< Back to jobs

Job Title Senior Business Development Manager – Retail and MIPTOC
Position Full Time - Permanent
Role Business Services
Location London
Practice Area/Department Business Development
Description

Before you meet us, get to know us

RPC is a modern, progressive and commercially-oriented City legal services business. From our offices in the UK, Hong Kong and Singapore we provide advice to both UK and international clients.

What we do

Our legal practice spans a wide range of industry sectors and is broadly split into two discrete areas: insurance and corporates. Working on both contentious and non-contentious matters, our clients range from large multinationals to growth UK corporate firms and other professional practices, and include many household names.

Why we're different

We have a confident, accessible and enterprising approach that sets performance, service and value at the top of the agenda. Our goal is to do the usual things unusually well, make the complex simple and help our internal and external clients build better, stronger businesses.

Business Services at RPC

Working at RPC means being part of a collaborative and creative environment, which is flexible, transparent and friendly. We value our business services teams and recognise that individual contributions at all levels are essential to the success of RPC as a whole.

RPC's business services teams include:

  • Brand Marketing & Sales
  • Client Services
  • Executive Office
  • Facilities
  • Finance
  • Legal Project Management
  • Information Technology
  • People & Talent Development
  • Risk & Compliance
  • Secretarial Support

Role Overview

We are recruiting for a specialist retail-focused Senior Business Development Manager. Reporting to the Head of Business Development, this position has full responsibility for coordinating and delivering all advisory and support marketing and business development services to the Retail sector group at RPC.

The Retail sector is one of the firm's five core areas of focus. We act for numerous household names and have a number of accolades including being ranked in Tier 1 of in the Retail and Consumer category of the Legal 500 directory and being accredited as Best Legal Adviser by Legal Week eight years in a row. The role also focuses on helping drive growth in the firm's MIPTOC (Media, IP, Technology, Outsourcing, Commercial Contracts) practices a core part of the Commercial Division of the firm.

  • This role will have responsibility for defining and delivering the Retail group's business and business development strategy.
  • Whilst the role will draw together multiple services in support of the Retail Group, it will also help to define and deliver ongoing support for the firm's MIPTOC group of practices.
  • The successful candidate will coordinate joined-up marketing and business development through the wider BMS team in pursuit of profitable revenue growth from RPC's Retail and MIPTOC clients and prospects.
  • The successful candidate will have significant experience gained within a marketing and business development function at a major professional services firm - preferably within the legal sector. Rich experience of working with Retail clients and a detailed understanding of the Retail sector are pre-requisites.
  • This role is suitable for an experienced and motivated self-starter, who is looking for a full mix in a mid-sized law firm where they can make a strategic impact and help drive the growth of one of the firm's most strategically-important areas. The role will be supported by a BD Executive that the person in this role will recruit as one of their first tasks
  • It's an exciting opportunity which offers exposure at the most senior levels of the firm and is rich with potential to make a tangible difference very quickly.

Reports to:

Head of Business Development

Key responsibilities:

The successful candidate will be the go-to person for all Retail related BD and Marketing activity. The Retail group has ambitious growth plans and focuses on three key streams:

  1. Food & Drink
  2. Digital Retail
  3. Stores of the Future

Each stream has two partner leads with whom this role will closely work. The Retail group also has an Executive management team on which the person in this role will sit. In addition, he or she will also have responsibility for advisory and support marketing and business development services for the MIPTOC group of practices.

He or she will have overall responsibility for the below:

Business and BD planning

  • Working with the Retail group lead and executive team, design and deliver a long-term overarching marketing and business development strategy for the group as a whole
  • Working with the core stream leads and their teams, design and execute annual and long-term marketing and business development plans - coupled with financial, BD and resourcing targets - which support the group strategy and help each stream deliver new and existing client business and achieve their stated long-term business objectives
  • Working alongside relevant Partners to support the MIPTOC group's annual business planning to develop sustainable profitable growth
  • Working with relevant Partners and the Head of Practice Management, map the clients (top 20) and prospects according to relationship strength and maturity, designing and executing plans which move them along the buying journey
  • Identify business leads and emerging opportunities through market research and analysis

Proposition building and positioning

  • Lead the Retail and MIPTOC groups in developing compelling and competitive value propositions by group and stream
  • In collaboration with the marketing services team, design and execute strategies to ensure the propositions are clearly articulated and communicated across all channels (digital platforms, capability statements, proposals, legal directories etc), and with maximum impact
  • Work with relevant lawyers and the marketing services team to deliver plans which build brand awareness and understanding in the external marketplace for the Retail and MPITOC groups and their constituent streams, for clients, targets and other key audiences

