AIA China CEO: Confession Of An Insurance Salesman

He never shy away from the green days of the first insurance salesman in the United States.

The unforgettable experience at the bottom of a foreign land will not become a dark past that he wants to cover up. On the contrary, he will understand every subtle thread of the industry in those days.

Today, he is full of face, deep eyes, sincere smile, no one can see an open-minded, intelligent, approachable Confucianism.

This is the calm after the wind and rain, and the confidence that has grown from the foundation, so he has the courage to speak more, and the courage of the basic reform.

He returned to China with his mission and was appointed to CEO in AIA China.

Behind the seemingly scenic high places, the challenge to him is equally light.

He is commander in chief and soldier at the same time. He has to strategise and fight.

He is not a superman, he is just a pure and professional insurance salesman, but his energy has made China once a bottleneck in the development of friends, has a strong, rushed out of the "AIG haze", to find the status of rivers and lakes.

One afternoon in March, Cai Qiang on the banks of the Huangpu River felt a warm spring air.

The first Chinese cadastral master in Shanghai "the Bund 17" entered the British building from the beginning of 2009, and felt pressure and responsibility.

This is different from other peers and other market pressures.

Although he had never been rolling around the insurance circles in the mainland before, Cai Qiang's overseas experience of 20 years and his native "local" advantage determined that he would not be unable to cope with these pressures. He took office for more than a year, and he did not return empty handed.

This is a case in point.

New York insurance salesman

In 1992, a young man graduated from Xi'an Jiao Tong University came to New York, America, with all his heart and soul.

Cai Qiang, the tall boy from Shandong, was born.

His first job in foreign countries can be described as unremarkable. Registered salesmen, plain understanding is "selling insurance in New York".

"I was an insurance salesman in the United States, and I started here."

Some friends may feel that Cai Qiang is a bit of a genius when he goes abroad to sell insurance. After all, a prestigious university student can be found in a decent and stable job in the country. Why should he run abroad to "eat this bitterness"?

But Cai Qiang didn't think so.

Because in foreign countries, insurance marketing is also a technical activity and professional activity.

"At that time, I got three certificates from registered Life Insurance Division, Registered Financial Secretary and registered financial advisor in the United States. These three certificates are the same as those of accountants."

Thinking back to the first years of hard work in the United States, Cai Qiang thought it was a valuable asset.

After that, he used the incredible 10 years to sit on the top of the CEO of AXA Hongkong from an insurance salesman.

Cai Qiang did not seem to have much to say about the success story that took place over the past 10 years.

He prefers to look into the future.

However, a former leader of the axon who worked with Cai Qiang still revealed a small episode.

In those days, Jinsheng life insurance company, a joint venture company of AXA (at the end of last year, was renamed as "ICBC AXA Life Insurance") because of its participation in the stock market, and Cai Qiang was the main driver behind the company's financial advisor model.

Today, this innovative idea has been duplicated by other domestic counterparts.

Discard the old ways of life in favour of the new

The entry of friendly countries bears many symbolic meanings of China's insurance industry.

As the first insurance company to introduce the insurance salesman system into China, AIA set a precedent in the insurance training mode, and thus became the earliest "Whampoa military academy" in China's insurance industry after the reform and opening up.

Although foreign life insurance companies have entered China in the form of joint venture over the years, the market position of AIA in foreign life insurance companies is still hard to shake.

But in fact, in a period of time, the AIG storm (Note: March 16, 2009, has received 180 billion government assistance AIG to executives 166 million dollars bonus, the move has aroused great resentment in the United States.

Not only did the public speak in an uproar, but President Obama also said angrily that the "reckless and greedy" practice of AIG issuing huge bonuses to its executives still affected the friendly countries more or less.

From the second half of 2009 to the third quarter of 2010, there were rumors that some policyholders who had taken the AIA policy and the institutional clients who had a cooperative relationship with their friends had heard many rumors that AIG would be in crisis, and that the AIA would be plugged into the selling card to "pay debts for the father".

At that time, AIA had received an endless stream of telephone calls from five branches in the mainland.

At this time

These reforms include:

Such centralized operation can enhance the implementation of various policies and improve the efficiency of the whole company.

So I think it's worth it.

Cai Qiang explained.

"In fact, in the two years of 2003 and 2004, the growth of AIA China's business has been very slow. One of the fundamental reasons is that the five branches of AIG China are independent rather than a whole, leading to poor strategy and poor execution."

According to the annual employee satisfaction survey in AIA China, most employees generally feedback, and the implementation of vertical management mode is greatly improved.

On the basis of last year's reform, Cai Qiang made a fine adjustment of management mode this year.

"Giving the head of a branch company more authority in customer, channel and cooperation with bank in bancassurance business. They can make a direct decision without reporting to me.

This can further improve efficiency.

According to the "pcript" released by Cai Qiang in 2010, these reforms have apparently achieved initial success.

"2010 is a year when we are faced with many challenges and are still fruitful."

In 2010, AIA achieved an increase of 12% in total premiums, an increase of 10% in the new business premiums and an increase of 43% in the new business value compared to the same period last year.

Multi channel extension

Over the past 20 years, the marketing channel is a label for the development of AIA in China.

But Cai Qiang, who is familiar with the development direction of China's insurance market, knows that the development of AIA in China can not only rely on the leg of salesmen, but gradually change to the development mode of diversified channels.

In the field of bancassurance, friends have already gained.

At present, it has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with ICBC, which started in January of this year. At the same time, the plan to cooperate with the city commercial banks and local agricultural banks also formed in Cai Qiang's mind.

In the meantime, there is also a telephone sales plan for AIA.

On the basis of these plans, what Cai Qiang has to do now is to balance the proportion of these channels.

In his view, although the new channel can not become the backbone of the company for the time being, it can also play a role of icing on the cake.

"We hope that in the next 35 years, bancassurance and electricity sales will become a major channel of profit contribution, but the marketing channel will still be our main channel."

With the media questioning or by the AIG turmoil, AIA China's market share declined last year.

But in Cai Qiang's view, this is not a worry for him.

Because market share does not mean profit. "We are moving forward in profitability. We will not sacrifice profits to change the market size."

Perhaps this is also what friendly nations have been insisting on.

Insist on sole investment

6 years ago, the resigning of Greenberg, who made good use of the regulatory friendly policy and established friendly relations with China's regulatory authorities, has brought unprecedented challenges to AIG's connections in China.

Greenberg insisted on the long term operation and operation in China, so that AIA successfully set up a wholly foreign-owned life insurance company in China as the only special case before it implemented the policy of "joint venture" in China.

However, this is a special case that makes the industry envious, but it has made friends in Hua Kuozhang's "step by step" since then. It can only be "intensive farming" in the five regions approved by China before joining the WTO (Shanghai, Beijing, Jiangsu, Guangdong and Shenzhen).

If we want to break this stalemate, we should change the sole proprietorship route to a joint venture.

But from Cai Qiang's speech, the exclusive route of AIA seems to be firm.

"Sole proprietorship is a unique advantage for us. We will resolutely implement it in accordance with established strategies and objectives."

In fact, "eating in a bowl and looking at the pot is not a good strategy."

In his view, the 5 premiums of AIA China account for 1/3 of the national premium.

"In the future, we will be more focused on the penetration of these markets."

Cai Qiang's plan is quite clear for future work.

He said, "we have been allowed to open 8 new sales and service centers in Jiangsu and Guangdong, and plan to open more sales centers in the mainland in the future.

To this end, we will actively communicate with the CIRC and seek more opportunities to develop business in the two or three tier cities.

Now we should seize some opportunities first. If we can really expand further, we will actively strive for it. "