Founded in 1998, Shiji has grown to become one of the largest manufacturers and service providers of "big data" to the hotel, food service and retail industries.   With the benefit of investors such as Alibaba, and Shiji’s investments in data related companies, Shiji is able to offer IT solutions and data platform services to a vast array of industries and offer innovative products and technologies to the Global market.  Shiji is rapidly expanding in both China and the international market with 70+ subsidiaries in China alone along with ongoing expansion into Europe, Asia Pacific and North America.

Job Mission:

Shiji deploys experienced Account Directors to manage and up-sell (farm) existing customer relationships & develop new relationships in the global Hospitality and Travel space.  In this role, the Account Director will be responsible for managing:

• existing customer relationships including contracting, renewals & collections,
• identifying up-sell & cross sell opportunities with SDS dynamic, content & visual solutions,
• identifying and selling new opportunities for distribution as well as the Shiji Wheel,
• negotiating contracts with Shiji legal support,
• ongoing service delivery from a business/commercial perspective
• managing customer expectations in a fast paced, global environment.

Key Areas of Responsibility:

• Execute account management responsibilities focusing on Alternative Distribution companies (OTAs/Tour/Wholesale/Metasearch/GDS), Hoteliers and Partners (3rd Party System Providers/Agents)
• Ownership
  • Own the financial health and growth of an existing account
  • Own the development of new accounts
  • Own individual customer relationships and manage customer communication
  • Own revenue generation, profitability, and forecasting for each account
  • Own account maintenance process for renewals and/or up-selling account higher value solutions
  • Schedule/coordinate training with Service Managers for your accounts
  • Schedule/coordinate QBRs with larger accounts on a regular basis
  • Own new business opportunities on new accounts
• Maximize revenue potential with all customers
  • Inform customers about new products and product features
  • Monitor customer usage and performance, and proactively engage customer to maximize account revenue
  • Identify and report product and service enhancement requests to Shiji Product & Solutions owners
  • Coordinate integration of new channels and hotels by proactively working with customers, channels and internal departments
  • Manage delivery of monthly invoices
    • Ensure invoices are issued in a timely manner
    • Ensure invoices are accurate and resolve any issues if they are not
  • Develop and implement plans to meet agreed retention and revenue goals
• Team with Finance regarding invoicing and specifically the collections process
• Work closely with Service Managers who would own the customer’s service issues that may affect the health of the account and assist wherever required
• Team with Marketing to execute specific Mar-Comm action items with clients that enhance the usage of our products and services 
• Represent Shiji distribution solutions at customer & industry events
• Set up-sell strategies, develop tactical plans, and drive executable action items to completion for each customer.
• Co-develop ‘knitting’ strategies with hotel and channels including owning scheduling priorities for adding new channels (knitting) or adding more properties on existing accounts
• Set schedules with client project teams and leverage support teams to fulfill customer requirements
• Work with Commercial Operations and IT Engineering regarding planned and unplanned downtime events, releases, issue resolution, and tracking
• Periodic account reviews with internal and customer executive management teams including service issues, revenue, profitability, run rate gaps, actionable plans and product roadmap recommendations

Interaction:  This position has daily interactions with senior management, hotels & channels (customers), other team members and various critical departments within the organization. In many cases, interactions with both internal and external parties will be at mid and upper management levels.

Requirements / Qualifications:

• University Degree and a minimum of 7 years’ work experience in international hotel, travel or hospitality suppliers ideally in a sales environment
• True farmer and relationship driven personality with a proven track record of upselling and closing opportunities with an existing customer
• Ability to scale-up vertically for ‘high-touch’ accounts as well as horizontally for small accounts
• Able to partner with Implementation & Service Delivery teams to implement solutions and migrate customer to ‘steady state’
• Ability to manage client expectations and final stages of solution rollouts
• Ability to make tough decisions, communicate bad news if need be and prioritize actions based upon desired business results
• Proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint.
• Ability to adapt quickly to new technologies, products and procedures
• Ability to work and thrive in a multi-tasked and fast-paced environment.
• Professional “get it done” attitude and work ethic.
• Fluent in English.
• Proficiency in another European language optional.
• Effective presentation skills
• Hospitality industry experience is required preferably with hospitality technology companies, hotelier, channel or e-Distribution providers

Critical Competencies:

• Relationship building: Builds effective relationships through positive communication that motivates and influences others. Is an honest, trustworthy, a valued team member, and actively involved in achieving team objectives.
• Personal Effectiveness: Produces outstanding results both professionally and personally by being proactive and committed. Continually focuses on achieving positive results contributing to company’s business success.
• Technical Competence: Uses technical / job knowledge and experience, incorporating functional skills and broad-based business knowledge, to meet and exceed job requirements / customer expectations.
• Communication: Deliver exceptional written and verbal communication.

Applicable Competencies:

• Customer Focus: Enters the customer’s world through listening and understanding. Nurtures relationships by recognizing and delivering on customer needs and opinions.
• Managing complexity: Is able to work effectively in a highly complex, diverse, changing environment. Adapts well to and is energized by change whilst maintaining focus on key business goals.
• Innovation: Embraces creativity and is open to new ideas. Innovates to improve current working practices / products / technologies to provide business opportunities and results.
• Business Management: Produces outstanding results both professionally and personally by effective management of business processes. Effectively plans, budgets, tracks and evaluates performance of his/her business area.

Additional information

·         Fast learner to pick up the company’s various IT solution; and able to handle system installation.

·         Ability to communicate effectively and build rapport with team members and clients.

·         Adhere to company standards, policy and procedure.

·         Willing to work with a wide variety of cultures.

·         Willing to be contactable on an on-call basis after-hours by mobile phone.

·         Willing to travel locally and overseas when required