Business Director in Leeds

Reporting To: Client Services Director

Office Location: BlokHaus, West Park Ring Road, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS16 6QG

About Havas Market

We are Havas Market, part of the Havas Media Network. We believe in the fusion of commerce and performance to drive limitless performance. We break down barriers between commerce and performance to build cohesive multichannel purchase experiences that powerfully combine tech and human flair. Havas Market expertise spans four core specialist services: paid media (PPC, paid social, shopping international), owned (SEO, CRO, content, creative, localisation), commerce (Amazon, Marketplaces, Retail Media, social commerce) and earned (digital PR, social).

Human at Heart: You will respect, empower, and support others, fostering an inclusive workplace and creating meaningful experiences.

Head for Rigour: You will take pride in delivering high-quality, outcome-focused work and continually strive for improvement.

Mind for Flair: You will embrace diversity and bold thinking to craft brilliant, unique solutions.

These behaviours are integral to our culture and for delivering impactful work for our clients and colleagues. Client portfolios will be confirmed during the process but will centre on major retail brands. A strong understanding of omnichannel strategy is essential, including SEO and biddable media. Example clients could include well-known names such as Matalan and Office Shoes. The role would entail the ownership of accounts that generate circa £1m+ in revenue for Havas Market in the UK. Working with the team you will help build media strategies that drive long-term brand growth, audience relevance and meaningful market impact. You will lead creative, planning and strategic teams to develop best-in-class brand media and retail solutions rooted in insights and aligned to commercial goals.

Job Purpose

The Business Director is the most senior lead on client campaigns and is fully responsible for driving business growth and retention across a portfolio of key clients within their client pod. You will collaborate closely with key strategic decision makers on the client side, understand their objectives and advise on how Havas’ range of services and products can grow their business. You are responsible for growing accounts by building trust, educating, solution selling and consulting directly with key clients. You will develop and nurture effective relationships with key stakeholders and be a point of escalation from which you will help facilitate resolution and client satisfaction. You will report on client portfolio activities to your Client Services Director and the management team. You will also advise the management team with ideas on how to improve wider servicing for clients. In your role as a Business Director, you will lead, manage, advise and mentor your pod team members. Support your pod team and yourself by facilitating training, knowledge sharing, and driving positive change across the agency. You will build a personal network of useful contacts within Havas Media Network who can support with solutions to drive client growth.

Key Responsibilities

• Understand clients’ business requirements and propose strategic solutions to help achieve their goals.
• Identify growth and business development opportunities and advocate for the full range of Havas services and technologies.
• Create account plans to grow revenue on your client portfolio and achieve any agreed client retention, growth, and upsell/cross-sell targets.
• Understand industry trends and provide a point of view of how these impact client’s business, investments, and decisions.
• Develop and maintain a strategic level of understanding of each of Havas Market’s services and technology solutions.
• Ensure that portfolio clients are kept up to date with the launch of new services and products.
• Lead strategic review meetings for portfolio campaigns.
• Map out the organisational structure and all relevant stakeholders across portfolio clients and establish relationships with key decision makers through proactive networking.
• Organise and attend relevant Havas or industry events to build relationships with client contacts.
• Identify and build relationships with key stakeholders in other parts of client’s businesses or groups of businesses.
• Maintain effective communication with portfolio clients and campaign teams.
• Close up-sell opportunities to agreed targets and negotiate commercials and contract terms for existing and new services.
• Act as a point of escalation for the client, and facilitate resolution with campaign teams and Heads of Department.
• Report on client portfolio activities to the Client Services Director and the Management Team.
• Make recommendations to the Management Team and Department Managers to improve the customer experience and our service.
• Support, and where appropriate, take the lead on, new business pitches.
• In the event of a contract cancellation, understand the reasons and provide feedback to the Client Services Director and campaign team.
• Lead, coach and mentor your team members, in support of the Client Services Director.
• When necessary, lead in ad hoc one-to-ones.
• Support the Client Services Director, or take the lead on, Client Services dept. projects e.g. key account planning support, agenda setting for Account Director meetings, completion of CRM/Project Management updates, recommendations for improved integration, commercial training for teams etc.
• Lead in recruitment process for new pod team members.

Requirements

• Be a trusted advisor and an ambassador for great client service.
• Excellent client-facing, interpersonal and account management skills with the ability to communicate at all levels within an organisation.
• Have utmost confidence in difficult situations.
• Have demonstrable knowledge and a record of accomplishment of commercial account growth.
• Know your competitor agencies, their strengths, weaknesses and our opportunities.
• Be a strong negotiator.
• Possess a solid understanding of digital marketing channels and services.
• Ability to develop robust client growth plans across your client portfolio with measurable milestones.
• Be a leader of your client pod team, and act as a mentor and emotional leader to other Client Services team members and be a positive support in their learning and development.
• Proven track record in performance media leadership (digital, programmatic, search, social).
• Strong analytical capability with experience shaping reporting and attribution frameworks.
• Media planning and strategy experience: a proven track record of delivering multi-channel media campaigns.
• Leadership presence with clear communication of complex data to clients.