What are the responsibilities and job description for the Client Relations & Business Development Manager position at Professional & Continuing Education at FHSU?
Company Description
Fort Hays State University is a public regional comprehensive university committed to its mission to provide accessible quality education to Kansas, the nation, and the world through an innovative community of teacher-scholars and professionals to develop engaged global citizen-leaders. Candidates for this position must believe in affordable and accessible lifelong learning opportunities and seek to work in an environment with others committed wholly to this end.
Role Description
The Client Services & Business Development Manager for Professional & Continuing Education (PCE) leads business development and client relationship management for the PCE unit at Fort Hays State University (FHSU). This position is responsible for business-to business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) sales, client acquisition and retention, and representing PCE through active community and business engagement.
The Client Services & Business Development Manager identifies and pursues new client partnerships, conducts discovery calls to assess training needs, develops customized proposals, negotiates contracts, and manages the full client lifecycle from onboarding through retention and growth. This position requires strong sales acumen, relationship building skills, community engagement, and the ability to manage multiple concurrent client projects. The role is essential to achieving PCE's strategic goal of providing tailored training and consulting services to partner employers while ensuring financial sustainability and growth for the unit.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in leadership, management, marketing, workforce development, or related field; or 9 years of experience in professional or higher education
- Experience with managing multiple projects and using project management software
- Experience with public relations, sales, marketing, and recruitment strategies, both B2B and B2C
- Experience working with organizations of all sizes and types on projects to increase organizational performance
Preferred Qualifications
- Master’s degree in leadership, management, marketing, workforce development, or related field
- Experience managing higher education and business/industry partnerships
- Experience with learning management systems and learning experience platforms, as well as various higher education technology tools and integrations across platforms
- Knowledge of customer relationship management software (CRM)
- Proven track record of facilitation in varied modalities (online, blended, face-toface), topics related to human literacy skills (i.e., “soft skills”), and learner types
- Leadership development training/certifications