Senior Strategic Account Manager

About Ashurst

Ashurst is a leading progressive global law firm with a rich history spanning more than 200 years. We are proud of our history and are future-focused, having expanded into new technologies through our NewLaw division, Ashurst Advance, and our consulting arm. Our in-depth understanding of our clients and commitment to providing excellent standards of service have seen us become a trusted adviser to local and global corporates, financial institutions and governments in all areas of commercial law. To find out more please

Department/Role overview - Clients, Markets & Growth (CMG), London

Ashurst's Clients Market's & Growth (CMG) team is located in major cities across EMEA, Asia Pacific and the US. CMG execute the firm's strategy and drive profitable growth with a specific focus on our chosen industries, markets and clients. We focus on industry solutions and client experience, driving campaigns, leveraging client insights, and managing strategic initiatives to service our client's needs.

The role of the Senior Strategic Account Manager (SAM) constitutes a leadership role within the individual strategic client team, and an important role within the Clients, Markets & Growth infrastructure. SAM's are primarily responsible for proactively and independently driving purposeful, impactful internal collaboration and client engagement, leading to excellence in client account performance on many levels, diversification of relationships and strategic growth.

This role will focus on driving growth for a portfolio of Strategic Clients, working closely with the relevant Client Relationship Partners (CRPs) and Client Support Team.

Core Responsibilities

There are six core areas of focus for this role:

1. Voice of Client

Proactively seeking and interpreting the voice of our clients is an essential element of relationship management. The SAM is responsible for leveraging the firm's Voice of Client program to coordinate, undertake, interpret and/or respond to appropriate client listening and feedback activities, including:

• Establishing the cadence of multi-channel feedback for each client account, influencing partners around the importance of regular and impactful client listening.
• Proactively arranging and attending client listening sessions (including general relationship feedback and specific feedback related to major matters and/or pitches).
• Arranging for client insights to be captured, synthesised and fed back into the firm's Voice of Client insights program.
• Regularly reporting back to CRPs and Client Service Team on results, trends, opportunities and risks identified.
• Using insights to enhance service delivery and identify opportunities for product and solution development and or new initiatives and as well as remedy anticipated issues.
• Working collaboratively across the CMG function to deliver insights that supports each function to shape strategies and approaches e.g. pursuits/ RfP.

2.Client Engagement

The role of a SAM is not purely operational. SAMs are empowered and expected to work with CRPs in an appropriate client-facing capacity. A SAM will:

• Proactively and independently build relationships with strategiccontacts at the Strategic Clients you support, supporting CRPs as a primary Ashurst relationship contact, across legal, operations and procurement teams.
• Be the central contact point for panel arrangements, client operationsand billing and pro bono/inclusion, diversity & belonging (ID&B) initiatives. This includes positioning within the internal client team as the expert across these areas for clients within your
• Act as an internal advocate/voice of the client in decision-making amongst the CRPs and Client Support Team.
• Confidently facilitate (host) social and training related engagements between the client and the firm.
• Attend formal and relationship client meetings with CRPs

3. Performance Excellence

SAMs take a leadership role in monitoring, driving and enhancing client performance excellence by:

• Understanding and reviewing firm reporting and performance metrics.

• Demonstrating an ability to articulate financial and other performance challenges and providing solutions to remedy.

• Collaborating with CRPs to drive behaviour and process change to achieve or exceed performance benchmarks.

To support this, a SAM will:

• Have a thorough understanding of the suite of client reports (financial and activity) and the various key metrics which comprise the firms priority client performance measurements (KPIs/OKRs and financial metrics).
• Lead the account planning process, working collaboratively with CRPs and other stakeholders to set relevant performance improvement KPIs/OKRs.
• Work with the Ashurst Service Central (ASC) and other internal teams to ensure regular high quality financial and non-financial reports for clients and internal stakeholders.
• Proactively manage the client's revenue, profit and working capital profile, and identify areas for improvement. This includes:Forecasting, strategic pricing, profitability deep dives, process enhancements around working capital, billing, invoicing processes to improve current position.
• Independently build strong working relationships with key dependencies and functions eg credit control, finance and, reporting.

