The team is currently recruiting for the role of Pursuit Lead. This critical role will report directly to the Head of Pursuits - Sales Effectiveness, and will partner closely with EMEA regional leadership, sales leadership and commercial teams to secure multi-million-pound consulting and technology new business and renewals.
The successful candidate will help drive winning and profitable sales growth and high retention rates by leading assigned pursuits/opportunities across ICT’s full portfolio of offerings. You will be working on several deals at any one time, with turnaround times of 1 to 3 weeks from request to response. You will also actively coach/mentor individuals and teams to proactively engage with clients and prospects to identify opportunities to bid vs. just waiting for inbound requests/RFPs.
The Role:
The EMEA Sales Effectiveness Team (SET) is a centralised and critical strategic resource that is aligned with and supports the execution of ICT’s commercial strategy of:
- Ambitious revenue growth (Bid Management/Revenue Enablement) and A high performing sales culture (Sales Coaching and Development) and The shift from product to proposition selling (Value Proposition and Differentiation)
- Provides full ‘end to end’ deal pursuit support and challenge across the opportunity lifecycle for assigned offensive/defensive ‘business critical’ bids. Identifies, gathers and co-ordinates the collection of all key inputs required to respond and compete effectively, whether the opportunity be generated through RFI, RFP or commercial lead generation.
- Actively participates in the process of identifying the bid team, developing a winning strategy, key messaging, executive summary and differentiated insight, including challenge where needed to develop a compelling and client-centric proposition.
- Manages and co-ordinates inputs from a variety of stakeholders and experts to drive the pursuit strategy forwards, ensuring regular communication with all relevant team members and clarity of next steps, ownership, timelines, etc.
- Oversees and contributes to the development of high quality and compelling final response documents.
- Coaches and supports consultants to create commercial value through early client engagement, opportunity qualification, win strategy development, storyboarding, and ongoing networking / value creation.
- Ensures that ICT’s global pursuit process is followed, advocates best practices and helps free up the time of commercially focused pitch team members to sell/create client value.
- Helps to improve win rates through participating in win/loss debriefs, capturing and socialising success in region (for example through win-flashes), therefore enabling the business to apply lessons learnt in an actionable way.
- Partners with the SET leadership team to share best practices and content that helps product management and marketing teams develop key value propositions, campaign messaging and proposition innovation for regional/local sales campaigns.
- Updates and contributes to the bid content resource centre, facilitating greater and more efficient self-service to the library of key assets, materials and best practices.
- Acts as coach/mentor resource for defined client accounts. Checks in periodically/as requested to support account and team growth.
- Helps commercial teams to uncover new opportunities to compete/bid and coaches/mentors on most impactful ways to generate unique, differentiated, and winning value propositions.
What you'll bring:
- Proven experience of successfully delivering structured, high-value and complex bids from early inception through to lessons learnt, preferably within the insurance sector or a similar type of professional service that sells consulting, technology and analytical solutions.
- A structured and professional approach to full end-to-end pursuit/bid management (potentially with some type of project management/planning/sales background) and capable of working under pressure to tight deadlines whilst confidently managing complex, multi-workstream opportunities.
- Comfort with influencing and developing compelling and successful win strategies, the ability to coach diverse teams towards optimal differentiated and client-centric bid approaches, and demonstration of commercial awareness.
- Professional Bid Management certification (APMP or equivalent) with the ability to contribute to the continual enhancement and development of our bid governance and response strategy/process.
- Excellent verbal, written and presentation skills, supported by strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including the ability to translate complex technical information into clear, audience-appropriate messages. High level of proficiency in Microsoft Office (especially Word and PowerPoint) for producing high quality client-facing materials.
- Experience of, or a willingness to learn how to use AI effectively in a Sales Effectiveness / pursuit environment.
- Energetic and positive approach to problem-solving and comfort with ambiguity, deadlines and multiple, sometimes competing deadlines.
- Whilst minimal travel is anticipated, you should be available to travel to any of our EMEA offices for short trips in line with active bid/pursuit requirements (est. 5% of time).
What We Offer
Enjoy a benefits package designed to help you thrive, both professionally and personally. You'll receive 25 days of annual leave plus an extra WTW day to relax and recharge. Our comprehensive health and wellbeing offering includes private healthcare, life insurance, group income protection, and regular health assessments, all giving you peace of mind. Secure your future with our defined contribution pension scheme, featuring matched contributions up to 10% from the company.
We support your growth and balance with hybrid working options, access to an employee assistance programme, and a fully paid volunteer day to make a difference in your community. On top of these, you can opt into a variety of additional perks including an electric vehicle car scheme, share scheme, cycle-to-work programme, dental and optical cover, critical illness protection, and much more. Start making the most of your career and wellbeing with a range of benefits tailored for you.
Equal Opportunity Employer
We’re committed to equal employment opportunity and provide application, interview and workplace adjustments and accommodations to all applicants. If you foresee any barriers, from the application process through to joining WTW, please email [email protected]
