Head - Assupol Retail Distribution

Sanlam; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 1 200 000 - 1 600 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading financial services provider in South Africa seeks a strategic leader for the Assupol Retail Distribution channel. The role involves guiding sales performance, fostering leadership capabilities, and ensuring operational excellence while aligning with a unified distribution strategy. Candidates should have extensive experience in sales leadership and a strong understanding of distribution economics. This is a key position aimed at driving commercial performance and sustainability.

Benefits

Opportunities for personal development

Commitment to diversity and inclusion

Qualifications

• At least 15 years’ leadership experience in tied distribution or large-scale sales leadership roles.
• Proven success leading large teams and driving sustainable commercial outcomes.
• Experience in leading large-scale transformation or change programmes.

Responsibilities

• Lead strategic direction for the Assupol Retail Distribution channel.
• Drive distribution performance with a focus on growth and operational discipline.
• Build a strong leadership pipeline and enhance strategic thinking.

Skills

Sales & Commercial Leadership

Strategic Agility

People Leadership

Operational Mastery

Influence & Collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree in business or related field

Honours/MBA advantageous

Job description

Who are we?

Sanlam Developing Markets [SDM] (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sanlam Life Limited) is one of the top financial services providers in the South African entry-level and emerging middle market. It aims to understand the unique requirements of clients and offers a wide range of simple and affordable financial solutions that cover needs such as funeral insurance, savings for education, life cover and personal accident plans. In terms of the Sanlam Group Governance Policy, SDM is managed by the SA Retail Mass cluster, which is part of the Sanlam Life and Savings cluster within the Sanlam Group. The cluster focusses on retail products, as well as group schemes.

What will you do?

The SRM Head – Assupol Retail Distribution is accountable for the strategic leadership, commercial performance, operational execution, and long-term sustainability of the Assupol Retail tied distribution channel.

This role leads the national tied channel through:

• Building a high-performance sales culture
• Strengthening leadership capability across regions
• Driving customer-focused, multi-need distribution
• Embedding operational excellence
• Driving commercial discipline and cost effectiveness
• Ensuring full alignment with SRM’s unified distribution strategy

This role is instrumental in positioning SRM’s tied distribution as a future-fit, multi-product, digitally enabled, commercially efficient engine that delivers growth with quality.

What will make you successful in this role?

1. Strategic Leadership & Channel Direction

• Lead the strategic direction for the Assupol Retail Distribution channel as part of SRM’s unified distribution model.
• Translate enterprise strategy into clear national, regional operating plans.
• Drive market penetration strategies, especially in high-growth and underdeveloped regions.
• Lead channel evolution to support multi-need customer engagement and diversified product penetration.
• Shape the medium- and long-term roadmap for a sustainable, growth-driven tied channel.

2. Commercial & Financial Sustainability

• Drive distribution performance with a balanced focus on growth, productivity, quality, and operational discipline.
• Strengthen distribution economics by embedding cost-effective sales practices and optimising commission release structures.
• Lead cost-to-income and commercial sustainability initiatives across regions to ensure long term viability and performance stability.

3. Sales Performance, Productivity & Quality Management

• Accountable for national sales performance across new business, productivity, quality, and customer measures.
• Set and cascade clear sales targets and operating rhythms across provinces.
• Drive productivity uplift through consistent pipeline management, field coaching, daily/weekly visibility, and sales discipline.
• Champion multi-product selling across advisers and managers, ensuring alignment to customer needs and SRM’s advisory philosophy.
• Strengthening sales quality, ensuring best-in-class standards in onboarding, data hygiene, compliance, and customer outcomes.

4. Leadership Development & People Capability

• Build a strong, scalable, and capable leadership pipeline.
• Drive leadership development programmes that enhance strategic thinking, operational acumen, and people leadership capability.
• Champion a culture of accountability, performance ownership, and delivery discipline.
• Ensure adviser capability is continuously uplifted through structured learning, onboarding, coaching, and productivity accelerators.
• Support organisational transformation goals, talent mobility, and inclusive leadership practices.

5. Integration, Transformation & Organisational Alignment

• Lead the integration of Assupol Retail Distribution into SRM’s unified distribution model, ensuring alignment of:
  • Processes
  • Systems
  • Governance
  • Incentive models
  • Operating structures
• Drive cultural integration, building a cohesive, high-performance, “One Distribution” identity.
• Ensure seamless collaboration across SRM clusters including Operations, Enablement, Finance, Human Capital, and Data.
• Support modernisation and digital adoption across the tied channel to increase efficiency and customer experience quality.

6. Governance, Compliance & Risk Management

• Uphold full compliance with regulatory and governance requirements, including FAIS, TCF, and conduct standards.
• Strengthen governance practices across ensuring ethical sales behaviours and consistent customer outcomes.
• Implement strong quality assurance practices, early-warning mechanisms, and operational that protect business integrity.
• Ensure readiness for internal and external audit and strengthen risk management practices across the channel.

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in business, Commerce, Finance, or related field (Honours/MBA advantageous).
• At least 15 years’ leadership experience in tied distribution or large-scale sales leadership roles.
• Proven success leading large, dispersed teams and driving sustainable commercial outcomes.
• Deep understanding of distribution economics, sales cycles, regulatory frameworks, and mass-market customer behaviour.
• Experience leading large-scale transformation, integration, or change programmes.
• Strong operational acumen with the ability to balance strategy and execution.

Core Competencies

• Sales & Commercial Leadership: Drives performance outcomes, commercial discipline, and sustainable growth. Expert in multi-need distribution, productivity, and high-performance sales systems.
• Strategic Agility & Execution Excellence: Thinks and plans long-term but executes with short-term precision. Converts strategy into measurable operational outcomes.
• People Leadership & Capability Development: Builds strong leaders, fosters accountability, and drives culture. Skilled in talent development, coaching, and leading behavioral change.
• Operational Mastery & Governance: Ensures strong branch discipline, operational effectiveness, and governance compliance.
• Influence, Collaboration & Stakeholder Alignment: Aligns diverse stakeholders and drives execution across matrix structures. Builds trust and influence across clusters, channels, and cross-functional teams.

Knowledge and Skills

• Financial advice and support
• Production target achievement and budgeting
• Compliance and risk management
• Client relationship management
• Strategic business plan development and implementation

Build a successful career with us

We’re all about building strong, lasting relationships with our employees. We know that you have hopes for your future – your career, your personal development and of achieving great things. We pride ourselves in helping our employees to realise their worth. Through its five business clusters – Sanlam Fintech, Sanlam Life and Savings, Sanlam Investment Group, Sanlam Allianz, Santam, as well as MiWay and the Group Office – the group provides many opportunities for growth and development.

Turnaround time

The shortlisting process will only start once the application due date has been reached. The time taken to complete this process will depend on how far you progress and the availability of managers.

Our commitment to transformation

The Sanlam Group is committed to achieving transformation and embraces diversity. This commitment is what drives us to achieve a diverse, inclusive and equitable workplace as we believe that these are key components to ensuring a thriving and sustainable business in South Africa. The Group's Employment Equity plan and targets will be considered as part of the selection process.