Key Account Director in Southampton

Location: Home-based with UK travel

Salary: Package of £100k+ (including base salary, commission, and car allowance)

Contract Type: Full Time, Permanent

What We Can Offer You: Hybrid Working, Life Assurance, Vitality Private Healthcare, Additional Holiday Purchase, Health Cash Plan, Subsidised Gym Memberships, Cycle to Work scheme, Discount Vouchers, and Access to Wellbeing Resources!

Why Do We Want You? Mercia Group, part of Wilmington Plc are looking for a high-performing, commercially-minded individual to manage and grow relationships with our largest clients and strategic partners. This is a high-impact role with accountability for over £8m in revenues, requiring strategic thinking, strong commercial acumen, and the ability to inspire and lead a team.

Main Purpose of the Role: Your role will be to manage and grow relationships with our largest clients and strategic partners, including top accountancy firms, group heads, and key industry partners such as software providers and training organisations. You will proactively manage accounts, identify opportunities, and ensure strong client retention, while collaborating with the Senior Leadership Team, sales, and marketing to build a pipeline of new strategic partnerships. Staying close to clients’ businesses, you will provide insights, anticipate needs, and remain informed about changes in the accountancy industry to understand their impact on your portfolio.

Key Tasks and Responsibilities:

• Drive growth and retention of revenues within your portfolio.
• Develop and leverage commercial and strategic partnerships to contribute to Mercia's wider growth strategy.
• Work closely with a designated Client Success Manager to ensure world-class service for strategic clients and partners.
• Form and maintain strategic B2B partnerships; demonstrate solution-selling expertise in regulated industries (accountancy, legal services, or education).
• Manage your time and workload efficiently to meet activity targets; proficiently use tools such as Zoom, MS Teams, and maintain accurate CRM records.
• Line manage and support a small team of Key Account Managers.
• Prioritise and target activities within your portfolio to maximise account potential.
• Negotiate commercially with clients, partners, and procurement teams to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes, consulting legal teams as necessary.
• Build and maintain a pipeline of opportunities that grows year on year.
• Collaborate with the product division on new solutions, pricing, and go-to-market materials.
• Support the wider sales team in commercial negotiations, proposals, and client contracting.
• Accurately capture and record client and partner interactions in Salesforce and other systems.
• Convert proposals into successful deals and track performance metrics (conversion rates, pipeline growth, revenue retention/win).
• Build internal networks to leverage expertise across Mercia.
• Log client feedback, requests, and insights with the Product Department.

What’s the Best Thing About This Role? You will be at the heart of Mercia’s strategic growth, shaping partnerships with some of the biggest names in the accountancy profession while leading a small team and influencing the wider sales strategy.

What’s the Most Challenging Thing About This Role? Managing a high-value portfolio with multiple stakeholders and complex negotiations requires commercial agility, proactive problem-solving, and the ability to balance long-term strategy with day-to-day operational demands.

What We’re Looking For: To be successful in this role, you must:

• Build and maintain strong relationships across all departments and divisions, acting as a trusted, high-profile point of contact within the organisation.
• Stay ‘on the pulse’ of the business, identifying opportunities for strategic partnerships to drive growth.
• Positive, diligent, and focused on commercial growth through client need identification and problem-solving.
• Strong team player, willing to share best practices and support colleagues.
• Demonstrates sales ‘role model’ behaviour and inspires the wider sales team.
• Able to travel across the UK (and occasionally further afield); attend regular internal meetings in Leicester and London.

To be successful in this role, it would be great if you have:

• Previous sales experience in the accountancy industry.

We know it’s not a skill, but the successful candidate must have permission to work in the role’s location by the start of their employment.

About us: Mercia Group, part of Wilmington plc, a leading provider of information, education, and networking services. At Mercia, we support accountancy firms across the UK with high-quality training, content, and resources. By joining our team, you’ll be part of a forward-thinking business that values curiosity, collaboration, and continuous growth.

Join us and do Work That Means Something: At Wilmington plc, we help global customers to do the right business in the right way - providing trusted data, insights, and education to navigate the Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) landscape. When you join us, you’ll not only make a real difference for our customers, you’ll also enjoy flexibility through hybrid working and benefit from a wide range of learning, career, and development opportunities. Whether you're just starting out, returning to work after a break, or looking to take your next step, you’ll be doing work with meaning. Join us and make a real difference. Click on “APPLY” today!