4. Strategic Planning

SAMs play a key role in facilitating and managing multi-dimensional account planning processes. This incorporates driving the annual relationship review and recalibration around the strategic focus of each Strategic Client. SAMs are also responsible for the firm's response to key opportunities or risks identified throughout the course of the year. To support strategic planning, a SAM will:

• Proactively lead on strategic client planning, drawing on best practice, tools and resources to deliver on the client strategy and to achieve or exceed performance benchmarks.
• Independently and collaboratively drive opportunities for their Strategic Client portfolio, connecting with key stakeholders, Industry Leaders, Practice Heads, Head of Region and Markets & Growth Directors, bringing the whole firm to the client.
• Lead the development of client strategy, with the CRPs and client teams, to drive profitable revenue growth.
• Proactively identify client needs and opportunities, including through the Voice of the Client program, and develop and implement strategies to convert key opportunities. This should include a focus on deepening the client relationship through diversification of services and solutions, across regions, practices and Ashurst's legal, Risk and New Law offering.
• Proactively manage and provide strategic guidance to the Pursuits team on pursuits for their Strategic Client portfolio, working with the Pursuits team and internal teams to ensure pitches are delivered to the highest standards by drawing on best practice, VoC and pre-pursuit engagement and processes.

5. Market and Industry Insights

SAMs are required to maintain a robust understanding of market and industry insights across their client portfolio. This includes a high level of collaboration with the relevant Industry teams, as well as Consulting & Governance and Ashurst Advance Divisions to ensure that the Strategic Client portfolio is being proactively engaged around challenges or opportunities facing similar organisations. A SAM will:

• Proactively identify and propose market opportunities to generate client insights to develop the client relationship.
• Proactively promote and facilitate sharing of client insight, movements and intelligence across the client teams.
• Work with the CRPs, and relevant Industry Leaders, the relevant Industry teams and Expertise lawyers to develop and execute a thought leadership strategy, designed to reinforce our drive towards market leadership.
• Proactively collaborate with the relevant Industry teams and anticipate key client priorities and future themes and opportunities.

6. Leadership and Resource Management

SAMs are responsible for demonstrating leadership capabilities across the Client Service Team, and beyond, including advocating for best practice and leading the way as a change-maker for their Strategic Client portfolio.

• Leverage resources across the firm to ensure highest and best use of various teams and individuals involved in delivering 'excellence'.
• Drive a coordinated, joined-up and cohesive team and promote CRM best practice, locally and globally across the CMG function.
• Work with CRPs to develop an engaged and motivated Client Support Team that aligns to, and supports, key priorities.
• Coach partners and lawyers to maximise CRM effectiveness.
• Ensure that all client activities and duties are carried out in full compliance with our regulatory requirements and internal policies, as well as delivering on Relationship Agreement commitments such as the coordination of secondments, pricing agreements and other value-add services.
• Actively manage the BD budget and expenditure for their Strategic Client portfolio, ensuring alignment of expenditure to strategic objectives and measuring return on investment.

Essential skills and experience

• Demonstrated experience in managing multiple clients with proven results in developing strong client relationships and driving opportunities that directly contribute to revenue.

• Strategic client account management or similar relevant experience, gained within law or another professional services environment.

• As a senior member of the Markets & Growth team, leads by example.

• Previous experience in a client facing capacity, including client listening experience.

• Strategic thinker and but also willing to roll up their sleeves.

• Ability to influence credibly and effectively at all levels of the organisation (including partners) with strong executive presence.

• Strong interpersonal skills, with a proven ability to build trusting relationships with the partnership and business services.

• Inherent drive to succeed, and proven ability to develop and execute solutions to short term barriers and setbacks.

• Flexibility and willingness to go the extra mile.

Background checks

To comply with regulatory and client requirements, Ashurst will undertake appropriate vetting of staff. When applicants accept a job offer, Ashurst, alongside a specialist provider, will undertake professional verification and background checks. These checks are only undertaken with consent, and in accordance with our legal and regulatory obligations.

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