Area Manager

Who are we?
Sanlam Developing Markets [SDM] (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sanlam Life Limited) is one of the top financial services providers in the South African entry-level and emerging middle market. It aims to understand the unique requirements of clients and offers a wide range of simple and affordable financial solutions that cover needs such as funeral insurance, savings for education, life cover and personal accident plans. In terms of the Sanlam Group Governance Policy, SDM is managed by the SA Retail Mass cluster, which is part of the Sanlam Life and Savings cluster within the Sanlam Group. The cluster focusses on retail products, as well as group schemes.
Sanlam Values
- Lead with courage
- Serve with pride
- Care because we respect each other
- Act with integrity & accountability
- Grow value through innovation & superior performance

What will you do?
- Contribute to the creation of the provincial distribution strategy
- Create, implement and be accountable for the geographical Agency distribution’s vision and strategy/plan of IL Distribution
- Demonstrate inspirational leadership for Branch & Sales Managers
- Drive business innovation through partnerships with identified partners (Santam\MiWay, Sanlam Fiduciary, Glacier Investments, and Sanlam Health & Sanlam Employee Benefits)
- Implement the Provincial strategic plan of the Senior Implementation and Relationship Executive
- Represent the ambassadorial ‘face of the Area’ in terms of events and recognition
- Ensure collaboration and synergy between all channels across segments in the province to drive sales and market share growth
- Accountable for achievement of the Area profitability (VNB and expense management) for the province
- Ensure adherence to compliance and risk management for the province
- Ensure operational excellence within the province
- Develop talent and drive transformation

Undertake strategic leadership
- Form part of the Provincial Mancom that takes collective accountability for the decision making and leadership of the Area
- Analyse market changes, competitors, risks, opportunities and threats and create contingency plans for these in order to protect and grow market share
- Be overall accountable for the profitability and success of the province with respect to strategic attainment of business plans, decision making, operations, sales, compliance and customer service
- Understand the overarching Distribution strategy and vision in order to co-create (with the Branch Managers and Area Manco) and aligned national distribution strategy that incorporates all channels across the different segments Lead a culture of high performance within the province through present and courageous leadership and ensuring that the region; is structured and set up correctly in order to function effectively is adequately resourced to meet goals/targets is trained, developed and up-skilled is clear on their business goals and share a common sense of purpose is motivated, encouraged and supported in their jobs is disciplined, performance managed and rewarded appropriately

Strategically drive the execution of the provincial sales strategy through sales management
- In conjunction with the Branch Managers, communicate the channel and provincial distribution strategy at the Area level and work with the Area Manco to formulate the provincial business plan including;
- sales targets
- expense budgets
- manpower growth
- tactics, projects and marketing plans for penetration and growth
- create provincial value propositions and strategies
- broaden existing intermediary base and market share
- In conjunction and to support the strategic plans of the Senior Implementation and Relationship Executive
- By working closely with the Branch Managers to ensure that there is a sound understanding of how the different channels need to work collaboratively to achieve the strategy and that processes and communication within the province and between teams support this
- Ensure Branch Managers generate tactically aligned plans within the sales teams to effectively penetrate new and existing markets within the Area
- Get regular feedback and updates from the Branch Managers and Area Manco on sales performance against target. Report these back to the Provincial Executive

Undertake the area ambassador role
- Be the face of the Area (Cross Channel), an ambassador for clients, stakeholders and intermediaries in the province (relationship building, events, recognition conferences, networking, opening doors, influencing etc.)
- Positioning of Sanlam as a brand and business on provincial level in the market with key public and private market stakeholders
- Engage with industry bodies (i.e. business and community forums)
- Develop and maintain provincial business partnerships within the financial services community (including competitor liaison when required)
- Identify and engage high impact intermediary opportunities
- Host events and functions that drive recogniti