Client Exec Manager Retention

This is a high-impact commercial leadership role at the heart of our European retention growth and future new business strategy for law firm customers. As Manager of the Client Executive team you will be responsible for leading coaching and developing a team of 10 Client Executives who collectively manage thousands of law firm accounts across Europe with approximately 90% of revenue concentrated in the UK market.

Your teams initial primary mission will be to protect and grow an existing customer base by driving deep product engagement executing proactive contact management strategies and ensuring customers realise maximum value from our portfolio including Practical Law Westlaw HighQ andCoCounsel. You will also play a pivotal role in fostering a close structured and incentivised working relationship with the New Business Manager and their team to ensure that growth opportunities within the existing account base and wider market are identified and acted upon collaboratively.

From next year the scope of this role is expected to expand to include responsibility for both renewal and new business performance. This will bring together customer retention expansion and new customer acquisition under a more integrated commercial leadership model. The successful candidate will therefore need to be comfortable operating across the full commercial lifecycle including prospecting pipeline generation qualification new customer acquisition account growth renewal management forecasting and team performance against multiple revenue targets.

This is a role for a commercially minded customer-centric sales leader who thrives in a fast-moving legal technology environment and can translate product knowledge into customer outcomes revenue growth and long-term customer value.

Future Scope of the Role

During the initial period the role will focus primarily on customer retention product adoption and growth within the existing law firm customer base. However from next year the role is expected to broaden to include direct responsibility for new business performance alongside renewal and expansion targets.

This expanded remit will require the successful candidate to lead a more integrated commercial motion across both existing and prospective customers. Responsibilities will include ownership of new business pipeline generation prospect qualification sales forecasting acquisition strategy account growth renewal execution and collaboration across Marketing Product Customer Success Sales Enablement and the wider Sales organisation.

The role will require the ability to balance protecting recurring revenue with generating new revenue opportunities. The successful candidate will be expected to build team capability across both renewal and new business disciplines including consultative selling prospecting discovery qualification negotiation closing adoption account planning and long-term customer growth.

Team Leadership & Performance Management

Lead coach and develop a team of 10 Client Executives setting clear performance expectations and driving a high-performance culture focused initially on retention and revenue growth with a future expansion into new business accountability.

Conduct regular one-to-ones pipeline reviews account reviews forecast reviews and skills development sessions to ensure team members are performing to their full potential.

Lead the team through an evolving commercial model supporting the transition from a primarily retention and growth-focused structure to one that includes both renewal and new business targets.

Set and monitor individual and team KPIs including renewal rates net revenue retention product adoption metrics expansion revenue new business pipeline new customer acquisition forecast accuracy and activity quality.

Recruit onboard and develop talent within the team building capability in consultative selling product knowledge customer engagement prospecting pipeline management and commercial negotiation.

Create a strong coaching culture that equips Client Executives to manage both existing customer relationships and as the role evolves prospective customer opportunities.

Account Contact & Territory Strategy

Define and implement a structured contact management strategy across the teams account base ensuring appropriate coverage frequency and quality of customer engagement at all levels from day-to-day users to senior stakeholders decision-makers managing partners and C-suite contacts.

Ensure each Client Executive maintains a robust tiered account plan that prioritises accounts by risk opportunity strategic importance product usage revenue potential and growth potential.

As the role expands define and implement structured territory and prospecting plans covering both existing law firm customers and prospective new customers.

Drive a data-led approach to account and territory management using customer usage data product adoption signals engagement metrics buying signals market intelligence and CRM insights to inform outreach priorities and intervention strategies.

Oversee the teams use of CRM tools to maintain accurate pipeline activity account health opportunity and forecast records ensuring visibility accountability and forecasting accuracy.

Ensure the team applies a disciplined approach to prioritising accounts and prospects based on risk opportunity strategic fit revenue potential product usage buying signals and market segment.

Customer Usage & Product Adoption

Champion a usage-first philosophy across the team ensuring Client Executives are actively monitoring and responding to customer usage trends to mitigate churn risk improve customer outcomes and identify growth signals.

Drive adoption and engagement across the full product portfolio including HighQCoCounsel Practical Law and Westlaw building trusted customer relationships and delivering measurable outcomes.

Ensure the team is equipped to have informed value-led conversations with customers about how product usage translates to efficiency risk reduction improved client service and competitive advantage in their legal practice.

Use product engagement and adoption insights to inform renewal strategy account growth plans expansion opportunities and where relevant new business positioning.

Work closely with Customer Success Product Marketing and Sales Enablement to ensure customers receive the right support training and engagement to maximise value from the portfolio.

Product Knowledge & Market Intelligence

Maintain a deep and current understanding of the full product portfolio and its roadmap with particular emphasis on the features and developments most relevant to law firm customers of different sizes practice areas and levels of sophistication.

Articulate the integrated value ofCoCounselLegal which brings together legal research workflow automation intelligent document search and AI-powered legal assistance within one unified solution alongside the complementary strengths of Westlaw Practical Law and HighQ.

Stay current on the evolving legal technology landscape and competitive environment including the growing importance of AI-powered tools in law firm workflows to ensure the team can position our solutions with authority and credibility.

