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Our client, a pretigious global Law Firm (AM Law 100 Ranked), is seeking a Director Business Development. The incumbent will be responsible for creating and implementing business development programs, providing strategic leadership in driving client relationship management and building revenue generating initiatives.
Key Responsibilities:
- Develop business development strategies for the firm that identify and exploit opportunities to develop more business across practices and geographies
- Cultivate and foster a business development focused culture firm wide, acting as a strong leader who is an advocate for the importance of business development, setting standards for business development practices, and supporting existing activities
- Define and apply new business development processes to expand current business penetration with existing clients by improving cross-selling practices and enhancing client service quality, and to develop new revenue opportunities
- Communicate results (ROI) of business development initiatives to firm management
- Develop and direct processes to execute effectively on client requests for proposals
- Re-engineer the firm’s pitch process working with the global business development team members to introduce tools and other changes to streamline the process and help the firm where needed to improve the “win” rate
- Support partners with strategic pitches and oversee the development and maintenance of high quality pitch resources Supervise the overall pitching process, as well as track and report on the outcomes of pitches
- Ensure the team maintains effective knowledge management and data retrieval practices for reuse
- Develop firmwide and practice-specific strategies and priorities, including metrics to define success, and build support throughout the firm for these initiatives
- Serve as an advisor to practice/office/industry groups, client teams to assist and support in analyzing, assessing and preparing for various business development opportunities
- Help identify highest potential areas for new business development
- Develop an in-depth understanding of the firm’s portfolio of global clients and their business needs for legal services through market research, review of internal reports and consultations with partners and the Marketing team
- Oversee the development and management of individual client development plans
- Work with leaders of client teams/initiatives and others to identify and exploit best new business development opportunities
- Oversee the continued implementation of key client programs and other service initiatives to deepen and further grow the firm’s key client relationships
- Assess key relationships, identify and formulate plans to broaden existing client relationships, and to forge new client relationships consistent with the firm’s strategic objectives
- Identify and implement client retention and growth strategies, including client feedback interviews, post-matter interviews, client forums and client visits
- Develop competitive intelligence initiatives
- Develop the capability to provide research and competitive intelligence to assist in strategic issues (e.g., planning) and tactical opportunities (e.g., pitches)
- Direct the production of information and materials for business development purposes; conduct research on the market; gather and maintain current information on competitors and new service strategies; provide direction and coordination to business-development efforts; and share market insights with practice groups
- Develop a competitive intelligence capability to monitor and communicate noteworthy actions being taken by peer firms and other competitors that may result in openings at clients or targets for the firm to get involved, or might be useful to those charged with implementing firm/practice strategies
- Develop and implement training of partners and associates on skills relating to pitching, business development, client relationship management and client service
- Ensure adoption and execution of appropriate business development-related training programs for attorneys and help integrate new partners
- Provide related technology tranining
- Keep abreast of current and next generation trends, technologies, and solutions; evaluate business development systems, processes, and procedures and drive innovation and continuous improvement
- Develop and establish systems and associated technology platforms and solutions for capturing, analyzing, reporting, and utilizing key data and information for business development purposes, and for producing responses to RFPs, collateral, and other purposes
- Help prepare proposed annual marketing budgets, review firm, practice/industry group and individual budgets
- Help establish performance metrics to track progress toward major objectives agreed with firm leadership; discuss progress on a regular basis with leaders of practices, regions/offices and client initiatives
- Evaluate and monitor existing business development efforts on an ongoing basis; track practice development activities and expenditures and measure results
- Oversee and coach the business development team to ensure high performance and service levels
- Manage, mentor, motivate, evaluate and recruit business development staff; conduct performance evaluations and determine compensation for department staff
Key Requirements:
- Bachelor’s Degree required
- MBA or JD preferred
- Strong influencing, coaching, management and leadership skills
- Proven experience delivering in a matrixed environment with multiple stakeholders
- Demonstrated ability to coach team members in a structured and organized approach, with an ability to translate the big picture into detailed project plans
- Resilient and able to work under pressure
- Results oriented with significant drive and energy
- 15+ years of broad-based, senior marketing and business development leadership experience in highly matrixed, global professional or financial services organization
- Proven success setting and successfully executing strategy for market and revenue growth
- Experience working in an international context in roles that require securing buy-in and engagement of senior management or partners
- Broad and deep experience with a record of success in leading innovation and continuous improvement in practices, processes, and systems in a dynamic, fast-paced, global environment
- Extensive experience of client and business development, with client account/relationship management experience, ideally at least partly gained in the legal sector. This should include prior experience of supporting premium client service delivery at a senior level, including analysis of client needs, identifying opportunities, building value propositions, and writing business development proposals
- Excellent analytical skills, combined with the ability to establish and communicate priorities quickly
- Superior management and leadership skills; the ability to build, mentor, motivate and mold a diverse business development team in multiple locations into a high quality, cohesive team
- Experience of strategic planning and analysis. Professional focus and discipline required to balance long-term strategic vision with effective day-to-day implementation of marketing strategy
- Strong project management skills: the ability to drive business development strategies through specific project teams comprised of attorneys and staff
- Strong execution skills with demonstrated proven ability to plan and execute the firm’s business development strategies through hands-on management and effective delegation
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