SDM ACTIVITY

By - Snehal Tiwari
B19055
Question 1
What should the Agents have done to ensure that Santosh was happy?

In order to answer the question, first there’s a need to list down all the reasons that made Santosh
disappointed and unhappy with the sales representative.

 Misleading Information and knowledge about the policies: Santosh was advised to
invest in more policies by implying that the incentive for taking a new policy was higher
than that of continuing with the same policy. Santosh was misled as the agents did not
provide him full disclaimer with proper terms and conditions and possible risks.
 Lack of personalized and regular communication: The agents were proactive and
personalized in their communication with Santosh when they sold him the policy but
soon after buying the policy, they stopped prioritizing Santosh and stopped giving him
time when he enquired about the low returns that the policy was fetching.
 Mishandling Santosh’s Portfolio: The agents did not switch Santosh’s funds from debt
to equity even though he specifically asked them to in order to ensure higher returns on
his investment. This was a clear breach of trust on the agents’ part. The agents are
supposed to develop and maintain a relation of trust with their clients in order to have a
long-term representation and credibility but they failed to do so in this scenario.
 Nefarious Objectives: The agents suggested him the idea of investing in more policies
by putting some in paid up with the sole aim of maximizing their sales incentive. This
behavior was far from ideal which requires them to serve the clients with the best of their
abilities. The agents are required to explain all the long-term implications of the
investment and deal with the client with utmost integrity.
 Post Sales Customer Support: The post sales customer service is one of the most
important factors for customer retention in this sector especially because of the high
Customer Lifetime Value. But, the agents didn’t prioritize Santosh and stopped rendering
adequate after sales services to Santosh.

Question 2
How should the company plan its sales decisions and avoid short term orientation of
its selling activities leading to loss of customer goodwill?
The company should strategize their sales decisions to maximize the long-term value and have a
proper plan of action in place to avoid customer goodwill by
 Estimating appropriate Customer Lifetime Value of a Client : Lifetime value of a client
should be the top-priority instead of focus on generating new clients as the CLV is much
higher in this scenario.

 Incentive Structure of Agents: The company should restructure the Incentive structure of
the sales representatives by aligning it with Customer retention, CLV and policies sold to
retained customers rather than giving a higher impetus to customer generation.

 Customer Service Feedback: Customer feedback surveys are very important to understand
client satisfaction with the current services, policies and the agent. The feedback results
should be integrated as a component in the compensation structure and should form a bases
of annual hikes, bonuses and promotions of agents/salespersons.

 Helpline for Instant Customer Support and Service : The company should focus on
providing a platform for instant ratification of customer issues and providing seamless
customer support. This is essential to building a long-lasting relationship with the client and
maximizing customer lifetime value.

 Aligning Company Values to Build Sustaining Long-term Client Relations : The

company values and core competencies should also be aligned towards valuing both new and
existing clients and building a long-term rapport with them to intrinsically motivate the
agents and sales representatives to align their motivations and goals towards the same as that
of the company.