Promoting Life Insurance Products via Personal Selling: The Case of a Leading Insurer in Ghana

Personal selling is a paid personal communication that seeks to inform customers and persuade them to purchase products in an exchange situation. It is a powerful two-way form of communication. It allows an interactive relationship to develop between buyer and seller in which the latter can modify the information presented in response to the needs of the audience. The intent of this study is to establish the contribution of personal selling to the promotion of life insurance products in Ghana. A lot of literature abounds on advantages of personal selling but the outcome of this study will help establish contribution of personal selling to the promotion of life insurance. Thus, the study focused on life insurance clients in Ho, Ghana. Data were collected with a questionnaire administered to 100 clients of a leading insurer in the city of Ho. Simple frequency distribution tables were used to analyze the data. It was found that personal selling is an essential tool in prospecting, informing, educating and persuading life insurance clients. Thus, insurers must recruit and train more salespersons to intensify these activities. Also, insurance companies should consider apportioning a good percentage of their promotion budget to developing salespersons.