Client Director

Location: UK-based, predominantly remote, with occasional travel to client meetings, networking events and a monthly team meeting

Reporting to: Head of Growth

Before You Apply

This is primarily an account growth role . It is not a high-volume sales role or a traditional customer service position.

Around 80% of your time will be spent retaining and growing important existing accounts. The remaining 20% will focus on new business through referrals, networks, partnerships, events and marketing-generated opportunities.

You will need to demonstrate that you have personally:

Grown the revenue and scope of complex accounts.
Built relationships beyond a single customer contact.
Identified, shaped and closed expansion opportunities.
Led commercial conversations with senior decision-makers.
Managed proposals, renewals, negotiations and revenue targets.

This role will not suit someone whose experience is mainly responding to inbound enquiries, servicing accounts without a growth target, managing high volumes of smaller customers or passing opportunities to another team to close.

We want someone with drive, determination, charisma, energy, grit and passion. Our team is bright, bold, fast-paced and fun, so how you contribute as a teammate matters. We will interview extensively to understand your drive and results so we will seek to really understand your track record in building relationships. You will know how to build a £100k client into a £500k client through the value coaching brings and the ROI it provides.

About Thrive

At Thrive, we believe better conversations build better leaders, stronger teams and healthier organisations.

We combine expert coaching, leadership development and technology to help organisations improve leadership, culture and performance. Our platform enables organisations to deliver coaching, mentoring and leadership development at scale while measuring engagement, impact and emerging organisational insight.

We are looking for an experienced Client Director who can deepen our most important customer relationships and turn excellent delivery into long-term, commercially valuable partnerships.

The Role

Reporting to the Head of Growth and Head of Customer Success, you will own a portfolio of strategic customer accounts.

Your priority will be to retain, delight, develop and grow those relationships. You will understand each customer’s organisation, strategy, people priorities and decision-making environment, then identify where Thrive can add further value.

Your client meetings will not be gentle account check-ins. You will lead inspiring, commercially purposeful conversations about the human agenda, leadership and the future of work. If you cannot speak to current trends on leadership and culture then this role is not for you.

You will create account plans, build relationships across each organisation, lead strategic reviews, identify opportunities, shape solutions, develop proposals and take commercial conversations through to agreement.

You will also contribute to new business by converting referrals, using your network, attending relevant events and progressing selected prospects.

This is a commercially accountable role. Being well liked is important, but it is not enough. Success will be measured through retention, account growth, revenue, quality of relationships, opportunities created and accurate forecasting.

You will work closely with Customer Success, Marketing, Operations, Product and our Coaching Faculty. Customer Success will support delivery, engagement and utilisation. You will remain accountable for the strategic relationship and commercial growth of each account.

Strategic Account Growth — 80%

You will:

Own the commercial performance of a portfolio of strategic accounts.
Build account plans covering revenue, stakeholders, priorities, risks and opportunities.
Develop credible relationships with senior HR, Learning and Development, Talent, Procurement and business leaders.
Build relationships across multiple functions and levels rather than relying on one contact.
Lead strategic reviews focused on outcomes, future priorities and growth.
Identify opportunities to expand coaching, leadership development, mentoring and platform adoption.
Turn customer needs into relevant, commercially viable solutions.
Prepare and present proposals and recommendations.
Lead renewal, expansion and contract conversations.
Work with Customer Success to improve adoption, demonstrate impact and manage risk.
Use data, insight and outcomes to strengthen the case for continued investment.
Create customer advocates, referrals, case studies and recommendations.
Maintain accurate account plans, opportunities and forecasts in Zoho.
Act early when an account or opportunity is at risk.

New Business Development — 20%

You will:

Convert referrals, introductions, event contacts and marketing-generated opportunities.
Use your existing relationships and network to create relevant conversations.
Represent Thrive at selected events, roundtables, podcasts and industry activities.
Lead discovery conversations with senior HR, Learning and Development and business leaders.
Shape tailored coaching, leadership development and technology solutions.
Prepare proposals and manage suitable opportunities through to contract signature.
Contribute to agreed new-business targets.
Maintain accurate pipeline and forecasting information.

This is not a cold-calling role, but you will be expected to create opportunities from your network and thinking rather than wait for leads to arrive.

Thought Leadership and Collaboration

You will help strengthen Thrive’s position as a trusted voice in leadership and coaching by sharing ideas with customers, delivering briefings and webinars, contributing to podcasts and events, and building relationships across the HR and Learning community.

You will share customer insight, support case studies and take responsibility for moving work forward without needing a large corporate infrastructure around you. If you prefer the big business infrastructure then Thrive is not for you.

What Success Looks Like

You will be succeeding when:

Accounts achieve agreed growth and retention targets.
Account plans create tangible opportunities and revenue.
Thrive has strong relationships with several stakeholders in each key account.
Customers involve us early in conversations about leadership and people priorities.
Renewals are planned well in advance.
Expansion opportunities are identified and progressed consistently.
Customers see Thrive as a strategic partner rather than a supplier.
Advocates generate referrals, references and case studies.
Forecasts are accurate and CRM records are current.
Risks and difficult conversations are addressed early.

About You

You are commercially ambitious, curious and credible. You enjoy understanding how organisations work, asking thoughtful questions and helping senior leaders think differently.

You do not confuse account management with simply being helpful and responsive. You understand that great account leadership requires strategy, influence, commercial judgement, disciplined follow-through and the confidence to ask for a decision.

You are proactive, organised and resilient. You are comfortable in a growing business where priorities move quickly and everyone contributes. You will bring energy and be action oriented and dynamic and your track record will talk to this.

You will need:

Significant experience in strategic account management, account growth or consultative sales.
A clear record of personally growing the value and scope of existing accounts.
Experience carrying and achieving account growth, renewal or revenue targets.
Evidence of building relationships across complex customer organisations.
Experience engaging and influencing senior decision-makers.
Experience shaping solutions, writing proposals, negotiating and closing agreements.
Experience selling coaching, leadership development, HR or learning technology, SaaS or professional services.
Strong commercial judgement, communication, presentation and negotiation skills.
Excellent organisation, CRM discipline and forecasting capability.

Applications are unlikely to progress without clear evidence of personally growing existing accounts and converting that growth into revenue.

Technology

You should be comfortable using CRM platforms such as Zoho or HubSpot, Microsoft 365, Teams, PowerPoint, Excel, Power BI , Co Pilot and video-conferencing tools.

Experience with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, AI productivity tools and marketing automation would be useful. We are an Apple mac business too

Experience in coaching, leadership development, HR or learning technology, SaaS, professional services, organisational development or talent consultancy would be valuable.

Existing relationships within senior HR, Talent, Learning and Development or People communities would be beneficial. A coaching qualification is useful but not essential.

Why Thrive?

We are a small, ambitious team with a big vision: making coaching and meaningful conversations accessible to everyone.

You will work closely with our Head of Growth, Founder and leadership team, work with leading organisations and have a visible impact on both customer partnerships and Thrive’s growth.

This role offers meaningful responsibility, commercial accountability and the freedom to make things happen.

Applications that do not answer these questions may not be progressed.Salary

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