Senior Account Manager in London

We are Dentsu B2B, one of the biggest and most successful B2B agencies in the world, and further part of the incredible Dentsu parent groups. Since our establishment as a global end-to-end, best-in-class B2B agency, we are growing at a rapid and exciting pace. You will be joining a team of over 1,000 B2B specialists globally, acting as agency of record for some of the biggest and most exciting B2B brands in the world where we provide service across our many practice areas, including Media, Creative, Insights and more. But don’t just take our word for it – we’ve recently won The Drum’s Best Large B2B agency award.

At DB2B, we are determined to be the best - and we know that only comes from having the best people on our teams. So, as we progress and develop as a company, you will too. Within our fast-growing network, there’s plenty of opportunity to develop your skillset through market-leading training schemes, including our proprietary Merkle University courses. You’ll be encouraged to be curious, to share new ideas and to be innovative and bold – we believe great ideas should come from everyone in the team. To that end we’re also actively engaged in ensuring DEI is at the heart of what we think, say and do.

In exchange for your contribution to our award-winning company, we make sure you’ll find the right work-life balance - mental wellness is incredibly important to us so we ensure everyone takes advantage of their generous holiday allowance as well as several additional Wellness Days each year - additional days off which are enjoyed by everyone within the Dentsu group. We know right now that the ability to work remotely is as important as the ability to come together face-to-face as a team and agency, so we have enabled each team to build bespoke charters to identify the rhythm and cadence of when it will add value to be in the office collaborating round a table and when it’s useful to work from where suits you – all with the goal of driving success for our clients, our teams and our agency in the smartest ways possible.

We’re really proud of our company values and culture, and we want you to feel fully part of that fantastic community, something we celebrate in our regular company and team socials.

The Role

The Senior Account Manager (SAM) role is responsible for leading planning across client accounts within their portfolio. Taking a key role in successful delivery of campaigns, they will demonstrate best-in-class media planning across multiple media channels, and great client management. They will likely be managing at least one Account Executive and/or Account Manager whom they will help develop and grow the skillset of, whilst also ensuring their own development. The SAM will be used to working at pace across several simultaneous projects either within one account or more likely across multiple accounts. They will have developed their experience across both the brand and demand gen sides of the business and be continually investigating new opportunities, new partners and new tactics to test out for clients. Their desire to ensure fresh thinking is brought to plans will continue to fuel the building of a strong network of contacts with media partners, established and new. Further they will work closely with other channel teams, strategists and external agencies to ensure the smooth delivery, activation, reporting and optimisation of campaigns for clients.

The Key Responsibilities

• Own campaign delivery, from RTB, planning, activation, reporting and optimisation of campaigns for clients.
• Build strong relationships with campaign leads on the client side, and become a trusted source of quality RTBs and plan delivery.
• Build a strong network of media partner relationships – both with key, established media partners and new and upcoming partners to test.
• Manage the stakeholders (internal and external) required for successful delivery of campaign – from other channel teams to analytics teams, to creative agencies, PR agencies etc.
• Build an exciting and dynamic presentation style to help sell in plans and proposals to clients.
• Supporting, training and mentoring of the Account Executives and/or Account Managers they are in charge of, in delivering all campaign planning and implementation.
• Create insightful and action orientated insights based on data analysis to drive recommendations, optimisations and expansion of campaigns with clients.
• Supporting the account leads and/or the wider agency leadership team with projects as required, including new business pitching, presentations, dentsu B2B product development and award entries.
• Immerses self and team in clients’ business: understanding their challenges, objectives, external economic environment, markets they operate in, competitive threats and relevant partner agencies; knows client’s products inside out and applies this knowledge to deliver innovative, ambitious client plans and service.

The Key Behaviours

• Takes on challenging projects/problems and creates project plans and processes that get things moving.
• Holds self and others accountable to meeting high standards, does not let deadlines slip, and provides guidance to ensure standards are met and delivered.
• Knows who their broader stakeholder group are and ensures they are kept informed appropriately, both internally within the team or across the business and amongst clients.
• Is willing to check in with the team on projects/tasks being worked on individually and as a team, to encourage collaboration, upskilling and room for feedback from broader stakeholders.
• Understands client’s marketing strategy and objectives, how all the op-cos can help deliver that and is able to represent them to the client.
• Stays calm & helps the team and clients navigate significant change/frustration.
• Finds the right balance of constructive challenge and adaptation when faced with opposition (be that driven by clients, team or leadership).
• Steps back from current problems to see future implications to avoid risk & benefit from opportunities.
• Asks the non-obvious questions to get at underlying issues.
• Looks across DB2B & Dentsu to find the right people to deliver against client needs.
• Works with the Client Lead to set clear direction for the team, focuses them not just on today but on longer-term plans.
• Develops self and people to ensure they can deliver (technical training, client servicing, team leadership).
• Gives balanced feedback and recognition.
• Sets realistic forecasts and spots opportunities for cross-selling.
• Sees patterns in data, understands what it means and translates into action plans.
• Creates helpful client proposals on a range of topics, not just their own brand/area/expertise.
• Willing to support outside of campaign and day-to-day requests to help grow and improve team and clients’ ways of working.

The Key Skills & Experience

• Ability to own campaign delivery from start to end.
• Manage multiple stakeholders, from internal teams, to external agencies and of course clients.
• Multi-task across several projects/workstreams and likely across multiple accounts.
• Extremely well organised, ensures that deadlines are met, calls and meetings are on time, meeting notes are captured and circulated etc.
• As keen to create development opportunities for the Account Exec(s) they are managing as they are for themselves.
• Takes on challenging projects/problems and creates plans that get things moving.
• Finds the right balance of constructive challenge and adaptation when faced with opposition (be that driven by clients, team or leadership).
• Is able to manage down and up to balance getting tasks done and bringing in support as needed.
• Delegates appropriately and does not try to do everything themselves.
• Spots potential opportunities for cross-selling.
• Sees patterns in data, understands what it means and translates into action plans.
• Knows who their broader stakeholder group are and ensures they are kept informed.
• Creates helpful client proposals on a range of topics, not just their own brand/area/expertise.
• Understands client’s marketing strategy and objectives.

A few of the benefits

• You’ll have a great compensation package, private health & dental insurance, corporate discounts and career development through Dentsu University, and free access to LinkedIn learning.
• 29+ days of annual leave (25 days of regular holidays, birthdays off and 3 additional wellness days).
• We also offer the opportunity to volunteer for up to 2 days per year and tend to close down the agency between Christmas and New Years.
• You’ll have a hybrid working schedule, with flexible start/end hours.

Inclusion and Diversity

Our diverse and inclusive culture enables our employees to bring their whole selves to work and be proud of doing so. For us, this is the foundation for great innovation which, in turn, generates better outcomes for our people, partners and communities. This is why we encourage applications from people with disabilities, and of all ages, nationalities, backgrounds and cultures. We are happy to discuss flexible and agile approaches to working for all our roles – we can’t promise we will be able to offer you everything you want or need but we do promise to discuss it with you openly and honestly. If you have any reasonable adjustment needs arising from a disability or medical condition to fully participate in the recruitment process, please discuss this with our recruitment teams.