Securing the future in these hard times

They didn’t inherit their money, they didn’t borrow huge amounts from banks to start a business, they didn’t start a dotcom company yet many of them are now millionaires. Of course, none of them were overnight millionaires. They worked long and hard for years, never mind if they were seen as pests by potential clients. For every person that dismissed them was another one overflowing with gratitude. "Salamat sa pangungulit" is a common way of thanking them when, say, a client’s son has graduated from college or a parent has been buried.

We’re talking about the ubiquitous insurance/pre-need agent or sales counselor (SC). Next time you see one and feel like running for cover, stop. Instead, do either of two things: Ask him how to be an agent yourself or ask him how to secure your future in these uncertain times.

That’s what we did at the 11th Lakbayan Awards of Philam Plans held recently. Philam’s Lakbayan (no, it’s not a tourism department awards; it sends its awardees to trips abroad, hence the name) honors Philam’s top producers, from its sales counselors to managers – those who have put Philam Plans in the second place among pre-need companies in the Philippines. The awardees range from a former basketball player to housewives to secretaries to sari-sari store owners to a postman. "They all have beautiful stories to tell," says Philam Plans president Eliseo Dizon. "They inspire people to find fulfillment in what they do."

Despite – or maybe because of – the 9/11 attacks, Philam Plans registered a 12.8 percent growth compared with the previous year and 35 percent growth for the month of November. Its active 8,000 sales force delivered the message around the country: You never know what’s going to happen tomorrow so you’d better be prepared.

"It was a banner year for us in 2001. For the first time we reached one billion in new business," says Luie Dybuncio, Philam Plans senior vice president for marketing. Not bad for a 13-year-old company. (its mother company Philam Life has been around for 55 years.) "Our performance last year was better than other, much older companies."

"People have realized that buying a pre-need plan is a better investment than buying new clothes every month," says Dizon. "You’re buying protection with a plan. It’s a promise that you are paying for, unlike a piece of furniture or an appliance which you get immediately. So it’s important that the company you’re buying your plan from is stable, that it will still be there when the time comes that you need your money."

An affiliate of the American International Group (AIG), Philam Plans’ top selling products are still the educational and pension plans but the company has also diversified its products offerings with the Wedding Package and the Hajj package, the latter specially designed for the Islamic culture. "The Hajj is essentially a pension-type of a product or fund accumulation so that you enable the investor to take his kids to Mecca," explains Dybuncio. "The same with the wedding package, you’re trying to help somebody save their money for a future need."

Dizon says, "Yes the economy was bad last year but there were and there are opportunities still. Our people proved it. When the attacks happened and everybody said, hold on to your money, our people said, what will we do? There was only one thing to do: we went out and talked to people."

Top agency manager Francisco Bautista’s story starts in the streets. Literally. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that the best networking strategy is to start with people you know. For 30 years, Mang Kiko knocked on people’s doors and rang their doorbells. He wasn’t selling vacuum cleaners; he was a postman earning P40 a month when he started his route in Lipa City in 1959.

He was always a welcome sight and a familiar face, which made his transition from postal worker to insurance agent (later pre-need-plan sales counselor) easy. "People trusted me enough to let me enter their homes," he says in Filipino. But, of course, this trust got him only so far. To actually close a sale, well, that required charm and this he has plenty of.

"In the beginning, palagay nating naaawa sila sa akin kaya bumibili ng insurance," says Mang Kiko, who started at 19 with the mother company of the group, Philam Life. He made sure he took care of his clients (he takes their calls 24/7), which he says is more important than closing the deal.

So Mang Kiko juggled his time between selling insurance, delivering mail and attending night school at Lipa City Colleges while he and his wife Julieta were raising their growing family. "Bago ako nakapag-college, tatlo na ang anak ko," he says. "Padala-dalawang subject lang ang kaya ko." After eight years, Mang Kiko finished commerce.

Money was coming in, yes, but it still wasn’t enough to send six sons and one daughter to college, so he quit his job and went full-time into insurance. From 1982 to 1985, he worked in the Middle East for Saudi Aramco (also in the mail room), where he continued to sell insurance plans to fellow Filipinos. "Ba’t ako nag-Saudi? Kasi di pa ako nakasakay ng eroplano."

Back in the Philippines, Mang Kiko left Philam Life, where he was a consistent top SC, and transferred to Philam Plans ("because it’s easier to sell"). These days, Mang Kiko handles 300 people, including those based in Hong Kong and Singapore who service Filipinos there, and is the biggest agency manager in the country. He also has his own house now, a fishpond business and three vehicles. As for his children – all graduates of top universities and one still studying – four of them have joined him in Philam Plans.

For Mang Kiko, being in this business is not only about getting a sale or meeting the quotas to qualify for the top awards (25 to 27 million for an agency manager and one million to 1.5 for a sales counselor in first-year premiums). "It’s also about being of service to people. I get a great deal of satisfaction when people benefit from their plans, yung mga nakakapagpatapos ng kolehiyo o mga namamatayan at natutulungan mo."

Top agency manager Flor C. Borreo went into the business for the same reason as Mang Kiko: the need to secure a future for her daughter. An accounting graduate of PUP, she started on the administration staff of an insurance company, where her entrepreneurial spirit was evident from the start.

"Every June, I had to borrow money to send my daughter to school. Nakakasawa yung ganoon. I wanted my daughter to study in an exclusive school, siyempre formative years importante yon."

She used to sell everything, from tocino to hotdogs to clothing, to her colleagues while keeping a nine-to-five desk job. Then she realized that, hey, she was selling the wrong thing. "Look at the sales counselors, they were doing so much better." This convinced her to start selling pre-need plans instead.

When she had her second child in 1990, she decided to resign. "I didn’t have a single centavo in the bank," she says. "It was sheer willpower and a leap of faith." In March of that year, she closed her first sale; by June, she had the money to send her daughter to school.

In 1993, she joined her agency manager at Pacific in transferring to Philam Plans, where she herself became an agency manager right away. Today, Flor and her seaman husband have four children: Laddale Riz, 19; Juddale, 17; Ladd Gabriel, 10; Gemina Dale, 5. They also own a three-story building in Quezon where she has a satellite office.

Flor reflects, "This is the highest-paid hardest job and the lowest-paid easiest job. Everything depends on you. If you work hard, you’ll go places, if you don’t you’ll stay where you are."

Take it from Flor, who says the number one requirement for being a good insurance agent is "makapal na mukha" and number two is having loads of patience. "You always have to be makulit, to look professional and smart," says Flor. She remembers how difficult it was to get her first client from the Chinese community but after the first one, referrals just started to pour in until she got a large chunk of the market.

Flor has mastered the art of smiling through rejection and being confident enough to try again. "Kung pahirapan, iisipin mo na lang, may commission ako sa iyo pag bumili ka."

You may reject these agents the first time or even the second time, but when they’re done talking with you the third time, you have a new best friend.