Key Account Management

  • Working alongside the Head of Business Development and Director of Client Services, develop and deliver a Key Account Programme for the Retail group and implement ongoing CRM best practice
  • Work with the Head of Commercial and other key Partners to identify and prioritise key MIPTOC clients and to ensure resources are aligned accordingly
  • Working alongside the Director of Client Services, leverage the insights from the firm's client listening programme to drive a culture of client service excellence at both an individual client and group level
  • Institutionalise high quality relationship management and cross-selling disciplines, with the ultimate objective of opening out and driving revenue growth from existing clients of the firm
  • Prepare partners for effective relationship and business development meetings with clients and targets including client/target research and presentation/marketing collateral support
  • Advise, coach and motivate client teams, and assist in identifying business development opportunities

Tactical marketing and BD

  • Provide strategic advice and guidance to lawyers on how to raise profile, awareness and market reputation to key buyer groups
  • Work alongside lawyers and wider BMS colleagues to implement appropriate positioning and business development tactics according to client relationship maturity, including:
    • legal updates, bulletins and blogs
    • PR and media relations
    • sponsorship and advertising
    • conferences
    • seminars
    • client hospitality
    • thought leadership and content
    • strategic social media and other digital platforms
    • directories
    • internal communication
    • awards
  • Collaborate with BMS colleagues to ensure Retail and MIPTOC marketing initiatives dovetail with and complement firmwide, sector and practice marketing and brand-building activities
  • Establish and monitor an approach to measure return on investment on marketing and business development activities for the Retail and MIPTOC groups

Bid management

  • Work closely with the Bid Manager to support the delivery of bids, proposals, client presentations and capability statements
  • Act as a 'champion' for best practice bid management within the Retail and MIPTOC groups
  • Lead on the management and drafting of ad hoc opportunities as required
  • Improve and continuously refine standard content and materials to support the bid process

Team coordination and communication

  • Coordinate the relevant members of the BMS team - from communications to digital, events to CRM ­­- in pursuit of defined BD objectives
  • Convene and chair regular meetings to facilitate the sharing of information and to ensure all activity is joined up and delivered to established deadlines and quality

Knowledge and training

  • Help Partners and Associates become more effective in their BD efforts through coaching and skill-building

Budgeting

  • Take the lead role in preparing an annual Brand, Marketing & Sales budget for Retail group marketing and business development activity, as well as associated practice areas
  • Develop and monitor budgets for the MIPTOC group ensuring they are aligned to the firm and practice's priorities and deliver value for money
  • Review monthly expenditure against budget, ensuring value-driven cost control

Process development

  • Work with the Technology Lead and wider BMS colleagues to ensure that all Technology-related BMS activity is aligned to existing BMS processes, collaborating in pursuit of continual improvement

Reporting

  • Draw on wider resources to act as the focal point for reporting on progress on all BMS activity related to Retail and MIPTOC, including general status updates, KPIs, data and so on

The team is led by the Head of Business Development Simon Moffat) and forms part of the Brand, Marketing & Sales team (led by Director of Brand, Marketing & Sales, Ed FitzGerald). Internationally the team comprises 25 professionals.

Position requirements:

  • A strong understanding of business-to-business marketing, business development and relationship management within professional services, ideally the legal sector
  • Evidence of good Partner management skills, ideally gained within a professional services environment
  • Experience of developing sector, practice- and client-focused BD plans and a track record of delivering financial results aligned to objectives
  • Deep experience of working with clients in the Retail sector
  • Experience of, and a keen interest in, supporting business development for any of Media, IP, Technology, Outsourcing or Commercial Contracts practices within a law firm is a plus
  • A strong understanding of the workings and language of a commercial team in a law firm
  • A team player, with proven experience of developing and motivating others and a willingness to do what's needed across the board to contribute to growth
  • Must be educated to graduate level
  • A relevant post-graduate management or marketing qualification such as CIM or equivalent would be advantageous
  • Significant powers of organisation; excellent attention to detail; and infectious enthusiasm
  • Able to think strategically and commercially
  • Strong operational and project management skills
  • Stature and gravitas - is professional, credible and impactful, and confident with persuading and influencing where appropriate
  • Strong interpersonal and communication skills (both verbal and written)
  • Flexible - is happy to work outside normal working hours when required
  • Attention to detail and accuracy
  • Effective relationship builder - is able to interact with individuals at all levels across the business
  • Shows initiative
  • Is a self-starter and has the ability and confidence to run with things
  • Being an ambassador of the firm
  • Doesn't take themselves too seriously
Additional Documents
Senior Business Development Manager –...
Download