Problem

Life insurance salesmen are rewarded with high commissions as the job involves the selling of an unsought product –one that the prospective client is often not interested in or does not actively pursue. Marketing of this product is focused on hard sell through high pressured sales techniques. The challenge therefore is to get the prospect to buy the product, using a softer approach, based on need, affordability and intention, as it is felt that the hard sell approach could be responsible for the high levels of lapsed policies.

Method

The Meta-theoretic Model of Motivation and Personality and the Prospect Theory were employed for theoretical support and a final sample of 158 young Jamaican adults, obtained through paper-based survey, was analysed through Structural Equations Modelling.

Key Findings

The study found that young Jamaican adults who were body focused and open to new experience were likely to buy the product while the conscientious and emotional unstable personality types were not as likely to make such purchase (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Results from Structural Model

Impact of Research

The study contributed to the field of marketing psychology insofar as it provides a template for selling the life insurance product on personality traits, utilizing a softer approach, as an alternative to hard-sell.