Client Services Team Leader

About the role

Reporting to the Head of Operations, your role will span the following areas:

• Team leadership
• Client delivery
• Team training and development
• Commercial performance of the Account Management team
• Hiring
• Sales

Team leadership

An intangible, but crucial part of the role will be leading those around you to do their best work.

• Setting an example with everything you do – from client communication through to deliverables through to handling difficult situations
• Understanding that you’re always “on stage” when it comes to your team
• Dealing with problems in a thoughtful, logical way – even when your team are struggling
• Knowing when to let your team vent to you and when to bring them back to the issues that need to be fixed
• Knowing the balance between supporting your team and delivering against the objectives of the company

Objective – increase staff happiness and retention.

Client delivery

You will oversee the delivery of all your teams work at Aira, ensuring that all work is delivered on-time, on-budget and helps clients meet their business objectives. This will include supporting your team to:

• Understand their client objectives, business model and priorities
• Create a digital marketing strategy, utilizing the appropriate resources within Aira and the client’s team
• Communicate effectively with clients to the level they expect, keeping the up to date with work, progress and reporting

Objective – increase client retention.

Team training and development

You will support your team with their training, development and progression plans. This will be a key part of your role and an area where you will be expected to give your team as much support and freedom to grow as possible. This will include:

• Setting clear objectives to help them grow their skill set and experience in a way that adds value for their career and to Aira
• Identifying areas where shared or individual training (external or internal) would be needed
• Where appropriate, supporting your team to market themselves by blogging, running internal training and speaking at conferences

Objective – increase team happiness and broaden their skillset.

Commercial performance

Aira is a business and has to make profit in order to allow us to grow and provide our team with the salaries, working environment and support that they need. Your role will take on accountability for the profitability of the projects that your team manages. This will include:

• Understanding the drivers of profit for Aira and our business model
• Knowing when it’s “ok” to be less profitable on a project in favour of other benefits to Aira
• Reviewing the time we spend on projects vs. the revenue it generates
• Identifying areas where we are under or over delivering for clients and working with Account Managers to make changes where required
• Ensuring that commercial performance and profit is understood by your team

Objective – ensure that all projects are being delivered in a profitable way.

Hiring

You will lead the hiring process for new members of your team. This will include:

• Identifying when more resource is needed within your team, including being able to see gaps in skill sets
• Leading the interview process and involving other members of your team when required
• Understanding the cost of hiring to Aira and taking this into account when making decisions
• Having an eye for spotting talent

Objective – grow the team with new talent with each new hire adding more value to your team and Aira as a whole.

Sales

You will play a leading role in the sales process, with a strong focus on cross-selling and up-selling to existing clients. You will also work on new business leads where required. This will include:

• Working with your team to help them understand how to spot up-sell and cross-sell opportunities – but always keeping the client’s best interests and interests in mind
• Proactively digging into key accounts to understand where we can help them meet their business objectives with different (or more) services
• Working with the Head of Operations and Head of Content and PR to fully understand all of our services

Objective – increase revenue from existing clients.

About you

• You will have at least three years experience in a digital marketing role, ideally within an agency
• You will have experience working directly with clients and stakeholders to deliver digital marketing campaigns and be able to demonstrate the results you’ve achieved
• You will have line managed a team and have day-to-day experience of supporting those around you
• You will have strong account management/project management experience involving the delivery of digital projects with lots of moving parts and stakeholders
• You will be very comfortable talking about SEO, PPC, social media and digital PR
• Experience defining and delivering digital marketing strategies and mapping these strategies to business objectives
• Ability to pitch ideas and get stakeholder buy-in for new ideas and initiatives

What you’ll get

We believe in creating a great place to work and reward our team for contributing to the growth of the company. As well as a relaxed, supportive environment, you’ll get:

• Unlimited (yes, unlimited) annual leave
• A new shiny MacBook
• A big second screen
• Team lunch at Nandos on your first day (and random days after that!)
• Your birthday off
• Endless supply of tea, coffee and biscuits
• Regular personal development and concrete plans on how you can progress and grow within the company
• Free parking permit in central Milton Keynes
• Opportunities to speak at industry events and our own MKGO event
• Mental health in the workplace support thanks to our partnership with Sanctus

Salary is negotiable but we’re expecting to offer in the region of £40k-£45k DOE.

About Aira

We’re a relatively small, fast growing agency based in Milton Keynes specialising in digital marketing, web design and development. Our clients range from small local businesses to large companies around the world in the US, Europe and Australia. We’re at an exciting stage of growth with new projects starting all the time and big opportunities for the right people.