Strategic Accounts Director

Job Title: Strategic Accounts Director

Department: Sales

Location: TBC (Travel to customer sites nationwide as required) 

Reports to: Sales Director – Account Management

Direct Reports: A team of Senior Account Managers

Role Purpose 

The Strategic Accounts Director is responsible for the commercial performance, retention and growth of Air's most complex, high-value and strategically important customer portfolio. Reporting to the Sales Director - Account Management, the role carries direct accountability for revenue, gross profit, net revenue retention, customer growth, forecasting accuracy and churn.

Leading a team of Senior Account Managers, the Strategic Accounts Director will establish and embed best practice strategic account management across Air, including account planning, executive relationship management, value realisation, customer governance and growth planning. The role will personally sponsor key customer relationships, proactively identify opportunities to strengthen customer outcomes and ensure strategic risks are effectively managed.

Key Responsibilities 

• Drive customer value. Ensure Air delivers measurable business value across the strategic client portfolio, strengthening customer advocacy, retention and long-term growth.

·       Set the strategic-account agenda. Define and embed a consistent, high-quality account management operating model covering segmentation, account planning, executive sponsorship, opportunity governance, risk management and performance reviews.

• Own the number. Hold accountability for revenue, gross profit, net revenue retention, growth and churn across the strategic client portfolio.

·       Lead complex, strategically important clients. Personally sponsor priority customers and ensure every strategic account has a current, strategic account plan linking customer business priorities, desired outcomes and value realisation objectives to relationship coverage, service performance, retention risks, growth opportunities, commercial targets and time-bound actions.

·       Build C-suite relationships. Establish trusted relationships with customer executives and mobilise Air’s own C-suite and senior leaders to provide effective sponsorship, challenge, decision-making and investment support.

·       Drive proactive thought leadership. Bring relevant market insight, technology perspectives and commercially grounded ideas to customers before requirements are formally defined, helping shape strategic priorities, unlock new opportunities and strengthen customer value.

·       Accelerate profitable growth. Build and convert multi-year growth plans across managed IT, cloud, cybersecurity and modern workplace services, with disciplined ownership of whitespace, pipeline coverage, qualification, conversion, margin and realised customer value.

·       Lead complex commercial activity. Direct major renewals, negotiations, competitive tenders, transformation programmes and high-value growth opportunities, ensuring propositions are differentiated, value-led and commercially robust.

·       Prevent avoidable churn. Establish an early-warning discipline for commercial, relationship and service risk; require documented prevention and recovery plans; and escalate material exposure promptly with clear executive ownership.

·       Lead through data and insight. Own the integrity of CRM data, pipeline, forecasts, account-health assessments and executive reporting, ensuring every reported position is timely, evidence-based, reconcilable and supported by clear actions.

·       Align the organisation around the client. Partner with internal teams such as service, professional services, product, marketing, and finance to align delivery, investment, innovation and commercial priorities around each strategic customer.

·       Build a high-performing team. Lead, coach and hold Senior Account Managers to account through clear scorecards, regular deal and account reviews, direct feedback, targeted development and decisive performance management.

Measures of Success

·       Delivery of portfolio revenue, gross profit, net revenue retention and growth targets.

·       Churn maintained within agreed tolerance, with all material risks supported by current prevention or recovery plans.

·       Forecast, pipeline and CRM reporting delivered accurately, on time and with clear evidence behind assumptions.

·       Strategic-account plans, executive sponsorship and relationship coverage maintained to the required standard across the portfolio.

·       Healthy qualified pipeline coverage and conversion of proactive, insight-led growth opportunities.

·       Improved Account Director capability, consistency and performance against agreed individual scorecards.

Skills and Experience

Essential Skills and Experience

·       Extensive senior strategic sales, account management or customer-growth leadership experience within a managed service provider, technology or IT services organisation.

·       A strong record of leading complex, high-value and strategically important client relationships involving multiple services, stakeholders, commercial structures and delivery dependencies.

·       Demonstrable ownership and delivery of a significant portfolio number, including revenue, gross profit, net revenue retention, growth, forecast and churn measures.

·       Established credibility with external customer C-suite stakeholders and the ability to influence internal executive, operational, technical and commercial leaders.

·       Proven track record of delivering sales, growth and retention targets across a significant customer portfolio, with direct accountability for revenue, gross profit, net revenue retention, forecasting accuracy and churn.

·       Evidence of using thought leadership, market insight and technology perspectives to shape customer strategy, generate demand and create material, multi-year growth opportunities.

·       Deep expertise in strategic account planning, executive governance, stakeholder mapping, opportunity strategy, complex negotiations, renewals and churn prevention.

·       Strong commercial and financial acumen, including pricing, margin, contract risk, investment cases, deal governance and value-based selling.

·       A disciplined, data-led management approach with a track record of improving CRM integrity, forecast accuracy, pipeline quality and executive reporting.

·       Proven success building, coaching and holding senior sales or account management teams to account for both behaviours and results.

Desirable Skills and Experience

·       Strong understanding of the UK MSP market and the commercial application of Microsoft 365, Azure, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, modern workplace and managed support services.

·       Experience designing or scaling strategic-account programmes, customer segmentation and executive-sponsorship models across multiple teams or locations.

·       Experience leading major transformation programmes, competitive tenders, complex renewals or multi-year managed service agreements.

·       Familiarity with enterprise CRM, customer-success, account-planning and business-intelligence tools used to govern a strategic portfolio.

Qualifications / Education

·       Relevant professional qualifications or equivalent experience.

·       Relevant technology, cloud or cybersecurity certifications are advantageous but not essential.

Behavioural Competencies / Alignment to Air Values

·       Genuinely Care: Strategic customer stewardship – Understands the customer’s business, builds trusted relationships and ensures that we always fulfil our promise.

·       Work Together: Enterprise leadership – Creates alignment across cross-functional teams within Air to ensure the best outcomes for customers.

·       Keep Being Better: Insight and innovation – Challenges established thinking, brings improved ways of working and thinking to create value.

·       Talent leadership – Sets demanding but clear standards, coaches with purpose and builds a team capable of operating at a strategic level.

Ready to Make an Impact?

If you are an accomplished strategic sales leader who is comfortable owning the number, operating credibly at C-suite level and creating growth through insight, discipline and exceptional client leadership, we would like to hear from you. Join Air and set the standard for how we grow, retain and deepen our most important customer partnerships.