Having experienced the hardships of an early-stage startup, I aspired for a prominent brand in the IT sector. Therefore I was working on getting leads to get placed in a large corporate / brand. Unfortunately, none of the large IT firms considered me as I lacked engineering graduation. There were a couple of offers from smaller tech firms. In the early 2000s, most small and mid-size tech firms were only into technology body shopping. These firms had contracts with a few firms in the overseas market, and their role was to share the CVs for both long-term and short-term employment. However, it didn’t excite me. On the academic front, I completed my MBA course in 2002. On my CV, I have BCom, Diploma in tech and an MBA in Marketing and Systems from Christ College. So, I decided to look for job opportunities elsewhere.
Sunrise sector
In 2001, India’s insurance industry was open to the private sector. Through this privatisation drive, there was large-scale recruitment for Business Development personnel. Since I was keen to join a large brand, I attended HDFC SLIC (now HDFC Life) interview for a Relationship Manager. The HR-Head of HDFC SLIC had travelled to Bangalore from Mumbai to meet the prospective candidates. When I narrated my work experience, he couldn’t reconcile my switch. He was baffled as to why I was switching to the Insurance industry from tech. So then, I had to narrate my story and share my preference to join a large brand. HDFC is one of my aspiring brands to work for.
Dilip Gazarao, Prabhu S, Ms Priya, Mahesh T, myself & Sudhakar Kamath.
HDFC SLIC, Mysore
After a few days, I received my offer letter with a twist in the story. They offered me a role in Mysore ( approximately 150kms from Bangalore), and this market size was hardly 1/10th of Bangalore. So, I requested they place me in Bangalore. However, they refused as I didn’t have experience in financial services. So, on the first day, I reached Mysore and learned that HDFC SLIC didn’t have a branch. I was assigned to share one of the tables with a colleague at the HDFC Ltd branch. (the parent firm which lends housing loans) The employees of HDFC Ltd were looking at me with weird looks as life insurance is a newborn vertical. For me – the location, the job, and the firm were all new and unknown.
Life Insurance – Agency channel
My first KPI / target was to recruit forty financial consultants/agents for the insurance firm. In India, LIC was the verb for life insurance. So, my first sales call/meeting was even more comical. I approached some small business owners to join as a financial consultant/insurance agent. They saw my business card and gave me a warm welcome. I was relieved and thanked my stars for joining a large brand. However, after a few minutes of discussions, they thought the new firm by HDFC was into business loans, an extension from their housing loan business. So, I hit my first rough friction point – HDFC SLIC is not equal to HDFC Ltd.
Uphill battle
Compared to my colleagues at the Mysore branch, I was the odd one out due to my tech background. However, I resolved that i had to thrive, and i started compiling data points on HDFC Ltd (the parent firm) and life insurance products. On average, I worked for twelve to fourteen hours daily. As a result, I could recruit high-quality agents for my unit. HDFC SLIC also doled out attractive commissions, and we all rode on the laurels of the firm’s parent brand. In the next 18 months, I was one of the top performers in the Mysore branch.
Insights
Work ethics and hard work helped me be in the agents’ good books.
Sharing knowledge with agents gained confidence among my colleagues and agency channel.
I should have tracked the trends in the tech industry.
