Client Services Director

Experience: 15+ YearsIndustry: Branding, Advertising, Creative & Design AgenciesEmployment Type: Full-TimeLocation: Bengaluru, KarnatakaAbout the Role

KREO Design and Innovation is looking for an accomplished Client Servicing professional with 15+ years of experience in advertising, branding, creative, or integrated marketing agencies.

The individual will be responsible for building strong client partnerships, leading strategic account management, ensuring seamless project delivery, and driving long-term business growth. This role requires a balance of strategic thinking, commercial acumen, creative understanding, and exceptional relationship management.

The ideal candidate will act as the primary bridge between clients and internal teams, translating business objectives into effective creative solutions while ensuring quality, timelines, budgets, and client expectations are consistently managed.

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic Client Relationship Management

• Own and nurture relationships with key clients, senior stakeholders, and decision-makers.
• Act as the primary point of contact for strategic accounts, ensuring proactive communication and high client satisfaction.
• Understand clients’ business objectives, brand positioning, target audiences, market challenges, and growth priorities.
• Build trusted advisory relationships by identifying opportunities beyond immediate project briefs.
• Manage client expectations, resolve escalations, and maintain long-term partnerships.

2. Account Leadership & Business Growth

• Lead the management and growth of existing client accounts.
• Identify opportunities for account expansion, cross-selling, and upselling across branding, design, digital, campaigns, packaging, and other relevant agency services.
• Develop account growth plans and strengthen client retention.
• Participate in pitches, new business presentations, proposals, and commercial negotiations.
• Build strong relationships that translate into recurring engagements and sustainable revenue growth.
• Monitor account profitability, revenue opportunities, and commercial performance.

3. Creative Briefing & Strategic Planning

• Translate client requirements into clear, actionable creative briefs aligned with business and brand objectives.
• Work closely with strategy, design, creative, digital, and production teams to develop effective solutions.
• Challenge briefs constructively and provide strategic inputs that improve the quality of the final output.
• Ensure creative recommendations are aligned with the client's brand guidelines, business priorities, and intended outcomes.
• Present and articulate creative concepts, strategic recommendations, and campaign ideas confidently to senior client stakeholders.

4. Project & Delivery Management

• Oversee multiple client accounts and projects simultaneously, ensuring delivery within agreed timelines, budgets, and quality standards.
• Coordinate with internal teams across design, branding, digital, content, video, production, and other relevant functions.
• Establish clear project expectations, deliverables, milestones, approval processes, and responsibilities.
• Monitor project progress, anticipate bottlenecks, and take corrective action before issues escalate.
• Ensure timely client feedback, internal reviews, approvals, and final delivery.
• Maintain visibility into account priorities and resource requirements.

5. Commercial & Financial Management

• Manage account budgets, estimates, scopes of work, and commercial proposals.
• Ensure projects remain within approved budgets and scope.
• Identify scope changes and ensure additional requirements are commercially addressed.
• Coordinate with finance and internal stakeholders on billing milestones, invoicing, collections, and outstanding payments.
• Monitor account profitability and support accurate revenue forecasting.
• Lead commercial discussions and negotiations while protecting the agency's interests.

6. Team Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Guide and mentor client servicing and account management team members.
• Set clear expectations for client communication, project ownership, responsiveness, and delivery quality.
• Collaborate with creative and strategy leadership to maintain a balance between client expectations and creative excellence.
• Facilitate effective coordination between departments and ensure accountability for deliverables.
• Foster a proactive, solutions-oriented approach to client servicing across the organisation.

7. Client Satisfaction & Operational Excellence

• Establish strong account management practices and structured client communication.
• Track client satisfaction, feedback, retention, project performance, and recurring business opportunities.
• Address client concerns professionally and ensure timely resolution.
• Identify opportunities to improve workflows, briefing processes, approval cycles, and service delivery.
• Maintain account plans, meeting notes, project updates, and client documentation.

Required Qualifications & Experience

• 15+ years of experience in client servicing, account management, or client leadership within an advertising, branding, creative, design, or integrated marketing agency.
• Proven experience managing key accounts and senior client relationships.
• Strong understanding of branding, creative development, advertising campaigns, digital marketing, and design-led solutions.
• Demonstrated experience leading pitches, proposals, presentations, negotiations, and account growth initiatives.
• Experience managing multiple projects, internal teams, budgets, timelines, and client expectations.
• Strong commercial understanding, including revenue growth, account profitability, scope management, and collections.
• Experience mentoring client servicing teams and coordinating with multidisciplinary creative teams.
• Excellent presentation, communication, negotiation, and problem-solving skills.

Key Skills & Competencies

• Strategic account management and relationship building
• Business development and account growth
• Creative and brand communication understanding
• Senior stakeholder management
• Commercial negotiation and financial awareness
• Project planning and delivery oversight
• Team leadership and conflict resolution
• Strong ownership, organisation, and decision-making

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Performance will be evaluated against:

• Client retention and satisfaction.
• Growth in revenue from existing accounts.
• New business opportunities generated through existing relationships.
• Account profitability and effective scope management.
• Timely project delivery and quality of execution.
• Client escalations and resolution effectiveness.
• Strength of collaboration between clients and internal teams.
• Development and performance of the client servicing team.

Ideal Candidate Profile

We are looking for a mature, commercially aware, and strategically minded client leader who understands that exceptional client servicing goes beyond managing briefs and timelines.

The right candidate will be able to build lasting partnerships, understand business challenges, champion creative excellence, identify growth opportunities, and lead teams to deliver meaningful outcomes for clients.

The expectation is to bring the confidence of a senior client partner, the commercial thinking of an account leader, and the collaborative mindset required to thrive in a creative agency environment.

Pay: ₹1,500,000.00 - ₹2,000,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Health insurance
• Paid sick time
• Paid time off
• Provident Fund

Work Location: In person