Head of New Business, LIONS Advisory

Head of New Business, LIONS Advisory

We’re looking for a Head of New Business to join our team in London as part of our Advisory function.

Your Role: You will be developing and executing a robust business development strategy, identifying new opportunities, cultivating key relationships, and ensuring alignment with LIONS’ broader strategic objectives.

This is a pivotal leadership role within the LIONS Advisory team, responsible for spearheading the development and execution of strategies to acquire new clients and expand market presence. This role requires a deep understanding of the industry landscape, a strong ability to identify and engage prospective clients, and a knack for tailoring solutions that align with their strategic challenges.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop a global sales strategy and an Advisory specific sales framework to execute the strategy to achieve:
  • New business revenue and billings targets
  • Sales pipeline conversion ratio of 60% or above
• Lead, mentor, and develop a global business development team, fostering a culture of accountability, innovation, and excellence by:
  • Setting challenging targets in place for team members.
  • Regular joint meetings and 121s
• Engage with senior decision-makers to understand their business challenges and present bespoke consulting solutions, positioning LIONS Advisory as a strategic partner. You will achieve this by:
  • Developing market and industry knowledge and an understanding of the needs of prospect organizations.
  • Ensuring that there are client stakeholder maps and client specific strategies in place for existing clients where there are new BD opportunities and new clients, industries and geographies
• Monitor and analyse key data metrics, performance and insights related to revenue growth, client acquisition, and market penetration and use this data to renew strategies and ensure consistent performance improvement.
• Input into business strategy and annual business planning process, working with other departments to ensure an effective sales plan is in place when new products and services are launched to drive leads for the new team.
• Collaborate with delivery teams to ensure smooth project initiation and exceptional client experience by:
  • Holding cross functional meetings to ensure collaboration across proposal development.
  • Ensuring Delivery teams understand client specific strategies.
  • Ensuring commercial best practice is a golden thread in all processes.
  • Following existing or developing new best practice for pipeline management, sales activities and CRM uptake and use.
• Work with marketing and thought leadership teams to create compelling content and campaigns that resonate with prospective clients, measured by:
  • Share of voice in industry media.
  • % of inbound leads from thought leadership activities.
  • Conversion rate of leads from content to opportunities.
• Represent the business at industry events, conferences, and forums to strengthen its reputation as a thought leader.

Your Experience

• Previous experience in either Consulting, Strategy and/or Proposition Development.
• Experience in the Creative industry is preferred but not required.
• Has experience in working with revenue targets of £20m+.
• Proven sales team management.
• Proven experience developing strategy, commercial business cases, financial models and reporting to a senior executive audience.
• Proven track record of managing a portfolio of products with high average order values.
• Commercial growth mindset, with demonstrated experience in driving strategic initiatives to have a direct P&L impact.
• Proactive with a self-starter / can-do attitude, with ability to form strong working relationships with all levels of the organization.
• Ability to analyse market data and identify growth opportunities.
• Experience using CRM systems.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, including excellent written, oral, listening, and presentational.
• Ability to work well under pressure and influence at all levels as a thought-partner.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, complex and dynamic environment with significant change, ambiguity and adapting to evolving organizational requirements.

If you don’t meet every single requirement, we’d still encourage you to apply. At LIONS , we are committed to creating a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace, so if you are excited about this role we would still like you to apply.

Who are we?

LIONS Division showcases global best practice in creativity, effective and impactful marketing. We set the global benchmark in creative and effective marketing and, through our insight and advisory services, enable brands and their partners to reach and exceed it.

We provide a suite of solutions that connect, inform and unlock potential for people and businesses, covering events, intelligence, training and advisory services. Our five-day Festival in Cannes, France is the meeting place for the global marketing community and a celebration of the world’s most excellent and effective work.

LIONS Division is part of Ascential. Ascential takes the world’s leading brands to the heart of what’s next for their industries. We do this through our events, intelligence products and advisory services. Our 700+ people serve a global customer base from more than 100 countries in the large and growing Marketing and Financial Technology sectors. Ascential is part of the Informa Group.

Why Choose Us?

Two divisions. Three continents. One great culture – we want working for Ascential to be the best career move you’ve ever made.

Ascential is a people-powered company, and we’re committed to supporting diversity, equity and inclusion . We publish an annual DEI Report, setting out our goals and progress. We invest in Employee Groups including Able to Thrive, Ascential Pride, Black in Business and Empower Women’s Network. And our inclusive recruitment practices and early talent programmes help us to bring curious, passionate people from every walk of life into our team.

We’re committed to ensuring that the impact of our business on our environment – and the communities we operate in – is a positive one. That means making sure that each event we run is the most sustainable it’s ever been. We also default all of our pension plans to sustainable options, so that our people’s savings are invested in ways that help rather than hinder our planet.

Helping people to connect and drive progress isn’t a business-only goal. We know that the world is a better place when we lead with heart, so we support charitable causes that make a difference. We provide opportunities to give back through Volunteer Days and our charity partnership with Media Trust.

We value output, not hours. Most of our roles ask for 1-2 days a week in your nearest office. But if that’s not possible for you, let’s talk. Flexible work conversations are actively encouraged here.

Only you know what’s most important to you. That’s why we offer a benefits and wellbeing package that you can tailor to your needs. Some of these include:

• 25 days of holiday per year – with an option to buy/sell up to 5 days.
• Pension, Life Assurance and Income Protection.
• Access to either our commission, bonus or profit share schemes, dependent on the role.
• Flexible benefits platform with options including Private Medical, Dental Insurance, Critical Illness and the Ascential Shares Scheme.
• Employee assistance programme, season ticket loans and cycle to work scheme.
• Volunteering opportunities and charitable giving options.

• Learning and development opportunities, to encourage and empower everyone to grow.

We want to ensure everyone has the opportunity to perform their best when interviewing, so if you require any reasonable adjustments that would make you more comfortable during the process, please let us know so that we can do our best to support you.

If we inspire you, why not join and inspire us? Find out more

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