Manager: Sales at Santam Insurance

What will you do?
Santam Operations has a vacancy for the position of Sales Manager: Personal Lines Contact Centre (PLCC) who will be based in Auckland Park.

WHAT WILL YOU DO? 
Develop and execute targeted sales and service delivery strategies to grow the Commodity Business, which is defined as new personal lines business.

What will make you successful in this role?

• Delivering personal quotes to intermediaries across South Africa, thus a contact centre with a national footprint.
• Quoting for different profile intermediaries, including small to medium and large brokerages, also allowing for an urban and rural context.  
• Delivering quotes within a personal product range that consist of multiple products/sections.  
• Adhering to a set of SOPs (high complexity) which is the framework within which the quotes are delivered
• Engaging with a range of stakeholders both internally (regional managers/relationship managers/senior management) and externally (Intermediaries/Online Brokers/Advisors)
• Formulating and implementing strategies for Sales through driving and actively managing the improvement of requests for quotations and conversion rates.
• Leading and managing the teams (including dedicated underwriters where applicable) in Sales ensuring daily service and quality levels are maintained. This includes inter alia the BAU activities of performance management, individual and team productivity, quality assurance, rework, and queue and violations management.
• Establishing a Sales team (s) which can quote and service brokers across PL classes of business.
• Collaborating closely with the PLCC Manco leaders/team to ensure service levels and operational efficiencies are achieved for the PLCC as a whole.
• Collaborating closely with all stakeholders in Broker Services to ensure needs and requirements are met, and the strategies to grow the Business are fully supported.
• Actively managing the relationship with Brokers/Intermediaries on an ongoing basis to ensure gaps in service delivery are observed and corrected.  This includes being available for brokers on matters which are escalated to management.
• Relationships to be managed by the role
• Subordinates
• Following a leadership approach to ensure a motivated and engaged 
• workforce, with a focus on creating effective teams

Networking, consulting, joint projects, collaboration with:
Internal stakeholders

•     Broker Services
•    Heads
•    Regional Managers 
•    Technical Managers
•    Relationship Managers
•     COE
•     HO/PL Underwriting
•     IT
•     HR
•     Legal
•     Sanlam specialist areas, example WFM

External stakeholders

•     Engaging with, providing service for:
•    Intermediaries: Binder Holders
•    Intermediaries: OSAs (Outsourced Services Agreements)
•    Other external parties, example Third Party IT providers

Qualifications and Experience

• B. Comm degree or equivalent relevant tertiary education, will be advantageous
•     Insurance related diploma: AIISA or FIISA or similar will be advantageous
•     Qualification such as Risk Management will be advantageous
• Extent (years) and nature of experience required:
•     5 to 10 years of people and operational management experience across various financial industry types e.g.  Insurance (Life and Short Term), Banking, Investment Management. Pension Funds 
•     3-5 years contact center operational management experience
•     Full understanding of IT environment, practices and methodologies (including Agile), and system stability/incident management processes
•     Good understanding and working knowledge of workflow design and systems (in all positions)
•     Knowledge of personal lines products in the short-term industry
•     Financial management proficiency with a strong emphasis on budgeting and variance reporting
•     Experience and proven track record leading cross functional teams
•     Proven track record in the ability to recruit and develop high performing staff and team leaders
•     Experience in running a multi shift or 24/7 contact center will be advantageous
•     Track record in the implementation of variable pay and pay for performance models will be advantageous 

Knowledge and Skills

• Strong management skills, including performance management
• Good communication skills (verbal and written) at all levels
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Strong technical and analytical capability
• Negotiating skills and ability to influence others
• Strong project management skills with a proven ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously
• Ability to set business goals and plans and make business decisions
• Leadership ability to create vision and motivate and energise staff
• Ability to maintain good relationships with brokers, and handling Broker complaints effectively 
• Entrepreneurial with good business acumen
• Personal Insurance/ Contact Centre Subject Knowledge Expertise 
• Coaching and enabling skills

Personal Attributes

•     Drives results
•     Deciding and initiating action
•     Leading and supervising
•     Collaborates
•     Client focus
•     Flexibility and adaptability
•     Cultivates innovation
•     Strategic decision making
•     Analytical thinking
•     Influencing/ gaining commitment
•     Business acumen
•     Coaching and development

Build a successful career with us

• We’re all about building strong, lasting relationships with our employees. We know that you have hopes for your future – your career, your personal development and of achieving great things. We pride ourselves in helping  our employees to realise their worth. Through its four business clusters – Sanlam Life and Savings, Sanlam Investment Group, Sanlam Emerging Markets, Santam, as well as MiWay and the Group Office – the group provides many opportunities for growth and development.

Core Competencies

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

Turnaround time

• The shortlisting process will only start once the application due date has been reached. The time taken to complete this process will depend on how far you progress and the availability of managers. 

Our commitment to transformation

• The Sanlam Group is committed to achieving transformation and embraces diversity.  This commitment is what drives us to achieve a diverse, inclusive and equitable workplace as we believe that these are key components to ensuring a thriving and sustainable business in South Africa.  The Group's Employment Equity plan and targets will be considered as part of the selection process.