Senior Business Development Advisor

The role

This is a full-time permanent role. We are looking for the successful applicant to be in post by September 2024.

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 Adviser 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 reports to a Business Development Manager.

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

Main duties and responsibilities

• Working with partner leads to develop strategic business plans which identify opportunities to generate growth in line with the firm’s strategic plan
• Drive the development and execution of annual BD plans for your groups and measure results
• 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
• 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
• 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.
• 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.

The team

You will be working with a range of marketing, event and business development experts, partners, lawyers and business and executive services staff.  You will receive some support in the role from a range of business development and marketing assistants.

The person

You will be expected to demonstrate strengths in terms of:

Essential

• Proven business development and sales management experience
• Ability to manage multiple projects whilst at the same time prioritising critical tasks
• Exceptional communication and networking skills to enhance the strong relationships already in place, as well as influencing decision makers
• Strong commercial acumen: understanding of our business and our clients and their requirements
• A proven full mix of marketing tools

Desirable

• A solid educational background, ideally with a relevant degree or Marketing qualification
• Strong advisory and influencing skills as well as tenacity

The package

As you would expect, the firm offers a generous salary and benefits.  The firm’s standard benefits are detailed in the following link:

https://www.mills-reeve.com/careers/benefits 

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.

Pre-employment screening

Please note that, in the event that we make an offer of employment, we will conduct pre-employment screening that includes, but is not limited to, a basic DBS check, right to work check, any disciplinary history recorded with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and a self-declaration to assess your character and suitability for the role.  A full policy of the screening the firm undertakes is available on request.

The firm

Mills & Reeve is a major UK law firm renowned for its outstanding service to national and international clients, for its collaborative culture and for its deep sector expertise.

The firm has a strong sector focus with expertise in agriculture, charities, education, food and beverage, health, insurance, private wealth, real estate investment, sport and technology. Clients include businesses from PLCs to start-ups, high net worth individuals and landowners, more than 120 universities, colleges and education bodies and over 100 healthcare organisations.

This is an ideal opportunity to build your skills and experience with a major UK law firm, listed as one of the “Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For” for the last 20 years - the only law firm to achieve this.

We are also proud to have been awarded Platinum Investors in People status this year.  The firm joins a select club of only 6% of 50,000 assessed organisations awarded the coveted platinum status.

The firm is also delighted to report for the eighth year running we were named as one of Roll On Friday’s ‘best law firms to works at’.

And finally

Mills & Reeve is committed to providing an inclusive and supportive working environment. We are happy to consider flexible working arrangements and endeavour to achieve the right balance for both our people and the business. This attitude to flexible working ensures we continue to provide outstanding service to our clients, whilst allowing our people to develop their careers in the knowledge that personal priorities will remain just that.

Mills & Reeve is committed to promoting equality, diversity and to providing an inclusive and supportive environment.

Please click the link below to find further information regarding our diversity policy.

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/