Client Partner - Health

Job description

Our aim at [Employer hidden] is to use human-centred technology to improve our society. We believe putting people at the heart of designing, building and delivering public services leads to better outcomes for everyone.

About the role

As a Client Partner, you will be responsible for growing a portfolio of strategic accounts within one of our Industry Sectors. Specifically, this role will be within Health, you can find out more about the brilliant impact we’re having in the industry here. You’ll develop a strong understanding of the challenges faced by your clients and work with a multidisciplinary account/pursuit team to support your client to overcome them.

For over 15 years we’ve been delivering health and care digital transformation across national, regional and local organisations. So whether it’s legacy modernisation, data and AI or a new digital health product or service - you’ll be joining with a deep level of expertise and care for what they do.

You will report to our Industry Director for Health and lead on the creation and execution of a strategic account plan for each of your clients and work with the account teams and staff on the ground to ensure we’re making strong progress towards our strategic growth goals in your accounts.

You’ll develop a razor-sharp understanding of your clients business problems, public sector challenges, department policies and [Employer hidden]’s value proposition and be able to communicate this effectively to audiences of varying levels of digital and technology maturity.

You will be expected to identify specific sales opportunities within your accounts and to proactively take new ideas to your clients as well as network, gain referrals and outreach to key stakeholders in your target client portfolio. You’ll lead on the qualification, pursuit and capture of these opportunities and will personally hold a multi-million pound annual sales target, which depending upon client portfolio, will range from £5M to £20M. You will be expected to exceed your targets every year.

You’ll be expected to identify senior stakeholders, build strong strategic relationships and become a trusted and valued partner. You’ll also be expected to work with marketing to help build awareness in your accounts and target accounts. You will be expected to continually build your network and our influence within the client's organisation. You will expect to develop your (see below) and be a trusted advisor to your clients.

Working in conjunction with Finance, you’ll manage account profitability and take the lead on the commercial negotiation of rate cards and contractual terms, to ensure they are inline with the wider business guidelines.

Key responsibilities

There are six core role competencies for this role:

Expert in your Client's Business

• Understand your client's strategy, goals, and challenges through continual research.
• Understand and learn how the public sector works
• Be an expert in GDS ways of working
• Regularly meet stakeholders, be a visible presence
• Understand the client organisation and who the decision makers are
• Attend governance meetings and showcases
• Understand our competitors, their profile with the client and their relationships
• Build relationships with commercial and portfolio holders to understand their pipeline

2. Expert in [Employer hidden] Capabilities & Services

• Understand our USPs and how they differ to competitors
• Understand how we work and deliver
• Understand what good delivery looks like
• Understand [Employer hidden]’s missions and values
• Understand [Employer hidden]’s capabilities and how to apply them to clients
• Build relationships with capabilities and our delivery teams
• Have read [Employer hidden]’s books
• Can talk about 5-8 relevant case studies as though you were on the project
• Stay current with relevant [Employer hidden] projects, proposals and marketing
• Share supporting content with each other

3. Trusted Advisor

• Have empathy with clients, be client first.
• Consult to the root cause of the problem.
• Be a problem solver.
• Strive to learn. Show and develop your level of understanding.
• Be a great listener, be transparent, be human, build personal relationships and trust
• Be available, responsive and act fast.
• Understand reasons, constraints, challenges and impact
• Establish facts and summarise (understanding, actions)

4. Leading Account Teams

• Develop an Account Strategy that brings value to the client, our team and our business.
• Meet regularly to review and set goals.
• Set clear roles and responsibilities.
• Motivate the Account Team. Build and grow relationships. Listen and act on issues.
• Motivate and support the entire team to support growth that brings value both to clients and to [Employer hidden].
• Capture and share intel. Motivate and support delivery teams to report back opportunities.
• Be the CEO of the account:
• Outward Facing
• Understanding of the Market
• Understanding of the Competition
• Building and Motivating a Senior Team
• Creating a clear strategic plan
• Driving execution against the plan
• Coach account team members.
• Ensure account management and client service is delivered to the highest of standards.

5. Outreach and Networking

• Use, and continually experiment with, a variety of channels (eg: client referrals, partners, MT SLT, hallways, events, authoring blogs, social media, email, LinkedIn)
• Build relationships with a variety of stakeholders
• Prioritise relationships with key decision makers and senior stakeholders right up to C-level.
• Consistently commit time to outreach to generate new stakeholder meetings.
• Be credible. Bring value. Be equal business partners.
• Bring clients together.

6. Sales Leadership

• Commercial, finance, P&L understanding and the key elements of what makes work more and less profitable for us
• Own revenue goals and have a clear plan to achieve them.
• Managing account teams to maximise margin and profitability over time
• Optimising rates and margin to increase our chances of winning and delivering profit goals
• Negotiate favourable contracts and working arrangements that reduce business risk and cost.
• Work with client commercial teams to ensure we have the right relationship, commercial governance and commercial team is clear on our value add
• Strong contractual and commercial client management
• Create proactive, win-win opportunities by leveraging the team around you.
• Understand industry data, contract expiries, track and attend pre-market engagement.
• Balance investment in short and longer term opportunities.
• Understand what is required to win an opportunity. Create a plan and execute on it (win strategy).
• Feedback intel to help [Employer hidden], helping the business improve and win upcoming opportunities.
• Understand what a good proposal looks like. As Sales Lead, help proposal teams deliver excellence.

Skills, knowledge and expertise

You will have:

• A strong track record in developing growth in your strategic accounts, up-selling and cross-selling new services and building strong, long-lasting value-based relationships with stakeholders.
• Excellent knowledge of digital service concepts and our markets, with the ability to articulate the distinct aspects of products and services and position them against competitors.
• Expertise in consulting and building strategic account plans and managing account teams to drive exceptional growth and where necessary you will also be prepared to operate as a pioneer and build pursuit teams to further a new business
• A strong track record in winning multiple multi-million-pound contracts and delivering against quarterly and annual targets.
• An appreciation and knowledge of technology delivery, agile methodologies, etc.
• Broad technology experience and a sound awareness of technology and public sector trends and policies
• Ability to operate in a highly competitive and pressurised environment, making sensible decisions that do not compromise [Employer hidden] and our clients.
• Ability to communicate, present and influence credibly and effectively at all levels of the customer organisation, including executive and C-level.
• Expert networking skills and the ability to build strong and appropriate relationships with senior stakeholders.
• NHS and public sector healthcare experience and existing relevant networks would be essential to the role.

At this point, we hope you're feeling excited about [Employer hidden] and the job opportunity. Even if you don't feel that you meet every single requirement, we still encourage you to apply. Get in touch with our talent team if you’d like an informal chat about the role and your suitability before applying. We are hiring for this role directly, so will not respond to any CVs sent via external recruitment agencies.