Client Partner

AccruePartners; Charlotte (NC); On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

AccruePartners is seeking a Client Partner for its Project Solutions practice in Charlotte. You will originate and grow advisory engagements with CFOs, COOs, and PE partners, shaping opportunities from discovery through to signed engagements.

Lead proposals, manage scope, and maintain a robust regional pipeline using Bullhorn CRM and industry networks. In this role, you will build deep client relationships, craft compelling value propositions, and guide engagements from concept to delivery.

Qualifications

• MBA, CPA or similar is a plus.
• Proven track record in driving advisory engagements with senior executives.
• Strong knowledge of private equity and value-creation plans.
• Excellent proposal writing and relationship-building skills.

Responsibilities

• Originate and grow client engagements with CFOs/COOs and PE operating partners.
• Lead discovery to define engagements with objectives, scope, and fees.
• Draft proposals and SOWs and manage to signed engagements.
• Maintain CRM forecast and pipeline through Charlotte market.

Skills

Business development

Relationship building

Industry networking

CRM proficiency

Proposal writing

Strategic thinking

Private equity knowledge

Education

MBA or CPA or similar

Tools

Bullhorn CRM

AI-assisted research tools

Job description

The Role

Middle-market companies hit a few moments that change how they run: an acquisition, a carve-out, a new ERP, a sponsor's value-creation plan, an exit. Most don't have the bandwidth or the experience in-house to get them right. That's where Project Solutions comes in.

We're the Project Solutions practice inside AccruePartners. We scope the problem, build the team around it, and own the outcome. Our model is a broad bench behind a narrow front door: deep subject-matter experts across four solution areas, and one accountable team for the client.

The Client Partner is that front door. You build relationships with CFOs, COOs and PE operating partners across Charlotte. You recognize when a business event creates a need, help the client define it, and shape it into an engagement. You'll scope the work alongside the VP, Project Solutions, and stay close through delivery so the client comes back.

What You'll Do

Originate Pipeline

• Build coverage of the Charlotte and Southeast middle market: A target list of companies, PE sponsors and operating partners, plus the centers of influence around them, such as M&A attorneys, lenders, accounting firms and investment bankers.
• Follow deal flow. New platforms, add-ons, carve-outs and refinancings are the clearest signal of who will need help next.
• Spot opportunities in AccruePartners' existing client relationships where the need is a scoped engagement, not a hire.
• Be visible in the market through roundtables, industry groups and points of view and case studies on the problems our clients face.

Shape Solutions

• Run discovery conversations that get past the request to the business problem, what it's costing, and who owns it.
• Partner with VP, Project Solutions to turn that into a defined engagement: objectives, scope, approach, team, timeline and fees.
• Draft proposals and SOWs. You should be comfortable putting a first version together yourself.

Win the Work

• Lead pursuits through our stages: Qualifying, Value Prop, Proposal, Negotiation, Closed-Won.
• Keep the pipeline current in our CRM and bring a forecast to our regular pipeline reviews that leadership can plan staffing and revenue against.

Grow Relationships

• Stay the senior relationship through delivery and make sure what we sold is what we deliver.
• Build account plans for your priority clients and sponsor relationships.
• Turn completed work into follow-on phases, referrals and case studies.

Where We Play

Our work is organized into four pillars. AI is part of each one, not a separate offering.

• Enterprise Program & PMO Leadership. Post-merger integration, divestitures and TSA exits, ERP programs, finance transformation roadmaps, and AI governance.
• Business & Technology Enablement. ERP, CRM and HRIS selection and rollout, data and BI, FP&A and EPM tooling, and AI and automation in core systems.
• Operational Readiness & Change Adoption. Go-live change management, org redesign, SOP standardization, and first-100-days operating model resets.
• Process Optimization & Functional Transformation. Close acceleration, order-to-cash and procure-to-pay, shared services, working capital, cost takeout, and controls.

The best opportunities come from business events, not RFPs. These are the ones to listen for:

• A platform acquisition or add-on that has to be integrated
• A carve-out that needs to stand up its own functions and exit a TSA
• A value-creation plan that asks more of finance and operations than the team can handle
• A system implementation that is stalled, over budget or not being adopted. That's almost always a business process and change problem, not a technology problem.
• A finance function that needs to be ready for diligence, a refinancing or an exit

How We Measure Success

We measure outcomes, not activity. Consulting sales cycles usually run three to nine months, so the scorecard reflects that.

• Bookings. Signed engagement value against an annual target set with you.
• Qualified pipeline. Opportunities at Value Prop or later, enough to cover the next two quarters.
• Proposal win rate. How often a proposal turns into a signed SOW.
• Engagement quality. Margin held, scope delivered as sold, and a client willing to serve as a reference.
• Repeat business. Follow-on phases and referrals from clients you brought in.

The first year

• First 90 days. Learn our case studies, our bench and how we scope and price work. Build a target list of companies, sponsors and referral partners. Open your first qualified conversations.
• Six months. Lead proposals in partnership with VP, Project Solutions. Sign your first engagements.
• Twelve months. Carry a pipeline that supports the annual target. Be a known name for the practice in Charlotte.

What You Bring

• 8 to 10 years in consulting, professional services business development, or a corporate leadership role in finance, operations or transformation.
• A record of originating and closing consulting or advisory engagements with senior executives, with a sales target you were measured against.
• Working knowledge of private equity: how sponsors buy, what a 100-day plan and value-creation plan ask of a portfolio company, and how an exit timeline drives decisions.
• Relationships with the people who see deals early: sponsors, operating partners, lenders, attorneys and bankers.
• Business judgment to diagnose a problem across finance, operations, technology and people, and the sense to bring in a deeper expert when it's needed.
• Strong writing. You can draft the proposal and an SOW.
• Comfort working in a CRM (Bullhorn) and using AI tools for research and proposal work.
• An established network across the Charlotte and Southeast middle market. This role is based in Charlotte, with no relocation.
• An MBA, CPA or similar is a plus.

You'll likely be a good fit if you've sold or led work at a mid-market advisory firm, a Big Four or regional accounting firm's consulting group, or a transformation consultancy.

Why Join Us

• Shape the practice. We're early enough that you'll help decide what we sell, how we take it to market, and which case studies define us.
• Start with proof. We've delivered 32 use cases across 25 clients, and many of those are repeat clients. You'll have references and stories to tell from day one.
• Sell with a practitioner. You'll pursue work alongside the VP, Project Solutions. I've spent my career in M&A integration, finance transformation and large programs, at a global consulting firm and in industry.
• Staff what you sell. Our bench of experienced consultants and SMEs comes from more than 24 years of AccruePartners relationships, so we can put the right team in front of a client quickly.
• Warm access. AccruePartners has long-standing relationships across Charlotte and in 42 states, which gives you a head start most boutique firms don't have.

The Details

• Location. Based in our Charlotte office, with a lot of time in the market meeting clients and referral partners. Most travel is local, with occasional trips across the Southeast.
• Compensation. A competitive base salary plus an incentive tied to bookings and engagement margin.