Creating a Business Development/Marketing team

Professional services firms vary dramatically in size and the marketing & business development function’s head count is usually defined by the number of partners. For example, small practices with 20 to 30 partners tend to have around three marketing professionals and Magic Circle firms with c.500 partners have on average 65 to 70 professionals based in London with further personnel based in international/regional offices. Most firms follow a similar structural model with a central communications function and business development professionals dedicated to specific areas of practice and industry sectors. Please see structure below. With the increasing sophistication of the marketing & business development approaches, roles have become, and continue to be, very much more specialist. The generalist roles still exist, however, exciting opportunities for marketing professionals to specialise in one area are now commonplace. For example:

It is also usual to outsource certain functions to specialist consultants who are niche within the professional services sector. Providing experienced practioners are instructed, this can be a cost effective way of managing focussed projects, bringing short term resource to a busy team or knowledge to a new or inexperienced department.