Making marketing executives out of clerks

Our Banking Bureau
01 July 2004

Chennai: Once a clerk, always a clerk, runs an old adage. Perhaps the description was intended to capture the attitude of clerical staff in government and public sector undertakings. However public sector insurance companies are now striving to disprove this pejorative.

The Kolkata-based National Insurance Company Limited is the latest public sector insurance company to join the ranks of those striving to make marketing executives out of clerks and other administrative staff.

The company has decided to open satellite offices to be manned by a single person from the administrative staff but with a flair for marketing. This selected official will be expected to single-handedly meet an annual premium target Rs35 lakh, issue policy documents and take care of renewals. Half of the premium procured should be by selling personal lines of business (health insurance, personal accident, hous, etc).

While there will not be any cadre change for those who are selected to man the satellite offices, they will be paid telephone, conveyance allowances and also rent for the premises subject to certain limits.

However, the target officials are not enthusiastic as they feel this scheme is not lucrative enough. First, there is no change in the salary and the cadre nor are there any commissions / incentives for achieving or exceeding the target.

Second, the volume of documents will be high in the personal insurance category and it will be difficult for a single person to do all the work, in addition to going out into the market. In the existing setup, a whole office assists a marketing executive with even smaller targets.