Business Development Director

MAIN PURPOSE

OF THE JOB:

The individual in this role will lead the Business Development and be responsible for growing AXA Philippines’ business on the emerging middle class segment. The job will consist in setting up and launching partnerships to reach high volumes of customers in the target segment.

The roleholder will deploy the strategy across distribution channels as defined with the Emerging Customers Head.  In this position, the new joiner will develop/tailor value propositions to solve our partners’ business challenges whilst addressing the protection needs of their customers. Partnership hunting will involve:

• selecting and engaging with companies from specific industries,
• analyzing their customer/user base,
• understanding their strategies, performance and painpoints,
• mapping the external market drivers impacting their industry,
• identifying where insurance can create value for the partners and what partnership models would bring the best outcome.

Key accountability is the end-to-end management of all partners with prospection, value proposition design and pitches, business case development and approval, negotiation of commercial terms and budgets (e.g. marketing, customer care…), integration of contract requirements with business operations, partner management, achievement of agreed business metrics and KPIs…

The new joiner will design/enhance value propositions to best address the needs of low-to-middle income customers in a simple, fast and flexible way. He/She will keep the customer needs at the core of the value proposition and adapt products using customer insights/market studies.

Candidates for this role should be able to think outside of the box, and be eager and creative enough to assess the current and future needs of existing customers and prospects. Candidates with a background in insurance sales and product marketing who are driven, analytically minded and motivated will do well in this role.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES:

• Map and understand the features of the emerging middle class in the Philippines, assess the channels to best reach the target segment, identify pros & cons in each channel, follow up on key market changes;
• Build distribution & sales strategies across channels according to the strategic vision for Emerging Customers (EC), build and continuously feed the partnership pipeline to support the growth of the EC business, prioritize targets based on potential, effort & time to launch;
• Identify and contact relevant decision-makers within prospects, engage with stakeholders and ideate on potential opportunities, design value-creating partnerships that support our partners’ strategy (revenues, customer acquisition, retention, brand…), lead all pitches including development of proposals and presentations;
• Build value propositions that best meet customer needs for risk reduction, assess current products’ specifications vs. market practice and customer needs, identify the required developments and engage with product team, arrange quotes with the pricing/UW team;
• Define the marketing strategy and the go-to-market plans that will support the launch and the growth of the partnerships, create business cases and seek approval; develop and negotiate contracts, close new business deals with partners;
• Co-design the customer journeys based on specifications and needs from partner, customers, AXA and IT providers, support the internal onboarding team to assess the impact of new partnerships on operations and raise awareness/escalate with management if needed;
• Work closely with internal and external teams to prepare the set-up of each scheme, support discussions and implementation meetings to negotiate agreements/adjustments, be the first point of escalation for any internal blockers and escalate when needed;
• Monitor the progress of launched programs, assess partnerships and products to identify painpoint and recommend possible solutions;
• Manage relationship with partners to ensure success and satisfaction, coordinate teams to follow up on customer experience, partnership results and target achievement, plan and implement cross-selling /farming strategies.

KEY

STAKEHOLDERS:

Internal: ELT sponsor, product management, actuarial, underwriters, corporate solutions, banca distribution, marketing, Operations/Claims

External: leadership teams across distribution channels (mobile financial services, digital players, financial institutions, brokers…), insurance industry peers

EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in business, marketing, or insurance field is preferred
• At least 7 years’ experience in Business Development role preferably within the financial industry
• Strong interpersonal, negotiation and communication skills (both verbal and written)
• Strong strategic and critical thinking skills, analytical, organized
• Strong leadership skills, business acumen and key stakeholder management
• Creatively-minded, good at thinking ‘outside the box’
• Ability to analyze business and financial data
• Proven ability to plan and manage resources
• Ability to travel when necessary to meet with customers and/or stakeholders and build business relationships