Position Summary: The Vice President of Sales Operations is a senior leadership role accountable for building and scaling the sales team and performance engine that drives top-line growth across the firm and its direct-to-insured brands, as well as channel sales opportunities. This role designs and executes a phone-first, script-driven sales culture that emphasizes disciplined prospecting, rapid qualification, short-cycle consultative selling, and consistent close practices.
The VP partners closely with Marketing Automation Engineering, Digital Marketing, Product/Program Management, and underwriting/program leadership to align messaging, offers, and funnel mechanics. Key responsibilities include sales operating strategy, territory and quota architecture, pipeline health, forecasting and performance management, KPI dashboards, and the execution of QBRs and recurring sales performance reviews. The VP also co-owns event logistics with Marketing and supports strategic business development initiatives.
Supervisory Responsibilities:
- Leads and manages Producers, Brokers, BDRs, SDRs, and Sales Operations personnel.
- Oversee hiring, onboarding, coaching, and ongoing performance management.
- Ensures adherence to sales processes, operating cadence, activity expectations, and KPI accountability.
- Provides coaching to reinforce high-activity and high-quality phone-based selling.
Essential Tasks:
Leadership & Strategy
- Define the sales vision, targets, segmentation strategy, lead distribution, and performance incentives aligned to program objectives and carrier commitments.
- Collaborate with executive leadership on compensation structures balancing fixed performance bonuses and MBOs.
- Implement and enforce a disciplined operating cadence, pipeline reviews, forecasts, QBRs, and annual planning.
- Align cross-functional teams (Program Management, Underwriting, Service/Operations) for cohesive go-to-market execution.
Direct to Insured (DTI) Sales Execution
- Build and refine sales scripts, objection-handling frameworks, discovery processes, and closing techniques.
- Institutionalize phone-first prospecting through daily dial goals, voicemail/SMS frameworks, rapid lead response SLAs, and time-to-quote targets.
- Promote short-cycle consultative selling, including immediate qualification, defined quote paths, bundling/cross-sell prompts, and decisive next steps.
- Partner with Marketing to develop battlecards, one-pagers, and competitive reference materials.
Funnel Design & Conversion
- Co-own the full funnel with Marketing Automation Engineering (MAE) and Digital Marketing, including lead scoring, routing, UTMs, speed-to-lead, and conversion processes.
- Maintain CRM data integrity across Salesforce and Zoho.
- Conduct funnel diagnostics and execute split tests to optimize conversion.
- Publish weekly cohort and campaign performance reports and drive pipeline grooming.
Forecasting, Reporting & Reviews
- Own forecasting and quota management; communicate risk, upside, and capacity planning scenarios.
- Lead QBRs and recurring sales performance meetings.
- Standardize executive and carrier dashboards for written premium, retention, hit/bind ratios, cycle time, and productivity metrics.
Events, Outreach & Field Enablement
- Co-manage events with Marketing: show selection, budgets, pre-show outreach, on-site scripting and staffing, lead capture methods, and post-show follow-up SLAs.
- Provide teams with playbooks, talk tracks, checklists, and objection matrices tailored to each program and audience.
Compliance, Licensing & Quality
- Partner with Compliance/Operations to ensure adherence to licensing requirements, surplus lines rules, TCPA guidelines, SMS/email consent procedures, and documentation standards.
- Monitor sales quality, including disclosure accuracy, E&O safeguards, and clean handoffs.
Strategic Business Development Support
- Support Program Management with business cases, program launches, and carrier presentations, providing voice-of-customer insights and early pipeline validation.
- Participate in partner and prospect meetings; contribute to multi-year growth planning across carriers, channels, and affinity groups.
Operating Cadence & Rituals
- Daily: Structured call blocks, morning stand-ups, real-time call coaching, SLA and speed-to-lead monitoring, and rapid issue resolution.
- Weekly: Performance reviews, cohort and conversion analysis, and coordinated funnel/campaign tune-ups with Marketing Automation and Digital teams.
- Monthly: performance review, cohort analysis, campaign/funnel tune-ups with MAE/Digital.
- Quarterly: Internal and partner QBRs, territory and quota recalibration, enablement refresh cycles, and assessment of strategic initiatives.
- Annually: Comprehensive business planning, compensation and territory design, headcount/hiring roadmap development, and multi-program growth planning.
Core Competencies:
- Sales Leadership & Coaching: Build and scale high-performing, phone-centric sales teams with strong script discipline and consistent operating rhythms.
- Pipeline & Forecast Management: CRM oversight, forecasting accuracy, and leading structured review cadences (pipeline reviews, QBRs, and performance meetings).
Funnel Optimization & Conversion: Skilled in analyzing and improving full-funnel performance (lead MQL SQL Quote Bind
- Retention) via diagnostics, testing, and cross-functional collaboration.
- Broker & Channel Sales Management: Strengthen multi-channel partners, evaluating submission quality, improving hit/bind ratios, and strengthening multi-channel sales performance.
- Business Development: Drive revenue through program launches, partnerships, and early pipeline validation.
- Technology Enablement: Proficient in CRM, dialer/telephony, marketing automation, analytics, workflow optimization.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Align sales with Marketing, Program Management, Underwriting, Operations, and Service teams to drive cohesive go-to-market execution.
- Strategic Planning: Support forecasting, quota/territory design, capacity planning, and revenue strategy.
- KPI Management & Accountability: Create and manage dashboards, enforce activity/conversion KPIs, and drive team accountability.
Experience and Education:
- 10+ years in sales leadership (P&C insurance—programs/MGAs preferred), including direct-to-insured channels.
- Proven experience building phone-centric sales teams with strong script discipline and short-cycle consultative closes.
- Expertise with CRM, dialer/telephony, lead routing/scoring, and dashboard development.
- Strong hiring, coaching, and performance management skills.
- Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, or related field (or equivalent experience).
Licensing and Credentials:
- Property & Casualty insurance license strongly preferred or obtain within 3 months of hire.
- Relevant sales methodology certifications (Challenger, SPIN, Sandler) a plus.
Systems:
- CRM Platforms: Salesforce, Zoho – for contact management, pipeline tracking, and reporting.
- Sales Enablement & Automation Tools: Platforms for outreach automation, engagement tracking, and sales workflow optimization.
- AI Analytics: Tools for predictive lead scoring, opportunity insights, and sales forecasting.
- Agency Management Systems: Vertafore IMS or equivalent – for broker book management and policy servicing.
Physical Requirements:
- Ability to lift 25 pounds
- Repeated use of sight to read documents and computer screens
- Repeated use of hearing and speech to communicate on telephone and in person
- Repetitive hand movements, such as keyboarding, writing, 10-key
- Walking, bending, sitting, reaching and stretching in all directions
- Ability to travel as needed (~10-20%)
Notice to Recruiters and Staffing Agencies: To protect the interests of all parties, Higginbotham Insurance Agency, Inc., and our partners, will not accept unsolicited potential placements from any source other than directly from the candidate or a vendor partner under MSA with Higginbotham. Please do not contact our team members or send unsolicited potential placements.
Equal Opportunity Employer
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