Manulife Insurance: Sales Process Analysis and Strategies

This report provides an executive summary and analysis of the sales process employed by Manulife Insurance. It examines the company's approach to wealth management, its sales cycle, and the integration of various financial instruments to cater to customer needs. The report details the six stages of Manulife's sales process, including research and connection, qualifying prospects, presentation, and closing the sale, and the post-sale customer service. It highlights the impact of the fourth industrial revolution, knowledge economy, and new marketing realities on the sales strategies of Manulife. The report also identifies the shortcomings in the current sales process, such as the absence of a robust e-commerce interface, and offers recommendations for improvement, including increased social media presence, utilization of big data, and integration of e-commerce facilities to enhance customer interaction and revenue generation. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for technology-driven tools to strengthen all stages of the sales cycle and adapt to the evolving market dynamics.

Executive Summary
Abstract
The concept of society and social security are intertwined with each other, under the banner of a
society a cluster of individuals come together and contribute their bit to safeguard the interest of
an individual during the tough times. Services like Insurance play an instrumental role in
striking a relationship between society and the individual. At the turn of the previous century,
many big insurance companies across the world came up with institutions where they motivated
individuals to become a part of an insurance cluster. Manulife Insurance of Canada is one such
cluster. This company developed various financial instruments and other methods to weave
around a security blanket for the people and by the people. They acted as a facilitator and
promoter of various insurance schemes. To achieve this extraordinary feat the company
developed a distinctive culture of the “sales of various insurance schemes.” The present
executive summary is an attempt to explore the salient features of this “sales exercise” while
having a closer look at various steps of the “sales procurement.” The onset of the fourth
industrial revolution, emergence of knowledge economy and advent of the “new realities of the
marketing” has changed the market scenarios completely, conventional six steps of the selling a
good, service or a concept.” Has seen a major shift because of this, concepts like globalization,
the formation of the clustered and organized financial institution catering to the greater interests
of the society under a neo-liberal setup has become a common practice. Most of the insurance
companies and other financial institutions are now changing their methods and giving way to
new technologies to survive in the market and capitalizing on their strengths.

Introduction of the Organization
“Manulife Insurance Company” is a Canada base “wealth management company.” which has
strong roots in Malaysia. This company commenced a journey in the year 1963 while serving as
British American Insurance company operation in Malaysia. The next milestone in this journey
came into existence when Manulife had a tie-up with “John Hancock Life Insurance.” During
this period offering insurance cover was the core competence of the company. Presently this
company is working as “Manulife Financial Corporation” and offering a range of services in
primary markets and secondary markets of insurance, wealth management and facilitation of
financial instruments for the corporates (Linked IN profile, 2020).
Six Stages of the Selling Process
While facilitating normal sales calls, a regular sales personal of Manulife Insurance Company
follows the conventional method of the sales process while delivering a strong set of messages
which can be seen in image 1.

Image 1: The primary motivational message and flow of the six stages of sales for Manulife
Step One and two “Research & Connection”
Almost a decade ago, Manulife insurance” Malaysia clubbed together all the services in its
portfolio and came up with a “wealth management” portfolio, investments for “family security,”
Education, career, “Health”, “business and retirement” were covered in this joint portfolio. This
clubbing together of the services and portfolio resulted in an integration of resources to facilitate
the first two steps of the selling of insurance service and allied services. These two steps are
research and connection (Chua, 2020).
Step 1
Big Data enabled “Research” to determine adequate prospecting for the clients

Research or the identification of the customers is the first step towards the implementation of the
sales. Identification of a market and their needs is important, this step of research further paves
the way for a plan to connect with the customer groups. To add a parity between the consumer
demands and the offerings by the company almost a decade ago, Manulife clubbed together all
the insurance services in one and integrated its database with the help of a “big data mechanism”.
Currently, the sales force of the company arranges positive leads or prospective customers under
a database where a regular sales executive launches research about the financial position and
other aspects of the life of a customer. To initiate this first step of the research, the company
follows a standardized template where they consider the demographic details of a probable
customer and formulates strategies. Following the essence of the Knowledge drive economy,
this integration allowed the company to utilize existing consumer data as a capital (About Us,
2020). The “ground force” of the company was collecting consumer data by launching various
research programs and clubbing them together for vast research of the consumer profile
(Individual, 2020).
Step 2
The phase of opening a relationship and building up a connection
To establish a connection with the customers, the company moves on to the next step of the sales
cycle. Manulife takes a resort in all the conventional and unconventional methods like hoardings,
newspaper, TV advertisements for mass awareness. After a lead generation, the company also
follows the methods associated with a direct consultancy with the clients. Under these
consultancy regime agents of the company books personal appointments with the probable
customers, collect data from them and prepare individual “wealth management portfolio” by the

needs and wishes of the customer. It is also known as the phase of customization of a wealth
management portfolio.
This step is very important because the needs related to the insurance, tax-saving and others may
vary from person to person. Manulife insurance acts on two levels; it can enroll a client into
some of the plans offered by the company under the capacity of a principle services provider or it
can invest their money in other suitable ventures as well. During the phase of awareness and
interest generation, the employee of the company explores these opportunities to understand the
customer’s needs on a personal basis (About Manulife Malaysia, 2020). The methods of sales
calls, telephonic conversations and interactions on the social media on a personal level are few
intermediate exercises that facilitate the second step of the process (About us, 2020).
Step 3
Qualifying the Prospect
The phase of qualifying the prospect covers certain exercises where the agents or the sales force
of the company designs special packages for the customers. Sometimes they convince a
customer to purchase standardized plans developed by the promoters. On some special
occasions, they can also come up with some tailor-made investment programs to cater to the
basic needs of the customers. During this phase, the experts associated with the sales force
identify the probable objections and try to rectify them with the help of “doubt clearing sessions”
and necessary amendments in the execution plan. This phase is the phase when the sales team
collects the primary feedback of the probable customers. Virtues like attentive listening and
development of an understanding of the needs of the customer's highlight this phase
(Connie,2020).

