Head of Strategic Relations

The Head of Strategic Relationsworks within the Sales team and coordinates across the whole organisation to manage relationships with Bromcom customers and to develop partnerships with partners who provide services to schools.

The role is effectively being the internal ‘voice of the customer’, working with school, trust and local authority leaders to derive best value from their Bromcom contract. The broad goal is to champion the product and ensure that the product is developed, marketed, and utilised to the fullest extent possible, with satisfied customers that are more likely to renew their contracts and act as reference sites and be more amenable to upsell opportunities.

There are four main areas:

1. Forming a strategic relationship with senior leadership in school and trust clients. The focus is upon building a partnership where Bromcom supports the strategic development of the MAT/LA, aligning product roadmap to synchronise with their needs. This is achieved via a collaborative approach to new feature development with key users in strategic clients having influence over features, capabilities and the product roadmap. The post holder will act as a central point to coordinate and prioritise client requirements across Sales (including Conditions of Sale for incoming customers) and work with the Product and Software teams to schedule development. This will also involve line managing the CRM team that work with MATs and Schools at different tiers of service.
2. Product evangelism and championing, including getting the most out of features already included in the package and upselling additional product options where possible (e.g. safeguarding, finance etc.) This includes the creation and maintenance of analytics that show how these clients are accessing the various modules, that is supplemented by information gleaned from calls, meetings, surveys and intelligence from the Customer Success Managers.
3. Ensure overall client satisfaction by engaging with the relevant product development, support and deployment teams. Ensure that clients know when new features are released and when bugs or development requests that they have requested have been actioned. Act as an escalation point when support or deployment issues have not been addressed to the client’s satisfaction.
4. Work with third parties who are approved Bromcom partners to understand how their systems interact with Bromcom and then be able to present a solutions focussed approach to client needs. An example might be to work with vendors that have specialisms in Human Resources, Finance, Payroll, Recruitment etc and propose how Bromcom can be part of an integrated solution to meet client needs.

The key elements of the role include:

• Regular relationship management calls with senior staff and leaders in the largest Bromcom clients.
• A two-way dialogue about the strategic development of the client’s business, new requirements or enhancements, the Bromcom product roadmap and championing new features that Bromcom has developed in order to gain adoption (product positioning)
• Securing deliverables from the reference sites e.g. quotes, blogs, case studies, video testimonials and ‘leads’ and passing these on to marketing and sales as necessary.
• Product Advocacy: Be a leading voice and advocate for Bromcom to the client and in external forums, ensuring that the product's value proposition is effectively communicated and understood.
• Client Advocacy: Be the voice of the client when dealing with stakeholders inside Bromcom, think from the customer’s perspective and understand users and their pain points.
• Feedback Collection: Gather feedback from trust senior leaders, school leaders, teachers, central staff, data managers, school administrators, and other stakeholders to prioritise product features and improvements.
• Stakeholder Communication: Regularly update stakeholders on product updates, successes, and challenges, and gather their insights for continuous improvement.
• Partnership development: Working with Bromcom’s approved partners and the Bromcom partnership support team to create vertically integrated solutions that combine Bromcom with third party specialist platforms.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Work closely with development, sales, marketing, and customer support teams to align product strategies and ensure consistent messaging.
• Roadmap Collaboration: In conjunction with the Head of Products, the product management team and individual product owners, contribute to the development and refinement of the product roadmap. Conduct an ongoing two-way dialogue about the strategic development of the client’s business, new requirements or enhancements, the Bromcom product roadmap and championing new features that Bromcom has developed in order to gain adoption (product positioning.)
• Utilisation Analysis: Examine feature usage by key clients to ensure that they are getting full value from the product. Intervene to support the client with training, configuration or other assistance to allow full feature utilisation. Work with support and technical teams if performance issues or other significant impediments are identified
• Relationship management: de-escalate issues, offer support, listen, reassure the client, navigate within the company to satisfy their needs

General responsibilities of the Head of Strategic Relations

• Building and maintaining relationships with top clients and key personnel within customer sites.
  
• Alerting the sales team to opportunities for further sales within key customers.
  
• Letting customers know about other products the company offers.
  
• Conducting reviews to ensure customers are satisfied with their products and services.
  
• Attending meetings with customers to build relationships with existing accounts.
  
• Achieving customer relationship targets and KPI’s as set by the Chief Commercial Officer.
  
• Work closely with Head of Customer On-boarding and Services and Customer Operations teams.
  
• Escalating and resolving areas of concern as raised by customers or from CRM Calls
  
• Carrying out customer satisfaction surveys and reviews.
  
• Monitoring company performance against service level agreements and flagging potential issues.
  
• Updating the CRM and ensuring account managers are aware of changes within customers.
  
• Liaising with internal departments to ensure customer needs are fulfilled effectively.
  
• Developing market intelligence, particularly in furthering partnerships with third party vendors and understanding how their services can collaborate effectively with Bromcom to better support our customers.
  
• Supporting the Chief Commercial Officer as directed.

Background of the Head of Strategic Relations

• Ideal candidate should have a deep educationalist background with 10+ years in schools and held/holding at least deputy head role or in a MAT with “C” level position who is seeking to move to a role in a high growth EdTech company

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills and an ability to build rapport with customers.
  
• Previous sales experience and an organised approach to work.
  
• Ideally, knowledge of the educational technology marketplace and management information systems.
  
• Hardworking with a strong work ethic.

Bromcom is an equal opportunities employer