Commercial Manager

Company Description

Dentsu is a modern marketing solutions company. Our mission is to help clients navigate in a world of change. Businesses rely on our integrated network of agencies and specialized practices to promote meaningful progress through creative, media, commerce, data and technology. Part of Dentsu Group, our global network comprises 66,000 diverse people in 143 countries, who are dedicated to teaming for growth and good. Some of our award-winning agencies include 360i, Carat, dentsumcgarrybowen, DEG, dentsuX, iProspect and Merkle. Follow us on Twitter @DentsuUSA and visit dentsu.com/us.

Job Location: Remote EST/CST

Job Description

The Commercial Manager reports to the EVP, Group Commercial Director and plays a important role in overseeing several aspects of commercial operations, ensuring adherence to contractual obligations, and driving strategic decision-making processes. You will compile commercial proposals, managing ad-hoc client requests, monitoring contract compliance, and facilitating audits. Additionally, the Commercial Manager collaborates with other teams to create scopes of work, deal mechanics, and budget forecasts. You will also play a crucial role in client reporting, audit management, burn reporting, billing analysis, and new business pitches. Furthermore, you will work with Commercial Leads to design and implement commercial strategies for both existing clients and new business opportunities.

Qualifications

Responsibilities:

Business Growth:

Contract (Agency Agreement and Scope of Work) Negotiations:

• Facilitate comprehensive contract and scope reviews, ensuring adherence to legal review and delegation of authority requirements.
• Assist in document reviews and drafting of agency/client contract redlines.
• Facilitate contract negotiations conversations.

Proposal Preparation:

Central figure in finance and commercial matters related to new business pitches and scope creation, leading interactions with local market and practice teams to prepare detailed submissions for fee proposals.

• Collaborate with Commercial Leads to design and implement commercial strategies.
• Be a necessary contact for finance and commercial matters.
• Lead interactions with local markets and practices to prepare detailed fee proposals, ensuring accuracy.
• Help develop rate cards and pricing strategies for RFPs, contributing to profitability.
• Engage with market submissions, providing constructive feedback for improvement to improve fee proposals.
• Conduct variance analysis, compare scopes of work, and draft clear commercial summaries to support internal approvals and client negotiations.

Business Health:

Budgeting and Forecasting:

• Participate in the annual account planning and profitability road map process to establish growth targets and measures meet profitability commitments.
• Provide commentary on revenue performance against budget/latest estimate, monthly.
• Perform revenue variance analysis on budget and forecast changes, quarterly.
• Update and publish client health (margin) performance with actionable insights to achieve commitments/targets, quarterly.
• Facilitate and track progress against main levers to achieve client health (margin) targets, ongoing throughout the year.
• Review and facilitate approvals of client investment needs.
• Collaborate with local market and practice commercial or finance teams to rectify material errors in reporting.
• Lead coordination of commercial splits of work and budgets across the markets and practices.

Revenue and Working Capital Management:

• Track and ensure implemented scopes of work are in place for revenue recognition.
• Monitor active and closed jobs to manage accurate billing to ensure working capital management and accurate financial reporting (prebilled, unbilled, and job reconciliation).
• Investigate and resolve billing issues with other teams.
• Facilitate intercompany agreements among local market and practice teams.

Business Relationships and Reporting:

Client Relationship Management:

• Support the Commercial Director and liaise with clients in the following areas:
• Service Agreement Negotiations
• Pricing Discussions
• Incremental Staffing Approvals
• Conduct client business reviews on scope of work and staffing management.
• Establish relationships with respective client peers.

Internal Stakeholder Management:

• Be an important contact on commercial and finance matters. This will often