Career Path Chart

Your entry point into business development may stem from your insurance industry experience as a broker, underwriter, or claims professional. You might have also come from a background in customer service, account management, or sales in another industry.

In either case, you are transitioning into a new role where it likely that you will want to assume a role of ‘sponge’ to absorb as much as you can about the craft of business development and/or hone your insurance expertise.

Depending on the size, structure, and scope of your organization, you may be responsible for aspects of both Business Development and service in your area of insurance expertise – consider if that sounds like your experience and role. If so, you may also wish to review the Career & Education map for your organization’s expertise (ie. Loss Adjuster, Claims Investigator, or Underwriter) to help benchmark where you are now and where you might like to go over the course of your insurance career.

Relationship Builder

Curious

Results Driven

 Focus on the Customer

Negotiator

Both Formal and Informal mentorship can prove valuable – visit the Mentoring Advantage website for tools and tips on maximizing the mentoring relationship. Your company may also have resources and opportunities available.

These relationships may be most beneficial in the areas of solidifying foundational insurance knowledge, learning about the art of business development in the insurance context, and drawing on the mentor’s insurance experience/subject matter expertise.

Should your entry point stem from experience in the insurance sector, you may have completed or are in the final stages of completing the Chartered Insurance Professional (CIP) designation offered through the Insurance Institute of Canada.

If you are coming from another industry, you will want to complete C11 – Principles and Practices of insurance or the General Insurance Essentials (GIE) through the Insurance Institute of Canada. Additional courses towards your CIP or intensive seminars early in your tenure are also encouraged to equip you with the technical knowledge to excel in your career.

Depending on your area of expertise, you may also want to consider taking courses towards the Risk Management Certificate/CRM designation.

Leverage your learning from your studies, internal training programs/seminars offered through your company, or other work experiences to help you get started in your business development role.

At this stage, you are focused on learning the fundamentals of business development, account management, and drivers of business success within your organization.

Your initial work may be done in tandem with another business development representative or more seasoned professional.

• Your focus will be on developing skills in the following areas:

• Sound working knowledge of the products and lines of business available to your accounts/prospects

• Fostering understanding of clients needs and making connections between what you have available to help meet those needs more effectively; building effective business-to-business relationships

• Facilitating the process of securing business; upselling/enhancing packages where possible

• Ensuring completion of required forms and documentation in accordance with regulatory, and company standards

• Building strong and effective relationships with key accounts/prospects and service professionals (underwriters, brokers, claims, etc.)

• Managing multiple account needs and priorities simultaneously

• Develop strategies and monitoring mechanisms to ensure you are meeting targets and objectives

• Demonstrating capacity in managing multiple client needs and priorities, working to tight timelines, and being proactive in responding to emerging issues

• Building on solid business communication (written, verbal and presentation) and interpersonal skills

Subscribe to on-line newsletters and industry publications tailored to your organizations specialization (ie. Thompsons, CI Top Broker, Canadian Underwriter, Claims Canada, etc.), visit industry websites, and monitor social media channels (ie. Insurance Institute’s LinkedIN Group, Twitter) to broaden your global industry awareness

Consider joining professional associations (Broker Association, Young Brokers Council, Provincial Adjusters Association, etc.) or becoming involved at your local Institute/Chapter

Demonstrating leadership as you begin your career in Business Development can come in many forms. Likely though, it begins with listening and curiosity. Some of the industry’s most respected leaders are known for hearing what others are saying, synthesizing information, asking the right questions, and recommending a course of action based on what they have heard.

At this stage, you will be in a prime position to ask questions, make connections, and establish your capacity to actively listen to colleagues, managers, other insurance subject matter experts and the industry’s emerging trends and issues. In this process, you will be establishing other solid foundations for leadership competencies including respect, reliability, and engagement in the business.

Continue to focus on growing your knowledge in order to increase your capacity to manage accounts/prospect needs with more independence.

You are becoming increasingly proficient in understanding and responding to your accounts needs, results frameworks within your organization and managing relationships with industry professionals to help you achieve success in your role.

In particular, you may find it beneficial to build your understanding of the nuance of and focus on maintaining the balance between relationship management and the business drivers of your insurance organization.

You may also be focused on continuing to hone your sales, presentation/pitch, and business marketing skills.

Sales Driven, Team Player, Influencer without Authority, Ethical Decision Making, Relationship Builder, Conflict Manager

Formal and informal mentorship can prove valuable – visit the Mentoring Advantage website for tools and tips on maximizing the mentoring relationship. Your company may also have resources and opportunities available.

These relationships may be most beneficial in the areas of understanding how to adapt general knowledge to fit the needs of more complex or specialized needs of your accounts, sales tools and tactics, ethical decision making, and leveraging the mentor’s insurance experience and subject matter expertise for a particular problem or need on the job.