Ensure the team understands customer pain points competitor activity market trends law firm buying behaviours and the broader commercial pressures facing legal professionals.

Translate product market and customer insight into practical coaching messaging account strategy prospecting strategy and commercial execution.

New Business Renewal & Cross-functional Collaboration

Cultivate a close structured working relationship with the New Business Manager and their team during the transition period creating a culture of shared intelligence coordinated account strategy and collaborative revenue generation.

Ensure Client Executives are actively incentivised and accountable for generating and passing qualified growth leads to the new business team and vice versa with clear processes for warm handoffs joint account planning opportunity progression and feedback.

From next year assume broader commercial responsibility for both renewal and new business outcomes ensuring clear alignment between customer retention expansion and new customer acquisition strategies.

Establish clear processes for lead generation qualification opportunity ownership pipeline progression renewal planning account expansion and customer handover across both existing and prospective customers.

Work collaboratively with Product Marketing Customer Success Sales Enablement and other internal teams to ensure customer and prospect feedback informs product development priorities campaign planning proposition development and go-to-market strategy.

Partner with internal stakeholders to develop targeted campaigns and propositions for specific customer segments practice areas product groups or new business opportunities.

Ensure collaboration across teams supports a seamless customer journey from prospecting and acquisition through to onboarding adoption renewal expansion and long-term value realisation.

Revenue & Commercial Accountability

Own the teams retention and growth revenue targets initially with full accountability for forecast accuracy and delivery.

From next year own or contribute directly to both renewal and new business revenue targets ensuring the team is equipped to deliver across multiple commercial outcomes.

Manage the balance between protecting recurring revenue expanding existing customer relationships and generating new customer acquisition.

Proactively manage at-risk accounts developing and executing remediation plans to prevent churn and protect renewal revenue.

Identify and support upsell and cross-sell opportunities across the product suite working with the new business team during the transition period to convert these into incremental revenue.

Oversee pipeline creation qualification progression and conversion for both existing customer growth and as the role evolves new logo acquisition.

Provide regular reporting to senior leadership on team performance account health renewal outlook new business pipeline forecast accuracy market trends competitive activity and commercial risks and opportunities.

Use data and insight to identify performance gaps coach team members improve conversion rates strengthen renewal outcomes and drive predictable revenue growth.

About You

To be considered for the role of Client Exec Manager - Retention you will have:

Proven experience managing a customer-facing sales account management customer success or commercial team ideally within a legal technology information services or B2B SaaS environment.

5 years of customer success account management sales or commercial leadership experience with an understanding of the legal tech or SaaS industry and proven acumen around planning and managing a large book of business.

Demonstrated track record of meeting or exceeding retention growth and/or new business targets across a large complex account portfolio.

Experience owning or contributing to both renewal and new business targets is highly desirable with a strong understanding of the different sales disciplines required for retention expansion and new customer acquisition.

Experience leading teams through a change in commercial model particularly where customer retention and new business acquisition become more closely integrated would be highly advantageous.

Experience working with or selling solutions to law firms is highly desirable; familiarity with law firm operations buying behaviours procurement processes and decision-making structures is a strong advantage.

Experience coaching teams on consultative selling pipeline management account planning prospecting opportunity qualification negotiation and forecasting.

Skills & Competencies

Understanding of the legal industry and the specific challenges faced by legal professionals with the ability to effectively communicate the value of products and services and help customers understand how these technologies can improve their operations.

Strong commercial acumen with the ability to read account health data identify risk and opportunity and translate insight into action.

Strong understanding of both renewal management and new business sales disciplines including prospecting discovery qualification pipeline creation stakeholder mapping negotiation closing and account expansion.

Strong analytical skills with the ability to present data-driven insights effectively combined with excellent project coordination and communication skills and a consultative approach to solving client challenges.

Confident and credible communicator capable of engaging with a wide range of stakeholders from end users to C-suite executives managing partners and senior decision-makers.

Proven relationship builder strong at engaging stakeholders and building long-term partnerships.

Highly organised with the ability to manage competing priorities across a large team a high-volume account base and an evolving new business remit.

Strong forecasting discipline across renewal growth and new business pipelines with the ability to inspect opportunities identify risk and coach team members on next steps.

Proficiency in CRM tools such as Salesforce and a data-driven approach to account activity pipeline and forecast management.

Ability to balance short-term revenue delivery with long-term customer value ensuring acquisition adoption renewal and growth activities are commercially aligned.

Attributes

A collaborative leader who builds trust across teams and creates an environment where people are motivated to perform.

Energised by the intersection of technology and the legal sector with a genuine curiosity about product development legal innovation AI and customer outcomes.

Comfortable operating in a fast-evolving product and commercial environmentwherestaying current on AI and legal tech developments is a professional necessity not a nice-to-have.

Comfortable operating in an evolving commercial structure where responsibilities may broaden over time.

Motivated by ownership of both customer retention and new business growth with the ability to create focus clarity and accountability across multiple revenue motions.

Change-oriented and adaptable with the ability to bring teams on the journey as the business evolves its sales model.

Results-driven with a bias for action accountability commercial discipline and continuous improvement.