Abstract
A paradigm shift has occurred in the concepts of marketing from the production concept to the societal concept. A prominent concept today is the customer concept, which aims to build loyalty and lifetime value by creating, maintaining, and enhancing relationships with the customer by addressing individual customer needs. Relationship marketing is a bifurcation from the customer concept, which seeks to earn and retain long-term preferences, business, and ultimately, a marketing network. In relationship marketing, both parties collaborate on identifying needs to fulfill. Immediate sales are not of prime concern in this model. Organizations should understand the fact of when–and how–to use relationship marketing. The five R’s of Relationship Marketing are Relationship, Realization, Response, Relevance, & Respect. This case study addresses relationship marketing focusing on a service industry (i.e. Insurance Industry). A Sales representative needs to bond well with all his clients in order to be able to meet their expectations as required. Therefore, an employee with good PR skills is sure to climb the ladder of success. The protagonist in the case study, Mr. Sahil Sharma, an Employee of AFRO-INDIA Insurance Ltd., guides and trains his entire team to build, maintain, and enhance their relationship with their clients. This will not only make the clients loyal to the organization, but also will also make them brand ambassadors through word of mouth.
TopCase Description
Mr. Praveen Sahai joined AFRO-INDIA Insurance Co. as Branch Manager-Direct Channel, Jaipur Branch, with a team of 12 Sales executive reporting to him directly. He had a very laid-back attitude and used to go to any heights to meet the monthly targets. The entire team working under him was less motivated and did not appreciate his working style. He was very authoritative and did not value clients or customer retention. According to him once a deal is struck and you have sold him the life insurance policy there should be no looking back. Instead, he thought it better to concentrate on the next deal. This attitude of his has made the working conditions of all sales executive working at AFRO-INDIA miserable. Moreover, the existing clients would never give any referrals for they themselves have not been receiving the right service. Mr. Praveen’s only motive was to make his team work in the way he wanted so he could meet deadlines and targets.
Mr. Sahil Sharma, a sales executive who is a part of the team under Mr. Praveen Sahai, got promoted to Branch Manager-Direct Channel due to his excellent performance with 150% target achievement. The Vikaspuri-Delhi branch was allotted to him for his operations. Therefore, he had to leave Jaipur and start all over again in Delhi. As the Dehli branch was new to him, he first tried to acquaint himself with all the staff members from the lowest level (peon), all the way through operations staff and colleagues and up to HR. The very motive behind him getting to know everybody in the branch was so he could look to someone for any kind of help.
His next goal was to recruit a team of 12 Sales Executive under him. Mr. Sahil did it with ease as he got all the support from the HR team and built a strong team under him. When a new Sales Executive joined him, he specifically ensured that:
- 1.
He made the Sales Executive easy with the work place.
- 2.
He trained him with the philosophy that insurance selling is all about relationship building.
- 3.
The very first call that you take with a client need not mean that he will take the policy. Nevertheless, the motive should be to create such a rapport with the prospect client that any time in the future he opts for a life insurance policy he has no other option but you.
This attitude of Sahil made all his team members work with zeal and constant motivation. He himself tries to attend one opening call with his all team members so that they understand the meaning of relationship building. For he knows very well that if one client who is a prospect now, is converted into a consumer he/she can become a brand ambassador for the company. This is possible, however, only if the customer perceives that his expectations have been met. All was well at Delhi. Sahil’s team was meeting the deadline of the targets. At the same time, Mr. Praveen was facing acute pressure from his team members and the clients in Jaipur. He could not cope with the situation and resigned from his present position of BM. The management now took a very wise and important decision of transferring Sahil from Delhi to Jaipur to handle the entire situation.