SVP, Client Service Director

As an SVP, Client Service Director, you will be the primary owner of client relationships, ensuring satisfaction and strategic alignment. This role involves leading account teams, driving new business opportunities, and evolving agency offerings. You will be responsible for talent development, maintaining high-quality deliverables, and managing financial goals. Strong communication, leadership, and industry expertise are crucial for navigating client situations and fostering team growth.

Must Have

• Lead client relationships and ensure client presence/oversight.
• Act as primary agency Ambassador for issues/opportunities.
• Maintain "guru" status with clients for strategic meetings.
• Lead onboarding for all new clients.
• Actively seek and close large, strategic new business.
• Define and evolve agency "Go-to-Market" strategy.
• Develop and attract key agency talent.
• Possess superior communication and expert presentation skills.
• Manage multiple account teams with flawless client retention.
• Accountable for high quality deliverables and financial goals.
• Serve as a mentor to account groups.
• Ensure all levels understand client dynamics for retention.
• Manage up and vertically for seamless pull-through.
• Evangelize Agency’s evolving service offerings and best practices.
• Establish interdepartmental partnership and collaboration.
• Demonstrate strong work ethic, delegation, feedback, and optimism.
• Work with leadership for appropriate staffing.
• Champion direct reports' advancement.
• Navigate challenging client situations calmly.
• Continually demonstrate expertise in strategy and therapeutic areas.
• Ultimate owner of group's yearly revenue goals.
• Final responsibility for year-over-year account growth.
• Active participant in new business, capabilities, resourcing, financial discussions.
• Champion internal financial processes and vigilant about budgets/fees.
• Maintain overall accountability for on-time, on-budget delivery.

• Lead by inspiring trust through courageous in the moment conversations
• Walk the talk and have a strategic perspective both internally and externally
• Know that you are department agnostic and be generous to hear new ideas no matter where they come from
• Build and facilitate a journey of learning for our teams focused on tapping into their curiosity and creating a clear career path of growth.

Client Management & Interaction

• Seen as primary owner of Account relationship
• Ensuring that every client has an account contact and that each client feels your presence and oversight of the account
• Key contact two-three levels above day-to-day client on a monthly/bi-monthly basis
• Solutions first leader: Act as primary agency Ambassador in managing ad hoc issues and opportunities (e.g. to deliver capabilities to new business prospect, pacify upset senior client, etc.)
• Maintain “guru” status with clients and engaged for key strategic meetings
• Be known and respected among client teams
• Lead for onboarding of all new clients, regardless of level

Agency Development

• Solution oriented approach that creates calm and rallies teams
• Actively seek and close large, strategic new business opportunities; convert new business into agency revenue
• Play active role in defining, clarifying, and evolving agency short- and long-term “Go-to-Market” strategy and suite of offerings
• Be a developer and attracter of key agency talent and primary grower of talent from within

Communication Skills

Possess superior communication skills across the board.

• Maintain strong, professional presence that immediately puts clients at ease and wins their confidence
• Expert presentation skill to a few key individuals or to a large client team
• Communicate complicated ideas in a manner everyone can understand
• Annually deliver course relating to leadership, client management or business communications for the benefit of more junior colleagues as discussed and outlined with President of agency
• Author periodic articles or POVs worthy of publication internally and with clients

Management

• Continue to build on our adoption of the philosophy of the Service-Profit Chain, correlating highly engaged employees create rewarding environments
• Manage multiple account teams with flawless client retention
• Accountable for all agency teams maintaining high quality deliverables
• Ensure teams consistently follow established processes/guidelines for executing agency offerings (eg,monthly POV’s, etc).
• Serve as a mentor to account group taking initiative to develop trainings
• Ensure all levels of the organization understands the client dynamics at play and is involved to ensure client love and retention.
• Key conduit to strategic team with a mindset of always show the client more – talent, work, thinking

Leadership/Teamwork

• Manage up and vertically to ensure seamless pull-through
• Keep President abreast of all issues/opportunities arise to ensure all are on the page
• Partner across so that all can learn from the dialogue
• Responsible for evangelizing Agency’s evolving service offerings, processes, and best practices to all staff and clients
• Establish agency-wide example of interdepartmental partnership and collaboration through BRAND MOVEMENTS document development. Every team member should understand how their purpose at DDB Health plays into the “Good” we are creating via our brands
• Demonstrate strong work ethic, delegates instead of dumps, provides real-time feedback and recognition, celebrates success, excellent active listening skills, makes decisions for betterment of all, maintains optimistic outlook in all situations
• Works with cross agency leadership to ensure all accounts are staffed appropriately to meet client/project needs
• Act as “Champion” for all direct reports/team members and takes full responsibility for helping advance them toward promotion
• Navigate challenging client situations while keeping the team calm and motivated

Industry Knowledge/Therapeutic Expertise

• Maintain “guru” status with clients and engaged for key strategic meetings
• Continually demonstrate expertise in all aspects of strategy
• Seen by clients and colleagues as experienced multiple therapeutic areas
• Establish agency-wide example of ability to deliver solutions for clients

Financial Responsibility

• Ultimate owner of groups yearly goals to Omnicom and achievement of those goals from a revenue perspective always keeping margin in mind
• Final responsibility for year-over-year account growth in alignment with established growth targets
• Active participant in new business planning, agency capability expansions, resourcing decisions, and financial discussions
• Champion for all internal financial processes and for teams being vigilant about project budgets and agency fees.
• Think: Need, Hours, Resources
• Always come with a solution
• Evaluate needs for freelance resources, monitoring department utilization and budgeted hours.
• Maintain overall accountability for on time and on budget delivery of work