and service positioning, retain talents, and promote the high-quality development of the industry.

  Insurance salespersons have decreased by over 30% in 2 years

  According to the "Notice" data, as of the end of 2021, there were a total of 6.419 million domestic insurance salespersons.

In comparison, the number of insurance salespersons in 2019 and 2020 was 9.73 million and 8.428 million, respectively.

It can be seen that in the past two years, the number of insurance salespersons has been accelerating.

  Back in 2014, the number of insurance salespersons in my country was only 3.25 million.

In 2015, the insurance salesperson qualification examination was cancelled, and the number of insurance practitioners increased rapidly.

  Zhu Junsheng, research director of the China Insurance and Pension Research Center of the PBC School of Finance of Tsinghua University, analyzed the "Securities Daily" reporter that the cancellation of the insurance salesperson qualification examination has greatly lowered the industry access threshold.

In order to quickly expand large-scale, insurance companies usually adopt "human sea tactics", which is the main reason for the rapid increase in the number of insurance marketers in the past few years.

  However, "human sea tactics" is like a "double-edged sword".

Industry insiders said that after the influx of a large number of marketers, while contributing to the premium income, it also led to a surge in the number of complaints and surrender rates, and the problem of self-insured parts became prominent.

There is a saying in the life insurance industry: "Increasing employees means increasing customers." Many people joined the marketing team under the slogan of "annual salary of one million is not a dream", but later found it difficult to sell insurance policies to relatives and friends. Continue to expand new customers, it will be difficult to continue to retain.

  "The drawbacks of the internal development model, once the external environment changes, will jointly lead to a major decline in the number of marketers." Zhu Junsheng analyzed that from the perspective of internal factors, it is the "human sea tactics" that gradually exposed serious problems; externally In terms of factors, the impact of the epidemic, the continued downturn of the macro economy, and the public's pessimistic expectations for future development will all affect consumers' demand for insurance.

  Xie Yuantao, dean of the School of Insurance at the University of International Business and Economics, analyzed the "Securities Daily" reporter that the traditional insurance salesperson system presents a "pyramid" structure, and the newcomers at the "bottom of the tower" have lower incomes and higher dropout rates.

The commission distribution mechanism of "top high - medium low - no later" also makes practitioners very short-sighted. Marketers will spend more energy on finding new customers and lack motivation to provide follow-up services.

Whether it is the structure of marketers or the commission distribution model, it is difficult for insurance marketers to stay more and go further.

  Zhou Jin, a management consulting partner of PwC China's financial industry, believes that there are two major reasons for the decline in the number of insurance salespersons.

First, the supervision-driven marketers have been cleared, which has led to the elimination of many fake manpower; second, the insurance industry has transformed into a deep-water area, the growth rate of premium income has slowed down, and consumer demand has changed. Due to the impact of customer scenarios, it has become more difficult for insurance salespersons to develop their business, and after the decline in income, the dropout rate has also increased significantly.

  The number of marketers may continue to decrease

  In the past two years, the number of insurance salespersons has lost 3.311 million.

Among them, 2.009 million will be lost in 2021, and the rate of loss will further accelerate.

Industry insiders believe that the decline in the number of marketers has not bottomed out, and there is still a possibility of further decline in the future.

  "The number of insurance salespersons may go down this year." Zhu Junsheng said that on the one hand, the life insurance industry is still facing huge growth pressure in the short term. For insurance salespersons, if the insurance policy cannot be sold, it means that there is no commission income. Long can only leave.

On the other hand, under the unfavorable overall development of the industry, various insurance companies are exploring transformation, changing the previous "human sea tactics", and trying to improve quality and efficiency.

But so far, the effect of the reform has not yet appeared, and the overall structure of the existing salespersons has not changed significantly. It is expected that the number of insurance salespersons may continue to decline in the short term.

  Zhou Jin believes that the current insurance industry reform is in the deep water area, all aspects of the problem have not been fundamentally solved, the industry business model has not undergone essential changes, and the ability of insurance salesmen is still unable to meet the needs of high-quality development of the industry, so in the future The team of marketers may still be further streamlined, and the number of marketers will continue to decline further.

  Xie Yuantao analyzed that in the future, insurance salesmen will carry out deeper structural adjustments, and the "28 laws" will be reflected in the field of insurance marketing, and a small number of high-quality professional insurance salesmen will occupy most of the market share.

While the number of traditional insurance marketers is shrinking, independent agents may become an important growth pole; after breaking the traditional agent structure and commission system, it is expected to retain more high-quality insurance marketers.

  The reform of the insurance industry needs to be promoted systematically

  The decline in the number of insurance salespersons is not just a "point" problem.

To solve this problem, it is also necessary to take systematic measures, not only to reform the marketer system itself, but also to upgrade the strategic direction and business model of insurance companies.

  Zhou Jin believes that the decline in the number of marketers essentially highlights that the traditional business model of the insurance industry has been unable to meet the needs of high-quality development.

To solve this problem, first of all, it is necessary to start from the strategic direction and business model of the industry, and from the perspective of customers, make accurate analysis of the characteristics and insurance needs of subdivided customer groups, and make changes in product development and service models.

Secondly, to match the needs of different customers, make changes in marketing methods and the recruitment and training of marketers, improve channel capabilities and value creation, and effectively meet customer needs.

  Xie Yuantao pointed out that behind the decline in the number of marketers, it reflects the problems of the development of the insurance industry.

In recent years, the problem of homogenization of insurance products has become prominent.

For example, the absolute main force of sales in the bancassurance channel is incremental whole life insurance. During the good start period, most insurance companies focused on quick-return annuity products. Against this background, market competition has increasingly focused on price and incentive fees, which has affected the possibility of the insurance market. continuous development.

Therefore, in order to solve the problem of the decline in the number of marketers, insurance companies must make proper arrangements in terms of product design, service positioning and subsequent development.

  Zhu Junsheng believes that the problem of the decline in the number of insurance salespersons requires the joint efforts of insurance companies, insurance salespersons and regulatory authorities.

First of all, insurance companies should change the original "human sea tactics" model, and promote the development of insurance salesmen in the direction of high quality and elite through mechanism setting and systematic training.

Secondly, insurance salesmen need to continuously improve their professional quality.

With the enhancement of consumers' insurance awareness and professionalism, coupled with the increase in the channels for obtaining information, insurance marketers must show their professional level in order to sell the right products to the right people and create value for consumers. At the same time, it also realizes its own long-term development.

Third, the regulatory authorities should seize the opportunity and strength when promoting the reform of the insurance salesperson commission system to avoid aggravating the current severe situation facing the insurance industry.

For example, if the current commission system is reformed, the first commission ratio is reduced, and the commission payment cycle is lengthened, it may lead to lower short-term income for insurance salespersons, further increasing the difficulty of attracting outstanding talents in the insurance industry, and making the development of the insurance industry more difficult .

(Securities Daily)