Senior Business Development Advisor

This is a full-time permanent role based in either our Birmingham, Cambridge, Manchester or Norwich offices with up to 50% hybrid working

The role

Mills & Reeve’s business development centres on the following core sectors: charities, education, food and agribusiness, government, health, insurance, private wealth, real estate investment, technology, life sciences, sports and the mid-market. These sectors are underpinned by national service lines: corporate & commercial, employment, family, insurance disputes, private client, projects & construction, real estate and regulatory, public & commercial disputes.

As a Senior Business Development Advisor you will be responsible for managing BD and marketing for a number of major sector and NSL groups. You will be responsible for the development of strategic business development plans, identification of BD opportunities and pipeline management and driving key account management programmes. A key part of the role will require you to coach and provide high quality and effective commercial BD advice for partners and lawyers across the business. You will take ownership of all projects and initiatives, ensuring they are executed successfully whether by yourself or by other members of the marketing team.

The role could be based in any of the locations stated above but will involve travel across all our offices as the role requires.

Main duties and responsibilities

Strategy and Business Planning

• Working with partner leads to develop strategic business plans which identify opportunities to generate growth in line with the firm’s 2025 strategic plan
• Drive the development and execution of annual BD plans for your groups and measure results
• Collaborate with wider BD team to promote your groups and identify cross/sector and cross/service line opportunities

Driving process for building pipeline of new business opportunities

• Managing group sales pipelines
• Undertaking market and sector research to identify target organisations and their business issues, opportunities and hot topics, and devising ways to communicate these to key stakeholders and clients as appropriate
• Leveraging data and insights to identify, plan and implement key BD campaigns and projects
• Identify and evaluate involvement in key memberships and strategic sponsorships
• Responsible for driving the planning and execution of  major campaigns and initiatives (e.g. though leadership)
• Deliver BD training and mentoring and coaching to partners and lawyers
• Driving BD best practice
• Developing own external network to promote M&R, sector and NSL profile

Client Development

• Supporting client partners to implement key growth account client plans focussed on delivering new business from current clients by utilising appropriate client listening and cross-selling initiatives
• Attend legal and sector association events and conferences to build knowhow and network with clients and prospects
• Maintain sector and service line knowledge including market trends and emerging issues via legal and trade press
• Undertaking regular briefings on client developments

In-depth understanding of multipliers and referrers of work

• Maintaining a strong professional network and using it to proactively spot opportunities to generate leads for the markets/sectors/ service lines you support
• Maintain a record of work referred in/out and provide advice on which referrers are growing/declining in importance
• Promote cross sector and NSL working, communication and referral activity within the BD team and among lawyer groups

Key contact for sector, service lines

• Drive agendas and pipeline of regular meetings with your group/teams
• Ensuring awareness of all marketing/business development taking place within sector/NSL and working with marketing team colleagues to ensure delivery of aligned projects
• Be the ‘go to’ person for specific expertise and raise this through BD hub content, internal coaching and webinars
• Working alongside junior team members to share Intel, knowledge and experience to support their growth and development

The person

You will be expected to demonstrate strengths in terms of:

• A solid educational background, ideally with a relevant degree or Marketing qualification
• A proven full mix of marketing tools
• Proven business development and sales management experience
• Sound working knowledge, and understanding of the business market place
• Strong commercial acumen: understanding of our business and our clients and their requirements
• Strong advisory and influencing skills as well as tenacity
• Exceptional communication and networking skills to enhance the strong relationships already in place, as well as influencing decision makers
• Ability to manage multiple projects whilst at the same time prioritising critical tasks
• Credibility and confidence to work with and add value to our partners

Pre-employment screening

Please note that, in the event that we make an offer of employment, we will conduct pre-employment screening that includes checks relating to your professional and academic qualifications, references from previous employers, your eligibility to work in the UK and any disciplinary history recorded with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). You will also be required to complete a self-declaration to assess your character and suitability.

Disclosure and barring service check

This post is also subject to a satisfactory response from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

The Mills & Reeve Business Services career structure

We have a firm wide Business Services career structure and a published career progression framework.  Within the firm wide career structure there are five career levels.  For the purposes of the framework, this role is at an Advisor level and the role profile that details the outcomes and activities expected of across the firm is included with this job description.  Further information on the firm’s Business Services career structure is available from the HR team.

The firm

What really sets Mills & Reeve apart from other law firms is the way we work with our clients. We understand that clients, in the 21st century, no longer want a traditional law firm – they want one that embraces forward thinking approaches to service, billing, commercial know-how, innovation, people management and community engagement.

And finally

Mills & Reeve is committed to building a diverse workforce and fostering an inclusive environment in which all our people can thrive. We hire people from a wide variety of backgrounds because it makes our firm stronger, and we have a collaborative culture that celebrates different perspectives and values respect for one another, working together, and openness and integrity. Our approach to flexible working means that we work in a way that achieves the right balance for our people, our clients and for our business.

https://www.mills-reeve.com/about-us/diversity-and-inclusion 

If you would like any more information about Mills & Reeve, you can visit our website by clicking on the following link:

http://www.mills-reeve.com/