Client Success Manager

About From Day One:

The business landscape is changing fast. From Day One is a media outlet and conference series that helps companies navigate all that change in ways that put people first.

Since our beginning in 2018, we've reached over 150,000 attendees, hosted over a thousand speakers, and produced conferences in more than 20 major U.S. cities–and counting. We take a unique, cross-disciplinary approach, convening leaders in CSR, HR, marketing, and communications, as well as civic leaders, authors, and journalists, to share business strategies that benefit workers, customers, and communities.

We also publish reporting and opinion pieces by a network of notable journalists, led by the company's editor in chief, veteran journalist Stephen Koepp.

At From Day One, we hire people who have a high degree of self-motivation and the potential to grow into active leaders. We call team members like these "drivers". If you are a passenger, From Day One will not be a good fit for you.

As you apply, think about whether these attributes describe you:

• You motivate and energize colleagues rather than waiting for inspiration.
• You're relentlessly resourceful and take ownership rather than seeking excuses.
• You look to consistently deliver great outcomes, and work to improve processes as you engage with them.
• You are excited about your work and bring urgency to your mission.
• You approach challenges with enthusiasm and optimism.

Our work is driven by our mission to improve the relationship between business and society, and our efforts are intended to contribute to a brighter future. By maintaining this optimistic outlook, we not only motivate ourselves but also uplift those around us. We believe that believing that the future will be better is the first step towards making it better -- for others, and for ourselves personally.

Please note that diversity and inclusion are absolutely core to our mission, and we are committed to those values in our hiring process.

About This Role:

The Client Success Manager owns the relationship with our sponsors from the moment they sign through renewal, and is accountable for making sure they get a real return on their partnership with From Day One.

In this role you would be the primary point of contact for a roster of sponsoring companies, learning their objectives, delivering high-touch service by email, phone, and face-to-face, and translating what each client wants into what we deliver for them on site. You would own renewal rate and client satisfaction for your accounts.

Our clients experience their partnership at a live conference, which means the return they get is created on the ground — in the room we booked, at the reception we catered, on the panel their executive joined. So this role also owns the vendor side of that experience: the working relationships with our conference venues, caterers, hotels, and production vendors, the contracts and event orders those relationships produce, and the budgets built from them. Vendor relationship management is the core of the job, not an adjacent duty.

To be successful in this role, you must be able to read a dense venue contract or banquet event order and say clearly what we are committing to and what it will cost; build a budget from a vendor quote that reconciles with it; and weigh a venue's list of available dates against our conference calendar, our travel patterns, and what days an audience will actually attend. You must possess a strong work ethic, along with excellent organizational and interpersonal skills.

This is a remote position, and also includes regular travel to other cities for in-person events.

Responsibilities:

Client Success and Renewal

• Act as primary point of contact and address all client questions and concerns effectively, escalating as needed
• Onboard clients, understand their needs and objectives, and ensure they gain value from their partnership
• Deliver an exceptional customer experience throughout the post-sales journey, and ensure the client's event experience exceeds expectations and leads to positive reviews and contract renewal
• Manage all client deliverables and information flow in a timely and accurate manner
• Conduct post-event feedback calls to assess areas for improvement and opportunities for upsell/renewal
• Prepare weekly, monthly or quarterly reports, and format information for internal and external communication – memos, emails, presentations, reports
• Own key performance indicators including renewal rate and customer satisfaction scores

Vendor and Venue Relationships

• Own the day-to-day working relationships with conference venues, caterers, AV and production vendors, and hotels, building the standing of a client those vendors want to give good terms and good service
• Research and evaluate venues in new and existing markets, and negotiate contracts and event orders
• Read and interpret banquet event orders, venue contracts, and vendor quotes, and confirm that what is on paper matches what we agreed to
• Evaluate date and venue options against real constraints — our existing conference calendar, day-of-week attendance patterns, travel logistics, and cost — and make a clear recommendation
• Coordinate travel, accommodation, and shipping for our team, our speakers, and client materials
• Resolve vendor issues on site, in real time, during events

Budgets and Event Details

• Build event budgets from vendor quotes, and keep them reconciled as scope changes
• Track costs against budget through the life of an event, and flag variances early
• Review invoices and contract terms for discrepancies before they become commitments
• Maintain the documentation and records that let anyone on the team see what an event costs and what we owe

Requirements

• This position requires a 4-year college/university degree at minimum
• Candidates should have a strong academic background and a minimum of 3 years of full-time, professional post-graduation experience
• Direct experience in customer/client success, ideally in events, conferences, hospitality or sales
• Demonstrated experience owning budgets, vendor quotes or contracts — building them, negotiating them, or being accountable for them being right
• Quantitative grounding, whether from coursework in economics, finance, accounting or statistics, or from work where you were responsible for the numbers reconciling
• A background involving genuine logistical complexity: event or production management, hospitality or restaurant operations, travel or supply chain operations, procurement, or campaign management
• Basic knowledge of business software such as MS Office products, Google For Business, or similar
• Outstanding organizational and time management skills
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills
• Willingness to travel regularly for events

Benefits

• This is a full-time salaried position. Starting salary is $75,000 CAD per year with opportunities for regular advancement and raises.
• This position is remote, but please be available to meet with stakeholders based in or near the greater Toronto area if requested.