We are seeking an Account Manager who will be responsible for working with senior executives (including C-Suite) at automakers (OEMs) and national sales companies (NSCs) who is a results-driven, sales professional. Position will focus overall account growth strategy, developing and maintaining executive relationships across the account base, and work collaborating with specialists to ‘clear path’ for engagement.  (For Tier B/C account – In addition, position will be responsible for the retention and growth for the IHS Markit market reporting, recall and dealer network planning offerings.)

The right candidate is adept at building strong relationships and gaining credibility as a trusted advisor. You are thoughtful and engage in getting to know and understand your customer’s and prospect’s business, strategic goals and how IHS Markit can help maximize their strategic and product planning activities.

This person is required to have an in-depth understanding of the OEM's/NSC’s business, goals, strategies, industry trends and direction and how they map to IHS Markit products and solutions.  This role will lead multiple opportunities concurrently at different sales stages and have assigned revenue goals and objectives.

General Job Duties:

• Develop and own overall account growth strategy for assigned account(s)

• Collaborate with sales specialists to create and advance strategies to achieve growth objectives and provide solutions-based offerings to enable prospective clients to achieve their goals in an effective and efficient process

• Generate a pipeline matching IHS Markit solutions to current and future customer challenges & produce revenue in line with revenue growth target

• Frequently meet with customers in-person and virtually to maintain and grow business

• Represent and promote the company to c-suite and senior executives both internally and externally, clearing a path for sales specialist engagement

• Develop and maintain a high level of understanding and knowledge of IHS Markit products and services offerings, and articulate them effectively to clients

• Provide functional account leadership and drive organizational accountability by reviewing account plans, monitoring and managing the sales pipeline, tracking progress against plans, ensuring accurate forecasting of revenue and expenses, developing annual and quarterly sales targets

• Positively manage change, both internally and externally

• Work collaboratively with the team to ensure all are working towards the target customer account’s business strategy – measured by regular meetings to discuss opportunities, the client’s business and discuss and refine the account plan

• Consistently and frequently maintain sales activity in provided CRM platform as well as opportunity pipeline status

• Support sales processes, methodologies and organization structure to support rapid growth coming from both current and new OEM/NSC partners

• Collaborate cross functionally with peers and colleagues to share best-practices and to ensure that the “voice of the customer” is reflected in marketing, product, operational and decision-making processes

• Ensure appropriate time is dedicated to meet annual sales objectives by monitoring progress against account plans on a regular basis

• Focus on becoming an integrated extension of the customers team

• Maximize product profitability during customer negotiations

• Work effectively and efficiently with sales specialist, internal product teams, account management teams, Marketing and Sales Operations

Leadership Experience:

• Managing for results: This individual will have a proven track record as a decisive, action-oriented leader who has successfully translated sales strategies into measurable execution plans. S/he will be known for establishing strong and credible relationships at senior executive levels in customer organizations that yield sustainable growth, profitability, customer satisfaction and loyalty

• Leading OEM relationships: A qualified candidate will have market-validated skills around building, developing and retaining high performing accounts. This is a leader who communicates a vision that provides direction and focus; creates accountability; and proactively addresses problems before they affect performance

• Building relationships and leading through influence: This individual will have a track record of working effectively across functions and geographies to assess options, incorporate input and drive alignment around business priorities. Approachable and open-minded, the successful candidate will be known for building trusted working relationships with sales leaders and peers

• Presence and leadership style: S/he will have a well-developed executive presence and be expected to represent the company in interactions with colleagues, customers and partners. S/he must be an action-oriented yet thoughtful person of high integrity who leads by example. S/he must be an accomplished communicator with effective writing skills and the ability to create and deliver crisp, compelling presentations for internal and external consumption

Candidate Attributes:

• Bachelor’s degree mandatory, Master’s degree a plus

• Minimum of 10+ years of automotive selling experience (OEM/NSC level)

• Strong commercial understanding and orientation within the Automotive sector across the automotive value chain with a passion to continuously learn about autonomy, connectivity, electrification, shared mobility and other disruptors that that have wide-ranging implications

• Prior role as sales manager in auto sector

• Proven sales leadership to meet and/or exceed sales targets for a similar size and growth-oriented organization

• Strongly target orientation, driven and hungry for results

• Solid forecasting, sales planning, and regional outcome management

• Comfortable driving external sales relationships at C level

• Excellent track record managing teams in a complex geographic and matrixed environment

• High levels of emotional intelligence and leadership, strong collaboration, communication and influence capabilities

• Capability to input to business strategy and provide advice and guidance on product gaps and positively influence product development through VOC

• Ability to work independently with little direction

• Ability to understand prospect workflow, strategy and objective to provide solution-based approach for successful outcome

• Excellent communication and negotiation skills

• Knowledge of sales CRM software to track sales opportunities and customer activity a must, experience using Salesforce a plus

• Willingness to travel up to 25% in order to conduct face to face meetings or attend industry conferences (once business travel resumes)

• Collaborative virtual work environment or in office once in office environments are re-established

• Candidate can live and work remotely and must be able to travel to OEM/NSC locations to support sales and marketing initiatives on a regular basis