Associate Director Business Development -Asset Management, London

Years of experience: 10-15 Years in Business Development. This position requires travel.

JOB PURPOSE

Acuity Analytics is looking for an experienced candidate, based in London, who can sell outsourcing services to Asset Managers and Insurance firms. You must possess a strong hunting and sales acumen with a good track record of originating, qualifying and closing deals. You will be responsible for developing and executing comprehensive sales strategies to secure and grow long-term, high-value clients. This role requires a consultative approach to open doors at C level, understanding client challenges and priorities and a solution selling approach underpinned by deep industry knowledge, tenacity and ability to navigate complex B2B sales cycles is a key requirement. Prior experience of having worked in a Front Office role for Bank or Asset Manager is desirable. Acuity’s proposition to Asset Managers (including traditional Investment Managers investing in Public & Private assets, Wealth managers and Hedge Funds) firms is to unlock scaled front and middle office processes through centralisation (offshoring) and leveraging technology / automation. This is a quota carrying sales role which involves full sales cycle from originating, pitching the concept, creating pipeline, deal closure and ongoing account management. Both the proposition and the model are widely proven across asset managers & insurers globally.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Run high quality Enterprise sales cycles, including:
• Develop and implement detailed account plans and go-to-market strategies tailored to the unique needs and business goals of each client.
• Identifying and initiating new sales opportunities by prospecting new clients.
• Leveraging existing client relationships and networks to generate commercial interest.
• Qualification and generating qualified pipeline on an ongoing basis.
• Creating compelling value propositions mapped to client business needs.
• Negotiating and Closing complex agreements.
• Assigned quota to be attained through opening new doors and focus primarily on new logo hunting and selling of offshoring services such as:
• Investment Research support aligned to Buy Side Compliance (Investment guideline coding and monitoring, marketing material review, email monitoring).
• Implementation and services around Asset Management platforms such as Charles River, Sentinel etc.
• Pitch to the front office Head of Research / Chief Investment Officer / Chief Operations Chief Technology Officer / other CXO levels to build a broad vision of the Acuity capabilities and associated benefits.
• Ensure complete client coverage by leveraging the global delivery model and calling upon the support of subject matter specialists and pre-sales teams based in offshore locations such as India, Sri Lanka.
• Use CRM systems (e.g., Salesforce) to track sales activity, monitor performance metrics, and provide accurate sales forecasts and reports to management.

KEY COMPETENCIES

• Bachelors/master's degree (or equivalent) in Finance, Economics or related area is preferred.
• Experience selling services to decision makers within Asset Managers is highly desirable.
• Hunter DNA: ambition, sense of urgency, confidence, perseverance, optimism, resilience, and the ability and desire to influence others.
• Regional focus on UK and Continental Europe for the mentioned segments (asset managers and insurance).
• Relevant regional experience is good to have.
• Understanding the different stages of sales activity like creation of sales leads, qualifying prospects, transactions etc. and ability to move from one stage to another.
• Fluency in European languages like French and German highly desirable.