Life insurance. Hardly the most exciting purchase you will ever make and unlikely to be the sort of thing you sign up to spur of the moment. It's one of those things you purchase with a mortgage or buy in one of those 'grown up and thinking of the future moments' when you have more credit cards with outstanding balances than you will ever pay.
Despite that I found myself at life insurance bootcamp at the end of a particularly hedonistic and expensive summer- debt will drive you to believe the 'great commission' promises. Even getting to the training involved a two stage interview with a 14year old (possible exaggeration) marketing graduate. I made the grade and filed into training with 8 other cash seeking girls. Selling insurance is hard enough in the right forum but it is probably worth mentioning that I was expected to sell the product in a low cost supermarket in one of the poorest areas of Scotland!
Training-such as it was-over, the following week we were to be unleashed on the general public. We were told to 'engage families in conversation about what would happen in the event of their death'(!?!), 'target people in the aisles they were most likely to spend time browsing like clothing and entertainment' and most importantly steal, I mean obtain, at least 20 peoples details a day for the brokers to call on a follow up! As if considering your own death isn't grim enough the topic of death with new mothers and fathers didn't go down well. As for targeting families, as anyone who has ever tried doing a weekly shop with small children will confirm, if you are quickly ticking the items off your list with a happy child who is not throwing a tantrum over the latest peppa pig dvd or screaming for a feed, you are about as likely to engage in a sales chat as you are to poke a bear! I tried, I really did, I explained all the hard truths about debt not dying with you and thinking about provisions for the future but if you are picking up a bikini for a late sun deal you are unlikely to care beyond your week in Magaluf. Not to mention those with the attitude they were "happy to leave the little buggers their debt" The little buggers in question their greiving partners and children.
The deal was minimum wage for hours worked( kill me now!) and 65p for every follow up when the person answered the phone rising to a whole £1 if they took out a policy. Following a very tedious month of wandering aisles and filling in the enquiry forms I was paid. NO COMMISSION! None. Not even a measly 65p for my efforts. I quit there and then.After disputing that out of the number of forms submitted no one answered their phone for several weeks I gave up. There was noway to prove that the company was a cowboy operation.
I had a call from them a few months later asking me if I would be interested in a few shifts. Ha 'I'd rather not thanks all the same'. I figured that in a deprived area where the average life expectancy is 55, I'd leave this breed of coffin dodgers to buy their Fray Bentos pies in peace.
Until the next time.....
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