Director - Negotiations and Deal Strategy

Mercer is seeking a candidate for the following position based out our office in Gurugram.

Director - Negotiations and Deal Strategy (Level G)

The purpose of this position is to drive business performance and operating results. This commercial role will provide support to the lines of business (LOB) in deal strategy and retention, including critical negotiation support globally to client teams serving Mercers largest and most complex clients. This role will also be tasked with identifying and deploying operational efficiencies and upskilling to scale the global support operations from India.

We will count on you to:

• Collaborate directly with Client Managers, Market/Office Leaders, Relationship Managers, CoE and functions to increase deal size and improve terms on our largest Clients and Prospects on a global, regional and country level across all LOBs. Drive Incremental revenue, profitability and opportunity.
• Lead and mentor a team of Deal Strategy Analysts and Specialists; manage day-to-day workload and review outputs for consistency and accuracy
• Project management through completion conceptualize projects; communicate a vision to the team; monitor and manage progress to timeline; review work products and deliverables; communicate results to senior business partners
• Drive financial visibility into client engagements and relationships, and communicate findings to business colleagues and leaders
• Review financial analysis and reporting produced by analysts and specialists, ensuring accuracy of process and results
• Provide insights, coaching and negotiation strategy. Provide expert negotiations support to client teams serving our largest and most complex clients.
• Create/improve product/ pitch materials to ensure that they convey value and are structured to leverage complexity and variables to provide Client options
• Monitor at-risk and unprofitable accounts proactively, designing corrective strategies to improve financial outcomes and client value perception
• Identify key trends, opportunities, and challenges in deal-making, commercial approach, and client engagement strategies to inform best practices
• Continuously seek process improvements, efficiencies, and opportunities to enhance financial performance and client value delivery
• Coordination with other MMC businesses and internal stakeholders involved in client engagements to ensure consistency and leverage cross-company synergies

• Support Scoping/Pricing Initiatives

• Co-Create and leverage existing guidelines and templates that help deliver Client friendly offers and options to maximize deal value

• Development of Business Case Value Prop and ROI
• Measurement and reporting to help benchmark deals and show trends ROI, and results.

What you need to have

• Post graduate degree in finance, business, economics, statistics, mathematics, or similar degree (preference for an analytics-based degree)
• 15+ years of experience in managing high performing commercial teams, contract & negotiations, financial negotiations for products/ services on a global scope and scale, strong knowledge of services/ consulting industry desirable
• High level capability to conduct negotiations with Clients and internally (i.e., across functions, geos and businesses in an effective manner with positive results) ); Ability to influence stakeholders without direct management responsibility
• Strong interpersonal skills with the demonstrated ability to gain the confidence, respect and trust of senior executives, clients and staff
• Experience with financial systems and reporting, building consolidated reporting and communicating analysis to key stakeholders.

Note: Applicants should be flexible working in shifts

What makes you stand out:

• Proven analytical and problem-solving skills related to developing and executing complex proposals and negotiations for a variety of consulting services
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including probing and listening skills, and the ability to present complex data with clarity
• Strong business acumen
• Ability to drive to results by making decisions in a proactive, timely way and establishing priorities with clear goals and responsibilities to achieve results.
• Proven project and time management skills; must be resourceful in developing alternative solutions and meeting deadlines in a real-time, fast paced environment.

• Support in pursuing and winning new contracts as well as renewing and expanding current contracts.

• Strong computing skills and the ability to navigate through multiple systems without assistance, proficient in Microsoft Office with extra emphasis on Excel and PowerPoint, and should be able to leverage AI tools.