Step 4
Presentation of a customized deal
Manulife has this culture of treating every customer as a special customer, to cater to the needs
of the customer, during the fourth step of the sales cycle, they come up with a purpose of
presenting a tailor-made scheme catering to the needs of the customer. Under this phase they also
compare the USP of their deal against other players. The phase of presentation caters to the
immediate goals of the “formation of a formal relationship” and “management of objections
(Dickler, 2020).”
Step 5
Closing the sale
The experts working in the sales department acknowledges the fact that step five is the most
crucial step of the sales cycle, it is the step when a sales representative has to generate multiple
reminders of the deal and try to remove all the obstacles from the path of the closure of the sale.
The sales team of Manulife maintains a diary for the generation of reminders. With the help of
reminders, they stay in constant touch with prospective clients intending to achieve the goal of
revenue generation from the prospect (Forani, 2020).
Step 6
The current practices prevailing in the Manulife converted the sixth step of the sales process into
an opportunity for them. Right after the revenue generation at the fifth level the company ensures
a prompt service for the customers while delivering these services they also generate some
opportunities to communicate about new products, to understand the new needs of the customers,

they follow a loop-based research structure where they repeat the same sales cycle for a new
product offered by the company (Plaksij,2020).
Recommendations
The absence of E-commerce interface is a shortcoming
It is very important to understand the shortcomings in the sales cycle of the company. The six-
step long sales process of “Manulife accommodates” conventional and modern steps of an ideal
sales operation. However, their recent failure in selling “Corona insurance” can be explained
with the help of the concepts of “new realities of the market (Steward, 2020).”
Image 2: The Image depicting the new realities of the market, E-Commerce platforms have
emerged as a strong place for sales and purchase of the goods. The effect of these changes is
visible in the quadrants of promotion and Place.

Image 2 depicts the diagram of a market place for financial services after the arrival of E-
Commerce facilities; instead of the place, the consumers are more concerned about brand
perception. To manage this brand perception the companies are taking care of brand perception
gaps at the quadrant of the promotion. The social media tools mentioned in image 2 can be
considered as the tools to fix this brand perception gap (Chua, 2020). Based on the above-
mentioned studies following recommendations can be prescribed for the company.
 To increase its base on social media platforms, the company can allocate more budgets
for the processing of social media activities.
 New messages can be designed to facilitate the functions of the “social media
influencers.”
 Big Data solutions can be employed to develop meaningful signals for the procurement
of the “lead generation” exercise of sales.
 E-commerce facilities can be added as an instant button with each message to facilitate
the “revenue generation phase” of the sales cycle.
 The company can enhance its customer interaction based protocols to create a more
interactive phase at all levels. Broadly catering to the third and fourth steps of the sales
cycle.
 The current failure of Manulife can also be attributed to the fact that their reach to the
customers was not right.

The enablement of the social media tools and E-commerce facilities can create a trigger at the
interjection point of the fifth and sixth steps of the existing sales cycle and convert more sales
calls into revenue generation activities.
Conclusion
The scope of this diagnostic exercise can serve another aspect of the operations that can be
explained under the heading of the “Technology.” The company should come up with the
right technology-driven tools to strengthen the sub-steps of all the six steps of the sales cycle.
It is true that almost a decade ago, the company ensured a presence on all the digital
platforms, however, and this presence is symbolic in the absence of fully enabled E-
Commerce interface to culminate the sixth step of the sales cycle.
The scope of this report increases multiple folds under the purview of the fact that more and
more consumers are now shifting base towards online platforms and considering them as a
serious place for product education. The conventional methods of the “Sales Demo” and
others are losing their trustworthiness because customers feel that they are targeted messages.
The influencers on social media and other platforms are turning out to become a trustworthy
option for them. The recommendations presented in the current executive summary can be
implemented for the “ markets of future” where large “wealth management companies” are
going to play a key role in streamlining more organized economies.

References
About Manulife Malaysia. (2020). STG,
https://stg-manulife-co-my.adobecqms.net/en/individual/about-us/about-manulife-
malaysia.html.
About Us. (2020). Official website, https://www.manulifeam.com/ml/About-Us/.
Individual. (2020). Official Website, https://www.manulifeam.com/ml/About-Us/.
Linked IN profile. (2020). Linked in, https://www.linkedin.com/company/manulife-financial.
Chua, A. (2020). Manulife expects an uptick in demand for investment solutions. The Star,
https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2019/12/07/manulife-expects-
uptick-in-demand-for-investment-solutions.
Connic, W. (2020). The Seven Stages of the Sales Cycle. NASP,
https://www.nasp.com/article/AE1B7061-3F39/the-seven-stages-of-the-sales-cycle.html.
Dickler, J. (2020). Demand for travel insurance spikes amid coronavirus outbreak. CNBC,
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/27/coronavirus-travel-insurance-policies-spike-since-
outbreak.html.
Forani, J. (2020). Travel insurers update claims policy amid COVID-19 pandemic. CTV News,
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/travel-insurers-update-claims-policy-amid-
covid-19-pandemic-1.4853888.

Plaksij, J. (2020). Sales process: A roadmap to better sales performance. Future Office,
https://www.superoffice.com/blog/sales-process/.
Stewart, D. (2020). Charlottetown travel agency advises Manulife has made changes to plans in
light of coronavirus. Cape Berton Post,
https://www.capebretonpost.com/news/canada/charlottetown-travel-agency-advises-
manulife-has-made-changes-to-plans-in-light-of-covid-19-420013/.