Associate Director, Client Services

Merkle | Cardinal Path empowers brands to harness their data and activate against it in pursuit of their business goals. Our passionate experts act as an extension of our clients’ teams, leveraging their deep knowledge to help brands maximize media and technology on the path toward digital transformation.

The purpose of this role is to own and be accountable for the day-to-day client relationship and all elements of the account including, implementation of the strategic vision for the client, delivery against setting and achieving the annual financial targets, while building a trusted relationship with multiple key client stakeholders.

The Associate Director of Client Services will provide strategic oversight and organic revenue growth on a book of client businesses. Their primary KPI will be achieving organic growth targets and ensuring high client satisfaction. A successful Associate Director must be an excellent communicator and possess the ability to work and lead a distributed team with responsibility for client service and business growth. They must be comfortable actively mining for new organic revenue opportunities either within existing client businesses or with new clients. They must possess above average active listening skills to understand client needs and translate those needs to business growth opportunities. They will have expertise in all digital media and marketing principles and apply them to defining, planning and executing against client objectives. An effective Associate Director must also have a strong aptitude for team mentorship.

Responsibilities:

• Owns client relationships with existing clients and stakeholders, responsible for overall client satisfaction
• Sets the strategic tone, direction and supervision for Merkle Cardinal Path clients. This includes overseeing client needs, staffing, strategy, quality of work, and budgeting; clearly identifying and communicating client’s business strategy and needs cross-functionally within Merkle Cardinal Path.
• Supports the creation and execution of a yearly and/or quarterly sales plan and is accountable for driving actions and outcomes to grow client’s business.
• Develops a revenue for clients through incremental and new opportunities rooted in a deep understanding of Merkle Cardinal Path and broader Merkle products and services coupled with research of clients’ business.
• Accountable for total growth of clients including renewals and net new business on existing client accounts.
• Leads strategic conversations to establish long-term relationships with clients.
• Optimizes the drivers of direct sales, including team, technology, spend and programs, to achieve predictability, cost-efficiency, and scale. This will include the development and monitoring of key historical business metrics, as well as quarterly and annual forecasts that will both be used to manage the business.
• Ensures and oversees that excellent relationships are maintained and enhanced with appropriate staff at client organizations to achieve continually high levels of customer satisfaction.
• Supports and mentors the wider Client Services team to ensure quality execution that drives toward client’s business objectives and key metrics.
• Works with cross-functional Merkle Cardinal Path teams to execute account plans, meet plan deadlines, customer expectations, and program milestones.
• Drives growth for Merkle Cardinal Path within Merkle and denstu by partnering with said partners and identifying organic business opportunities for all parties.
• Build best-practice processes and systems to scale up the account teams, enable them to better serve client needs, and increase opportunities for account growth.
• Enhances staff accomplishments and competence by planning delivery of solutions; answers technical and procedural questions for less experienced team members; teaches improved processes; mentors other team members.
• Works closely with the Senior Client Leadership team to align with MCP’s performance and organic growth objectives, as well as reporting against targets.
• Actively participates and develops new and existing accounts, generates sales quotes, and handles customer inquiries to help service customers and grow business.
• Oversee client communications and negotiations, provide senior level client management support, and nurture client relationships.
• Leads and resolves complex client problems or disputes in a professional manner.
• Grows existing accounts and assists in the development of sales opportunities.
• Works effectively with others in a team-based environment to accomplish organizational goals and to identify and resolve problems.
• Travels on an as-needed basis to grow client relationships, travel will fluctuate with activity and opportunity and at times the requirement will be greater
• Contributes to new business RFPs and pitches.
• Sells new service offerings with the goal of creating recurring revenue accounts and identify new growth opportunities for the long-term.
• Promotes the mission and values of the organization both internally and externally.

• 8+ years prior experience in customer facing roles.
• Proven experience in a leadership sales role identifying, nurturing, and closing sales deals.
• Outstanding client services skills including relationship building, managing, cross team and agency relationships, strategic planning, account planning, & forecasting
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to anticipate the needs of customers.
• Must demonstrate strong analytical and strategic thinking skills.
• Possess strong problem solving skills and the ability to make sound judgment calls.
• Superior organizational and time management skills.
• Knowledge of customer service programs and databases, or the ability to learn new software quickly.
• Innovative, creative thinking skills to ensure the organization is providing a cutting edge client experience.
• Proven experience working with $2MM+ accounts; including case studies highlighting the growth of accounts that you have managed.
• Experience managing profitable budgets, meeting deadlines and managing teams.
• Experience working with international client accounts is a plus.
• Excellent verbal, written and communication skills with experience creating clear, concise, professional documents and presentations.
• Excellent storyteller.

The salary range for this position is $110-$125K. Actual salary within the salary range will be based on a variety of factors including relevant experience, knowledge, and skills. A range of medical, dental, RRSP, paid time off, and/or other benefits also are available to all permanent employees.

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We know through experience that different ideas, perspectives and backgrounds foster a stronger and more creative work environment that delivers better business results. We strive to create workplaces that reflect the clients we serve and where everyone feels empowered to bring their full, authentic selves to work. We are committed to working with our candidates from all ability levels throughout the recruitment process to ensure that they have what they need to be at their best. If you need accommodation during the application or interview process, please contact Canada.Recruitment@dentsuaegis.com or to begin a conversation about your individual accessibility needs throughout the hiring process.