If you don't build your authority, you will be a commodity in the industry - Digital Agent of the Year Tay Kah Lok

| 26 Jul 2018

We sat down with Tay Kah Lok, winner of Digital Agent of the Year at the 3rd Asia Trusted Life Agents & Advisers Awards, for a chat on the rationale behind his relentless efforts in creating value for the community through digital initiatives to enhance financial literacy, his vision of building a pull model of business, and tips to get started on the journey in building an online brand.

First, some background information on Jiale:

Throughout his career as an adviser, he found that clients and the people he met asked him similar questions. He figured that the best way to help his clients and the community was to film the answers in a series of videos so that others could access the knowledge and information they required 24/7.

That led to the creation of MONEYMAP, where he filmed a series of three-minute educational videos revolving around financial literacy for the benefit of the general public. He utilises the power of social media to share his videos and informative financial articles.

The results:

30% of his business is initiated by existing clients, 100% of his referrals are given to him without prompting and the number of cold prospects writing to him to request a consultation has jumped by 300%. From the leads generated, he successfully closes about 50% of them.

He was named by his company as AXA social ambassador for 2018 because of his active and consistent contribution in the digital scene.

Read: Over 50% of millennials use social media to vet insurance agents

Download: 50 social media tips for insurance practitioners

And of course, he won Digital Agent of the Year at the 3rd Asia Trusted Life Agents & Advisers Awards.

Below are some quick takeaways from our chat. Watch the video for the full interview.

From client-hunting model to client-attracting model

The reason why he is spending so much time and effort on personal branding and social media is because he wants to steer his business from the traditional client-hunting model, where agents are out there searching for clients who are ready to buy, to a client-attracting model, where clients who are ready to buy seek him out.

When you achieve that, your positioning is totally different when you meet prospects who seek you out.

“I want to be viewed as an authority in the industry, rather than just a commodity,” he said.

Don’t expect immediate results

Like everything good in life, don’t expect immediate results. There will come a time when you will question the results from the effort you put in. That’s to be expected.

Even Jiale experienced it. He felt “kind of burnt out” last year from all the videos that he was producing and was disappointed that results were not as great as he had envisioned.

He took a break and came back refreshed. He found his purpose again as he felt it is what the industry really needs, and of course, his passion as the results started growing and his recognition as Asia’s Digital Agent of the Year.

“The industry right now is still full of jargon and still full of complex concepts. My dream is to simplify these concepts so easily that even an eight-year-old can understand,” he said. 

Keep a curious mind

On the Awards, he described it as a wonderful platform for advisers from different countries and different companies to come together.

He has since got to know and met up with some of the Awards finalists and winners for mutual sharing and learning. 

“For example, I got to know Thian Jong, who’s a TOT adviser from AIA Malaysia. I’ve learnt so much from him,” he said.  

Oscars of the insurance industry

He added, “The Awards is like the Oscars of the insurance industry. It’s amazing that you get 50 companies from 14 different markets to come together to celebrate and recognise the unsung heroes and heroines of the industry.

“I just want to say a big ‘thank you’ to Asia Insurance Review and Asia Advisers Network for holding this beautiful event.”

For practical tips and "how-to" on social media and online personal branding,
check out our Q&A with Jiale on Facebook in “Here’s how I do it”