Careers at KERN Agency

Pie's mission is to empower small businesses to thrive by making commercial insurance affordable and as easy as pie. We leverage technology to transform how small businesses buy and experience commercial insurance.   Like our small business customers, we are a diverse team of builders, dreamers, and entrepreneurs who are driven by core values and operating principles that guide every decision we make.

As a Strategic Account Manager, you will be responsible for innovating and managing acquisition and the overall partner experience to ensure substantial and profitable growth with strategic partnerships. These partnerships include high volume partnerships including but not limited to Wholesale, or other complex partnership structures. The role is accountable for the identification and development of new partnerships while managing and strengthening existing relationships. Managing these partners mandates a strength in strategic planning to maximize the growth and relationship between the partner and Pie.  As an extension of Pie, these distribution partners must operate with a customer first mentality and share Pie’s goal for disciplined profitable underwriting. 

How You’ll Do It

Build and engage with outside agency partnerships:

• Gain a thorough understanding of locations, organizational hierarchy, competitive markets, agency premiums and policies, agency focus, needs, and pain points, commission agreements, strategic initiatives, and key stakeholders  by developing a Multi-Tier relationship plan.
• Identify profile gaps and complete our understanding of that agency, their workflows, how they operate, and individuals who will influence positive outcomes.
• Represent Pie in meetings with partners, seminars, trade shows and networking events including managing interdepartmental involvement to maximize the opportunities further.

Build, develop and manage relationships with strategic partners to drive profitable premium:

• Develop and maintain a complete understanding of the agency organizational hierarchy.
• Facilitate consistent and regular meetings with various levels of the agency - Executive Team,  Leadership, Producers, and CSRs.
• Attend key agency meetings and producer conferences.
• Conduct field and virtual agency meetings.
• Manage portfolio tracking, reporting, and executing to performance metrics and industry trends.
• Collaborate cross functionally to develop and execute best practices, process improvements, and strategic initiatives designed to benefit both partners and Pie-Oneers.

Develop strategic programs:

• Seek and identify unique opportunities to drive increased agency production.
• Collaborate and analyze strategic initiatives internally to validate profitability.
• Establish process and workflow modifications required to drive strategic initiative.
• Implement and monitor results of defined strategic initiatives.

Tracking, reporting, and executing to performance metrics and industry trends:

• Maintain and monitor industry insights, trends, or customer preferences to determine focus of sales efforts and business decisions, transition to actionable items to benefit both the partner and profitability for Pie.
• Monitor and report progress on initiatives in support of the department's and company OKRs.
• Develop and implement strategic plans to drive profitable premium growth and retention for new and current partnerships.   Leverage data and feedback to improve the execution of the strategic initiative in both external (partner) and internal (Pie-Oneers) teams.
• Assist in forecasting distribution channel premium on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis.

The Right Stuff

• High school diploma or GED Required.
• Bachelor's Degree or equivalent experience with some college coursework is preferred.
• Minimum of  5 years of experience in Sales or Account Management.
• Minimum of 3-years of insurance experience preferred, 2 years in commercial insurance preferred.
• Experience managing working within payroll distribution is strongly preferred.
• Adaptable to changes in goals, priorities, workflow, and role responsibilities. Desire a fast paced results drive environment at a growing company
• Advanced problem-solving skills, to be able to manage complex situations with multiple layers, and resolve to solution anticipating needs now and into the future.
• Intermediate awareness of your own tasks, and how it impacts the team and deliverables.
• The ability to clearly define desired outcomes supported by impact analysis when necessary
• Advanced communication (written, verbal and presentation) skills, to deliver complex information effectively with a thoughtful and collaborative approach. Strong self-awareness and ability to manage own emotions and behavior.  Strong confidence, self- awareness and ability to manage emotions and behavior - Executive Presence
• Basic leadership skills and some general experience leading work groups or task forces in specific projects.
• G-Suite Tools, Collaboration tools (slack is preferred), Salesforce, Looker, Zoom preferred.
• Advanced sales skills with a previous consistent track record in achieving/exceeding targets in a closing role; relevant experience in developing new business relationships, overcoming objectives, and presenting sales solutions/products to new clients.
• Developed ability to plan and execute strategically.

Travel up to 50% is required.

Base Compensation Range

 $119,000

This is an incentive pay based position and as such, there is no guaranteed commission amount. The on-target earnings (OTE) for this role are approximately $190,000/year and are based on successfully meeting performance expectations.

Compensation & Benefits 

• Competitive cash compensation
• A piece of the pie (in the form of equity)
• Comprehensive health plans
• Generous PTO
• Future focused 401k match
• Generous parental and caregiver leave
• Our core values are more than just a poster on the wall; they’re tangibly reflected in our work 

Our goal is to make all aspects of working with us as easy as pie. That includes our offer process. When we’ve identified a talented individual who we’d like to be a Pie-oneer , we work hard to present an equitable and fair offer. We look at the candidate’s knowledge, skills, and experience, along with their compensation expectations and align that with our company equity processes to determine our offer ranges. 

Each year Pie reviews company performance and may grant discretionary bonuses to eligible team members.

Location Information 

Unless otherwise specified, this role has the option to be hybrid or remote. Hybrid work locations provide team members with the flexibility of working partially from our Denver office and from home. Remote team members must live and work in the United States* (*territories excluded), and have access to reliable, high-speed internet.

Additional Information

Pie Insurance is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, age, disability, national or ethnic origin, military service status, citizenship, or other protected characteristic.

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Safety First: Pie Insurance is committed to your security during the recruitment process. We will never ask you for credit card information or ask you to purchase any equipment during our interview or onboarding process.

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