Associate Client Relations

BDO South Africa; Wes-Kaap; On-site; ZAR 200 000 - 300 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading professional services firm in South Africa seeks a Client Relations professional to enhance client experience and manage proposal processes. This role involves overseeing national tenders, coordinating client engagements, and ensuring data quality across CRM systems. The ideal candidate will possess strong proposal coordination skills, experience in business development, and proficiency in CRM tools. This position is critical for maintaining high-quality client interactions and supporting business development initiatives.

Qualifications

• 3-5 years experience in business development or client relations.
• Experience in a regulated environment preferred.
• Work with senior executives or partners.

Responsibilities

• Manage national tenders and proposal processes.
• Coordinate client engagements and feedback.
• Maintain CRM data integrity and reporting.

Skills

Proposal coordination

CRM proficiency

Strong reporting skills

Quality control

Interpersonal skills

Education

BA in Communications, Business Administration, Marketing

Tools

Maconomy

Salesforce

Power BI

Job description

Job Purpose

Client Relations plays a critical role in driving client experience, supporting national tender and proposal operations, strengthening partner-level engagement, and maintaining the quality of client-facing deliverables across the Business Development function. This role ensures seamless coordination between Partners, Business Development and client teams by managing client interactions, CRM data integrity, client feedback processes (including Net Promoter Score) and high-quality submissions aligned to BDO brand, compliance and regulatory requirements.

Key Responsibilities

Tender & Proposal Coordination (National Level)

• Manage and support tenders on a national basis, including attending tender briefings when Cape Town representation is required.
• Oversee the full tender lifecycle: registrations, compilation of compliance packs, clarification processes, consolidation of documents, and submission.
• Proofread and quality-check proposals to ensure brand consistency and compliance.
• Serve as Cape Town point of contact for national tenders and RFP processes.
• Coordinate proposal input across service lines, subject matter experts, and Partners.

Client Relations & Experience Management

• Maintain the lost client register for Cape Town and support insights reporting.
• Prepare and submit client correspondence when additional RFP information is required.
• Support partner-level and priority client engagements, including meeting coordination, agendas, and follow-ups.
• Resolve client queries submitted via the website or Maconomy platforms.
• Act as the primary contact for any client-related system issues, ensuring quick turnaround with relevant internal teams.

Net Promoter Score (NPS) & Client Feedback Processes

• Administer the firm’s Net Promoter Score surveys for Cape Town and support national consolidation.
• Track NPS response rates, trends, and feedback categories.
• Partner with BD leadership to create monthly and quarterly client experience insights.
• Support the client care programme through scheduling meetings, preparing documentation, and capturing client feedback securely.
• Ensure NPS outcomes are shared with Partners and flagged where intervention is required.

CRM, Data Quality & Reporting

• Maintain accurate client, sector and opportunity data on Maconomy/CRM; support ongoing sector clean-ups and meet with Partners to validate client allocations.
• Access CRM, Maconomy and Power BI platforms to run reports, investigate anomalies, and support decision‑making.
• Coordinate and submit EXCO‑level reporting (pipeline, sector movement, client trends).
• Support BD leadership with analytics for client relations activities, lost clients, and pipeline management.

Client Account & Data Room Support

• Act as the central point of reference for all data rooms for RFP participation.
• Maintain SharePoint and BD document repositories to ensure updated client credentials, CVs, proposals, and regulatory documentation are easily accessible and compliant.
• Provide administrative support for stakeholder mapping, client account planning and tracking initiatives.

Marketing & Internal BD Support

• Support the Cape Town office with marketing‑related activities when required.
• Assist BD with events, activations, or account‑based marketing initiatives.
• Participating in Global BD Community calls and distributes insights back to the BD team.
• Resolve website queries and ensure alignment with national marketing.

General & Ad Hoc Support

• Provide administrative support including calendar management, logistics, travel bookings, and minute‑taking where necessary.
• Support cross‑functional BD initiatives and projects within the region.
• Assist with ad hoc research assignments for proposals, priority clients, sectors or partners.
• Maintain filing structures for tenders, proposals and client relations documentation.

Key Skills & Competencies

Technical Competencies

• Excellent proposal and tender coordination capability.
• CRM proficiency (Maconomy, Salesforce or equivalent).
• Strong reporting skills (Power BI advantageous).
• Quality control, proofreading and attention to detail.
• Understanding of regulatory requirements (IRBA, B‑BBEE, sector‑specific rules).
• Strong project administration and documentation control.

Qualifications & Experience

• BA Communications, Business Administration, Marketing or equivalent.
• 3‑5 years’ experience in a business development, client relations, proposals or tender’s role, professional services experience strongly preferred.
• Experience in a regulated environment is advantageous.
• Demonstrated experience working with senior executives or partners.

Behavioral Competencies

• Calm under pressure; excellent at managing multiple deadlines.
• Strong interpersonal and relationship management skills with Partners and senior leadership.
• High integrity, confidentiality and discretion in handling client data.
• Self‑starter with strong initiative and proactive problem‑solving.
• Agile, collaborative and solution driven.
• Professional communication and stakeholder engagement.