Head of Client Solutions, Advisor Segment
The Area: The Client Solutions function sits within Morningstar’s Sales and Business Development group and leads Morningstar’s segment go-to-market (GTM) strategy and field execution. The Advisor client segment is generally defined as intermediaries through which asset managers reach investors. This includes registered investment advisors (RIAs), RIA rollups, regional broker dealers, independent broker dealers, online/discount broker dealers, wirehouses, retail robo-advisors and other fintech players. Morningstar markets a broad range of solutions including independent investment research, software, analytics, data and index capabilities for client decision support as well as investment management solutions.
The Role:
Reporting to the Chief Revenue Officer, the Head of Client Solutions, Advisor Segment leads overall go-to-market responsibility for Morningstar’s Advisor segment in North America. This segment leader serves in a strategic business development capacity, leading GTM strategy and field execution across the different advisor firm types. While primarily focused on Morningstar's license-based solutions including research, data, software and indexes, this leader also works closely with our investment management business.
The solution leadership roles have a mix of internal and external responsibilities. From an internal perspective, segment leaders collaborate with internal executive and leadership teams in Strategy, Product, and Marketing businesses to identify market trends, develop the GTM strategy, influence product/solution strategy and roadmap, develop and influence effective marketing, and engage in sales planning. Externally, the segment leader accelerates growth and amplifies Morningstar’s mission and capabilities by serving as the segment thought leader, participating in industry events and conferences, designing high impact campaigns and events with the demand generation team and actively engaging with the sales teams to develop client opportunities based on Morningstar’s extensive portfolio of leading capabilities.
This position is located in our Chicago office and requires 60%+ travel.
Responsibilities:
Segment and Product Strategy
- Work with Product, Marketing and Sales leadership to develop Morningstar’s strategy for the Advisor segment including both short- and long-term priorities including revenue goals.
- Understand the complete existing Morningstar portfolio including products, assets, IP and thought leadership, and position and assemble these capabilities for the unique needs of the Advisor segment.
- Influence the product roadmap and product development process based on solid understanding of segment marketplace dynamics, trends, challenges and opportunities.
- Serve as a constant source of innovation and recommendations (build, buy, partner) back to the Product teams based on strong knowledge of the advisor segment trends.
- Collaborate with Product teams to evaluate external partnerships, alliances and other strategic relationships within the ecosystem to continually develop end-to-end solutions and capabilities.
- Work with Asset Management segment counterpart to identify trends to fully understand end to end spectrum of product manufacturing and distribution.
Marketing and Client Engagement
- Collaborate with Marketing to influence and shape the GTM strategy for the Advisor segment, prioritizing products, capabilities and solutions. Contribute to the development of key marketing strategies, programs and enablement materials for the segment.
- Work with Head of Global Sales Training and Development to ensure effective segment curriculum development and training for regional sales teams.
- Work as a matrix leader coaching 20+ Senior Sales Executives on effective client engagement in the Advisor segment, continually improving the sales team’s effectiveness.
- Engage in field sales and business development activities with executives/c-level at clients. Execute sales business development activities for the identification, qualification and progression of new business opportunities in the pipeline.
- Achieve required sales and business development targets.
- Continually improve and expand Morningstar’s presence in the advisor segment ecosystem.
- Participate in speaking engagements at Morningstar and other key industry events serving as Morningstar’s segment expert and thought leader.
Requirements
- Passionate about the financial advice business and empowering investor success.
- Subject matter expert with deep knowledge and expertise of key trends across registered investment advisors (RIA), regional broker dealers, independent broker dealers, online/discount broker dealers, wirehouses, and robo-advisors.
- Comprehensive knowledge of the advisor segment business processes, workflow, operations and the leading technologies / services across the sub segments of advisor /wealth management segment.
- Strong business and personal network with client and firm relationships in the Advisor segment and extended ecosystem.
- Solid understanding of regulatory environment and impact on the Advisor segment.
- Understanding of industry software and technology platforms and ability to effectively and credibly engage in technology-related topics to clients.
- Strong oral and written presentation skills. Strong public speaking and presentation skills
- Attributes: Entrepreneurial mindset, client-centric, outgoing, strategic, analytical, natural collaborator, and competitive.
- Bachelor’s degree; MBA, CFA, or other advanced degree/accreditation is strongly preferred.