Strategic Account Manager

Discovery Limited; Sandton; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,500,000; Full time

Job summary

Discovery Limited is seeking a Strategic Account Manager to own the growth and strategic success of a portfolio of high-value customer relationships after onboarding by New Business. The role focuses on increasing customer lifetime value through executive engagement, stakeholder management, and proactive servicing.

You will act as a trusted Discovery Green advisor, helping customers navigate energy strategy, decarbonisation priorities and long-term business objectives, while identifying

Qualifications

• Five or more years’ experience in B2B commercial roles.
• Executive-level engagement experience.
• Proven ability to grow and nurture existing customer relationships.
• Experience developing strategic account plans and coordinating cross-functional delivery.
• Strong commercial and financial acumen.
• Energy-sector, renewable-energy, sustainability or ESG experience is advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Own a portfolio of strategic customer accounts and develop annual account plans.
• Build multi-year growth strategies and drive retention and expansion objectives.
• Conduct quarterly business reviews with executive visibility across strategic accounts.
• Build trusted relationships across executive, sustainability, procurement, finance, operations and energy-management stakeholders.
• Translate customer priorities into actionable account growth plans and coordinate Discovery Green resources.

Skills

B2B experience

Executive engagement

Account growth

Stakeholder management

Strategic account plans

Commercial & financial acumen

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Further study in business/energy/sustainability

Job description

About Discovery

Discovery’s core purpose is to make people healthier and to enhance and protect their lives. We seek out and invest in exceptional individuals who understand and support our core purpose, and whose own values align with those of Discovery. Our fast-paced and dynamic environment enables smart, self-driven people to be their best. As global thought leaders, Discovery is passionate about innovating in order to not only achieve financial success, but to ignite positive and meaningful change within our society.

Discovery Green

Strategic Account Manager

About Discovery

Discovery’s core purpose is to make people healthier and to enhance and protect their lives. We seek out and invest in exceptional individuals who understand and support our core purpose, and whose own values align with those of Discovery. Our fast-paced and dynamic environment enables smart, self-driven people to be their best. As global thought leaders, Discovery is passionate about innovating in order to not only achieve financial success, but to ignite positive and meaningful change within our society.

About Discovery Green

Discovery Green is Discovery's renewable energy platform for businesses that makes it simple and affordable for businesses to run on renewable energy. By bringing together scale, the best expertise, actuarial modelling and sophisticated systems, our renewable energy platform can help businesses meet their decarbonisation goals and decrease funds spent on electricity. Discovery Green recently launched Ampli Energy, a joint initiative between Discovery Green and Sasol to further unlock access to renewable energy for businesses that need it most - from mid-sized corporates and SMMEs to NGOs, that have historically been excluded from South Africa's energy market due to their size. Ampli Energy pays businesses to switch to renewable energy, depositing monthly cashback directly into business bank accounts. No fees. No risks. No hassles. Just monthly cashback for going green.

About The Role

The Strategic Account Manager will own the growth, development and strategic success of a portfolio of high-value customer relationships following onboarding by New Business. The role is responsible for increasing customer lifetime value through executive engagement, stakeholder management, strategic account planning, proactive customer servicing, expansion opportunity identification and customer advocacy.

The successful candidate will act as a trusted Discovery Green advisor, helping customers navigate ongoing energy strategy, decarbonisation priorities and long-term business objectives, while identifying opportunities to deepen commercial value within existing relationships. The candidate will support with operational servicing, maintaining purposeful touchpoints, building and nurturing trusted client relationships, understanding evolving needs, and ensuring that requests and commitments are addressed timeously through coordinated internal follow-through.

Key Outputs / Job Responsibilities may include but are not limited to:

• Own a portfolio of strategic customer accounts and develop and maintain annual account plans.
• Build multi-year customer growth strategies and drive retention and expansion objectives.
• Conduct quarterly business reviews and ensure appropriate executive visibility across strategic accounts.
• Build trusted relationships across executive, sustainability, procurement, finance, operational and energy-management stakeholders.
• Develop stakeholder maps and maintain a clear understanding of customer decision-making dynamics, ensuring engagement is not dependent on a single relationship.
• Maintain proactive, structured and well-planned customer touchpoints throughout the relationship lifecycle.
• Build and nurture strong, long-term client relationships by understanding customer priorities, emerging concerns and service expectations.
• Act as a clear point of coordination for customer servicing, bringing together the relevant internal teams and maintaining accountability for timely follow-through.
• Monitor customer experience and service delivery, communicate progress clearly, and elevate risks, delays or unmet needs appropriately.
• Support customer onboarding and account enablement where required, creating a strong foundation for the ongoing relationship.
• Identify and develop opportunities relating to additional energy demand, new facilities, sites and locations, sustainability partnerships and innovation initiatives.
• Translate customer priorities into actionable account growth plans and coordinate the appropriate Discovery Green resources around them.
• Provide customers with relevant energy-market insights, industry developments, decarbonisation trends, regulatory developments, benchmarking and strategic recommendations.
• Help customers understand the commercial implications of inaction and support constructive, value-led decision-making.
• Develop customer references, case studies, speaking opportunities, events, media opportunities and customer success stories in collaboration with Marketing.
• Coordinate support across commercial, technical, operations, project delivery, marketing and executive leadership to provide a unified customer experience.
• Use influence rather than formal authority to mobilise internal support and resolve customer.

Personal Attributes And Skills

• Strategic and commercially minded, with the ability to connect customer needs to long-term value.
• Customer-centric and service-oriented, with strong ownership, responsiveness and follow-through.
• Confident engaging senior executives and diverse stakeholder groups.
• Excellent written, verbal, presentation and relationship-management skills.
• Able to teach, tailor and challenge constructively while aligning stakeholders around better decisions.
• Highly organised and able to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced, cross-functional environment.
• Strong judgement, collaboration and influencing skills.
• Proactive in identifying client needs and ensuring they are met timeously.

Education

• Relevant bachelor’s degree or equivalent qualification.
• Further study in business, commerce, sustainability, energy or a related field is advantageous.

Required Skills And Experience

• Five or more years’ experience in B2B commercial roles.
• Experience managing and servicing enterprise accounts.
• Executive-level customer engagement experience.
• Demonstrated success growing, retaining and nurturing existing customer relationships.
• Experience developing strategic account plans and coordinating cross-functional delivery.
• Strong commercial and financial acumen.
• Excellent presentation, communication and stakeholder-management skills.
• Energy-sector, renewable-energy, sustainability or ESG experience is advantageous.
• Experience managing large enterprise customers is advantageous.

EMPLOYMENT EQUITY

The Company’s approved Employment Equity Plan and Targets will be considered as part of the recruitment process. As an Equal Opportunities employer, we actively encourage and welcome people with various disabilities to apply.