Client Development Director, Global Leadership Advisory Services

Spencer Stuart•Washington, DC

1d•$170,000 - $210,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Leadership Advisory Services (LAS) Practice is a dynamic part of Spencer Stuart, working alongside the Executive Search business. LAS professionals advise clients on critical leadership and talent issues, including aligning culture and talent strategy with business strategy, maximizing team effectiveness, merger integration support, executive assessment, and talent development and transition support. LAS expertise in leadership assessment and development is crucial for CEO succession and drives the firm's capabilities and culture models used in CEO succession engagements. Spencer Stuart is enhancing its business development approach with a focus on client targeting, interaction quality, and competitive strategies. The Client Development Director will be a strategic partner to global LAS leadership and consultants, building a proactive commercial engine for LAS and leading a global team. This role will translate practice priorities into market activation, go-to-market plays, and client engagement across the LAS portfolio. The Director will identify opportunities, curate insights, and equip consultants with materials and messaging to create demand, strengthen client conversations, and expand advisory opportunities.

Requirements

Approximately 8-10 years’ experience in professional services and/or executive search experience, with a focus on proposal support and/or business development; knowledge of leadership advisory services a plus.
Has managed business development and has experience with content-creation activities and processes.
Has managed operational activities and processes; ideally with experience managing a small team of analysts.
Experience leading a global team and/or working globally.
Undergraduate degree is required.
Project Managing for Results: Works to achieve business development goals for the Practice while overcoming obstacles and/or planning for contingencies.
Tenacious, with a track record of working successfully to steer self and team through complex situations.
Proactively seeks to be involved in many diverse projects.
Shows strong sense of urgency about reaching deadlines for pursuit opportunities and agreed-upon reactive and proactive business development projects/targets.
Checks work of self and others to ensure business development deliverables are continuously improved, distinguished and against required quality standards; can give and receive feedback constructively.
Demonstrates excellent project management skills, outlining key tasks and reviewing performance and progress on projects/pursuit deliverables on a regular basis to ensure the team is achieving results.
Collaborating and Influencing: Takes initiative to create and foster enduring relationships with senior leaders, practice members and team members.
Invites and uses the opinions, perspectives and best practices of others in the Practice and other stakeholders, to influence, drive engagement and share the way forward.
Demonstrates strong influencing toolkit; is able to drive for consensus in a collaborative and efficient manner; able to challenge in a non-confrontational manner.
Credible and mature with the ability to support their point with both factual evidence and experience-based opinion.
Engages team members in a dialogue to gain commitment and bring them “on board” to business development initiatives, linking their perspective to the intent.
Adapts own approach to the audience, anticipating impact of words and actions, preparing for possible resistance and responding in an appropriate style, using a range of influencing styles and a strong client-service orientation.
Operates in a highly engaged and hands-on way, resolving conflicts by discussing individual issues with each person.
Leading People: Engages closely with direct reports, explains what to do and the reasons why; communicates the link between current tasks and longer-term goals.
Works with LAS Leadership to set specific business-development support goals for the team; maintains general awareness of progress over time.
Delegates tasks with close supervision, ensuring team members have stretch learning opportunities with quality oversight.
Evaluates task performance and provides timely, learning-oriented feedback.
Excellent presentation, writing, PowerPoint and Excel skills.
Spoken and written fluency in English.
Experience leveraging AI enabled tools and emerging technologies.

Nice To Haves

Knowledge of leadership advisory services a plus.
Master’s degree a plus.

Responsibilities

Serve as strategic client development partner to consultants and the “face” of client development for the global LAS Practice, partnering with consultants on BD efforts.
Partner closely with LAS consultants to design pitch strategies and create supporting materials.
Quarterback pursuit teams in preparing for client meetings, ensuring preparation and rehearsal meetings are scheduled, meeting objectives and timelines are shared and well understood, and content-plan is co-created in a manner that satisfies the internal stakeholders and ultimately the external stakeholders.
Curate high-impact insights, credentials, case examples, data points, and market themes that help consultants bring a sharper point of view to client conversations.
Partner with Practice Operations and Marketing to connect LAS campaigns, thought leadership, convenings, and service-line priorities to practical BD activation.
Identify opportunities to leverage knowledge/insights/data/analytics to enable BD and pursuit activities.
Develop and activate repeatable BD plays that help consultants open conversations earlier, position LAS more strategically, and widen the funnel beyond active pursuits.
In partnership with Practice Leadership, redefine and continuously improve the LAS go-to-market narrative – incorporating new service lines and evolving solutions.
Translate and tailor firm-level intellectual capital strategy/themes being driven by Marketing, ensuring dots are connected.
Gather learnings from pitches and business development to share internally to ensure we are continuously refining and improving our processes, responsiveness, and pitch effectiveness.
Actively contribute and participate in the global community, by sharing insights, ideas and best practices with fellow CDT colleagues.
Create approach and direct analyst team to maintain, curate, and regularly update pitch content/materials.
Create and identify best-practice pitch content/materials to regularly share with Practices and Firm.
In close collaboration with Practice Operations Leader, develop communication strategy for syndicating pitch content to/across Practice and Firm.
Develop approaches, leveraging Pipeline tools as possible, to assess and analyze “win rates”.
Work with initiative teams to leverage new technologies and processes.
Lead a dedicated global team who are aligned by industry practice.
Provide oversight to and develop Analysts when partnering with them on tasks and/or projects.
Guide Analysts as needed on creation of BD deliverables.
Direct Analysts in creating and maintaining current data/statistics in the areas of relevant engagements lists/case studies, BD target lists, win rates and other key BD related KPIs.

Benefits

Retirement savings plan with discretionary profit sharing contribution and employer match
PTO (minimum 15 days per year, increases with tenure)
Paid sick time (10 days per year)
Company holidays (12 days per year)
Paid leaves of absence when applicable
Comprehensive health benefits, including medical, dental, and vision insurance
Healthcare flexible spending account
Life Insurance
Short-term and long-term disability insurance
Wellness benefits, including an employee assistance program, virtual mental health program, and mindfulness program
Voluntary benefit options, including supplemental life insurance, identity theft protection, and whole life insurance with long-term care and critical illness coverage.