EA Development Specialist

Auto Club Group•Milwaukee, WI

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Auto Club Group is seeking a prospective Entrepreneurial Agent (EA) Development Specialist to serve as a business consultant and partner, providing tactical and strategic support to Entrepreneurial Agents (EA) within an assigned geography. This role requires the individual to be a subject matter expert on all components of the Connected Member Vision and possess extensive product/sales knowledge. Key responsibilities include assisting EAs in developing and implementing agency business goals, and taking accountability for agency success, retention, agent productivity, and growth. The specialist will support the acquisition of profitable new business, influence and motivate agents, drive growth, provide business insights and recommendations, and ensure agent and business retention, compliance, and reporting. Building trust and maintaining strong relationships with assigned EAs and internal/external business partners is crucial. The role also involves sourcing and interviewing local EA candidates, liaising with centralized training and field EA support teams for administrative and training tasks, and supporting the installation and on-boarding processes for new agencies. Post-launch, the specialist will assist new agencies with critical business development activities, coordinate initial training, and ensure agents have an in-depth understanding of all sales systems, product offerings, marketing procedures, and back-office processes. They will evaluate training effectiveness, provide additional training/coaching when necessary, and collaborate with training and support teams to ensure agents are aware of all operations, systems, and marketing requirements. The specialist will communicate sales incentive programs, compensation outcomes, and contractual bonus opportunities. Monitoring agency business activities, preparing reports, conducting site visits, cash flow analysis, and needs assessments are essential for tracking progress, identifying issues, and making strategic/tactical recommendations. Furthermore, the role involves ensuring adherence to corporate policies and state regulations by auditing agent activity, advising leadership on agent progress, reporting non-compliant activity, and potentially recommending probationary processes or termination. Accurate written call notes, support for product and membership promotional campaigns, project initiation and management, and collaboration with peers to ensure uniform processes are also part of the responsibilities.

Requirements

Possession of a valid State Driver’s license
Currently hold or able to attain and maintain appropriate State Property & Casualty licenses within timeframe designated by ACG leadership
May be required to attain appropriate State Life Sales licenses within timeframe designated by ACG leadership
High School diploma or equivalent
Two years of experience in insurance sales leadership and/or agent development to include coaching, mentoring, challenging and enabling others to successfully meet goals
Experience motivating growth or rehabilitation of existing agency
Experience developing plans to increase growth
Experience building business relationships within a sales environment
Experience demonstrating strong organizational, planning, time management and administrative skills
Experience gathering, researching and analyzing data and making recommendations
Experience conducting needs assessments and process improvement reviews
Experience writing business plans/proposals
Experience preparing reports and presentations and recommendations to all levels of management
In-depth Knowledge of best-in-class techniques used to influence and persuade others
In-depth Knowledge of best-in-class techniques used to develop and coach others
In-depth Knowledge of best-in-class techniques used to motivate and reward a successful sales team
In-depth Knowledge of insurance and financial products, services and regulations
In-depth Knowledge of sales techniques and delivery systems
In-depth Knowledge of independent contractor distribution channels
In-depth Knowledge of techniques used to coordinate and control major projects using Business drivers, marketing concepts, managing P&L, operational processes (i.e., in-bound/out-bound call strategy) and compensation plan design
Ability to influence, persuade and motivate non-employee agents
Ability to identify agent strengths, weaknesses, and model skills needed to facilitate agency rehabilitation in various areas including product knowledge, prospecting, professionalism, closing techniques, etc.
Ability to create and interpret sales models, results and return on investment reporting
Ability to demonstrate creativity and innovation in developing business, marketing and sales plans to meet the unique needs of assigned locations
Ability to demonstrate effective leadership/consulting skills to include motivating and influencing captive and/or non-captive agents and staff
Possess written communication skills including the preparation of proposals, reports and technical writing
Willingness and ability to extensively travel
Willingness to relocate

Responsibilities

Serve as a business consultant and partner by providing tactical and strategic support to Entrepreneurial Agents (EA) in the assigned geography.
Operate as a subject matter expert by becoming well versed on all components of the Connected Member Vision and product/sales knowledge.
Assist assigned EAs in the development and implementation of agency business goals.
Own and be accountable for agency success/retention and agent productivity and growth goals.
Support the acquisition of profitable new business, influencing and motivating agents, driving growth, providing business insight and recommendations, ensuring agent and business retention, compliance, and reporting.
Build trust and maintain strong relationships with assigned EAs and internal and external business partners.
Source and refer local EA candidates to centralized recruiting.
Interview candidates sourced from centralized recruiting.
Liaise with centralized training and field EA support team on administrative and training tasks/activities.
Support the installation and on-boarding processes when opening and establishing new agencies.
Assist new agencies with critical business development activities post launch.
Coordinate initial training for new agencies.
Ensure agents have obtained appropriate training with in-depth understanding of all sales systems, product offerings, marketing procedures, back-office processes, etc.
Evaluate effectiveness of training program.
Provide training when necessary.
Collaborate with centralized training and EA support teams to ensure that agents are trained and aware of all operations, systems and marketing processes and requirements.
Participate in training assessment and the development and disbursement of product/marketing/service information.
Validate awareness and deep understanding of the full array of ACG product offerings.
Provide additional training/coaching when necessary.
Communicate potential sales incentive programs, compensation outcomes, as well as contractual bonus opportunities.
Monitor agency business activities and prepare reports to summarize data.
Conduct site visits, cash flow analysis and needs assessments/diagnostics to track progress, recognize best-in-class point-of-sale behavior, understand current EA segment and identify issues and opportunities for improvements.
Research and analyze sales markets.
Work with EA to create cultivation plans and means to address issues.
Consult with EA making strategic/tactical recommendations as appropriate.
Ensure adherence to corporate policies, practice and state regulations by auditing agent activity.
Advise leadership on agent progress and report on non-compliant activity.
When necessary, recommend and activate probationary processes or recommendations for termination.
Complete accurate written call notes for all calls completed.
Support various product and membership promotional campaigns to ensure meeting sales goals.
Initiate, develop, execute and monitor projects.
Provide updates to management.
Collaborate with peers to guarantee the utilization of uniform, highly efficient processes across the corporate footprint.