Apply: WGSN - Strategic Account Director - New York

Job Description: Strategic Account Director North America
Function: Sales
Location: New York 

 
 
WGSN, the World’s leading trend forecaster, has an exciting new opportunity in their New York office. With trend and information hubs in New York, Hong Kong, São Paulo and London we have 16 offices around the world and employ approximately 500 people. We work with over 6,000 customers including every Retailer on the Fortune 500 and key brands across Europe, Asia, Latin America, and North America.
 
 
The Strategic Account Director is responsible for new business development among key strategic clients. The Strategic Account Director identifies business opportunities, builds key prospect relationships, negotiates and closes business deals and maintains extensive knowledge of current market conditions.  The Strategic Account Director will use a consultative sales style to create, implement and manage a strategy to help achieve aggressive sales goals.
Responsibilities:
 

• Identify and close new opportunities from assigned client territory - drive all aspects and stages of the sale including; qualifying the viability of potential sales, delivering winning presentations, contract negotiations, legal and procurement discussions and managing the sales process through to its close
• Manage a book of accounts to ensure the customer is delighted with the WGSN service (and successfully executing the renewal of the client contracts)
• Aggressively pursue and close key sales prospects across the existing client territory (new divisions, upsells, cross-sells, etc) by managing a 90-day pipeline of opportunities
• Deliver in-person presentations and assist in telling our story and pitching the WGSN value as it relates to each prospect in all industry markets including; fashion, CPG, technology, hospitality, branding and automotive sectors
• Build strong relationships with current clients to foster multi-year and enterprise contract agreements
• Research prospects to get an understanding of their business needs and how WGSN will address their objectives and deliver value
• Have an up-to-date knowledge of any product enhancements and how they best add value to client needs
• Manage a record of activity in company CRM (Salesforce.com)
• Work with client service team who will support the day to day needs of the client
• Manage to a 12-16 week sales cycle and follow a systematic approach to identify future opportunities, set expectations and plan for future resource needs
• Understanding of corporate hierarchies and client motivations in the trend forecasting space; with this intelligence you’re able to navigate to key decision makers 

Requirements: 

• 8-10 years of experience developing relationships with executives within Fortune 500 organizations in an Outside Sales B2B capacity in the US market

• A demonstrable track record of sales success (preferably selling subscription based-products)
• Proven ability to quickly gain entry to key pursuit accounts and articulate a proven value/ROI based sale
• CPG, branding, technology, hospitality and automotive industry knowledge (a plus)
• Understanding of how to communicate a service offering through proposals, presentations, phone calls and case study development - excellent presentation and negotiation skills are a must
• Excellent organization skills and sharp attention detail
• Ability to manage Salesforce.com database, opportunity pipeline and lead cultivation, including holistic overview of all outstanding communications and prospect relationships
• Proven track record of managing a sizable geographic territory and building a robust pipeline of high potential accounts
• Passionate about the prospect of delivering creative intelligence to new clients and helping them transform their business BA in Business or related field (MBA a plus)
• Salesforce based CRM experience a plus.
• Good computer skills (basic knowledge of Word, Excel, PowerPoint); knowledge of Salesforce

 
 
 
WGSN is the World’s Global Style Network, digital subscription products include WGSN Trend, WGSN Homebuildlife, WGSN INstock, and WGSN Mindset bespoke consultancy services.
WGSN has trend and information hubs in New York, Hong Kong, São Paulo and London and has 16 offices around the world. We employ approximately 500 people, and more than 50% of our talent are content experts. WGSN seeks talent globally to work within a business that offers a unique blend of creativity and intelligence, of intuition and analysis to empower our customers to create tomorrow.