Bids & New Business Senior Executive

A leading UK law firm with a network of offices from the South Coast to Scotland, working together as one national team. An innovative practice and the first top 100 law firm to achieve “Gold Standard” Investors in People, our values and culture are not just words on our website but are the heartbeat of the firm. The lack of barriers between departments, a real lack of hierarchy, zero tolerance for arrogance and pomposity makes Shoosmiths a fantastic place to work.

Shoosmiths’ Business Development team has a strong focus on client development and working with clients to ensure we provide the best possible service, in line with their business goals and aims. Our Bid and New Business team is part of our wider Relationship function as we recognise that taking a relationship-focused approach to winning new work is essential. We are not a team who responds to RFPs and ITTs, going through the motions with standard text and a generic approach. We apply a very creative, tailored approach to winning new work, whether this is for an existing client or a target relationship.

You will support a range of new business opportunities, ranging from formal tenders to informal opportunities, working with the Bid and Client Partners leading the opportunity, other Partners and key stakeholders and of course colleagues in the Bid and New Business team. Your ideas and creative flair will help set our bid / sales approach apart from other law firms, drawing on intel about the client and key knowledge about the firm and the clients we work with. You will report into the Senior Bid Manager and will work closely with the wider Relationship team. We are a non-hierarchical team and encourage as much cross-team ideas development as possible – tapping into the collective team is crucial to ensure we are making the most compelling proposition we can.

If you feel constrained in your current role or too remote from the client interface to make your bids and proposals as compelling as they could be, this could be the role for you.

Full bid management support

Working in concert with Bid / Relationship team members:

• Support the BD Bid team in working jointly with relevant Partners to evaluate the commercial viability of formal Bid opportunities and make justified recommendations whether to pursue or not in relation to return on investment. We have a “Bidding to Win” process which means the key stakeholders are involved in these evaluation opportunities to ensure we have senior support and input for these decisions.
• (Where a Bid is BD supported) provide full project management support to the BD Bid team and Bid Partners including:

• Scoping meetings with the client.
• Working closely with the client service team to develop a winning proposition.
• Reviewing research and client intelligence to help shape ideas tailored to the clients’ business/goals.
• Assuming a lead role drafting BD responses to a high standard – each bid is written from a bespoke perspective, rather than ‘copy and paste’.
• Taking responsibility for portal upload and submission and managing internal and external deadlines.

• Lead, with appropriate BD support, to produce and deliver quality credentials documents to the Firm.
• On existing client re-tenders, help manage the bid process working closely with the nominated client relationship manager, to ensure the bid reflects the latest specific information of relevance to that client.
• Input into creative win strategies in conjunction with the Bid Partner and wider BD, to convince a client to use Shoosmiths, including new approaches and innovations from latest best practice. Always using examples from clients to evidence the work we do and to bring the bid to life.
• Working with Relationship team colleagues, provide support and coaching to Partners on successful Bids ensuring the right approach is taken to on-boarding following a bid win and that the Bid proposition and promises are delivered post Bid.

Bid resources

• Maintain Bid Record with qualitative and quantitative data and reporting.
• Proactively suggest and obtain new information for the bid pages on the intranet.
• Identify and maintain precedent type material.
• Work with BD colleagues to ensure case studies are grouped and banked.
• Identify target relationships that can be tracked to lead to a bidding opportunity.
• As part of the wider BD team, contribute to development of new products and services.
• Assist with project work as required, which may include support on divisional strategies, sector development and firm-wide development initiatives.

• High level of written communication skills and highly personable – ability to communicate concisely and courteously with the Firm.
• Confident in drafting and editing client led copy in a Bids and proposals context, preferably within professional services.
• Comfortable working to strict deadlines and in pressurised environment without compromising quality.
• Self starter able to manage and prioritise own workload.
• Accuracy and attention to detail, commensurate with working for a top UK national law firm.
• Knowledge of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel.
• Ability to inspire confidence and trust in the team.
• Commercial nous and an ability to see things from the client’s point of view.
• Imaginative and creative to provide support in new and relevant ways to meet client needs.
• Desire to work as part of a team with colleagues in a geographically spread national business development team.
• Some CRM experience would be ideal to demonstrate wider understanding of the client development approach.
• Personal credibility and confidence to be able to convince partners of the best course of action.
• Relevant degree or CIM qualification preferred.

Shoosmiths is a committed Equal Opportunities employer promoting equality of opportunity. This means that everyone who either applies to or works for the firm is treated equally, whatever their gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, marital status, disability, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.