[Closed] Senior account manager vacancy (Norwich/hybrid)

Candour specialises in helping businesses grow and evolve by taking advantage of digital technologies. We believe that to do a good job in 2024 and beyond, designers, developers and marketers all need to work together to build the best possible end product. Day to day, we’re guided by our brand values and a strong ethos of transparency and honesty internally and, importantly, with our clients. We created our values together to describe how we work as a team, and these are integral to our long-term vision:

• Candour
• Cooperation
• Ownership
• Ingenuity

About the role

We’re seeking a senior account manager with experience in developing long-term relationships with a variety of clients across different sectors.

You’ll be an organised self-starter who will be able to pro-actively grow the opportunities that present themselves, whether it’s getting involved with new business proposals or growing existing, retained clients.

You’ll lead by example, ensuring the highest service levels, quality, and excellent campaign delivery, setting the standard for the wider client service team. As a Senior Account Manager, you can confidently coordinate across departments to get the best outcomes for your clients.

As a senior account manager, you'll be working closely with our search specialists, delivering strategic solutions to help our clients attract and engage their audiences. We're passionate about building honest and trusted client partnerships.

You'll understand how to manage your own time, have a commercial mindset, understand how to work within budget and be able to spot opportunities to develop our relationships with clients.

Our work spans from technical recommendations and content strategy through to digital PR campaigns and we work with clients across a range of different sectors – so there's plenty of variety!

You’ll have experience delivering projects and campaigns for retained clients, be able to bring together a team of specialists and have an eye for detail.

Quality of life focus

Before you start reading the job description below and working out if now is a good time to look for a new role, let us give you the ‘elevator pitch’ for Candour: We founded the studio on a 'quality of life' principle, which means: You will be treated like an adult. We're flexible with working times, arrangements and give you our trust and support. That is yours to maintain.

1) We strongly encourage all staff to finish when their day finishes. While working extra hours is sometimes requested, you'll get paid for it and it is not the norm.

2) There is no mindless pursuit of 'growth'; we focus on providing the best outcomes for our clients through brilliant work. We don't put team members in difficult situations by signing deals we know aren’t right. We want to work with clients with realistic expectations and budgets and with whom we can develop sustainable, long-term relationships.

3) Every single person at Candour gets a direct profit share at the end of their three-month probation. No fine print, no special clauses; we do well, you do well.

4) We want to 'do good'. Every year we dedicate some of our resources to helping a charity. Recently, we have supported The Feed, Break and The Hamlet; this year, we are happy to be working with Brave Futures, a charity that supports children and young people who have experienced sexual abuse.

You will have the following responsibilities:

• Taking ownership of key client relationships: build strong, long-term client relationships based on trust and strategic thinking
• Consistently high standards of delivery establishing excellent communication and trust
• Maintain a detailed understanding of each client’s proposition, business goals and challenges, their competitors, the environment in which they operate and their audiences.
• Acting as a champion for our clients within the business with a focus on the continuous improvement of client experience
• Run effective client meetings with a well-planned agenda, ensuring that clear goals and actions are agreed
• Keeping clients up-to-date with regular campaign and/or project progress status updates
• Drive the agency teams to deliver outstanding client service by anticipating, recognising and meeting client needs and providing the best solution for their investment
• Effectively planning client retainer hours, ensuring we’re working toward agreed KPIs and business objectives and preventing overservice
• Writing and scheduling briefs, with the support of the marketing team, to guide workflows and outcomes
• Manage monthly retainer budgets, manage campaign costs and invoicing clients
• Forecast and track key account metrics
• Identifying and resolving any issues in service delivery and helping to prevent repetition through improved processes
• Brief and motivate teams throughout the agency to ensure we create imaginative and goal-oriented campaigns presented to the highest standards.
• Encourage the team to strive for evidence-based proposals with measurable results.
• Identify new initiatives and process improvements that increase efficiencies and the quality of work in Strategy & Account Management and help implement them.
• Providing support to junior members of the team and project managers to ensure that account management standards are maintained. For example, QA of proposals, invoicing, roadmaps and account reviews as well as ad-hoc problem-solving
• Leads client ‘health check’ meetings and is responsible for assessing risks and opportunities across client relationships
• Maintain awareness of the upcoming potential for new business opportunities.
• Working with the marketing team to formulate new ideas and proactively take them to clients
• Working with the leadership team to broaden our networking activity
• Drive the agency teams to deliver outstanding client service by anticipating, recognising and meeting client needs and provide the best value for money in terms of cost/advice.
• Ability to identify opportunities, develop and present growth plans for existing clients

What we would like from you:

• Two years relevant agency or stakeholder management experience with knowledge of SEM and all things digital (SEO, PPC and Digital PR)
• Experience planning and scheduling client retainer hours
• Effective presentation skills
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to present and negotiate with clients confidently
• Attention to detail and time-management skills
• Natural ability to build relationships while demonstrating honesty and transparency
• A self-starter who is keen to make the most of the freedom to use their initiative
• Proven ability to build and demonstrate client advocacy
• A client-first mentality and deep understanding of commercial business and client service
• Proven prioritisation, organisation and follow-up skills
• Driving client relationships forward, rather than responding
• Ability to work independently, with minimal supervision, and demonstrate leadership skills across the wider team
• Demonstrated ability to gather valuable feedback and provide practical solution options based on that feedback

We can offer you

• Up to £37,000 – £40,000pa salary, depending on experience
• A direct cash profit share derived from agency profits, everyone benefits from success
• 35-day holiday allowance, inclusive of public holidays and our Christmas shutdown
• Private healthcare (after a successful six-month probation period)
• Hybrid and remote working options: We believe your job should fit around your life
• A range of parental leave and benefits policies, including maternity, paternity, adoption, IVF and Neonatal
• Supportive and inclusive policies including menopause, transgender equality and equal opportunities in addition to team member handbooks
• Sickness pay beyond statutory benefits, increasing with time at the company
• Annual training budget: We’ll help you develop professionally
• Development opportunities at events such as BrightonSEO and SearchNorwich
• Opportunities for public speaking (paid time to prepare and deliver your talks)
• Monthly (optional attendance) funded social events with the team
• A summer and winter party
• Open-plan dog-friendly office including a starter pack of 4 office dogs
• Fantastic clients across a range of industries
• A great team of designers, developers and other marketers

If this sounds like you, please send a covering email and CV to [email protected]