At this stage in your career, you are beginning to require more specialized knowledge of insurance products and lines of business to promote to your accounts/prospects.

If you came to insurance from another sector, you will want to focus your knowledge building on completing the Chartered Insurance Professional (CIP) designation.

Depending on your accounts’ need and solutions being proposed by you to meet them, you may also find it helpful to pursue the Advanced Chartered Insurance Professional (CIP Adv) Certificate or Risk Management Certificate offered through the Insurance Institute

The order in which you take these courses may be influenced by the products/services you are working with.

You may also continue to build your knowledge through specialized seminars, e-learning/webinars, or taking the Think on Your Feet or other Management Development Series courses

Learning more about the process of cultivating sales and prospecting in the insurance sector may also be beneficial.

At this time in your career the focus is often on building on the fundamentals you have learned to date.

You are leveraging your insurance or subject matter expertise to provide sound solutions for your accounts/prospects with increased independence.

• Typically your focus will be on honing your skills in the following areas:

•  Cultivating strong b2b relationships with accounts and prospects to secure additional business or make enhancements to existing client accounts

•  Growing your comfort in providing proposals, leading presentations, making recommendations about products/packages that will meet needs for your accounts

•  Maintaining and strengthening client, service, underwriting, and claims relationships

• Managing increasingly larger or more complex insurance products; involves applying and adapting general insurance principles to specialized needs or situations

•  Developing a sound understanding of the regulatory and legal framework underpinning the insurance sector

•  Continuing to build solid business communication (written, verbal, and presentation) and interpersonal skills

•  Honing capacity to negotiate with and influence decisions of insurance carriers/colleagues to achieve the best solutions for your clients’ needs

• Building a strong personal and organizational brand with your clients

Attend broker conventions, underwriter events, and special events

Connect and network with key contacts at industry functions (eg. tradeshows, Curling Bonspeils, Golf Tournaments)

Volunteer at an organization that resonates with you or at an industry function (ie Institute Convocation, Broker Luncheon)

At this point in your career, you are starting to better understand the nature of business development. Your knowledge, operational capacity, and experience are all in growth mode. From a leadership perspective, this is an opportunity to continue to hone your business acumen and focus on your skills in sales, building strong working relationships both within your organization and externally (ie other Brokers, Underwriters regulators, claims professionals, etc.). These skills combined with a strong sense of ethics and teamwork will go a long way in demonstrating your capacity for leadership.

You are likely managing the needs of your accounts with little supervision and may even be managing key accounts on your own.

Your capacity for securing new business, enhancing/upselling where possible and developing relationships with potential accounts is ever increasing.

This time in your career may involve a period or periods of questioning what is next – continuing to specialize in Business Development looking at diversifying your product experience, considering whether to look at becoming engaged with lending technical expertise or even considering people leadership as a team lead or frontline manager.

Sometimes, the focus in your career will evolve to enhancing your knowledge and expertise as it pertains to a particular line of business or product within the industry – eg. commercial, personal, liability, property, aviation, marine, error & omissions, specialty line etc.

These decisions are tied to and obviously heavily influenced by the size and scope of the organization you work for.

It is important to consider this and how your skills, values, education, and experiences can best be best utilized within the context of your organization. From here you can take stock about what you are proficient in, what you would like to learn/grow your capacity in, and make decisions about what your next steps might look like.

You may find it helpful to talk to your manager or HR department about these options in more detail and the tools that are available to support your continued development.

Sales Specialist, Critical Thinker, Problem Solver, Negotiator, Trends Seeker, Relationship Manager, Product Expert

Formal and informal mentorship can prove valuable – visit the Mentoring Advantage website for tools and tips on maximizing the mentoring relationship. Your company may also have resources and opportunities available.

These relationships may prove to be most valuable in the areas of seeking advice around a tough business question or decision, next steps in your career path, honing your business development expertise, and to validate a course of action in managing a particular account relationship or product need.

The solutions being offered to your accounts are likely more robust and being managed with increased authority. Your accounts may also represent a more significant component of your organizations business prospects – thus, it is critical to keep abreast of industry trends, issues, competitive market, etc. and leverage your expertise to your strategic advantage.

Advanced Certificates, specialized seminars, Management Development Series courses, offerings of the CIP Society, and e-learning may provide the platform for you to achieve success in this regard.

The accounts you are managing/working with may be starting to focus in on a particular area of business development expertise. They likely are also increasing in size and scope.

