Manager - Market Development

The Business Development Manager is a managerial role to lead and increase market share, in particular for the Abu Dhabi office and with a strong focus towards the Financial and Public Sector.

The successful candidate will report directly to the Senior Partner and Head of Grant Thornton Abu Dhabi, and work with senior stakeholders to implement strategically aligned, client focused and value-added initiatives, ensuring key global, regional and office objectives are achieved.

The day-to-day operations range from business planning and client development, to winning work and raising the profile of our business. This role will also involve promoting best practice and the integration of marketing and business development efforts.

The Role

Business planning

• Work with the Head of Grant Thornton Abu Dhabi and Team Leaders to develop and implement business plans, strategic initiatives and client activities.
• Proactively approach prospects through relevant channels, including but not limited to; face-to-face meetings, emails, calls, social media.
• Oversee input in CRM to ensure correctness of data.
• Analyse CRM data to see potential business development opportunities
• Oversee the BD activity of relevant practices to ensure regional objectives are met. This includes, but is not limited to, client development, profile raising, proposal creation, pitching and event management.
• Seek opportunities to increase market share, drive cross-office and regional collaboration to increase efficiencies and speed to market.
• Help drive and implement firm-wide and/or regional BD initiatives within the service line teams as appropriate.

Winning work

• Project manage strategic bids, provide input on approach, team formations; create, review and edit content; manage full proposal development; ensure adherence to branding requirements;
• Manage the full prospect to client lifecycle and the administration of such activities.
• Ensure follow up is obtained from client following submission of proposal, track and act on actions which arise; asses how feedback can be used to drive change and improvements.
• Develop high quality proposals and materials for use in bids to convey firm positioning to clients and targets.
• Ensure, for consistent messaging and capability presentation, that this content is correct and updated on a regular basis.
• Act as support for bid best practice to ensure understanding and compliance of the bid process and quality within the Abu Dhabi office.
• Analyse win/lose rates and make recommendations as to how to improve performance.
• Facilitate market introductory meetings with potential new/target clients
• Support partners and senior leaders on specific key clients and conduct research and analysis on key clients in order to identify new opportunities.
• Maintain awareness of relevant global and local marketing products which can be used for client engagement (accessible through our global portals).

ensure adherence local regulations and guidelines.

Profile raising

• Collaborate and support the Clients and Markets team to develop Grant Thornton’s profile in Abu Dhabi through planned activities.
• Ensure the Abu Dhabi office is brand compliant and adopts Grant Thornton’s visual identity to deliver consistent materials to market.

Skills and Experience Required

• Undergraduate degree or above in marketing, finance, or business-related discipline.
• Experience working in a professional service environment (preferred)
• Excellent communication skills, including presentation skills.
• Excellent project management skills - this candidate must be able to demonstrate experience of managing multiple projects and transforming commercial issues into business development opportunities.
• Possess high level of conscientiousness, demonstrated through leadership qualities and the ability to build a strong reputation and relations within the business and deliver excellent service.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Experience of working with clients and ability to be client facing.
• Excellent working knowledge of Word, PowerPoint and Excel and familiar with CRM systems (Microsoft 365 preferably)

The successful candidate will be expected consistently to demonstrate the following competencies:

• Communicates effectively.
• Shows technical ability.
• Contributes effectively at meetings.
• Organised and meets deadlines.
• Focuses on performance enhancement.
• Develops and maintains relationships.
• Focuses on strategic priorities.
• Actively contributes to the team.
• Demonstrates leadership orientation.
• Treats people with dignity and respect.
• Promotes and demonstrates Grant Thornton Values at all times
• Arabic language skills are a plus but not mandatory