Many Singaporeans would most likely have their own stories -- good and bad -- about their encounters with insurance agents, given that building up a portfolio of financial instruments is an adulting rite of passage.
A common tactic employed by such agents to put their foot through the door to make sales would be to initiate meet-ups with long-lost friends from yesteryear:
Or making cold calls after they somehow get hold of your number.
The next level of such tactics, though, is to contact people randomly to ask if they are interested in joining the field to help sell those financial products they would have otherwise asked them to buy instead.
Agent can't get name right via text
One Singaporean man was recently propositioned out of the blue by an agent who he had not met before, and what transpired was a funny story about the importance of getting another person's name right from the start.
The Singaporean man, Teo Jian Rong, related his experience in a Facebook post about being contacted by a financial adviser, Shirley, who ended up getting his name wrong thrice in a row when she approached him via text.
Shirley variously addressed the man as "Sian Ring", "Sing Rong" and "Jian Ring", in her text messages to him -- a funny enough pooh-pooh as they had apparently spoken on the phone the day before.
Screenshot from Teo Jian Rong/Facebook.
Plot twist
In response to the inconsistency, the man sarcastically replied that "Sian Ring", "Sing Rong" and "Jian Ring" are ready to take up Shirley's offer -- but not him.
Shirley responded with disappointment, almost as if she did not realise her own typos was the cause of Teo's trolling.
Screenshot from Teo Jian Rong/Facebook.
In a counter-proposition, Teo offered to meet Shirley, saying that he was impressed with her hustle and cold-calling efforts, and that he wished to offer her copywriting consultation instead to make her a better recruiter.
Screenshot from Teo Jian Rong/Facebook.
And that was where the conversation appeared to have ended.
The amusing and unexpected exchange between Teo and Shirley has since been shared 1,900 times on Facebook:
Top photo via Teo Jian Rong's Facebook