2023 Women to Watch Awards Americas EMEA
Marcia Giesler Senior vice president of business development, Affinity Sedgwick
Sedgwick Claims Management Services Inc.
Greensboro, Georgia
A broad background in insurance early in her career, selling everything from auto to renters policies, prepared Marcia Giesler for her 17 years at Sedgwick, where she’s helped build an affinity sales team from the ground up — despite being told no many times.
Recalling her earlier days selling insurance, “I had tons of cold calling. Oh, my gosh, it was trying to get people to stay on the phone with you without having them hanging up. So, it was just good experience to get used to people saying ‘no’… and then saying ‘yes.’”
With the launch of Affinity Sedgwick in 2011, the claims management organization expanded beyond providing services for traditional insurers to include group captives, risk retention groups and other multi-policyholder programs.
“We found a niche,” she said. The alternative risk transfer sector was not on Sedgwick’s radar before she came along.
Ms. Giesler, who was the first female on the company’s business development team, said that when she started at the company there were no other sales staff who focused on such insurance options as captives. Now the company has more than 150 clients in the alternative sector.
Making connections and turning a “no” into a “yes” is her specialty, which she does by maintaining relationships and being there when needs arise, she said. “It’s just being that partner for them when the time is right for them,” she said.
“I just like meeting people,” she said. “I make these people my friends. I like staying in front of them and communicating with them.”
Scott Rogers, Sedgwick’s Boston-based chief client officer, called Ms. Giesler’s work essential to the company, and that her perseverance — not only with clients but with the company itself — resulted in $400 million in annual revenue for Sedgwick.
“She basically forced the largest claims organization in the world to start paying attention to something that wasn’t necessarily core to it,” he said.
Louise Esola
