Discovery Life Insurance Focuses on Agents

November 8 - Discovery Life Insurance group has taken a different approach to expanding its business, compared to other companies in the business.

The group has been focusing on growing its product line through the recruitment of 'tied' agents - those who sell only for Discovery.

"It's tough out there, business is really tough, but our ability to get new business is quite reasonable," said the Chief Executive Officer of Discovery Life, Herschel Mayers.

"We are growing but you have got to work harder to meet your targets," he explained. "We are continuously growing our distribution."

He said there were two kinds of people who distribute life insurance, "it is brokers and agents."

As such, Discovery has been growing its agency force, recruiting them and ensuring that they sell only for Discovery.

"That is the strategy we are using to grow our business," said Mayers. "Our main strategy in terms of growth is recruiting those tied agents."

Mayers said that the team of tied agents is growing by around ten to fifteen each month, and in the full year that ended June 2010, Discovery Life had recruited around 250 tied agents.

"The key for us in terms of our growth is to get quality growth," said Mayers. "It's not just a numbers game. These agents have to meet certain targets before we employ them."

The group continues to grow its membership base, with overall growth in the past decade around 18-20%.

The CEO said that he was not worried about competition by uber-groups such as Old Mutual, Sanlam and MMI.

"We are taking them on," he said.