Vice President, Agency Growth

The Vice President, Franklin Madison Direct Agency Growth is responsible for the overall success and direction of the Marketing Strategy and Performance discipline within the Franklin Madison Direct (FMD) organization. The Vice President, Franklin Madison Direct Agency Growth will consistently provide leadership to help the marketing strategy and sales teams to effectively acquire, develop and grow client relationships.

The ideal candidate will possess the ability to balance strategic and tactical thinking and have demonstrated experience in direct mail strategy and performance optimization, revenue forecasting and achievement, sales management, and partner optimization. This role has accountability for the performance, profitability and retention of FMD’s clients, identifying and tracking client retention KPIs, and for meeting revenue growth goals while adhering to established budgets.

Key Responsibilities:

• Assist in the development and execution of the overall revenue and growth plans for Franklin Madison Direct
• Confidently engage prospects, clients, executive leadership, and others in-market as a thought leader representing the FMD brand.

Drive direct marketing performance (est. 60% of time):

• Directly supervise the Account Directors (“Strategists”) to help them optimize client adoption by defining and crafting the overarching DM strategies, forecasts, and test roadmaps for Franklin Madison Direct clients.
• Oversee the Strategists to build, justify, and gain approval for client budgets, test plans and campaign matrices, as needed.
• Track, manage and support the teams in identifying and mitigating keys risks as well as strategizing to capitalize on key opportunities.
• Ensure cross-functional collaboration as necessary to help successfully deliver a campaign plan that is effective, on time, and on budget.
• Proactively engage with top 10 clients on an executive level to communicate performance trends and collaborate with Strategists to develop/implement optimization strategies.
• Review campaign results for key clients to help the Strategists provide valuable summaries of campaign observations, takeaways, recommendations, and next steps.
• Empower Strategists to independently fulfill their duties & responsibilities with exceptional competence.
• Collaborate with Data Analytics leadership to cultivate, iterate, and evolve testing, digital integration, internal modeling and other differentiating disciplines.
• Build monthly and annual sales forecasts for purposes of ongoing budgeting and costs management for review with GVP, Market Strategy and Growth.

Support Business Development Efforts (est. 20% of time):

• Refine and evolve the “Prospect Profile” (industry, size, campaign specs, budget, etc.) to meet evolving business priorities.
• Assist the Business Development team as needed to prepare for and participate in discovery calls and pitches, resulting in achievement of new business targets and established conversion goals.
• Participate in key growth opportunities, including key RFPs and prospect proposals.
• Support the VP, Enterprise Growth in critical business functions, including the establishment of SOPs to assign and align opportunities to the Strategist team.

Identify and Lead Significant Growth Initiatives (est. 20% of time):

• Support and/or lead efforts in growing Franklin Madison Direct through new partnerships, services, industries, capabilities, etc.
• Conceptualize strategies to accelerate new client growth while increasing retention and optimization of existing clients.
• Complete any additional duties/responsibilities as assigned by the Executive Team.

Success Criteria:

• Annual achievement of Legacy client Revenue and Primary Margin targets.
• Consistent improvement in client performance, satisfaction, retention and value delivered.
• Annual achievement of Gross Revenue and Primary Margin targets.
• Continuous enhancement to FMD’s test, back test and rollout ratios.
• Actively manage budget risk across all service categories – creative, data, production, freight, analytics, and digital integration.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in business or related field, or equivalent experience
• Minimum of 10 years direct mail marketing services and/or directing campaign strategy, planning, analysis, and optimization, preferably in an agency environment.
• Minimum of 5 years in a supervisory capacity with direct reports
• Minimum of 3 years in a combination of business development, B2B sales, or account management roles
• Alignment with Franklin Madison’s Purpose & Values
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Proven analytical and strategic competency
• Keen ability to work independently and problem solve
• Relentless focus on delivering results and driving process improvement
• Ability to lead and influence others (decision makers, team members, colleagues)
• Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability, and innovation
• Promote employee engagement and provide mentorship to others as needed
• Ability to travel to MN office an average of 8-10 times per year