VP, Agency Channel

Location: Remote

ERGO NEXT’s mission is to help entrepreneurs thrive. We’re doing that by building the only technology-led, full-stack provider of small business insurance in the industry, taking on the entire value chain and transforming the customer experience. 

Simply put, wherever you find small businesses, you’ll find ERGO NEXT.

We're growing fast and we're looking for a talented, passionate leader to head our Agency Channel business. This is a highly visible position that will report to our Chief Strategy Officer and work closely with colleagues at all levels. You will be responsible for driving growth in the US, with a special emphasis on expansion, market penetration, and innovation.   You will manage a strong team leading a tech forward approach and one of the fastest growing businesses in the industry. You will have a keen ability to identify talent, coach & develop a high performing team, while supporting or directly contributing to the sales success of the company.

Started in 2019, Next Insurance launched its Agency channel with the goal of helping agents thrive. The Agency channel has seen tremendous growth over the past 7 years, driven by strong demand for the tailored, technology-enabled product and phenomenal service that Next offers.   The Agency Channel team is responsible for managing and growing the channel’s contribution to the Next Insurance business. This work is critical to our company’s success – both in terms of continued growth and as a channel for learning and continuously improving our products and services. If you are a business leader with strengths in Sales/Distribution and data-driven problem solving, excel at building and leading teams of highly qualified, enthusiastic, ambitious professionals, and are obsessed with delighting customers, we'd love to talk with you.

Responsibilities:

• Take on full accountability for our Agency Channel business – growth and performance. This is a GM-type role with responsibility for channel strategy and full P&L ownership
• Manage and grow a high performing team of Territory Managers and Account Managers – and work closely with partner functions including Product, Insurance Product, Data, Marketing, Finance, and Operations
• Partner on product innovation to bring the Agent perspective
• Create, identify, and implement new and unique ways to partner with agents and prospects driving top line growth. You will set and achieve aggressive business growth targets through new business and current accounts. 
• Use data to drive experimentation in different ways to create growth by growing with existing agency partners and by growing the number of partners
• Lead the marketing team to define value propositions, campaign messages,and build an industry leading agent experience 
• Responsible for strategic planning and growth of the Agent channel & delivering operating results
• Use the voice of the agent and product performance data to identify improvement opportunities in areas including experience simplification, pricing, and underwriting – then execute on them

Qualifications:

• Broad insurance experience (more than 10 years) with excellent understanding of small commercial insurance products (General Liability, Property, Workers Compensation, EPLI, Umbrella and BOP), customers and channels. You bring Sales and Marketing Senior VP, Business Unit VP, or General Management/P&L Management experience (5 years) and Marketing knowledge (3-5 years).
• Strong relationships with national brokers and key agencies
• Strong leadership and managerial skills, with a proven track record in developing a high caliber sales and marketing team and executing on and motivating a team around growth.
• You are obsessed with customers, and listen, engage and act for their benefit.   
• You have proven experience in using data driven methods in decision making and strong analysis skills to make data-driven decisions.  
• A strong product understanding and ability to innovate and differentiate 
• Able to think big with curiosity to discover ways to enable business outcomes. Excited about innovation, disruption and usage of technology to transform both the agent and the customer experience in the insurance industry
• Hands on
• A keen ability to synthesize a complex story into core advantages and drive awareness in the market
• Highly organized, able to handle multiple projects at once, and make progress on all fronts. Excellent attention to detail and organizational skills, ability to multitask in a fast-paced environment with competing and shifting priorities 
• Team player with a high degree of reliability and integrity and strong interpersonal, writing and verbal communication skills.