Head of Business Development

General Accountability:

Build and lead a team of product wholesalers to drive advisors on growing sales of various types of products including Health & Protection products, investment-linked products, Group Life & Health (GLH) products and other wealth accumulation products for Agency Force. He/She also needs to drive advisors in the adoption of point-of-sales tools, facilitate its ongoing development and create value in the overall sales process.

Responsibilities:

• Achieve profitable sales growth for IFP and GLH product lines, by reaching the respective NBV & APE targets
• Partner with distributors to attract more business and identify new product opportunities and structures, to provide customer centric solutions to our customers
• Act as a key conduit between distributors and various departments in Agency Operations, assisting in the product development process and service enhancement from other operation units (eg. Underwriting, New Business & Claims)
• Drive sales of health & protection products, diversify product mix in order to deliver holistic solutions and integrated wealth to our customers.
• Provide inputs and market information to enhance the health & protection product suites in order to offer holistic solutions.
• Drive and initiate sales and customer campaigns, with the objective to achieve sales targets and the desired product mix for various customer segments
• Facilitate and drive advisors in various stages of the sales process by working closely with internal operation units
• Build the capability to consistently deliver sales ideas and concepts to our distributors, promote targeted products and campaigns for desired outcomes. This involves working closely with Distribution Training and Development team, top distributors and agency districts.
• Manage and collaborate with various internal departments on distributor communications regarding sales ideas, products and services
• Manage relationship with agency leaders in various Advisory Committees, to contribute ideas for product development, sales campaigns, internal operations & customer communications that will impact our topline sales results
• Drive & coordinate cross sell initiatives with other business units, for distributors to strengthen customer relationship and share of wallet
• Drive for advisors’ adoption of point-of-sales tools (ePOS). This involves constant interaction with users, collect feedback and solicit ideas for the tool’s ongoing development
• This position leads a team and has to deal with over 11,000 agency force in Hong Kong and Macau, and potentially other distribution channels.

Knowledge/Skills/Competencies/Education:

• University Degree in a relevant discipline
• At least 15 years of relevant experience in life insurance or banking industry
• Strong background in health & protection and wealth products
• Solid experience in managing Agency distribution channel
• Professional knowledge in business development area with strong sales management capability
• Effective presentation and communication skills
• Strong interpersonal skills at managing internal superiors, peers and team as well as managing external relationships
• Strong analytical skills
• Strong negotiation and deal-making skills
• Flexible and with strategic thinking
• Business acumen and client oriented

Challenges/Opportunities:

• Wide range of products to be distributed through Agency channel
• Meeting sales targets
• Change management
• Relationship management with various stakeholders, balancing interest of distributors and company’s interest