Direct Account Manager

Acuity Inc. (NYSE: AYI) is a market-leading industrial technology company. We use technology to solve problems in spaces, light and more things to come. Through our two business segments, Acuity Brands Lighting (ABL) and Acuity Intelligent Spaces (AIS), we design, manufacture, and bring to market products and services that make a valuable difference in people’s lives. 

We achieve growth through the development of innovative new products and services, including lighting, lighting controls, building management solutions, and an audio, video and control platform. We focus on customer outcomes and drive growth and productivity to increase market share and deliver superior returns. We look to aggressively deploy capital to grow the business and to enter attractive new verticals. 

Acuity Inc. is based in Atlanta, Georgia, with operations across North America, Europe and Asia. The Company is powered by approximately 13,000 dedicated and talented associates. Visit us at www.acuityinc.com. 

Work location:

• This position may be based anywhere in the United States and includes some travel as part of the responsibilities.

Job Summary

We are seeking a highly motivated and experienced Strategic Partner to join our team, focusing on our National Accounts. This critical role is designed for a strategic thinker who will take full ownership for the management and success of our most important accounts; encompassing all CX responsibilities and the coordination of holistic project teams. The central focus of the role is to serve as a champion for these crucial customers, ensuring an exceptional experience throughout their relationship with Acuity. The Strategic Partner will be the central point of communication, seamlessly coordinating between both external stakeholders and internal teams—such as Sales, Customer Operations, Order Support, and Post-Sales. The ideal candidate will have a knack for building and maintaining strong relationships, resolving complex issues, and identifying new opportunities for growth. They will also be expected to contribute to continuous process improvements and ensure the highest levels of customer satisfaction, both internally and externally. As the Strategic Partner, you will work directly with the sales team in strategic planning meetings, including in-person presentations that may focus on plans and issue resolution promoting continued growth and support. Your role will also involve addressing and resolving issues swiftly and effectively as well as leveraging your strategic problem-solving skills. You will play a key role in developing opportunities within accounts while ensuring that all processes are optimized for efficiency and effectiveness. This position requires a proactive "inspect what you expect" mentality to ensure all aspects of the account management process are meeting and exceeding expectations.

Key Tasks & Responsibilities (Essential Functions)

• Support Sales Team: Work closely with the sales team, participating in planning meetings, in-person presentations, and opportunity development.  These meetings should include a focus on account management and customer satisfaction, as well as educating the customer and setting program expectations. It'll be important to proactively identify potential issues and implement solutions to prevent and resolve problems quickly.
• Account Ownership: Take full responsibility for the management and success of assigned national accounts, ensuring customer satisfaction and business growth. This includes being the primary point of contact while serving as the main communication link between internal teams (Sales, Project Management Support, Customer Operations, Post-Sales, Order Support) and external customers. You will need to be able to develop and maintain strong, long-lasting relationships with key stakeholders, both internally and externally. Additionally, it will be critical that you hold all involved teams accountable for their contributions to account success, ensuring seamless collaboration and execution.
• Continuous Process Improvement: Foster an environment of efficiency and productivity around account activities by being a consistent advocate for continuous process improvement. This should include initiating AOP events addressing the needs of the account and the National Account organization as a whole, as well as maintaining a collaborative culture among all stakeholders.
• Account Planning: Assist in strategic account planning and execution, ensuring that all internal resources are aligned for program success, while striving to exceed customer expectations.
• Serve as a subject matter expert and liaison between the KAC, PM teams and cross channel partners. Through this activity you will work to address communication and process knowledge gaps between our CX Org, project managment team, and factory teams. You will work closely with these teams to identify gaps, create tactical solutions, and facilitate cross-channel collaboration. While ultimate responsibility for deliverables remains with the designated teams, you will be a critical resource in ensuring successful outcomes.

Skills and Minimum Experience Required

• Naturally empathetic. The ability to step into someone else’s shoes and walk a few miles can make all the difference between someone who is successful in this position and someone who struggles. By truly being able to understand the customer’s pain, you can also produce the best solutions.    
• Customer advocacy. Customer Support leaders must be strong, natural advocates. Your entire job is to fight to improve the customer experience, which can sometimes be more difficult than it sounds.          
• Process driven. We must serve our customers beyond their expectation, and we must have sustainable, repeatable, efficient, and continuously improving processes. The details matter.             
• Curious. There is always an improvement to be made. Be curious, learn, engage, and drive impact.        
• KPI driven. Everything in this function is measurable. You will find ways to measure how well we’re serving customers with metrics like the Customer Effort Score, Customer Satisfaction Score, and transactional Net Promoter Score for customer service interactions.  
• Hungry. A deep desire to learn our business and the processes associated. You will seek to not only be an expert, but the authority, on anything that could impact the customer experience at any point and how we can resolve it.      
• Business acumen. Elevated level of business acumen, organizational skills, and interpersonal abilities.             
• Analytical. Data driven decision maker.      
• Pace. An ability to multi-task and work effectively in a dynamic, fast paced environment              
• Leadership. An ability to lead and drive (directly and indirectly) to achieve results collaboratively. You know that influence is greater than authority.            

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong organizational and multitasking abilities    
• Background in sales operations and post-sales support.    
• Proven experience in account management, sales, or a related field.    
• Strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills.    
• Excellent strategic problem-solving abilities.    
• Outstanding communication and presentation skills.    
• Focus on continuous improvement and process optimization    
• Ability to work collaboratively with cross-functional teams.    

Travel Requirements

• 1-20%

The range for this position is $68,600.00 to $110,000 USD. Placement within this range may vary, depending on the applicant’s experience and geographic location. Acuity offers generous benefits including health care, dental coverage, vision plans, 401K benefits, and commissions/incentive compensation depending on the role. For a list of our benefits, click here.

We value diversity and are an equal opportunity employer.  All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regards to race, color, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, ethnicity or national origin, disability, pregnancy, religion, covered veteran status, protected genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.  

Please click here and here for more information. 

Accommodation in the Application Process: Acuity Inc. is an equal opportunity employer.  It complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other applicable laws requiring reasonable accommodation of persons with disabilities in employment.  This includes the provision of reasonable accommodation in the application process.  If you believe you need reasonable accommodation to assist with our online application system or any aspect of the application process, please contact Human Resources at (770) 922-9000, and select option 4.  Please be prepared to identify the requisition / position applied for and the aspect of the application process for which you believe accommodation is needed.  The company will engage in an interactive process with you to better understand the request and to determine whether reasonable accommodation is needed and available.  

Any unsolicited resumes sent to Acuity Inc. from a third party, such as an Agency recruiter, including unsolicited resumes sent to an Acuity Inc. mailing address, fax machine or email address, directly to Acuity Inc. employees, or to Acuity Inc. resume database will be considered Acuity Inc. property. Acuity Inc. will NOT pay a fee for any placement resulting from the receipt of an unsolicited resume. 

Acuity Inc. will consider any candidate for whom an Agency has submitted an unsolicited resume to have been referred by the Agency free of any charges or fees. This includes any Agency that is an approved/engaged vendor, but does not have the appropriate approvals to be engaged on a search. 

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