Cluster Manager - Insurance Sales and Relationship Management

About the Role

The Cluster Manager at Aditya Birla Capital is responsible for driving insurance business growth through assigned relationship and channel partners within a specific geographic area or zone. This role focuses on persuading channel partners such as HDFC Bank branch heads to promote Birla Sun Life Insurance products to their customers. The Cluster Manager ensures comprehensive pre- and post-sales support to both partners and clients, managing a dedicated team to support these relationships. A key objective is not only to meet annualized premium targets but also to maintain steady business growth every quarter.

Responsibilities

• Manage a team of approximately 10-11 members across multiple branches to achieve sales targets.
• Own complete accountability for the vertical’s sales target impacting the overall relationship’s revenue.
• Ensure zero customer complaints by proactively addressing issues with a strong focus on customer satisfaction.
• Drive and maintain premium persistency at 80% on a rolling 13-month basis.
• Engage continuously with channel partners including multiple bank branch heads to strengthen collaboration and ensure consistent information flow to regional and zone heads.
• Facilitate and promote all reward and recognition activities organized by the company to motivate teams and partners.
• Innovate and implement branch-level activities to increase customer penetration and business acquisitions.
• Communicate process changes and regulatory updates effectively through various training modules.
• Oversee smooth execution of sales, complaint handling, issuance of policies, and other processes to maximize business potential.
• Develop and maintain multi-level relationships within banks and channel partners to enhance the output and business opportunities.
• Focus on achieving a balanced product mix of 50% traditional policies, 40% ULIPs, and 10% term insurance.
• Identify training requirements and facilitate appropriate training interventions for both in-house teams and channel partners.
• Provide regular business scrutiny and report vital information to superiors for strategic decisions.
• Engage with customers through welcome calls and ensure timely resolution of queries to support renewal and persistency goals.
• Collaborate with supporting departments such as HR, issuance coordination, client services, and trainers to streamline recruitment, policy issuance, and service operations.

Key Challenges

• Managing market volatility due to predominant sales of unit-linked policies.
• Aligning with HDFC's branch banking priorities in an open architecture environment where the bank's objectives may differ.
• Balancing stringent process requirements with channel partners' expectations.

Additional Information

• Target Annualized Premium ranges between 5 to 10 crore INR.
• Customer complaints are highly critical; hence, the role demands zero tolerance for complaints.
• The role reports directly to the Circle Relationship Head and ultimately the Zone Relationship Head of HDFC Bank branches.
• Product mix target: Traditional (50%), ULIP (40%), Term insurance (10%).
• Focus on Front Line Staff (FLS) review mechanism to achieve 40% activation with at least two cases per active agent at an average ticket size of 50,000 INR.

Relationships and Collaboration

• Internal collaboration with HR for recruitment and manpower management.
• Work with policy issuance coordinators to ensure timely policy documentation.
• Liaise with client service teams for service-related issues.
• Coordinate with training teams to deliver training for both internal staff and channel partners as needed.