Insurance agent specializes in providing his/her clients with insurance policies that protect them against damage, illness, theft or death. Primary objective of this professional is to sell policies that will meet the requirement of the client.
He/she needs to obtain new clients and raise the clientele of the organization. An agent is the representative of an insurance company and is considered as the first point of contact.
Basically, insurance agent responsibilities involve providing information about the various policies to the prospective clients or policy holders or the existing clients, clarifying doubts and convicting them to opt for the right policy that will fulfill their requirement.
He/she needs to possess complete information about various products and services of the company, since they have to explain it to the potential client in order to convince them for taking the policies.
Insurance agents may work individually or in a team. They have to deal with various people such as their seniors, team members and clients and their routine work is usually target based.
In many companies, these agents are responsible for evaluating the insurance programs, and they also provice advise on making required modifications in the same. All insurance agents have typical work activities and a few of them are mentioned below:
Most companies and independent insurance firms prefer to hire college graduates who hold degrees in economics or business.
Generally, non graduates are not employed for this post, but there are exceptions for this condition; in case if a non graduate has previous experience or has proven expertise in other business areas, they can be employed.
Experience in public speaking and sociology can prove as a benefit for the candidate to improve their skills. Proficiency in computer and software are significantly essential for agents as an advertising, educational and communicational tool.
While the criteria to become an insurance agent is different in every state, nearly all states demand a candidate to acquire a license in the states where they are planning to sell insurance. To receive a license, many states ask applicants to qualify a state examination and pre-licensing courses related to insurance laws and insurance fundamentals of the state they want to practice.
An applicant who is conducting a job search in the insurance field needs to possess specific skill set. The field of insurance is all about marketing and selling products to the clients.
This type of job requires a candidate to be well organized, have good communication skills, possess the ability to analyze the client's requirements to suggest the product that will fulfill their need effectively, etc. Individuals interested in this sector will need to undertake training in insurance regulations and laws.
Ability to demonstrate and listen carefully to the clients as well as the co-workers is essential. They should have the ability to take complex information and convert it into simple language that a layman can understand; this is another dexterity that most employers look in a candidate.
Insurance agent responsibilities are mainly based on communicating, demonstrating and convincing powers of the candidate. An insurance agent with proficiency in all these features has great scope to make a career in this field.
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