Sales Development Manager, Specialty Products

Helping make health care for Californians easy, accessible and reasonably priced is a great calling. Knowing that your company has channeled over $100 million back into California communities and will continue to do so is flat out uplifting. Join the hardest working, not-for-profit health plan in California and be part of the solution.

The Sales Development Manager will develop and implement strategies to retain and grow individual/family and small group membership of specialty products (dental, vision, life) to new and existing medical customers and new and existing non-medical customers. This position may be located in Blue Shield’s San Francisco, El Dorado Hills, Woodland Hills, El Segundo, or Costa Mesa office.
 

Responsibilities:

Operating Income-
Support the Specialty Benefits Sales Director by taking responsibility for achieving new sales and retention goals, in support of meeting operating income targets.
 

New Sales and Retention-
Develop and implement sales strategies, business plans, and distribution development plans to meet/exceed annual product membership targets including new sales, retention and in-group growth. Distribution Establish and maintain relationships with new and existing individual/family and small group distribution partners including: Blue Shield Medical sales representatives, producers, consultants, general agents and new and prospective clients. Internal management Coordinate proposal responses among BSC internal partners from product, marketing and underwriting to respond to requests for new and renewal
business.

Participate in implementation of larger groups in concert with operations teams.

Service Train service teams on best practices to address administration issues.

Facilitate and respond to escalated service issues.

Stay informed of service issues and resolution progress for key accounts and the distribution channels that serve these accounts.
 

Competitive Intelligence-
Develop and maintain competitive intelligence on all product lines within the individual/family and small group market segment.
Actively solicit information on competitive product design, pricing and programs of target competitors.

Develop tools to communicate competitive positioning to distribution.

Training Lead projects that develop the skills and motivation of Blue Shield medical sales representatives, producers, consultants and general agents to increase sales of dental, vision, and life products.

Track performance of individual sales representatives and develop interventions when necessary. Represent the individual/family and small group line of business on various sales initiatives and at medical sales team meetings.
 

Marketing
Collaborate on the development and analysis of sales contests and marketing programs for sales representatives and brokers. Participate on teams to develop new programs, products, collateral and services.

Travel within California (approximately 25%)
 

Required Experience:
Bachelor’s degree and five years’ related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience. Comprehensive knowledge of the health care industry and related benefit products and services. Must have excellent communication and problem solving skills.

Knowledge encompasses entire scope of concepts, practices and procedures in account management.

Provides immediate supervision to a unit or group of employees assigning tasks and checking work at frequent intervals.

Has full management responsibility for staff (i.e. salary actions, promotions, performance reviews, and disciplinary matters) in accordance with the organization’s policies and applicable laws. This includes selection and performance management. In some cases, may manage a function without direct subordinates.

Monitors on-going performance and communicates expectations and results.

Provides developmental and training opportunities for team members.

Identifies staffing needs and objectives.

Excellent presentation skills. Demonstrated ability to direct staff and to interact with all departments within the organization.
 

Desired Experience:
Demonstrated experience making presentations to health plan distribution channels and/or customer teams in individual/family and small groups.

Excellent skills building customer relationships and influencing others, including team members functioning in a matrix organization.

Passionate about managing customer relationships including individual/family and small groups and the producers, consultants and general agents who sell to them.

Excellent follow-up, planning, and organization skills with a penchant for meeting deadlines. Good computer and related software skills (including all components of Microsoft Office) Team player with a cooperative attitude toward doing what’s best for the customer.

Comfortable playing a supportive, but critical, role on large teams. Good analytical and problem solving skills

Experience managing individual/family accounts and small groups in the healthcare industry a plus. Individual and small group underwriting experience a plus.

Blue Shield of California is an Equal Opportunity Employer.