Account Executive

Department: Commercial

Location: London

Salary: £30,000

Deadline: 06.04.2023

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Role Summary

The CBI is the UK’s leading business membership organisation. We provide our members with the influence, insight and access they need to plan ahead with confidence. We represent their views as we work with policymakers to deliver a healthy environment for businesses to succeed, create jobs and ultimately, drive economic growth and prosperity.

The CBI represents a large portfolio of SME (small and medium sized enterprises) businesses. Our SME team manage relationships with this cohort that provides the CBI with its unrivalled mandate to speak for businesses across the economy and reach into the business community. This role will primarily support the relationships with the SME member community.

The role holder will have a range of responsibilities and supporting an ambitious program of events and activities as part of the SME member proposition. They will also provide account management support – including enhancing our member service, support marketing & sales, content development, project management and communications, together with opportunities to lead and take initiative.

This role is unique in the opportunities it presents for working across the breadth of the CBI areas, engaging with senior stakeholders internally and within member organisations, government and civil service positions, and supporting the facilitation of events in the UK and internationally.

You’ll need to be comfortable thinking on your feet and adapting to a fast-paced, politically driven work environment and driving forward the delivery of priorities with a high degree of autonomy. Your project management skills will help keep us on track amidst competing priorities. This is a fantastic opportunity to develop commercial skills as well as your understanding of the political and policy landscape of the UK.

Key Responsibilities

Supporting best in class sales & account management

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  Driving increased membership retention and satisfaction of members, working closely with the Head of SME’s, Policy, Economics, Trade Association and Sector / Regional team colleagues
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  Tracking engagement, policy developments, member news and issues of interest to members to inform lobbying strategy and briefings.
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  Develop a strong understanding of the political and economic environment, assisting the Head of SME’s role as the ‘go-to’ liaison point between SME’s and the CBI.
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  Working with the Head of SME’s to ensure that CBI supports members’ business goals, as well as ensuring members are kept informed of CBI activities in areas of relevance, driving retention.
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  Ensuring that the work of the team is uploaded to CBI internal communications systems (eg CRM)
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  Managing internal comms between the team and other CBI functions
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  Helping to co-ordinate team external comms, member updates and social media presence
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  Liaise with CBI finance team to assist with account management planning and invoicing
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  Work with the Head of SMEs to manage the relationship with the Marketing team, supporting the development of the marketing strategy/plan, including creation of marketing mailing lists and copy for marketing materials
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  Building and maintaining relationships with CBI target members to facilitate the sales process and ensure future sales opportunities are maximised
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  Follow up on sales leads, having conversations with members and prospective participants, articulating the objectives and business benefits of membership
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  Creating/maintaining leads and sales trackers

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  Provide logistical and administrative support for a programme of policy events, networking opportunities and intelligence sharing. These include the CBI’s SME engagement programme and a range of standing and one-off events. This would include creating marketing lists, managing invites and RSVPs and on the day logistics.
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  Attend events to ensure smooth operation, act as a scribe and provide support to the online facilitators.
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  Compile and distribute the weekly Trade Association member updates and plan and deliver the Monthly Trade association newsletter
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  Provide support arranging and co-ordinating member and prospect meetings

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  Prioritise, organise and maintain diaries and appointments with flexible approach to deal with the unexpected (e.g. diary conflict)
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  Act as interface with offices of senior business, stakeholder and government contacts
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  Support the Associate Director, co-ordinating workflow in their absence and ensuring colleagues take action
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  Organise and co-ordinate meetings, ensuring effective time management of appointments and regularly communicate with Policy colleagues with regards to meetings arranged on their behalf
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  Booking and arranging of travel and forward planning of logistics for all relevant meetings

Knowledge & Experience

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  Communicating with and managing complex stakeholders, such as senior execs and sponsors
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  Sourcing and consolidating information from multiple sources and turning into briefing documents and presentations for a senior audience
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  Understanding of current policy issues and the policy initiatives of the CBI
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  Managing sales and marketing for a variety of events and CRM systems
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  Events administration, communications and logistics
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  Running email campaigns and advertising/promotion through social media.
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  Commercially-minded, with a focus on delivering positive returns
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  Ambitious, able to take initiative and be a team player, with a positive and friendly approach
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  Comfortable working in a virtual / online environment, including meeting / event facilitation and providing support for virtual meeting platforms (Webex, Microsoft Teams)

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  Interested in current affairs, including business and politics
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  Experience of Microsoft Dynamics CRM
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  Good working knowledge of membership organisations

Skills

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  Great attention to detail, strong planning and organisation skills and the ability to manage own workloads to agreed deadlines
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  First rate written communication skills; clear and concise with a focus on customers and outcomes
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  Advanced MS Office suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint)
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  Strong interpersonal skills, ability to communicate confidently and network with senior internal stakeholders, members and programme participants
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  Able to quickly understand complex issues and translate information into briefing materials and presentations

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  Copywriting skills for external communications
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  Experienced facilitator of / presenter at training sessions or meetings

Benefits

• Flexible working patterns
• 25 days annual leave with an additional 3 at Christmas
• Private Medical cover
• 8% pension contribution
• Enhanced family leave policies including –
• Time off for IVF
• No qualifying period
• 3 months fully paid paternity
• 6 months fully paid maternity and shared parental leave
• All family leave policies are matched for those growing their family through surrogacy or adoption
• Complimentary moving day
• Additional leave and support for domestic abuse or menopause
• Access to discounts and EAP

At the CBI, we are committed to building a culture of belonging and inclusion. We know that talent is everywhere and so we welcome applications from people regardless of age, disability status, ethnicity, gender, marital status, religion or belief, sexual orientation, socio-economic background, or caring responsibilities. We support flexible working as we want our employees to achieve a healthy work-life balance.

Please be advised that we have an appointed recruitment partner, The Curve Group, to manage our recruitment process and give candidates the best possible experience in pursuing a career with the CBI. The personal details you have shared with us may be processed by The Curve Group on behalf of the CBI. Full details of their Privacy Policy can be viewed by using this link https://www.thecurvegroup.co.uk/privacy-polcy/