SAMUEL BELDEN Kent, OH, 44240 sam.belden@gmail.com (216) 401-8177 www.linkedin.

com/in/samuelbelden
Strong Relationship Builder Innovative Problem Solver Delivering Successful Results Proven success in internet and business development, relationship-building, product management, and strategic management. Demonstrated success working with diverse groups of people at all levels and functions of both the internal organization and partners to solve complex problems. Strong management and development background in user experience and process testing and measurement. Areas of expertise include: Business Development Problem Solving Results Driven Strategic Business Planning Strong Communication Team Building and Development Strategic Alliance Building User Experience Strategy Business/Technology Integration

EDUCATION

M.A. English Literature B.S. English Literature, Summa Cum Laude

Kent State University, OH Mount Union College Alliance, OH

G.P.A. 3.90 G.P.A. 3.96

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT | INSURANCE DEVELOPMENT AND OPTIMIZATION Consulted with regional insurance companies in the following areas, among others:

6/2013 - Present

Customer communication strategy Customer on-boarding Policy and customer retention User workflow Policy binding processes Business intelligence, collection, analysis and execution 8/2011 to 5/2013

MOSS INSURANCE AGENCY Independence, OH

Moss Insurance Agency is an online P&C insurance agency run on completely cloud-based technology. Moss Insurance Agencys parent company, Moss Affiliate Marketing has ability to target and acquire consumers who fit needs of insurance companies with whom the agency works. President 8/2011 to 5/2013

Spearheaded business development and management of Moss Insurance Agencys carrier relationships. Built the channel strategy, negotiated contract terms and oversaw technical development. 18-month contract to establish the agency ended in May of 2013.

Identified and executed business development with top national insurance companies in the industry. On-boarded 10 national P&C insurance companies with completely new insurance agency using an innovative operational model. Researched and designed sales center operational process, moving to a completely cloud-based telephony and consumer quoting application. Identified policy retention best practices and executed them with insurance company partners.

Samuel Belden

NETSURANCE Colorado Springs, CO

9/2010 to 8/2011

Netsurance was an eMarketing broker and national insurance agency primary focused on personal lines auto insurance. Netsurance connected insurance carriers, agents and consumers through its innovative sales channels. Leveraging its relationship with sister company, Envision eSolutions, Netsurance aimed to deliver high-quality, exclusive insurance consumers to partners in real-time. Vice President, Strategic Alliances 9/2010 to 8/2011

Launched and led business development and management of Netsurances carrier relationships. Built channel strategy, negotiated contract terms and oversaw technical development.

Built multi-channel strategy to best deliver consumers to insurance carriers by matching the optimal customer experience to the most appropriate insurance carrier. This included data modeling the consumer early in the experience and matching the consumer with the insurance carrier most likely to convert the lead. Created a new compensation paradigm, replacing commission payments with up-front pay-perperformance fees on policies sold. Established relationships with 8 carriers to participate on the Netsurance platform, handling the approach, business development and contract negotiations. 4/2000 to 9/2010

INSURANCE.COM Cleveland, OH

Insurance.com is the largest national auto insurance agency in the United States, with almost one million policies sold since inception. Insurance.com offers online comparative auto insurance rates from 13 leading insurance companies, allowing consumers to purchase online or through its sales center. I was a founding member, beginning with the fund-raising process in May, 2000 and ending with the sale of the company in September of 2010. Vice President 4/2008 to 9/2010

Supervised management of and technical development with Insurance.coms 13 carrier partners, including P&L responsibility. Additional responsibility for all product development efforts, customer communication and user experience. Managed Carrier Account Management, Carrier Business Development, Product Management, User Experience and Customer Communication teams.

Optimized sources of traffic by leading effort to put actionable reporting in place to better understand customer profitability. This included understanding marketing costs, sales center expenses and also creating retention modeling by customer segment, leading to a cost savings of more than $2 million per year. Expanded marketing relationships with four carrier partners by establishing profitable reciprocal lead sharing relationships, adding $4 million of additional yearly revenue with no additional marketing cost. Improved 120-day policy retention by 8 points over a period of 12 months creating an additional $80 in lifetime revenue per policy sold (more than $8 million per year). Identified retention best-practices through testing and established them with all insurance carrier partners. Built credibility for Insurance.com, acting as the company spokesman. Quoted dozens of times as an insurance expert in publications including The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, CNN.com, Forbes and USA Today, and a televised interview with Fox News. Identified issues and led cross-functional team to create solutions with lead generation channel. Created models to qualify customers before purchasing leads and created better insurance agent workflows throughout sales process. Average contribution margins for the channel moved from low single digits to nearly 20%. 11/2004 to 4/2008

Director of Carrier Development Oversaw management and profitability of Insurance.coms 10 carrier partners. Additional responsibilities included development and measurement of the auto insurance quote funnel and customer communications. Teams managed included Carrier Account and Development teams, Funnel Management and Customer Communications teams.
Samuel Belden

Created and led standing, cross-functional conversion and quote completion task force dedicated to continual measurement and optimization of auto quote funnel. Using extensive A/B and multi-variate testing of features and customer experience, improved policy conversion from 4.5% to 10% within 18 months of assuming responsibilities ($10 million increase in yearly profit). Requested quote rate went from 39% to 51% over the same period, decreasing marketing expenses by more than $3 million per year. Created customer remarketing campaigns, leading to yearly increase of around 9000 additional policy sales, adding over $3 million of lifetime revenue per year with no additional marketing expense. Led team that created the first consumer facing comparative issuance platform in the industry, allowing consumers to complete purchase completely online, improving conversion by almost 20%. Assumed responsibility for relationships to re-direct non-standard traffic to partners. Through my negotiations, the average fee paid went from $3 per redirect to $9 per redirect, generating more than $6 million per year in profit. 4/2000 to 11/2004

Carrier Development Manager Launched and retained responsibility for development, management and profitabiity of Insurance.coms 5 carrier partners. Additionally, oversaw Project Management and Testing teams. Business owner responsible for creation of first real-time, accurate comparative auto insurance platform in the industry.

Nationwide rollout completed in six months rather than the projected nine Developed relationships with two additional carriers within a year, co-developing their first real-time rating services and rolling them out nationally. Created initial product development strategy, ensuring quality while overseeing both project management and testing teams.

COMPLETE MEDIA GROUP Independence OH The Complete Media Group was a boutique web and media development agency, specializing in setting strategic direction and delivering creative and technical solutions for its clients. Account Director 6/1999 to 4/2000

PROGRESSIVE INSURANCE Mayfield Heights, OH Product Analyst 3/1998 to 6/1999

EDUCATIONAL STRUCTURES Solon, OH Educational Structures offered content, lesson plans and advanced flights of study to the K-12 educational market. Privately held, it was sold to NCS in 1998 and moved to Los Angeles. Development and Content Manager 6/1995 to 3/1998

Samuel Belden