ANDREW LIAO is pleased with himself. It’s 5pm on a Monday afternoon in a gleaming branch office of Prudential in Petaling Jaya, a smart suburb of Kuala Lumpur. After two hours of negotiations, the 37-year-old salesman has just closed his first big sale of the week.

Liao has two business degrees from universities in Switzerland and New Zealand. Until three years ago he was running bars and restaurants in some of Malaysia’s finest hotels. Selling insurance to the country’s rapidly expanding middle classes, however, has proved much more lucrative.

“I’m making at least four or five times more money than I used to,” he said, as he packed away his Prudential-branded laptop. Liao is one of the new “Men from the Pru” – a modern-day incarnation of the salesmen who used to knock on doors across the length and breadth of Britain.

These direct-sales agents accounted for the lion’s share of the £1 billion in new business generated by the Pru’s Asian division in the first nine months of the year – almost half the group’s total sales. In Malaysia more than 90% of sales came from agents, who all work on commission.

Across Asia there are more than 430,000 men and women selling life assurance, pensions and protection for Prudential. This salesforce is growing at roughly 30% a year, and with Prudential eyeing a bid for parts of AIG’s $15 billion (£10 billion) Asian business it could be about to grow even faster.

“In Asia everything comes down to personal relationships,” said Bill Lisle, the chief executive of Prudential’s Malaysian business.

“When I was growing up in Northumberland, Eddie, our man from the Pru, came round and knocked on the door every Friday at 6pm. That’s all in the past now in the UK, but across Asia it’s still very important to be able to look someone in the eye and shake their hand when you are doing business.”

Pru salesmen are beginning to find it a little harder to shake hands on a deal with their Asian clients. In its third-quarter results last month, the group revealed that it was pushing back its ambitious growth targets by one year in response to the economic situation.

AIG’s collapse has been a double-edged sword. While the Pru’s biggest competitor has been damaged, in some areas, such as Singapore, consumers have tarred all foreign financial firms with the same brush.

On the road from Kuala Lumpur’s international airport all the evidence points to a booming economy. Advertising hoardings are everywhere, pushing Japanese cars alongside Korean mobile phones and flat-screen televisions.

In the shadow of the Petronas towers, briefly the world’s tallest building, construction work continues into the night. Yet many of the offices already built lie empty. And while the shopping centres are filled with designer names, customers are thin on the ground.

Inflation is running at 8.3%, with food-price inflation at 12%. The central bank has just scaled back forecasts for growth from 5.3% to between 3.5% and 4%. Politically, the situation is also evolving, with the government facing its first credible opposition since it gained independence from Britain 52 years ago.

Nonetheless, with no national health service and a retirement timebomb about to explode, there is a clear market for insurance and pensions.

“There’s a mandatory retirement age of 56 in Malaysia and a life expectancy of 72 for men and 76 for women,” said Lisle.

“While there is a state pension system, it’s paid out in a lump sum at retirement and typically runs out in the first three years. So people here are trying to work out how to pay for almost 20 years of retirement.”

Lisle’s other growth driver is takaful – insurance products compliant with Islamic law. Roughly 66% of Malaysia’s population of 27m are Muslims. Historically most of the wealth has resided with the ethnically Chinese population, but as earnings rise across the board that is beginning to change.

After our interview, Lisle headed to an auditorium in the Prudential tower in downtown Kuala Lumpur to address 200 headquarters staff. Microphone in hand, he led a karaoke version of the corporate song Prudential: We Are No 1.

It’s the first time the song’s title has been true: Prudential has only just become the biggest insurer in Malaysia, overtaking Singapore’s Great Eastern. Lisle now has a 21% market share, against Great Eastern’s 16%. If AIG’s Malaysian operations were to fall into his hands, Pru would have 31%.

In the Kuala Lumpur office, it was staff charity week, themed round the environment. After showing a video on climate change featuring Leonardo di Caprio and Harrison Ford, Lisle led his troops in a rendition of Michael Jackson’s Heal the World.

Among the new men and women from the Pru, such enthusiasm is commonplace. Lisle has just booked out the 5,000-seat Genting Arena of Stars for a sales conference in the new year. All places are taken with a waiting list forming. They will all be singing Prudential: We Are No 1 there, too.

Lisle has also just approved the construction of a seven-storey academy an hour’s drive from Kuala Lumpur to house his training programme. When it opens in 14 months it will be able to hold about 150 trainees.

All his sellers have to pass the standard US insurance-sales exams. Many are now being put through further qualifications to become wealth planners – a move that would allow them to sell unit trusts.

In Malaysia, the typical Pru insurance agent earns about 55,000 ringgit (£10,200) a year. It may not sound much, but it’s roughly twice the national wage and pay surveys suggest it is about 20% more than an engineer or a computer programmer can expect to receive.

It also amounts to significant buying power in a country where a new car made by local manufacturer Proton can be yours for an initial £85 deposit.

The Pru’s recruitment brochures claim it is possible for a new agent to make almost 249,500 ringgit after only four years. The best are making millions in sterling terms.

Jennifer Yap is one of the rising stars. Her crisp, white business suit oozes affluence. Six years ago she was working as a secretary. Now she has a team of 60 agents, including her husband, Cheah, working out of a marble-and-steel office block.

“Someone tried to sell me insurance, but I couldn’t even afford the most basic protection policy,” said Yap. “By the end of the conversation I was asking how to sign up to sell it.”

Last year Yap’s new-business sales topped 5.7m ringgit. “It’s good, but you can be better, guys,” she barked at her agents.

About 80% of her customers are aged 35 to 40. Local custom dictates that children look after their parents, which is pushing the retirement problem on to the younger generation. “They are everyone from executives and business owners to factory workers,” she said.

One of her customers has just inquired about becoming an agent. “We are attracting people who have been working for the banks, or for big companies. We have a former regional manager from IBM. We have law graduates, accountants.

“We offer a very structured timetable here, where everyone knows what they will be doing every day of the week at what time. Having the structure makes it easier for people to make the transition from a job with a steady salary to working on commission.”

As for commission, she insists her agents are transparent about what they charge – though it’s not required by law. “When people ask for a discount I say, okay, well this part is to pay for my children’s health insurance, this part is for my insurance, this part pays my house – which bit do you not want me to have?”

The array of sales awards certificates on her office wall suggests it’s a tactic that works.

Liao is hoping to follow in her footsteps by setting up his own agency in 2010. For the Pru’s Asian strategy to work, many more will have to follow.

Pru facts

THE Pru was formed in London’s Hatton Garden in 1848 to provide life assurance and loans to the middle classes. It expanded rapidly by selling policies to the working classes, women and companies.

It moved into its landmark terracotta headquarters, Holborn Bars, in 1879. Those offices closed in 2006.

In 1949 it launched its “man from the Pru” advertising campaign.

The company employs more than 28,000 people full time and has attracted more than 21m customers worldwide. In June 2008 the group had £256 billion of funds under management.

Source: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article5212659.ece