Sussex Insurance Company was founded in 1976 and since then had established itself as an advanced and competitive leader in the insurance industry in British Columbia. During that year, the company opened its first location in North Vancouver on West 3rd Street. In 1989, Sussex insurance successfully progressed to introduce the franchising concept to the insurance industry in British Columbia. It subsequently opened the first franchising office on Granville Street in Vancouver. Currently, the company operates as a group in more than forty locations in British Columbia, with more offices opened in Albert in 2013.
The company vision is “bringing insurance to the people,” accompanied by its mission of providing the best and innovative customer experience in the insurance industry. The company has developed focusing on convenience and customer services and attempting to make the insurance products as efficient and streamlined as possible to all consumers. Today, Sussex Insurance is operating as a franchise network in a way that every office is locally operated and owned. Sussex Insurance has engaged to a continuous process of expanding their services to the consumers, creating employment opportunities for insurance agents and franchise opportunities for supporting business.
The salesperson assists in selling company’s products such as simple and proven turnkey business models. Other exclusive insurance products include Swerve and Trek travel Protection. These services enable the business to provide outstanding services that consequently increases the customers and improve customer retention. The following is the answers derived from the salesperson of the Sussex Insurance, which also provides the personal views of the salesperson.
Interview
Question 1: The salesperson says that they comfortably make cold calls with the aim of gathering the attention of the prospective customers. She says that the cold calls are mostly friendly reminder to ask the customers to come back and renewed their relationship with the company. According to this salesperson, the cold calls let the prospective customers know about the product that they did know it exists. Therefore, cold calls are important and can be as better as advertisements in terms of capturing the prospective customers.
Question 2: The salesperson states that the departments are competitive within themselves. The sales managers keep the records that help them to know how much the company has sold and how well they have performed. Therefore, the concept of consistently meeting the company’s goals is determined by the competitiveness within the company. In other words, meeting the company’s goal is about enhancing the competitiveness within Sussex Insurance Company.
Question 3: the salesperson responds that the least thing she likes for being a salesperson is the issue of repetitiveness. The salesperson has to keep repeating the same thing to the targeted audience since the she does not sell a wide variety of products. In particular, the salesperson must keep repeating to make sure that the prospective consumers can recall about the details of the product. Although she likes being in sales, she does not like putting pressure on people; she like letting people make independent decisions rather than convincing them to do what she want. However, she has no option to avoid these things because a salesperson has to encounter such scenarios.
Question 4: According to the sales person, both quality and excellent customer services are equally important in an insurance company. You cannot not give a priority to one of the aforementioned factors and single the other. For instance, excellent customer services require all sales people to remain friendly and informative to ensure that they do not lose their customer base. Equally important, assurance of a quality product will ensure that the clients stick to the company without considering any other services. Excellent customer service goes hands in hand with a quality product and sells each other. One cannot operate in the absence of another; the top management must ensure that they formulate policies that will favor the operation of both factors. Quality of products and excellent customer services are interdependent on one another and formulating both of them will works towards the achievement of organizational goals and objectives.
Question 5: The sales person is motivated by a lot of things that happens in her line of duty. Working for Sussex Insurance Company is amusing. She enjoys working as a sales person because of much repetition. The job offers an opportunity to venture into new fields and learn new things. Creating brand awareness is a great way to inform the target group about the services offered by the insurance company. The sales person creates a friendly contact with the clients building a repo that boosts communication between different parties. Nonetheless, the sales person finds it enjoyable to interact with people from diverse cultures. In the process, she has learnt on how she can handle different clients irrespective of their social status or influence. The sales person job position is enthralling; one is always jovial in her daily operations. Nothing makes a sales person happy than a customer understanding what he or she is paying for. She is motivated because of the understanding in the job area brought by much repetitiveness. All factors that motivate the sales person are intertwined to one another, and their benefits are huge.
Question 6: The sales person is comfortable with her position. She is proud of her position in Sussex Insurance Company and offers the best always. In the recent past, she has managed to handle different personalities in the job. She is contented and relaxed in the manner she handles the assigned responsibilities. Working in the customer and sales department excites her because the position is a prestigious one in the insurance company.
Reflection
According to this interview, there are various things that I found important in a company in terms of boosting and managing their sales. One of the fascinating elements in the sales is the cold call. As a salesperson, one has to make cold calls consistently in order to capture the attention of the prospective buyers. The calls keep reminding the customers about the existence of the product. However, the salesperson has to keep in mind the importance of the quality product and excellent products. These are the two elements that are equally important in maintaining and acquiring new customer base. According to the salesperson, providing quality products requires the support of excellent customer service. In other words, producing quality products without being informative and friendly to the client will consequently force the customers to move on and look for a company that offers pleasant customer services. Similarly, having excellent customer services and poor quality product cannot boost the sales. Therefore, the two elements should be considered of equal importance because they sell each other.
The other thing I learned from the findings is that salespersons enjoy being in that position due to various factors. First, they feel motivated because they learn new things as a result of meeting new and different situations as salesperson. The salesperson enjoys creating customer awareness at friendly points since they ensure that the customers can make effective purchasing decision based on the information provided by salespersons. However, like any other job, the salespersons are faced with few weaknesses. For instance, the Sussex Insurance salesperson says that one of thing that she does not like is being repetitive. They have to repeat one thing over and over again so that they can capture the customers’ attentions. Although it is a monotonous job, salesperson is evident that it is a pleasing job for those who like social aspect of life (Vene and Nikola 18)
Sale career investigation
In my opinion, I would like to investigate the sales career further. My great interest is based on performing a gap analysis that will indicate the actual performance of sales person across diverse corporations. As a researcher, identifying the priorities in the sales career will be a good riddance. I am interested in understanding the cost effectiveness, legal mandates, executive pressure, and customers’ behavior regarding sales person operation. In the end, I will understand the solutions and growth opportunities in the career and offer free advice to people interested in pursuing a career. During the investigation, I will conduct a needs assessment test meant for collecting the views and opinions regarding the sales career. Finally, I will understand the benefits and challenges of the sales career.
Works Cited
ALMUQRIN, MOHAMMED. "Salesperson interview” YouTube. ILStv.com, 30 Sept. 2014. Web. 1 Oct. 2014. <http://youtu.be/WcEb1xdlm78>.
Vene, Boris, and Nikola Grubiaa. The Enlightened Salesperson - Selling. Sai Towers Publishing, 2012. Print.
