Role: Key Account Manager  - Chemical Sector 

Location: UK Flexible/ Home-based

Salary range: £45,000 - £65,000

Role ID: 2023 - 1833

Ricardo is looking for a passionate and experienced key / strategic account manager who is focused on developing and growing the relationships and corresponding order book within around 50 strategic accounts with a suite of sustainability, emergency response, and regulatory compliance solutions within the chemical industry

Ricardo have a strong pedigree within the chemical sector. We have a growing focus on sustainability and decarbonisation solutions, and a 50 year legacy through operating the National Chemical Emergency Centre (NCEC) of response, chemical safety and compliance solutions, where the majority of our chemical customers work with

The key objective of this role is to provide excellent account management to around 40-50 key / strategic accounts within our chemical profile. The principal level role is to maximise the client relationships to understand and identify business challenges they face across the Ricardo product suite, identify key market and competitor insight and seeking opportunities to up and cross sell our services, whilst maximising customer retention.

This role will form part of Ricardo’s wider Sales Team, reporting to the Head of Account Management and is one of three different levels of roles we are looking for within the account management team

Key accountabilities:

• Relationship Development – the KAM will be working directly with their allocated strategic accounts to develop and expand the relationships we hold within them. The purpose is to work with them to identify business challenges they face across chemical risk and sustainability and create solutions alongside these.
• Account management - The Key Account Manager will help implement specific activities which support the account management strategy; to ensure client satisfaction and efficiency of delivery, communications and service management. There will be an emphasis on external communications in order to raise the profile and leverage cross sell/up sell opportunities
• Engagement- The Key Account Manager will focus on engaging directly with the client base to achieve the above, and also to identify key market insights, including market trends, regulatory challenges and competitor activity. They will input into the business development strategy internally which ensures we are demonstrating our value and differentiation versus our competitors, whilst identifying new product development opportunities.
• Managing risk - They will act on any issues affecting prompt payment, satisfaction, long-term retention, etc. recognising, and where possible, preventing any risks arising from non-standard delivery, working with the respective teams.
• Guidance - The Key Account Manager will liaise with internal teams whose roles relate to service delivery, e.g.: consultants, customer services, product delivery team (emergency responders, procedures, data, accounts) and sales teams to advise and provide guidance on elements of Account Manager enabling others to deliver a high-quality service.

Key competencies and experience:

You should be able to demonstrate the below criteria

• Broad experience of Key Account Management sales and retention best practice.
• Demonstrable experience of quickly establishing relationships within accounts and leveraging relationships to achieve personal and business objectives.
• Experience of navigating organisations to infiltrate at the highest possible level, whilst demonstrating comfort with C-Suite individuals.
• Experience of over-performance against individual account management development and retention targets.
• A professional, organised and disciplined individual who has a proven track record of effectively and efficiently managing a key and strategically important customer base.
• An awareness of how to make effective decisions in a complex delivery environment, balancing the business development objectives with the clients requirements.

Desirable experience

• Experience of working within a consultative sales environment, for example within a consultancy, software, or similar environment.
• Experience in working within a sustainability, risk management, chemical response, regulatory or safety business area.
• Experience working with a CRM system, especially MS Dynamics, would be an advantage

Skills and behaviours:

• An organised, commercially aware, target focused Key Account Manager professional who appreciates excellent customer service and client relationships are critical to the achieving this.
• A team player able to work with a wide range of stakeholders both inside and outside of the organisation, being comfortable and confident in working with clients to ensure they are getting value from our services, and seeking further support opportunities
• Committed to continuous improvement of the business, the service delivery, and the clients risk management.
• Enthusiastic about sharing knowledge and expertise with the team to encourage improvement in the function of the customer service team as a whole.
• Comfortable working in a dynamic operational environment, occasionally involving elements of quick decision-making.
• Willing to embrace Ricardo’s values and aim to lead others toward high standards of behaviour and performance.

Working here

Ricardo is an exciting and rewarding place to work and you have the opportunity to make a difference. You will work with teams of talented, dedicated, and supportive individuals. Alongside having a fantastic opportunity to develop your career with us through our broad range of projects, mentoring opportunities and a personalised approach to your learning and development. We are always keen to hear from people who have driven, ambition and a flair for innovative thinking.

Wellbeing and work life balance

We offer flexible approaches to work, whether that's working from home, being in the office, or as a hybrid worker. We're happy to discuss flexible working arrangements. Wellbeing is at the core to our culture, allowing employees to flourish and to achieve their full potential. Our People are important to us, and we take pride in our wellbeing programmes and policies that support individuals including flexible working, carers policy, mental health first aiders and readily available support through our extensive Employee Assistance programme.

Diversity, Equality and Inclusion statement

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer, we believe in each person's potential, and we'll help you reach yours. We have an ambitious diversity, equality, and inclusion approach as explained here. We value diversity; recognising that a more diverse workforce creates a richer and more varied working environment. Diversity also drives innovation, by allowing us to offer our clients the best consultancy service that we can. As part of our commitment to engage positively and pro-actively with all our employees and ensure a culture of inclusivity, we are a recognised as a 'disability confident' employer.

Benefits

Our core benefits include 25 days' annual leave, plus 8 flexible bank holidays, a competitive company pension scheme, life assurance and professional subscriptions reimbursement. We also offer a wide range of flexible benefits to suit your lifestyle.

Once you have submitted your application a member of our Recruitment Team will be in touch. Please be aware that the timing can vary dependent on the volume of applications that we receive for each role and in some cases, we may start to review applications prior to the closing date.