Senior Account Director - Contractor

Job summary and scope:

The Senior Account Director (SAD) leads and provide strategic direction for large client accounts or groups of client accounts in excess of £400K revenue, ensuring they are profitable and growing.

The role is responsible for driving growth and future project planning with the client as well as the delivery of quality work that meets the client’s needs, accurately addresses the brief, and ensures the project is delivered on time and on budget. They will do so through the effective management of their own team, setting team priorities and managing resource, and through their ability to develop strong client relationships and to lead and inspire others inside and outside the agency. The SAD will lead pitches for new business, approaching these with both a creative and commercial mindset. The SAD oversees full proposal development, identifies a pitch team, and leads the presentation on the day, with support from the leadership team as needed. The SAD will actively seek and recommend new business opportunities with existing and new clients and is responsible for organic growth in the accounts they lead.

Key responsibilities:

Client

• Lead client accounts in excess of £400K revenue, with overall responsibility for the client/agency relationship.
• Take the strategic lead on client briefs and provide strategic direction from kick-off to campaign/project completion.
• Lead client meetings, including facilitation of client and stakeholder meetings.
• Push clients, and the agency, creatively and strategically to optimum performance.
• Proactively engage with, and drive clients’ annual strategy through development of annual account planning.
• Follow up on individual campaigns and projects to gain feedback and manage client satisfaction.
• Maintain the high-quality of all deliverables through appropriate accuracy and quality checks, embedding this mindset in more junior team members.
• Initiate regular client health checks, maintaining excellent client relationships and managing any challenging client situations, in collaboration with the leadership team as needed.
• Ensure a working knowledge of the therapeutic landscape as relevant to their client accounts, allowing for informed discussion with, and advice to clients.
• Identify, develop, and convert new business opportunities with existing and future clients.

Financial

• Coach and mentor more junior team members in their financial management of accounts.
• Ensure the profitability and growth of client accounts through accurate budgeting, monitoring of hours vs. budget and liaison with clients to agree additional budget where possible.
• Ensure all projects are tracking to planned timelines and are appropriately prioritised throughout the business.
• Report key financial and team data to the agency’s senior leadership, finance, and human resources departments specifically.
• Monitor resource requirements for your accounts, notifying the leadership team of any resourcing challenges and/or recruitment needs.
• Maintain good financial processes for the accounts you lead, including updating of financial platforms with all relevant information.
• Maintain good project management processes for the accounts you lead, including completing all financial tasks at the appropriate juncture e.g. project set up from pipeline to close, end of month invoicing in liaison with the finance team, revenue recognition, forecasting and client budget reconciliations.
• Know the clients’ financial policies, particularly purchase orders, invoicing and payment terms – ensuring all company procedures are followed and support the rest of the team in doing this.

Management

• Ensure a thorough knowledge of all relevant codes of practice and legislation covering communication with HCPs, payers, patients, third party groups and the public.
• Manage the work, performance, and professional development of team members.
• Line management responsibility for Project Managers, Project Directors and Account Directors as required.
• Coach and mentor Project Directors, Account Directors to deliver high-quality client work.
• Identify staff training needs and make recommendations to the leadership team.
• Manage external service providers.
• Share industry experience and expertise within the agency – across accounts where needed.
• Comply with Precision AQ policies and procedures and demonstrate a personal commitment to their adherence and implementation.

New business

• Proactively liaise with clients on a regular basis to identify new opportunities and drive business growth.
• Proactively seek opportunities for organic growth across functions within the same company and through referrals from current clients.
• Drive the development of new business pitches and take the lead role during the pitch itself, with support from leadership team as required.
• Support leadership team at credentials meetings.
• Identify new business opportunities through previous contacts and work with the leadership team to pursue these.

Other responsibilities

• Travel to client meetings is required as part of this role.
• Undertake any duties as may be required from time to time that can reasonably be regarded as within the remit of the post.
• Aware of and conform to legal requirements in all activities, both internal and external. Implicit in this is that all managers and employees conform to the appropriate standards in terms of Health and Safety and Information Security requirements but also to the highest standards of business ethics.