Hans RamaekersBirth: 1961Citizenship: Dutch (Maastricht, Netherlands)Family: MarriedJob: Business development executive for Brokbusiness Insurance Company in Kyiv.How to succeed in Ukraine: “You have to adapt the Western European mentality to the Ukrainian mentality or you will not succeed here. You have to do it very slowly.”
Hans Ramaekers, a Dutch expatriate who first came to Ukraine in 2010 and now sells insurance for Brokbusiness Insurance Company, knows that many people don’t trust salespeople in his line of work.
So he takes a different approach than the standard methods offered by many big insurance companies.
First of all, he promotes his line of work through characters in cartoons, not long and boring pamphlets with pictures of smiling people.
“People aren’t interested,” he said, so one of his approaches is to keep the sales pitch simple, snappy and yet shocking. In his cartoon pitch, he said, “all the situations that can happy to a person are shown in the cartoon.” He will upload it on YouTube soon and expects that “it’s going to be watched many times.”
Secondly, he’s not trying to sell to everyone.
When this 54-year-old Kyiv Post journalist with no wife or children asked what would be the right life insurance policy for him, Ramaekers didn’t lust after the prospect of a coming commission. He said simply that a person in the journalist’s situation doesn’t need a policy. “Insurance is not for everyone,” he said.
Ukrainians are notoriously averse to taking out insurance policies, at least in comparison to many Westerners. But if there’s anything that makes people think about the risks facing their lives – and how to provide for loved ones in the event of loss of income, disability or death – it’s the EuroMaidan Revolution that changed Ukraine’s government, but at a cost of more than 100 lives.
Insurance is even more essential for Ukrainians than some in the West, Raemakers said, because the Ukrainian “government doesn’t take care of people – at least not yet. It’s wise to insure yourself and your family. If something happens, your family can go on.”
His main product is Life100+ for the firm that employs 50 people and is owned by private investors. He is quick to point out that the firm has no connection to Brokbiznesbank owned by fugitive Serhiy Kurchenko, a mogul aligned with ousted President Viktor Yanukoyvch.
It’s the latest career chapter that has seen Ramaekers take on such varied roles as real estate, recruitment and hotel management. Besides Ukraine and the Netherlands, he’s also worked in the United States.
He plans to stay in Kyiv. His optimism for the country’s future is exemplified by his personal actions. “I sold everything in my country,” Raemakers said. “I love Kyiv. I love Ukraine.”
