"Rosgosstrakh: Our large team is the key to success."

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Special edition of the newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" dedicated to "Rosgosstrakh"

Yulia Shabanova, Board Member - Head of the Agency and Office Sales Block of PAO SK "Rosgosstrakh":

- Today you hold an unusual edition of "Komsomolskaya Pravda" in your hands. It is entirely dedicated to one of the main assets of the company "Rosgosstrakh" - insurance agents. These are the people who make our company known even in the most remote corners of the country. They are the guides and guardians of insurance culture in Russia. Professionals who provide reliable financial protection for the lives, health, property, and liabilities of millions of Russians.

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Yulia Shabanova. Photo: Provided by "Rosgosstrakh"

The agency network of "Rosgosstrakh" is a unique and distinctive phenomenon in the market. There is a common belief that our agency staff is archaic, elderly, and resistant to any innovations. The experience of generations of state insurers is undoubtedly very important to us, but in recent years we have repeatedly had the opportunity to see that the agency network can adapt to changes in the country and the world - including global changes - faster than other channels. In any situation, "Rosgosstrakh" agents continue to do what they do best - insuring their fellow countrymen, communicating with them, and assisting in difficult life situations. In this special edition of "Komsomolskaya Pravda," they share their stories themselves.

Of course, the crown jewel of our agency staff is the members of the "Leaders Club," agents who generate millions in premiums from property insurance for individuals and comprehensive car insurance. They are more often recognized with thanks from the company's and branches' management and receive corporate awards. However, even among those who have not yet joined this elite club of insurance professionals, there are many worthy agents who deserve to be highlighted for their love for clients, loyalty to their chosen profession and our company, and their ability to convey the importance of financial protection from various misfortunes.

I am confident that even in the age of globalization and digitalization, the "Rosgosstrakh" brand stands on the shoulders of its agents. Therefore, the company's management is grateful to all agents who, through their conscientious work, strengthen "Rosgosstrakh's" position in the market and its authority in the eyes of clients and potential policyholders. You are a significant part of a great team of success that we all strive to be part of. We are proud to work alongside you and hope to do much more to ensure that our compatriots live happily and without worries!

OUR PEOPLE

Elena Bondarenko: A "Rosgosstrakh" agent is a team player and even a family member

The territorial director of the Business Department in the Moscow region is among those state insurers who have only one employer listed in their work record

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Elena Grigoryevna believes that the best agent is a team player and an experienced woman. Photo: personal archive

From her very first days in the company, Elena Grigoryevna worked with agents - first, as a young specialist, she learned from their experience, but quite quickly she became a mentor and teacher for both newcomers and experienced salespeople. For this special edition of "Komsomolskaya Pravda," we asked her to share her experience with a broader audience and discuss the important nuances and subtleties of being a "Rosgosstrakh" insurance agent.

- Elena Grigoryevna, you can say your entire professional life is tied to "Rosgosstrakh." Tell us how you and the agency staff have changed over these decades.

- In 1986, after graduating from university, I joined the branch of the State Insurance Management in the Moscow region in the city of Chekhov, and I was immediately appointed as a leading economist. A new manager joined the branch at the same time. Before that, he was the deputy director at a printing plant, and he moved to State Insurance because, as he said, he wanted to find a lighter job due to his health. He was mistaken - six months later, he called me in and said: "Sorry, but I can't work with this team."

Besides him, I was the only one in the branch with a higher education, and I was also a member of the Communist Party. So just six months after graduating, I became a director. I was still a girl, and I had a hundred agents reporting to me, many with extensive experience and difficult personalities. Some would come into the office and smirk - "You won't be here in a couple of years." They were also mistaken - I worked in the Chekhov district for 20 years out of my 38.5 years at "Rosgosstrakh," and then I moved to the capital as a territorial director.

Of course, the agents had reasons to doubt. Initially, my knowledge about what I was supposed to be doing is well illustrated by this episode. Literally the day after I was appointed director, the head of the Moscow regional management, Nikolai Grigoryevich Prokhomchuk, called me and asked: "What do you have with your portfolio?" And I replied, "I haven't bought one yet." He laughed and explained that he was asking about the agents' contracts in the division.

In general, I had to learn everything while working. Then I began to teach agents - both those I recruited and the "old-timers," distributing plans among them and motivating them to fulfill those plans.

- What can a young manager teach experienced insurance agents?

- New methods of working. Not immediately, of course, but gradually, when I accumulated experience and the time demanded searching for new approaches to clients - this was in the early 90s.

Back then, I remind you, comprehensive car insurance practically disappeared. In Soviet times, we had a car dealership in the Chekhov district where different brands of cars were sold. All the famous personalities from the capital bought cars there and insured them with us. They also came to us for loss adjustments. How many autographs of stars I had back then! Two teams were dedicated solely to comprehensive car insurance.

There were also agents who dealt with life insurance. They would visit enterprises on payday (as there were many collective agreements at the time) and collected contributions. Other types of insurance practically didn't interest them - they thought they were doing well enough.

But when everything collapsed in the early 90s, these two categories of agents had to either leave or restructure to home insurance. Because in life insurance, you could actually earn decent money. They were motivated, but they lacked the habit of fighting for each client, for each contract. However, true agency work was required in the sense we understand it now: retaining clients, attracting new ones, growing portfolios, and controlling their loss ratios.

They transitioned with difficulty. We were required to expand our portfolios, but agents would come in and say they simply had nowhere to get new contracts - just grandmothers in the area, and no one else to insure. So, I went out into the district myself to see what was happening. And I saw: around us, new dacha and cottage settlements were being built, fields were being developed into houses. Our agents were simply afraid to approach them.

To overcome this fear, we started using collective field outings on Saturdays and Sundays for attracting new clients. We would deploy real teams around dacha settlements and walk in pairs and threes through the yards.

I remember that in 1996, the Chekhov branch collected 150 million rubles in modern money just from life insurance. Despite the fact that our district was considered unpromising. Not like now, when it seems every patch of land is built up. Recently, I visited a pre-insurance inspection of a house in the "Holy Mountain" cottage settlement and remembered that we were once sent there with agents to process beets.

The system of field outings, of which we were pioneers, has remained in "Rosgosstrakh" to this day and works very well. Branches even compete to see who can collect more new business in life insurance over the weekend.

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In the 90s, Elena Bondarenko personally went "into the field" and saw that there were clients - new dacha and cottage settlements were being built. Our agents were just afraid to approach them.

Photo: Shutterstock.

Everything changed dramatically with the introduction of compulsory motor third-party liability insurance (