Grit, tenacity make for insurance king

Enthusiasm, resilience fueled Kwon’s unlikely success story

By Kang Seung-woo, Ko Tae-young

When Kwon Young-woo, a lifetime car dealer and respected auto industry executive, attempted a sharp career turn as an insurance salesman at the age of 50, his friends were rightfully concerned.

And things seemed worse than feared as Kwon stumbled out of the gate in his new job, with his lack of experience and personal network resulting in poor results in the competition for clients and contracts.

Fast-forward to 2012 and the ever-exuberant Kwon can recall his early struggles with laughter. His slow start defied an impressive three-year stretch that secured his place among top Korean insurance salesmen.

“When I turned 50 and looked back on my career, there was nothing satisfying other than the vicarious pleasure that I got from selling cars, although I was seen as a successful salesperson that became an executive in the auto industry. And concerns over retirement forced me to look for new jobs that were future-oriented and the financial sector seemed to me the premium option,’’ said Kwon, an insurance consultant for Samsung Life.

``Sales are about enticing customers to spend money, but finance is about substantially addressing people’s needs. I felt this was a meaningful and proud profession, although it could be very challenging.’’

Kwon got his first job out of college in 1986 as a salesman at Daewoo Motor, which has since been acquired by American auto giant GM. After three years at Daewoo, he moved to Hansung Motor, which operates the Korean dealership for Mercedes Benz, and also worked for a brokerage company for two years after the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s.

Kwon returned to the car business to run a Mercedes dealership in Ulsan, before joining the Korean distributor for Italian sports car firm Ferrari as an executive director.

Even during his illustrious career as a car salesman, Kwon said he carefully read the finance section of newspapers everyday and became intrigued by opportunities in the sector. Despite a lifetime dealing with cars, Kwon had no intentions to lead a career selling car insurance and always had his eyes fixed on the life insurance business.

“While working in the auto sales industry, I met a lot affluent customers. Life insurance and the sizable products they provide seemed like the best option to do business with these customers,’’ he said.

Despite his firm resolution, Kwon got off to a bad start as a life planner.

“My annual salary for the 2008 was a mere 6.12 million won ($5,355). It was just frustrating,” said Kwon, who joined Samsung Life in May that year.

His below-average performance, which lasted for more than a year, had him facing increasing pressure to quit and return to familiar grounds.

``In August 2009, I was under heavy pressure from my family and so I gave myself a deadline until the end of the year to either get things right or bail,’’ he said.

Kwon’s breakthrough came in November, just a month ahead of his self-imposed deadline. A businessman, with whom he had developed a tight relationship over the previous years, gave Kwon his first big contract, an annuity insurance contract with a monthly payment of 3.8 million won and an agreement of a whole life insurance that cost 4 million won per month.

Kwon also struck insurance deals worth hundreds of millions of won.

As a result, his earnings jumped to 32 million won in 2009 and 150 million won in 2010 on his way to joining the Million Dollar Round Table’s (MDRT) Top of the Table (ToT) in April last year.

MDRT, regarded as the hall of fame in the insurance sector, is a global association for those among the top 1 percent of the world’s life insurance and financial services professionals.

Within MDRT, there are three levels ― basic MDRT, the Court of the Table (CoT) and Top of the Table (ToT).

CoT members distinguish themselves within the industry through their superior performance by producing at a level three times that of MDRT membership requirements, while ToT members come in at double that performance.

Despite all his outstanding achievements, Kwon still vows to challenge himself by launching a new program to help consultants by forming a high-performing consultancy channel, which is what he calls a “premium group,” to hone his expertise.

He names the former goal a “recovery program,” hoping to back up current and former consultants as well as those who intend to learn about insurance. He has devised this program since only six colleagues out of 81 remain due to the low pay.

“I do not think those who departed the insurance sector would talk about the good side of this industry. As more people quit, people around them are likely to have prejudges against insurance, which does huge damage over the long term. I want to help them understand the importance and benefits of insurance by providing the skills and knowledge that I have acquired,” he said.

Kwon added that he is also hoping to set up a group loaded with high performers like CoT or ToT members to share their knowledge and skills while drawing future-oriented versions of consulting, which he believes will help Samsung Life offer high-end insurance services to clients.

“Working in a highly-focused environment would lead to high achievement and help me to deal with clients with a more professional approach. If the premium channel is established, I would like to learn and share knowledge with other competent consultants and lure high-profile clients such as heads of major companies.”