Director, Sales Excellence - Commercial Lines

Encova Insurance•Columbus, OH

2d•$108,812 - $174,099•Hybrid

About The Position

The Director, Sales Excellence - Commercial Lines is responsible for building and leading Encova’s inside sales team and driving profitable growth across small, middle-market, and large commercial agents without an assigned agency manager. This role owns the outbound, virtual sales strategy, execution, and performance for the inside sales team while also serving as the enterprise leader for sales training for Encova’s agency managers. The ideal candidate combines deep sales expertise and the ability to elevate sales effectiveness across the organization.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience preferred
4+ years of sales leadership or sales enablement experience required
Background in sales enablement, training, or learning & development required
Experience in developing and delivering sales training required
Experience leading national or multi-regional sales teams strongly preferred
Strong CRM and sales analytics experience desired
CPCU, CIC, ARM, or similar professional designation preferred
Experience supporting independent agency and broker distribution models preferred
Cross-functional influence (sales, underwriting, distribution)
Data-driven decision making
Change leadership and scalability mindset
Strong presentation and facilitation skills

Responsibilities

Lead, develop, and scale the Commercial Lines Inside Sales team supporting agents without an assigned agency manager.
Define and execute inside sales strategies aligned with company’s growth, appetite, and profitability goals.
Establish sales targets, KPIs, and production benchmarks for the inside sales team across account sizes and product lines.
Drive consistent sales execution, accountability, and pipeline discipline.
Partner with agency managers (production underwriters and territory managers) and leaders to support agent growth, engagement, and penetration.
Collaborate with agency operations and marketing on new agency onboarding, growth planning, and territory strategies using inside sales resources.
Own the design and delivery of sales training programs for all commercial lines underwriters and territory managers.
Train teams on consultative selling, coverage positioning, value-based conversations, and objection handling.
Develop sales playbooks, talking points, and tools aligned with commercial lines underwriting appetite and growth strategy.
Ensure business teams are equipped to effectively influence and support agent sales outcomes.
Work closely with underwriting leadership to align sales execution with risk selection and pricing strategy.
Partner with product, operations, and marketing teams to support launches, campaigns, and market initiatives.
Serve as a key liaison between sales, underwriting, and distribution leadership.
Analyze sales performance, submission-to-bind ratios, and pipeline trends for assigned agencies.
Leverage CRM and sales analytics to improve forecasting, activity management, and productivity.
Identify opportunities to improve speed to quote, close ratios, and agent experience for assigned agencies.
Champion sales process improvements, automation, and enablement tools.
Non-essential functions as assigned.
Travel to visit agencies, conduct ride-alongs with agency managers, and train remote associates as needed.