Are you passionate and excited about building a world-class, local consulting firm? If you are excited about spreading the word on how an execution-minded, local consultancy can help drive strategic initiatives and deliver results for clients, we want to talk to you!
SEI is looking for a Business Development Manager to join their dynamic, growing team in Chicago. As a Business Development Manager you will work closely with the Managing Director and the firm’s Consultants to support and advance prospective and current client relationships, provide client-specific research, analysis, and intelligence; as well as be a part of a strategic effort to grow the client base and build the business.
As a Business Development Manager, you will be expected to apply your organizational and communication skills while displaying a positive, high-energy attitude. The successful Business Development Manager candidate must have outstanding interpersonal skills, tenacity, enthusiasm, and a natural disposition towards collaboration. The successful candidate will also possess the ability to negotiate, influence, and ultimately secure new client relationships and expand existing relationships.
Five Things You Will Want to Know About This Role:
- Why you would want this role:You’re a serial networker that’s interested in taking on a role that you can make your own; You like to wear many hats and you thrive in ambiguous environments
- This role isn’t for you if:You need a defined vertical career path and a lot of guidance on ‘what to do next’. This is a pick up the ball and run with it type of role where you cover the spectrum from coffee getter to facing off to the C-level
- Skills to show off in the interview:Tell us about how you manage relationships, network and your approach to building our local client base. Attention to detail and the ability to motivate peers and lead by example are also critical
- There’s a ‘Chief of Staff’ component to this role:The primary responsibility will be Business Development, but this role will also work closely with the Managing Director in a Chief of Staff capacity where you will take on Strategic Projects, Event Planning, and other Office Support functions
Responsibilities:
- Work closely with the Managing Director in developing and implementing strategies to cultivate business with current and prospective clients.
- Conduct client, prospect, industry, competitor and market research/analysis to inform targeted business development efforts.
- Develop strategies to strengthen and expand the firm’s relationship with clients.
- Grow and nurture the size and strength of your professional network for the purposes of establishing new business in your local market.
- You will quarterback the entire sales process for the branch. This means you need to
- Identify and execute on cross-selling opportunities with other SEI operating companies.
- Develop pitch materials and sales collateral as needed and update collateral as needed to reflect recent developments and enhanced capabilities.
- Collect and/or develop examples of the firm’s expertise for inclusion in the firm’s capabilities area on the internal collaboration portal.
- Plan, schedule and execute events for the office supporting business development, recruiting and team activities
- Other duties as assigned by the Managing Director.
Requirements:
You don’t need many years of business development experience for this role, but you must:
- Be passionate about customer engagement and building consulting relationships
- Get energized by working with a dynamic, high-performing team
- Enjoy mapping out the big picture and filling out the details and creating a plan to achieve results
- Possess strong communication skills and an ability to become fluent in our client’s challenges and in industry trends
- Superior attention to detail and a bias for over communicating
- Excellent time management and organization
- Have a Bachelor’s Degree or higher
Recommended Qualifications:
- Five or more years of proven experience with complex enterprise solutions and services. Have less? Be ready to come with your story on how you have the right combination of training, education and experience that demonstrates the ability to perform the duties of the position.
- Business Development experience, including business planning, research, pitches, and client development strategies.
- Consulting and project management experience working within an IT Professional Services capacity; Strong project and process experience/knowledge
- Highly motivated, persuasive, priority-driven, and collaborative.
The Company
SEI is a Business & Technology Consulting firm that has been serving local clients since 1992. We like to think we’re pretty unique in the world of consulting. Here’s why:
- We’re an employee first organization that’s committed to excellence and each other
- We empower our employees to take ownership of client relationships, and sit on their side of the table
- We have a very strong culture.
- We’re intensely focused on collaboration and a team-first mindset
- At SEI, we’re building our company together. We’re not just hiring employees; We’re hiring business partners. We're an employee-owned company, so decisions are being made by the people who come to work here every day
- We have a transparent business model anchored in strong core values of excellence, participation, collaboration and integrity
- SEI has a local model, which means we keep our team in the local market as much as possible which translates to better customer service and more importantly deeper bonds across the team and a better work-life balance
SEI carefully manages growth and has an operating model that provide stability that is uncommon in today's volatile business world and in consulting in particular. Privately held, we offer great benefits, competitive salaries, profit-sharing programs, employee ownership, and much more.
