Pursuit Strategist - Africa Deal Activation

Job Description

EY Global Delivery Services (GDS) consists of various service delivery centers from which Client Service and Enablement Services teams operate to deliver strategic support to EY member firms. GDS spans all geographies, practices, services lines, sectors and competencies within EY to deliver deeply-integrated services that result in efficient and world-class solutions. The position in discussion is with the Pursuits Enablement Center of Excellence (COE) in EY GDS. The Pursuits Enablement COE serves as an extension to the onshore Pursuit teams who are involved in the direct Bid Management Processes. The Pursuits Enablement COE supports the onshore teams on a number of opportunities, adding more value during the pursuit process or the bid management cycle.The Pursuit Strategist partners with Account Teams to support Regional strategic, high-value pursuits. They engage early and at multiple stages during the pursuit process and are responsible for developing a tailored communications strategy to articulate a compelling Why EY proposition in all pursuit collateral. The Pursuit Strategist is responsible for the tactical management of all pursuit work-streams including the facilitation of pursuit readiness sessions, touchpoint campaign, draft value proposition, proposal development and orals preparation.Additionally, the Pursuit Strategist is required to identify, develop and implement innovative approaches to pursuit management and drive adoption of these across the Region.Essential Functions of the Job:

• Strategic Pursuit and Opportunity Management
• Partner with Account Teams to provide a full-service pursuit management model for Regional strategic, high-end opportunities
• Serve as a facilitator/key contributor in pursuit strategy sessions, manages output and drives actions, leverage Wavespace in the pursuit process
• Manage a repository of Regional, Market Segment or Service Line client-facing collateral as appropriate
• Review of wins and losses
• Perform commercial modelling for the opportunity
• Strategic Client, Internal and External Communications
• Develop strategic messaging and lead conceptualization of all client-facing pursuit collateral
• Manage and leads the development of opportunity value propositions
• Ultimately responsible for quality control of all client-facing materials during the pursuit
• Act as the knowledge steward for the pursuit
• Administration and Reporting
• Lead post pursuit analysis and review; makes recommendations for process improvement
• Maintain relationships with other Deal Activation teams and key interdependency groups across the organization
• Participate in relevant internal and external networks
• Analytical/Decision Making Responsibilities:
• Champion CoE best-practice pursuit management tools and processes
• Solution-oriented and makes sound decisions quickly, given tight timeframes
• Demonstrate versatility in a constantly evolving environment with a wide variety of social styles
• Influence / challenge the account team to optimize the chances of winning

Supervision Responsibilities:

• Work with considerable autonomy while often managing the work of others
• Provide coaching and mentoring to others; may serve as a Counsellor to other Pursuit Strategist/Pursuit Coordinators in Deal Activation CoE Delivery Centre
• Support the onboarding and training of new hires in Deal Activation CoE Delivery Centre
• Develop and coach Pursuit Coordinators, Client Executives and Client Servers, through teaming on pursuits and facilitated training
• Oversee the work of the pursuit support team, including third-party resources (e.g. Pursuit Coordinator, external translation services, etc.)

Knowledge and Skills Requirements:

• Good understanding of Business Development and Pursuit Management
• Excellent mother-tongue standard English
• Excellent communications skills (verbal, written and listening)
• Ability to analyze data and derive conclusions
• Excellent critical and strategic thinking
• Excellent project management, coordination and negotiation skills
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision
• Ability to influence without authority, lead and coach others
• Proven ability to influence and build collaborative relationships with a wide range of stakeholders

Other Requirements:

• As the job involves responding to client needs and varying time zones, long hours are regularly required
• Moderate to frequent travel may be required

Job Requirements: Education:

• University/Bachelor degree required (This should be modified per region to meet cultural education requirements as determined by recruiting)

Experience:

• 12-17 years in Business Development of which minimum 5 years should be in Bid Management/Pre-Sales/Pursuit Management in professional services organizations
• Experience in developing external marketing communications (necessary for Senior PS / advantageous for entry-level PS)
• Experience working in a cross-border, multi-cultural environment (necessary for Senior PS / advantageous for entry-level PS)

Certification Requirements:

• Expected to remain current on EY training and curriculum (e.g. Account Management Framework (AMF), Badges, etc.)

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Keyskills :
quality controlglobal deliveryservice deliveryproject managementaccount managementcultural educationprocess improvementtactical managementbusiness development