Strategic Relationship Manager Civil Society

Salary: R1 035 757,00 – R1 294 697,00 TCTC

Job Purpose

• To manage and influence relationships with key stakeholders as prioritised in the strategic plan, to promote Brand South Africa's marketing and communications objectives in partnership with these stakeholders, to external audiences.
• Responsible for managing key Civil Society stakeholders, developing and maintaining a long-term strategic relationship with stakeholders and identifying partnership opportunities.
• To play a key relationship manager role in defining and delivering of projects through obtaining briefs, needs and expectations of stakeholders and ensuring they are effectively addressed in the roll-out plan facilitated by Brand South Africa through efficiently leveraging stakeholder resources.
• The strategic relationship manager is the main Brand South Africa custodian of the relationship with Civil Society stakeholders to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of the collaborations.

Minimum Qualification Requirements & Experience

• Bachelor's Degree, or equivalent, in Political Science /Economics /Sales and Marketing /Business Management.
• Postgraduate degree in Political Science / Economics /Marketing /Business Management/ Communication Added advantage.
• 5+ years combined experience in stakeholder relations account management, marketing, communications, public relations, at a senior level.
• Track record in successfully brokering / negotiating collaborations and joint ventures in a highly political / pressured environment.

Key Performance Areas

Contribute to the development of the overall stakeholder management strategy.

• Establish the correct networks and channels and provide input on portfolio priorities, plans, and budgets.
• Feed market insights into the overall knowledge management system.

Contribute to the development of programme-specific projects and initiatives.

• With reference to the Brand South Africa business plan and signed MoUs with priority stakeholders, unpack, research, workshop, and help develop implementation plans to activate the delivery of a project, initiative, or campaign in line with the integrated marketing and communications programme and stakeholder expectations.
• This would also involve ongoing press briefings, speech writing, and setting the scene.
• Establish relationships with the right decision-makers and influencers and canvass all input from geographic and stakeholder plans and target group information.

Sell the project, initiative, or campaign plan for buy-in and approval sign-off with the stakeholder priority base levels, locations, platforms, decision-makers, beneficiaries.

• Sell the project, campaign, or initiative to the relevant stakeholder bases and decision-makers/beneficiaries to ensure buy-in in terms of the content, tone, roll-out mechanisms, budget, audience targets, collaborative ownership, timelines, and outputs.
• Provide feedback on stakeholder inputs, research, environmental scanning, and other relevant information budgets, changing priorities back to Marketing and Communications for refinement and amendment in the activation plans to ensure sign-off.

Facilitate and manage stakeholder relationships in the delivery of the projects, campaigns, or initiative plans.

• Facilitate, drive, and maintain established relationships with key stakeholders on signed-off projects/initiatives to ensure delivery happens on schedule and that expectations, perceptions, and feedback are managed actively and successfully.
• This also involves, on occasion, the organisation and delivery of meetings, events, and functions.

Compliance, monitoring, and reporting.

• Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of stakeholder-implemented initiatives including risks and reflect this in quarterly reporting in accordance with the contracted performance measurement and business plan scorecard of the organisation.
• Scan the wider public policy environment to identify and exploit opportunities for future work where supportive of the strategic aims of Brand South Africa, and develop leads to establish relationships with public policy makers and influencers. Identify opportunities for joint future work where appropriate e.g., new international relations strategy, diplomacy rules for sectors and geographic regions.
• Ensure adherence to the project corporate identity, copyright requirements, correct representation, referencing, and necessary Brand South Africa support to achieve the objectives of stakeholder roll-out plans.
• This function also entails brand monitoring to ensure brand alignment.
• Monitor resource spend and financial expenditure in accordance with approved project plans.

Required Technical Skills, Competencies and Attributes: Required Technical Skills, Functional Knowledge and Attributes:

• Comprehensive understanding of the political, economic, and legislative environment domestic and international.
• Thorough knowledge of the workings of the business and macro-economic environment domestic and international.
• Knowledge of the Civil Society sector and understanding of the socio-economic environment domestic and international.
• Working knowledge of systems and processes and how they contribute to organisational performance.
• Advanced knowledge of how to determine value from a customer perspective.
• Excellent business acumen, i.e., strategic ability to position and sell Brand South Africa's mandate and initiatives in response to emerging political, business, and environmental trends.
• Advanced consultative selling skills, i.e., selling a solution through providing sound advice and value from a stakeholder perspective beyond the initiative of Brand South Africa.
• Excellent presentation skills, i.e., the ability to use the right presentation techniques and emphasise the right content to influence and persuade.
• Media management, i.e., the ability to deal with media in a professional manner during media tours at strategic stakeholder engagements.
• Above-average interpersonal and communication skills to engage credibly with people at different levels and with different needs public relations.
• Marketing skills, i.e., the ability to identify and capture a target market or audience's needs and sell a message branded with the identified need.
• Programme management skills, i.e., stakeholder engagement, structuring programmes and multiple projects, managing governance and funding processes in projects, and project resource management.
• Project management skills, i.e., identifying constituent projects and developing their business cases, developing and implementing an agreed governance model for the project, implementing and managing project finances and resources, and monitoring and controlling project execution.
• Ability to manage multiple stakeholder projects effectively.
• Competent in stakeholder management and lateral leadership, i.e., the ability to get things done through coordinating different role players in working together without formally being in charge of them.
• Excellent proposal and account/portfolio planning ability.
• Excellent negotiation and "deal-making" skills.
• Advanced MS Office skills Word, Excel, PowerPoint.
• Self-management, i.e., well-developed skills to structure own work, work independently, and take initiative to get what is needed resourcefully and within proper governance rules and structures.
• Personnel management – management of indirect reports and project teams, coaching, and development.
• Results-oriented output-driven.
• Thorough and excellent follow-through ability.
• Willingness to work extended hours and travel substantively within and across borders.
• Ability to perform under pressure.
• Above-average level of perceptiveness and discernment, i.e., the ability to read situations correctly and respond accordingly to instil confidence and provide direction.
• Networking ability, i.e., building and maintaining relationships for business and collaborative opportunities.
• Ser