ASSESSING THE OPERATIONAL ROLES OF INSURERS IN THE SALES OF LIFE INSURANCE PRODUCTS: THE CASE OF ETHIOPIAN INSURANCE CORPORATION

Abstract

The study sought to identify and assess the operational role of insurers on the sales of life insurance: the case of Ethiopian Insurance Corporation. The researcher used a descriptive approach in order to analyze the qualitative data collected from the sample respondents through a questionnaire. The sampling technique used was a non-probability sampling technique; from which, the judgmental sampling was specifically used. The target population includes the actors who plays a pivotal role to the quality and extent of the sales of the products which are mainly the management staffs of the company in general and the life insurance branch and district managers in particular, the marketing and business development team of the company and licensed agents and brokers in the market and the staff customers. The questionnaires were originally dispersed to 153 respondents and 127 of them filled and returned it appropriately. The data collected have been analyzed descriptively through frequency, percentage, mean value and standard variation using SPSS version 20. The findings revealed, the operational roles, which are marketing ability, knowledge and experience of the staff, claim handling procedure and access of actuarial data are the decisive roles that determined the sales of life insurance. The researcher finally have given number of recommendations on how to improve those operational limitations and escalate the sales of life insurance; like an aggressive promotion, conducting market analysis, formulating a marketing strategy that considers the awareness level of the potential buyers, empowering and training the staff, communicating agents and brokers, eliminating fraud and corruption, cut through bureaucracies, formulating a faster system, training more actuaries, developing the data base through institutional connections and many other recommendations were given.