Job Description
Location: Exeter, Devon
Role: Senior Client Manager
Our Business:
Buddy is an award-winning brand design agency based in the heart of Exeter. We create strong, memorable and effective brand ideas across a broad range of design disciplines for clients large and small. We’re small and (almost!) perfectly formed – employing four creatives, including our two Founders David and Mark, who have strong design pedigrees from their early careers in London agencies.
After ten years in business we have a great list of clients including Sharps Brewery, Cornish Orchards, NHS Devon, Wiltshire Chilli Farm, Southwestern Distillery and local entrepreneurs offering them creative solutions to their brand challenges.
Our culture, as you would expect, is creative; friendly and vibrant and collectively we pride ourselves on the award winning quality of design work we produce for all our clients.
Reason for the Role:
We’ve done a good job of getting the business to where it is today, but we’d like to grow more, and to do this we realise we need to introduce some specialist skills into the business. Top of the list is someone with client service and commercial nous to help cultivate and grow our existing client relationships and to energetically help us find new business.
This is an excellent opportunity for a dynamic, hungry, design and brand literate client services professional to lead our commercial endeavours and to grow as we do at the heart of the business and with the potential to be part of the leadership team in time.
The Role:
You will work alongside the Founders from Day One to understand our clients’ challenges and plan how we can grow our relationships with them – writing and delivering client development plans for each and becoming indispensible to them and their teams. You will have responsibility for project management on some projects if this is needed from time to time, but your energies will mainly be poured into identifying and delivering new project opportunities, both from our current client base, and from new business.
As part of a tight-knit team you will work very closely with the Founders and other creatives, sharing their passion for the creative product we produce and be confident selling it in to clients. You will quickly come to understand the Buddy brand and culture and be comfortable talking about our points of difference, encouraging clients to want to work with us.
Responsibilities:
– Ownership and professionalisation of the client services function at Buddy, bringing positive ideas on how we can up our game in managing and growing positive client relationships and across the business in general.
– Development and delivery of client development plans for key clients (based on a deep understanding of their businesses) in order to deliver against budgeted targets for each and to grow each account with imagination and commercial insight.
– Evaluation of in-bound new business opportunities, leading their conversion where they are deemed exciting and viable and fronting pitches when required.
– Management of creative workflow and scheduling.
– Delivery of key projects which grow our relationships with new and existing clients.
– Delivery of targeted new business activities e.g. attendance at trade shows, speaking engagements, networking, approaching targeted client companies.
– Contribution to the marketing and PR plan for the business to improve our visibility within the SW and beyond.
The Ideal Candidate:
You will have 5-8 years experience in a Client Services role, ideally with Design Agency (or other Agency) experience. You will be both design and brand literate and have a genuine enthusiasm for the ability of design to solve clients’ brand challenges. Personable, driven and highly organised you will feel at home in a small, established team and be excited by the potential to grow the business and develop your career in our environment.
A smart, friendly team player your project management skills will be flawless and you will be as at home with finances and numbers as with presentations and delivering ideas.
Equally happy rolling up your sleeves to help meet client deadlines with the rest of the team, you will also be confident to venture out on your own to represent the business in a variety of settings.
This is a fantastic opportunity for someone with hunger to take the next step and own Client Services within a fantastic small agency, while benefitting from all that the South West has to offer.
Package:
– Competitive Salary
– Bonus of up to 10% of salary based on company and individual performance
– 20 days annual holiday plus Christmas holidays
Please send CV’s and Covering letters
