A new opportunity has become available for a Strategic Relationship Manager. The primary purpose of the Strategic Relationship Manager is to engage with strategic clients and partners and play a key role in generating new business by identifying sales opportunities, with a particular focus on cross-selling. The Strategic Relationship Manager is responsible for meeting with clients, educating them about products and services, and guiding them to make informed decisions. They prioritise internal and external collaboration to advance and position the company’s offerings as managed solutions for clients. The Strategic Relationship Manager also drives and manages the performance of the strategic relationship team.
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Engaging with strategic clients and strategic partners to maximise the value of relationships
- Networking and creating strong relationships with Relationship Custodians and key client stakeholders at executive and senior management levels
- Identifying key contacts at potential strategic clients and strategic partner companies to establish and foster relationships
- Growing client relationships by identifying new sales and business development opportunities and seeking opportunities to cross-sell or upsell to existing clients
- Participating in one-to-one meetings with clients and strategic partner cluster forums to explain services, expose products and guide choices
- Proposing and agreeing on the frequency and client-centric nature of interaction and engagement sessions, as well as internal collaboration with business units
- Understanding the problems and challenges of clients and identifying solutions or ways to better address their needs
- Contributing to product innovation and development
- Drafting and co-ordinating the development of proposals for strategic clients
- Managing requests for proposals and renewals by collaborating and co-ordinating effectively with account managers, strategic partners and relationship custodians
- Collaborating with the Marketing Department to ensure proper branding and effective internal and external campaign development
- Informing current and potential strategic partners and clients about key business developments to ensure a first-to-market advantage
- Organising, co-ordinating and participating in capacity building, training webinars, and information sessions for strategic clients and strategic partners
- Collaborating effectively with key account managers and relationship custodians to ensure customer complaints and enquiries are resolved promptly and professionally
- Taking responsibility for the provision of excellent communication and contact on service matters to maintain a positive business reputation by leveraging the most efficient resources, including customer relationship management (CRM) systems
- Participating and contributing towards the development of client and sector solutions for business development and networking strategy
- Contributing to the identification and articulation of unique selling propositions and differentiators
- Canvassing client feedback to inform stakeholders of the development and continuous improvement of services and products
- Serving cross-silo and functionally, internally and externally, to raise the profile of the business, client relations and perceptions of service quality
- Networking with strategic partners, influencers and stakeholders, attending functions and events, and monitoring publications and research
- Prospecting for and researching new clients and strategic partners to ensure a robust engagement pipeline
- Building relationships with decision makers within potential clients and strategic partner organisations and individuals
- Co-ordinating the planning of deal approaches and pitches
- Participating in the negotiation of terms and deal closing
- Managing strategic relationship team members effectively to achieve outcomes and targets set by the team
- Reviewing, managing and contributing to achieving an optimal strategic relationship team structure
- Managing strategic partners, clients and projects while ensuring internal collaboration for adherence to service level agreements (SLAs)
- Co-ordinating meetings according to internal and external SLAs with stakeholders for alignment with business units and marketing on internal and client expectations
- Preparing and submitting inputs to strategic clients and partners for marketing and executive communication
- Analysing client and partnership data and customer relationship management information and recommending movements or promotions to strategic
- Ensuring preparation, negotiation and management of contracts related to strategic clients and partners, ensuring compliance with strategic objectives, internal policies, procedures and regulatory obligations
- Overseeing and managing all reporting and control tasks performed within the strategic relationship department
- Identifying, monitoring and managing risks related to client relationships
- Inspiring cross-silo teams to implement client strategies and achieve objectives and targets
- Undertaking training and mentoring for business developers, strategic partners and cross-silo team members
- Working with management, technical staff, specialists and other internal colleagues to meet client needs
- Facilitating collaboration between leadership to deliver effective managed and cross-silo solutions for identified clients
- Managing client and strategic partner relationships to ensure ongoing mutual benefit
- Arranging and participating in internal and external client debriefs and training workshops
- Complying with governance requirements
- Adhering to intellectual property policies, ethics policies and relevant data protection legislation
- Working in a manner that ensures the health and safety of team members, clients and partners on company premises
- Obtaining and distributing proposals from group entities based on strategic partner requests in a timely manner to meet partner and client needs
- Assisting in combining strategic proposals requiring input from multiple group clients to meet client needs
- Writing persuasively, including executive summaries and other critical components of deliverables, capturing actions from meetings and understanding the business value proposition
- Implementing or co-ordinating writing by content contributors and lead-generators, collating and capturing to ensure proposals are clear and concise
- Adhering to and co-ordinating approval of exceptions and deviations from standard features or clauses, including pricing of proposals
- Informing and recommending differentiating penetration solutions for strategic client business development and sales efforts
- Contributing to and motivating review of cross-silo sales solutions and product innovation to ensure market relevance
- Enforcing group regulations, policies and governance practices within own collaborative team for mitigation of risk
Minimum Requirements:
- Bachelor’s Degree or National Diploma in Legal, Business, Marketing, Finance or related field
- A postgraduate qualificatiion in sales or marketing will be an added advantage
- At least 5 years of experience successfully leading a sales initiative or CRM functions
- Combination of private small business and corporate sales/advisory experience a plus
- At least 5 years of experience in sales or CRM staff management
- At least 5 years in Transformation/BBBEE
- Finance or law experience is an added advantage