In the ’90s, insurance was an alien concept in the country, much more in rural areas. Here’s the story of how Pru Life UK pioneers Henry Gocuan and Jimmy Barba turned it around in the Queen City of the South
Prudential or Pru Life UK, as it came to be known locally, was among the crop of foreign insurance companies that entered the Philippines in the mid-90s. Engaging in such a business was a gamble then because insurance, especially life insurance, was unknown to Filipinos. People simply did not know what it was, and its selling proposition—investing money for later use—proved to be too intangible for people to quickly believe in.
Henry Gocuan, who became a financial advisor after losing his prawn farm to a typhoon, was familiar with Filipinos’ perspective on insurance. “We are selling a very intangible product they cannot see until they see the result: a check delivered to the loved ones when they suffer any losses.”
Blue Pearl District Manager, Henry Gocuan
Yet, together with Jimmy Barba—who ventured in the US after the EDSA revolution, returned a couple of years after, and tried life insurance—they collaborated and convinced enough people in Cebu not just to insure themselves but to also be passionate agents in changing people’s minds about life insurance.
(From left) Blue Pearl District Manager Henry Gocuan and Mica 1 Branch Manager Jimmy Barba
Today, Pru Life UK has the largest agency force in the country with over 33,000 insurance agents. The story of how these two men set out to start the company in Cebu in the late ’90s is one of grit.
“When Pru Life UK started operations in 1996, nobody knew about the brand,” Gocuan recalled. “There’s no brand, there’s no office, no nothing until I we got a full-blown operation in 1997. So they came to Cebu and challenged me to start operations there.”
Even the born salesman that he was who grew up reselling things to his classmates at a profit back in the day, Gocuan was not immune to the challenges of starting a business from scratch.
Barba, who was initially hesitant of becoming a life insurance agent, remembers those growing pains. “Nobody believed us. Nobody wanted to join us because they thought it was crazy to do so.”
Other than clearly communicating the merits of life insurance to potential policyholders, another task the duo had was recruiting enough agents to spread this message. It was one thing to work with an intangible product, it was another to prove that one can be successful in selling it.
But with hard work and determination, they found like-minded people—successful in their own respective fields with undeniable persuasion powers coupled with good work ethics. Gocuan and Barba made Pru Life UK a formidable life insurance company in Cebu.
Asked how they did it, Barba has a simple answer: “It’s because we have built a culture of being good and professional within our operation. This is not just all about making money.”
Although, of course, the latter is still part and parcel of their trade, a quantifiable measure of success. “I think the best motivator is to see our agents successful,” Gocuan said. “When they’re successful, that means they are effective in reaching out to Filipino families.” For Barba, the best part of their job is knowing that what they do helps families stay afloat, especially after a loss.
Even with the success of Pru Life UK and the changing outlook towards life insurance, Barba and Gocuan still sing praises of the wonders of their product, particularly in the precarity of the current economy on top of the unpredictability of life itself.
Gocuan considers life insurance “the greatest love letter that someone can leave to their loved ones” while Barba thinks insurance is one way to break our embedded culture of thinking of family as our fallback or cushion in times of financial hardships. He says, “Buying life insurance is a financial responsibility for Filipinos. And the culture should be addressed.”
To know more about Pru Life UK, visit prulifeuk.com.ph.
ADVT.