Associate Director, London and South East

We are looking for an enthusiastic and commercially-minded professional, who is adept at building relationships with senior business leaders, to join the CBI team. You will join us for a 7-month contract at an exciting time in our 60 year history, as the CBI builds its membership to strengthen the voice of business into Whitehall and to policymakers. Based at our Cannon Street offices, within the CBI’s London & South East team, this is an exciting opportunity to join a team tasked with driving the ambitious growth plans of the business. It will be your job to help develop our membership base by managing external relationships with existing CBI members and supporting the new income ambitions of the wider Commercial team. As Associate Director, you will have front-line responsibility for a portfolio of up to 35 high-value strategic CBI member relationships primarily located across London, the Thames Valley and the South East. You will also support the Regional Director and Senior Associate Directors in managing our most high-profile members. You will be working with some of the most significant and influential FTSE and multinational organisations within the CBI’s membership from across the UK’s economy including financial services, professional services, education and manufacturing. You will also be liaising daily with the CBI’s policy, campaigns, products, and events teams for up-to-date product information; build external relationships with existing members; and support both the recruitment and onboarding of new CBI members through collaboration with the CBI’s Sales team. This role is a pay band 4, with a salary range of circa. £48-50K, offered on a seven-month fixed term contract.The closing date is 9am on Monday 15 September.

Key Responsibilities

• Managing CBI member relationships
• Maintaining and deepening relationships with large, complex and strategically significant CBI members in the London, Thames Valley and South East regions, ensuring they are kept informed of regional and national opportunities to shape CBI and government policy and participate in CBI activities.
• Supporting the Regional Director and the Senior Associate Directors in the management of some of the CBI’s most high-profile member relationships.
• As Associate Director, you will be directly responsible for a portfolio of up to 35 members, valued at up to £1m.
• Driving increased membership retention and satisfaction by delivering a compelling and efficient membership offer based on policy, networking and intelligence.
• Developing a deep understanding of those issues impacting the competitiveness of member companies and being able to articulate how the CBI can influence these policies to the benefit of our members
• Increasing the value of the membership portfolio with a strong focus on the delivery of high-quality account management, ongoing renewals of membership and uplifting membership values.
• Maintaining accurate records by tracking activity on the CRM system and ensuring relevant information is shared with the appropriate stakeholders.
• Supporting new sales, sponsorship and products and services to members
• Contributing to the London & South East team’s overall recruitment targets by supporting the sales activities of the wider Commercial team.
• Assisting the sales process, drawing on member insight to both help identify potential targets and leading on these relationships where appropriate.
• Cross-selling CBI’s policy intelligence and events into a commercial offer to members within your portfolio, including flagship events and specialist policy products.
• Developing specialist expertise to help deepen the CBI’s member offer
• Reflecting the composition of your membership portfolio and your policy interests, working with teams from across the CBI to gain greater experience and knowledge in your area of expertise.
• An interest in working with financial services and city firms is particularly welcome.
• Deploying this expertise to help improve the CBI’s offer around specific sectors of the economy and distinct policy areas. This can be through helping to influence policy agendas, sharing insight on new developments, and by providing access to new member networks.

Success Criteria

• Level of engagement with members, including meetings, events, and proactive and reactive outreach to support and work towards annual retention targets.
• Level of renewals and uplifts within the wider team in line with annual targets.
• Positive and productive relationships with member companies and their senior representatives.
• Level of senior engagement in member companies
• Maintenance of the CBI’s profile and authority within the wider London & South East region
• Demonstrating and fostering good practice in account management administration including CRM use.

Knowledge & Experience

What an individual must know or understand to be able to fulfil the role’s requirements

• Experience in strategic account management dealing with senior business people in large and complex organisations through long-term relationships.
• Experience in supporting more senior commercial colleagues to deliver high quality relationship management and commercial objectives.
• Can demonstrate clear understanding of the principles and application of best practice relationship management
• Strong relationship-building and networking skills
• Strong interest in and awareness of the political and economic environment in the UK and the impact of the broader geo-political landscape.
• Well-developed awareness and understanding of evolving opportunities and pressures within the business environment.