Sme Business Development Consultant

Who are we?

Howden is a collective - a group of talented and passionate people all around the world. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mindset, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 18,000 employees spanning over 100 countries.

People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. It’s what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down headhunters for years. Whatever your priorities - work / life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering - you’ll find like-minded people driving change at Howden.

What's the role?

At Howden, we work closely with our clients to deeply understand their needs and develop solutions that are truly best-in-class within the Employee Benefits arena.

We choose to be specialists rather than generalists, with deep expertise, able to solve even the most complex challenges and identify innovative and creative solutions for our clients’ problems.

Our entrepreneurial culture promotes employee accountability, innovation, integrity and a performance-driven mindset.

We’re seeking a dynamic and results-oriented New Business Sales Consultant to join our growing Employee Benefits team. This is a high-impact role focused on identifying, engaging, and converting new SME-sized clients by delivering tailored employee benefits solutions that drive workforce wellbeing, retention, and performance.

You’ll be the face of our consultancy - building relationships from the ground up, taking time to understand client needs, and crafting compelling proposals that showcase our value across Group Risk, Healthcare, Wellbeing, Pensions and Technology.

If you thrive in a consultative sales environment and have a passion for helping businesses enhance their employee experience, we want to hear from you.

This opportunity is to join a dynamic Sales division within Howden Employee Benefits, which is outperforming the market, growing and celebrating that growth with our people.

What will you be doing?
- Identify and pursue new business opportunities across mid-sized organisations through a variety of sources and channels, both self-generating opportunities and working in partnership with marketing and lead generation teams for opportunity creation
- Represent the company at industry events, conferences, and networking forums
- Conduct consultative sales meetings to understand client needs and delivering compelling presentations and proposals that demonstrate ROI and strategic value
- Be the first point of contact for prospects. Understand sector and benefits trends
- Respond quickly and accurately to client queries, to provide the best sales experience
- Negotiate contracts and close deals with absolute professionalism and integrity
- Develop and manage a robust pipeline of prospects through networking, referrals, and outbound activity
- Collaborate with internal teams to design bespoke benefit packages
- Work closely with the SME New Business Operations Team to ensure all reviews and onboarding are completed in a timely and effective manner to meet clients’ needs.
- Proactively build on existing external relationships with prospects and insurers.
- Proactively build on internal relationships from the wider Howden group to leverage new business opportunity
- Hold a broad knowledge of insurers’ propositions and differences to provide the most appropriate advice for clients.
- Be comfortable in ensuring we are provided with an appropriate level of remuneration for the work undertaken across HEBW and that we maximise opportunity.
- Where appropriate ensure all systems and controls are kept up to date and compliant.
- Take active ownership of your own individual personal development requirements and work with your line manager to seek coaching/training where appropriate.

Technical:
Applicants will need to be proficient in advising clients in Group Risk and or Healthcare, along with a knowledge of broader Employee Benefits, including Wellbeing, Flex Technology and Pensions. In addition, albeit not essential, you will have an awareness of the other areas of business where the group could support in the General Insurance sector.

Policy, Process and Procedures:

- You follow process and best practice that is relevant to your role and compliant with business policy.
- Constructively you suggest process improvements to deliver workable solutions.
- In a collaborative way you challenge wider processes to enable and drive improvements to sales process whilst ensuring compliance

Environment, Customer Focus and Relationships:

- The exceptional customer experience that you provide will drive sales and enable the opportunity for cross and upselling of our business portfolio of solutions.
- You build strong internal, client and provider relationships based on respect that develops and builds loyalty, retention and increas