Head of Corporate Distribution at Discovery Limited

Key Purpose of the role

• The Head of Corporate Distribution owns and builds mutually beneficial relationships with broker partners of the Discovery Corporate and Employee Benefits (CEB) business with the primary purpose of acquiring new business and maintaining existing business across all CEB products i.e. Group Risk, Retirement Fund and Healthy Company. This role oversees the full broker distribution channel and is responsible for developing strategies to find growth opportunities, enable sales and deal making to achieve sales targets per performance period and ensuring sustained business growth. Key to the success of this role is developing, leading and building the capabilities of the CEB Corporate Distribution team, building and maintaining sustainable broker partnerships and providing them with technical and strategic support.

Areas of responsibility may include but not limited to
The successful applicant will be responsible for but not limited to the following job functions:

• Develop the sales and growth strategy for CEB Corporate Distribution, including the development of the sales team, partnerships and capabilities to deliver growth at scale
• Identify strategies and tactics to achieve sales targets through broker partnerships
• Analyse the market and use market intelligence to proactively understand market and competitive movements to develop sales plans to drive and deliver sales targets as a key enabler for Discovery Corporate and Employee Benefits to achieve success and its strategic goals and ambition
• Drive and foster true partner relationships across peer groups and all business functions in the Discovery Group to unlock integrated sale opportunities.
• Apply both analytical diligence and customer behaviour intuition, identifying unique and compelling opportunities to put the Discovery brand and services as top of mind in the broker distribution network
• Develop strategies to manage all our distribution channels: the EB specialists, tied and independent channels
• Identifying gaps, opportunities and areas of improvement to enable growth in new business and lead-to sale conversion
• Always keep Exco up to date in relation to sales activities, sales plans, pipeline, projected results and the status of key broker relationships
• Track, analyse and monitor key performance metrics to assess broker relationship and identify areas for improvement; then manage proactively
• Lead, mentor and manage a high impact sales team, creating a world-class client focused Corporate Distribution team

Personal Attributes and Skills     
The successful candidate must demonstrate the following competencies:

• Employee Benefits Consulting, Client Servicing and B2B Strategic Sales experience
• Business development
• Relationship building
• Strategic partnership management
• Customer/Client engagement
• Broker industry knowledge and experience
• Account planning and management
• Commercial acumen (sales focused)
• Deal making
• Data driven analysis and insights
• Leading sales teams

Education and Experience

• A relevant Degree or tertiary qualification (NQF 7 to 8 level equivalent)
• Minimum of RE1 and RE5 certification (not older than 3 months)
• 15+ Years strong business background in sales, business development and leading a team in a sales environment
• A minimum of 10 years sales experience in B2B
• Proven management experience of 10 years’ experience in the Financial Services industry and in particular specialising in Employee Benefits – i.e. relevant Long-Term Insurance subcategories and Pension Fund Benefits
• Must have a track record and established professional reputation in the CEB industry