More often than not, at this point in your career you may be enhancing your skills like:

• Management and oversight of key accounts; perhaps within a particular business line or product steam; emerging as a trusted advisor to your clients and organizational colleagues

• Developing prospects, managing key relationships, and providing proposals with increased independence and authority

• Providing direction and support to service professionals in your organization to meet the needs of your accounts

• Applying specialized insurance knowledge and expertise to an array of insurance needs within a particular niche or product area

• Enhancing knowledge of the regulatory and legal framework underpinning the insurance sector

• Facilitating in-house information and knowledge transfer presentations for accounts/prospects Enhancing knowledge of the competitive market place and regulatory/legal framework underpinning the insurance sector

Increase your engagement with your local Institute/Chapter. You may be interested in joining a committee or working group

Continue to think about expanding your insurance network – eg. connecting with other professionals working in your area of specialty – and attending events focused on your emerging areas of interest.

Consider becoming an Instructor for the CIP program or an industry Ambassador through the Insurance Institute’s Career Connections Program

At this stage, you are likely to be comfortable in your role and demonstrate a high degree of business acumen as your scope of authority continues to increase.

In looking at leadership, you may be thinking about your future roles and whether you would like to be a technical consultant or manager of people. Either require the capacity to work more autonomously, sound problem solving and decision making skills, and an ability to think critically about a situation and its potential impact on your area/organization.

This stage in your career may also provide opportunities for ‘stretch’ assignments, serving as part of project teams/internal committees, or engaging in process improvements within your functional area.

At this stage in your career it is often fair to state that you have deep knowledge and expertise of business development and the product areas you have worked in.

There may be mechanisms for you to share your expertise with those with less industry knowledge and experience within your organization either as a technical specialist or operational leader.

You will want to evaluate which ‘track’ feels more in keeping with who you are, what you want to do, and what you can offer your organization.

There might also be opportunity for you to move into practice leadership roles in other functions within your organization – ie. Underwriting, Claims, etc.

Sales Expert, Consultant, Technical Specialist, Operational Leader, Relationship Expert

Given the level of knowledge and experience you likely have amassed at this point in your career, you may be thinking about becoming a mentor yourself. There are lots of great tools on the Mentoring Advantage website that can assist you in your transition from mentee to mentor.

Keep in mind, even senior leaders talk about the importance and value they place on being mentored throughout their career.
Your time with a mentor may be most beneficial if the discussion has a focus on best practices in decision making, advanced prospecting techniques, business planning, and/or growing your capacity as a leader.

Continue to hone your operational and insurance knowledge as the solutions you are offering to your accounts are continuing to grow in scope and your work often has reach which impacts the organization as a whole.

The knowledge needed at this stage in your career can often be developed an attained through pursuing the Fellow Chartered Insurance Professional (FCIP) designation, advanced level seminars, CIP Society offerings, Management Development Series, and/or workshops/special events targeted to your area of focus within the industry.

As you continue to hone your subject matter expertise and grow your experience, it is not uncommon to experience continued increase in autonomy and decision making power.

The decisions you are making at this stage in your career can often impact the overall health of the organizations you represent and their approach to business development.

Often, at this stage in your career your skills and experiences will be focused on:

•  Effective leadership and relationship management on key accounts

•  Leading the prospecting, sales and ‘production’ within particular specialty or product areas

•  Transitioning to and serving as a technical consultant to a team

•  Providing expert advice to other account managers, underwriters, risk managers, brokers, and claims professionals on products and services

•  Developing capacity to transfer knowledge, provide counsel, and/or lead teams effectively

•  Honing expertise in shaping organizational policy and procedure

•  Ensuring internal and external risks are mitigated or controlled appropriately Influencing decisions/decision makers around the regulatory and legal framework underpinning the insurance sector

•  Influencing decisions/decision makers around the competitive marketplace, and regulatory/ legal framework underpinning the insurance sector to your organization’s strategic advantage

You may be interested in volunteering as a member of a local council or working on a national task force

There may also be opportunities to participate in research being conducted within the industry, roundtable/panel discussions, or to present on a topic at an industry conference or event.

Continue to engage your insurance network through participation in industry events, conferences, and functions

This stage of your career allows for you to offer your deep knowledge of the Broker/service function to the benefit of others. This can come in the form of being a technical expert of moving into a capacity where you are managing people.

Both facets will require you to ensure you have capacity or experience in building cross functional relationships, managing conflict effectively, and have a high degree of comfort in taking complex principles and communicating them in an accessible way (both verbally and written) to colleagues, clients, senior management, and external stakeholders.

If you are on a people management track, you may be looking to expand your experience in building effective teams, fostering a climate of engagement, and building your management skills.

This stage may also provide an opportunity for ‘stretch’ assignments with a leadership focus, leading project teams/internal committees, or managing day-to-day functions within your department.