ROLE THEORY APPLIED TO LIFE INSURANCE SELLING

Abstract

Everybody professionally connected with training, particularly the training of salesmen has heard of or even practices role-playing. Techniques and results vary greatly. Evaluations of the method are controversial, lacking a consistent theoretical framework. To formulate such framework is attempted here. Role theory, that is various theoretical perspectives developed by psychologists under that heading, was applied in a two years study of life insurance salesmen. The original action-oriented study observed how Agents contacted Prospects. Next followed attitude surveys of agents, insurance buyers and non-buyers, analysis of prospecting and selling techniques, selection and training systems for agents, and roleplaying experiments with selected groups of salesmen.