National Head: External Distribution

at  PPS Recruitment

JOB ADVERT SUMMARY

PPS has grown to provide for the life, sickness and disability needs of South Africa’s graduate professionals. It is owned exclusively by its members and manages AUM in excess of R86bn in the investment business. One of the business’s primary ambitions is to aggressively grow is investments business and increase its insurance penetration.

QUALIFICATION:

• Relevant tertiary financial/investment qualification essential.
• Postgraduate business qualification - CFP ® and/or investment related honours degree with current FPI membership.
• FAIS accreditation

EXPERIENCE:

• Minimum 5 years strategic leadership at senior management level with concrete evidence of successful sales results delivery
• BD or product sales experience in life insurance and LISP investments
• Deep understanding of the asset management environment and financial markets products
• An understanding of investment management principles and the asset manager universe
• Understanding of current and legacy retail investment product structures
• Deep understanding of the life risk environment

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE:

• Multi-management and DFMs
• Life insurance products
• The dynamics of the graduate professional client market
• Best practice in financial advisory services including sales tools, distribution models, and channel optimisation
• The financial drivers of a sales and distribution model (sales capacity, sales productivity, product margin, and acquisition
• costs) and how they drive impact on the value of new business
• TCF and the need for consistency in advice and service delivery to mitigate against reputational and miss-selling risk

PURPOSE OF THE ROLE:

• Develop and implement business development (BD) External Distribution strategies to ensure sustainable market growth
• Embed PPS’s value proposition with leading IFAs and explore alternative distribution opportunities for both Life and LISP investment products

We are searching for a seasoned executive who will provide strategic leadership to take PPS External Distribution to the next level by:

• Developing and executing sales strategies to achieve sales targets and drive revenue growth
• Developing and executing an investment cross-sell strategy into the existing insurance base given the relatively low investment penetration with the ambition of significantly increasing
• Identifying and pursuing new business growth opportunities within the broader insurance environment
• Collaborating with, and influencing product houses with new product / product enhancement opportunities
• Developing and managing effective channel models and strategies to improve business performance
• Building and maintaining strong relationships with stakeholders (clients, partners, regulators, and industry associations)
• Ensure that the right sales tools, practice development, back-office support, and digitalised processes are in place to maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of advisers

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Business Development:

• Contribute to the development and execution of the BD strategy for both Life (66%) and LISP Investment products (33%), and track the implementation of deliverables
• Iterate and oversee BD strategies and plans toward increased market share and sustainable profit growth with an explicit focus on accelerating the growth of net new business in all product lines beyond their current trajectory
• Develop and execute the intermediated distribution strategy and PPS value proposition to support IFAs across Life and LISP investment products
• Collaborate with product houses to agree and set sales targets, sales mix, pricing, timing, and acquisition cost budgets
• Cascade targets to sales teams and actively manage sales performance against agreed targets
• Design appropriate course correction interventions where required
• Develop and managing the BD budget required to achieve sales ambitions
• Be responsible for distribution forums to build synergies and coordinated BD strategies and initiatives
• Develop business cases for proposed new initiatives based on sound research and with well-defined metrics of success
• Enhance market-competitive vertical integration strategies relating to LISP products and in-house portfolios
• Provide oversight of intelligence gathering on competitors including the analysis of market positioning / trends, and anticipate opportunities to ensure that the Life and LISP Investment product and service propositions are competitive
• Providing input and innovative thought on activities, projects, product activation, that enhances the overall PPS offerings