What’s the biggest challenge you’ve ever faced as an insurance agent? We asked Malaysian agents and here are some of the most inspiring stories they shared:

1. “I was deathly afraid of talking to my family members about buying insurance.”

I’ve never been able to bring myself to talk about insurance to my family members. I didn’t want to be seen as that annoying person who spoils family gatherings with insurance talk. It made me unhappy knowing that I could help them plan their finances better, and yet I kept silent.

I learned a very important lesson one day when a cousin of ours invited us all out for coffee. It turned out, she had just started working as an insurance agent as well and would love to share with us some protection plans. Most of my cousins were receptive to her proposal, and I sat there thinking, “That could have been me.”

I realised that I could not achieve success if I was afraid of what people thought of me, when all I was doing was my job. That coffee incident taught me to take pride in what I do. Today, I can say that I am happily and proudly offering financial planning help to anyone and everyone. – May, 29

2. “There’s no worst feeling than being the agent with the least sales at every meeting.”

I work with a team of extremely successful agents. While that should have been a motivating thing for me, I got demotivated when I consistently ended up on the lowest rank in our team’s leader board. I felt like everyone was busy closing deals and hitting targets and I was trailing behind.

So I decided to analyse whether I was doing things right. I liked my job and I knew I wanted to continue being an agent. It hit me that the negative energy I was feeling was stemming from my envy towards my colleagues, and I knew that had to stop.

From that day onwards, I started getting to know my colleagues better. They were absolutely helpful and were more than happy to share their sales tips. I’m so glad I decided to make that change. – Wong, 32

3. “When my manager asked me to do direct approaches with the lunch crowd, I was so nervous I almost threw up.”

Just like anyone else, I hated it when salespeople approached me midway through my meal. You can imagine my panic when on the second week of my job as an agent, my manager whisked our team off to a food court to approach diners.

I felt like I was going to throw up, but then I asked myself, “What’s the worst that could happen?” I would never have to see this people again if I embarrassed myself, but if it went well, I could earn valuable leads.

That introspection was how I got over my fear of doing direct approach! Yes, I got a lot of annoyed “Not interested” responses but I’ve also closed about 12 cases from doing direct approach now in my fifth month of working. – Adam, 28

4. “Prospects would hang up on me and it made me too embarrassed to pick up the phone.”

I was previously working as an engineer and with all that prestige comes a side of ego. I felt too proud to be making cold calls in this new job. Yet there I was, instructed to call strangers with the rest of my team mates.

I’ve always had difficulty trying to explain myself over the phone. It was clear that I was anxious, and my words were getting caught in my mouth. I felt utterly humiliated when prospects would hang up on me and I didn’t have the courage to pick up the phone and call more people for some time.

I knew I had to get over that fear somehow and I realised that I needed some extra help to get me through the calls, so I started reading up about the best ways to make a good impression over the phone. It was such a delight seeing my success rates improving. I still get nervous when I make calls but I remember that all I can do is give it my best. – Fadzilah, 43

Keen to improve your insurance business as well? Sign up for free on iBanding’s Agent Directory! Here’s a tip: Get your clients to rate you to boost up your ranks in the directory.