Area Manager: Bloemfontein - Agriculture Crop Insurance at Santam Insurance

What will you do?

• We are looking for an Area Manager: Bloemfontein within Santam Agri to assume the overall responsibility for growth and profitability of Crop Insurance in the designated area, keeping and expanding contact with the clients, in line with Santam and Broker objectives. Provide technical support and assessments and deliver a high-quality service and support to the client base.   

What will make you successful in this role?

Portfolio Growth

• Identify new potential clients/intermediaries. Identify competitors and gather market intelligence.
• Provide input into the broker business by sharing analysis, compile and manage intermediary clients’ prospect list.
• Preparing and delivering quotes (direct and through intermediary).
• Identify and facilitate opportunities to be part of industry forums and events
• Senior relationship manager also assists regional manager on regional level.
• Detailed explanations regarding changes with respect to terms/
• Grow the portfolio through direct sales and through intermediaries.

Area Management

• Execute relationship management with intermediaries and clients.
• Attend/handle meetings with intermediaries to discuss performance statistics and growth.
• Understand the business opportunities in the area and client segmentation.
• Attend to ad hoc queries and resolution of issues from intermediaries and clients.
• Promote Santam through marketing activities to intermediaries, clients and the community.

Portfolio Management

• Assist in developing the sales strategy for the area and/or the region.
• Identify intermediary training needs.
• Manage realised rate levels according to minimum and target rates.
• Identify cross and up-selling opportunities.
• Monitoring crop profitability 

Business Planning

• Contribute/participate/prepare area reports and presentations (can be regional as well as at a senior level).
• Assist/drive profitability by improved cost managements (commission, management expenses, assessment cost).
• Assist in/produce analysis of existing clients and segments.
• Provide input to marketing ideas.
• Identify opportunities to market the brand. Events budget, invite the intermediaries and participate.
• Analyse of existing clients and segments

Distribution Channel Management

• Advise intermediary on appropriate channel selection.
• Take ownership and manage channel solution implementation at intermediary level.
• Manage sales function, quotes (large quotes), channel conflict or under quoting, NQR etc.

What will make you successful in this role?

Loss Assessments

• Performing assessments.
• Manage part-time assessors.
• Train assessors in collaboration with technical insurance services.
• Performing control/inspection assessments and re-assessments where complaints are logged on assessments.

Technical Support 

• Training assessors in the correct assessment of the crops cultivated in the designated area (districts). 
• Receive and manage all Damage Reports from brokers after insured loss reports. 
• Conduct insurance assessments, especially specialized assessments, personally. 
• Managing the assessor corps after a hail event to assess the damages to crops. 
• Inspections on a random basis to ensure a high level of accuracy of assessments performed.  

Claims Resolution

• Conducting claims estimates on allocated business/portfolio.
• Facilitate resolution of queries at any point of claim by understanding end-to-end claims process (registration, assessment, settlement, repudiation, dispute handling etc.).
• Interpret policy wordings against claim situations.
• Analyse and report on claims drivers affecting portfolio growth and profit, such as frequency, average cost per claim (acpc), severity etc.
• Manage ex gratia requests by assessing merits (loss against policy cover, policy and intermediary history) and create business cases for management consideration.
• Maintain close network relationships with claims handlers, assessors etc.

Internal Networking

• Build relationships with business and insurance support, facilitate the resolution of queries and issues with claims.
• Contract and monitor service levels with support units.
• Build effective working relationships with RM, RU, assessors and advisors.
• Attend and participate in quarterly distribution planning meetings.
• Manage escalations, exceptions and service interruptions in the different channels.

Crops

• Understand the climatic needs for each crop, as well as the genetic differences between cultivars.
• Able to distinguish the problems regarding weeds, diseases, nutrition, insects etc.

Farming methods

• Understand the need for, and the effective use of equipment and machinery.

Qualification and Experience

• Grade 12
• H Dip degree in Agriculture (preferably with horticulture as a subject)
• FAIS compliance: Commercial and Personal Lines and RE a preference
• Driver’s license
• 2 – 3 years’ specialised crop experience is essential 

Knowledge and Skills

• Business management
• Negotiation
• Sales
• Conflict management
• Presentation skills
• Writing skills

Core Competencies

• Cultivates innovation - Contributing independently
• Customer focus - Contributing independently
• Drives results - Contributing independently
• Collaborates - Contributing independently
• Being resilient - Contributing independently