Director, Data Sales - Strategic Accounts

The Director of Data Sales - Strategic Accounts is a revenue-focused role responsible for maximizing the value and growth of CME Group's most strategic data clients within the Strategic Partner Program. This role drives revenue, ensures high retention, and fosters deep partnerships. The Director owns the full lifecycle for high-value accounts, acting as the primary contact to deliver a unified customer experience, expanding Data Services commercial footprint through trust, strategic alignment, and understanding customer needs, while proactively identifying new business opportunities.

Must Have

• Maximize value and growth for strategic data clients.
• Own full commercial lifecycle for high-value accounts.
• Lead complex commercial deal negotiations.
• Ensure high client retention and pursue upsell/cross-sell.
• Deep understanding of client business, goals, and market trends.
• Cultivate strategic partnerships with data vendors.
• Communicate client needs to product development.
• Resolve reporting, billing, and policy issues promptly.
• Develop and execute holistic account plans.
• Collaborate with internal teams for seamless support.
• Partner with transaction sales teams for holistic footprint.
• Ensure appropriate client licenses via annual review.
• Manage ongoing program compliance for top-tier clients.
• Support data program contract renewals.
• Strong understanding of CME Group’s market data solutions.
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, or related field.
• 6-8 years experience in financial services/market data sales.
• Proven track record of exceeding revenue targets.
• Deep industry knowledge of market data and FinTech.
• Ability to build strong client relationships.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Proficiency in CRM systems like Salesforce.com.

Good to Have

• MBA is a plus.

Perks & Benefits

• Competitive total rewards package
• Annual target bonus opportunity
• Broad-based equity program
• Comprehensive health coverage
• Retirement package (401(k) and active pension plan)
• Highly competitive education reimbursement provisions
• Paid time off
• Mental health benefit

The Director of Data Sales - Strategic Accounts is a revenue-focused role responsible for maximizing the value and growth of CME Group's most strategic data clients within the Strategic Partner Program. This role is critical for driving revenue, ensuring high retention rates, and fostering deep, multi-faceted partnerships. The Director will own the full lifecycle for high-value accounts, acting as the primary contact to deliver a unified and responsive customer experience. The core focus is on expanding our Data Services commercial footprint through trust, strategic alignment, and a deep understanding of customer needs, while proactively identifying and capturing new business opportunities.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Account & Revenue Growth:

• Own the full Data and Analytics commercial lifecycle for high-value strategic clients, from opportunity identification and negotiation to execution and expansion.
• Gather insights from top-tier clients to inform the development of new data products, improve CME positioning, and enhance understanding of the competitive data landscape.
• Lead negotiations of complex commercial deals, focusing on structuring and closing the most appropriate commercial programs that reduce administrative friction and create new selling opportunities.
• Act as the primary commercial contact and trusted partner for CME Data Services, ensuring high client retention while aggressively pursuing upsell and cross-sell opportunities across CME Group's data products and solutions, with a focus on long term revenue growth.
• Actively participate as part of a global account coverage team to promote cross-introductions between the data business and the markets trading business alongside additional data services, presenting a unified and holistic value proposition to clients.

Holistic Client & Vendor Partnership:

• Develop a deep and comprehensive understanding of each client's business, corporate goals, market trends, and competitive landscape to position CME Group as an indispensable partner.
• Cultivate deep, strategic partnerships with critical data vendors, leveraging their customer-facing teams to scale CME's Sales & Marketing reach, drive product uptake, and establish essential commercial relationships with senior leaders within their organizations.
• Understand, identify, and communicate client needs, trends, and behaviors to Data Services Business Line Managers and other stakeholders, thereby contributing to CME Group’s Data Services product design and development strategy.
• Proactively communicate product launches, fee, and policy changes, to keep clients informed and improve their overall experience.
• Expand relationships with strategic customers through regular, high-impact touchpoints, providing valuable intelligence and insights on their CME data utilization and market trends.
• Establish dialogue between Customer and CME Leadership, while coordinating education to the customer regarding the business plans for CME’s data products and services.

Account Management, Sales Execution & Internal Alignment:

• Ensure timely resolution of issues such as reporting, invoice/billing inquiries/disputes, and policy/agreement matters.
• Actively participate in campaigns for pricing, policies, and the strategic sales of new data products and solutions to top-tier accounts.
• Develop and execute a holistic account plan that maps client usage and needs across all CME Data Services offerings and identifies key client decision-makers with whom to build relationships.
• Proactively conduct regular education sessions to ensure clients clearly understand market data policies.
• Collaborate closely with internal teams, including Data Services Product Team, Legal, Finance, BI Analysis, Audits, and Global Operations (Global Market Solutions and Services and Global Command Center), to orchestrate seamless support and execution for strategic clients, while minimizing the number of customer handoffs and touchpoints.
• Partner closely with transaction sales teams e.g. Client Development & Sales (CD&S) and Retail Sales relationship managers to support a holistic CME Group footprint with top-tier accounts, aligning strategies across Futures & Options trading, clearing services, and data usage.
• Partner closely with Product Sales Specialists opportunity identification and with the Customer Success team for swift resolution of billing, licensing, or onboarding issues related to your client portfolio.
• Ensure top-tier accounts have the appropriate licenses through an annual account review.
• Manage and prioritize internal resources to support growth and retention objectives for top-tier accounts.
• Contribute to the identification and assessment of top-tier accounts based on criteria like current spend, company size, willingness to partner, and future spend potential.
• Lead top-tier accounts in onboarding to new data products and programs. This includes ensuring the client understands their commercial responsibilities and how these responsibilities align with the product or program terms.
• Manage ongoing program management for top-tier clients, including any non-standard reporting and billing, to ensure compliance with program terms.
• Support contract renewals of data programs which may require negotiation of fees and program requirements related to monthly, quarterly or annual declarations.

Product Knowledge:

• Develop a strong understanding of CME Group’s suite of market data solutions, including real-time data feeds, historical data, benchmarks, analytics, and various data licensing models.

Measurements of Performance:

• Revenue & License Retention
• New Sales Revenue
• Account Growth & Upsell Revenue
• Customer Experience (Qualitative feedback)
• New CME Data & Analytics Product Adoption
• Leverages the use of CME’s CRM system to log all relevant customer activity, feedback, and opportunities. Proactively initiates communication and coordination across segments to drive cross selling efforts.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, or a related field. MBA is a plus.
• Minimum of 6-8 years of experience in account management, sales, or a similar client-facing role within the financial services, market data, or FinTech industry.
• Proven track record of exceeding revenue targets and growing a book of business comprised of strategic, high-value accounts.
• Deep industry knowledge and a strong understanding of the market data and financial technology landscape and the operational models of banks, retail trading platforms, market data providers, trading platforms, or proprietary trading firm entities.
• Ability to build and maintain strong client relationships, including trust and rapport with individuals within client organizations resulting in value creation and solving key client challenges.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, including active listening, the ability to navigate difficult conversations with tact and professionalism, and the ability to articulate complex solutions and value propositions.
• A data-driven and strategic mindset with the ability to forecast growth potential, manage a sales pipeline, and evaluate performance against key metrics
• Experience leading and closing complex, multi-year commercial negotiations (e.g., Enterprise Agreements)
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional internal teams to achieve client objectives, and the ability to work independently and collaboratively in a cross-functional team.
• Proficiency in using CRM systems (like Salesforce.com) to manage customer interactions and track progress.

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