MBD Assistants – Perception, variety, events and specialising

September 25, 2024|Kim's Blog, Marketing|

At the PM Forum’s Marketing and Business Development (MBD) Assistants training session last week there was much talk about career progression. I’ve focused on a few topics: how we are perceived, the attraction of variety in roles, event management and MBD career specialisation. This article supplements the learning resources for the session. 21% felt that they would like to specialise in a particular area of marketing and business development. Specialisation ideas included: Key Account Management (KAM), pitching/tendering and research. 13% intend to look at professional marketing qualifications and the same number feel that working on their personal brand will be important. Happily, 57% felt that their firms support their professional development and career progression. MBD Assistants – Perception, variety, events and specialising for career progression. Details of future PM Forum training sessions.

About the MBD assistant delegates

16 marketing and BD executives joined us for this online session. Most were from large and small law firms but there were also representatives of accountancy, insolvency and consultancy firms. Quite a few were new to their roles. A few were keen to learn more about business development as opposed to marketing. The majority hadn’t studied marketing previously. It was the first external training event attended by several delegates.

Delegate aims (at the start of the session)

Three separate groups discussed their aims for the session but the answer from all was a desire to learn how to progress their careers. This book was suggested as a resource How to advance your career in professional services marketing (kimtasso.com)

Reflections from delegates during the session included their familiarity with marketing frameworks – and some felt it was helpful to have a refresher. Over 60% had never studied marketing – and they were interested to learn about SOSTAC™.

Delegate key ideas and actions (at the end of the session)

Develop my personal brand (three delegates) How to create and promote your personal brand – Kim Tasso
Look at CIM qualifications (two delegates) Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) updates standard (kimtasso.com)
Learn more about promotion and role progression
Keep working on my career progression and future specialism
Look into the mentor programme Mentor Match – PM Forum
Develop our client portfolio and KAM
Speak to the fee-earners (to learn what they really want)
Do more networking Book review – Great networking by Alisa Grafton (kimtasso.com)
Prepare a personal plan to develop role and knowledge Managing challenging behaviour and Personal Development Plans (kimtasso.com)
Look into reading the books that have been mentioned
Would like to help the fee-earners around me understand my role and what marketing can help them with
Have more face-to-face interactions with fee earners
It’s nice to hear that other people in the same role are feeling the same and have the same ideas and agree on what they like and dislike

Perception

“Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is.” William James

How we perceive others and how others perceive us is important for our relationships. Brand, to some extent, is about trying to manage perception. We want to align our aims and personality to create the desired perception. But we all perceive things differently. Our perceptions – how we interpret information – will be shaped by our background, culture and experience.

Perception: The Sensory Experience of the World (verywellmind.com)

Perception Is Not Reality | Psychology Today United Kingdom

Person Perception: Understanding Your Perception of Someone (verywellmind.com)

This word cloud uses the three words each delegate selected to describe their personal brand

Most delegates choose to describe themselves in terms of what they do – rather than who they are, how they are different from others and the outcomes they achieve. How would you like to be perceived in the future?

How would fee-earners describe the MBD team?

Negative perceptions:

“What is it that you do?”
“CRM again”
“Can you…”
Tedious
Reactive
Time consuming
Lack of knowledge

Positive perceptions:

Proactive
Helpful
Busy
Approachable
Adaptable
Instant
Understanding
Punctual

We then discussed how we would like fee-earners to regard us as individuals and as a marketing and business development team.

Variety is the spice of life

In one exercise, groups considered what they most liked (and disliked) about their roles.

Variety was the most frequently mentioned benefit of the role. They liked that every day was different.

Another well-liked feature was the ability to be creative and social. Generally, delegates enjoyed their supportive teams and the encouragement they received to develop, grow and progress. Some delegates felt they had the option to select projects that helped them stretch their capabilities. Some mentioned the options to travel as a key benefit.

On the “dislikes” list were: slow responses from fee-earners, having to chase people (especially for mailing lists) and not being understood or appreciated. Some felt there was too much admin (AI should be able to help with that!).

There were mixed views about “being thrown into the deep end” – some liked the challenge, whereas others would prefer more training and guidance.

Areas that people wanted to spend more time in included web sites, social media and events.

We talked about the value of mentors. And delegates were reminded that PM Forum operates a free mentoring service Mentor Match – PM Forum

Digital marketing courses from Google Online Courses and Digital Marketing Training – Google (grow.google). PM Forum marketing, digital marketing and business development training PM Forum – PM Forum

Event management

Despite all three groups choosing events for their operational brainstorm (as opposed to internal communications, PR and sales/client contact) this was not an area chosen for future specialisation. But maybe the social element of events is what attracts the delegates (see the personality assessments below – lots of “dogs”!)

The crowdsourced items to consider when preparing events included:

Ensure the event is part of an integrated marketing and business development campaign
Produce a plan (with aims/objectives and measures)
Research and segment the guest list (use and update the CRM)
Consider how to attract and engage the audience
Keep the firm’s brand style and messaging in mind
Organise the logistics carefully (including having a crisis plan)
Brief and liaise with external suppliers (e.g. venue, caterers, photographers, PR agencies, social media advisers etc)
Create a budget
Craft a detailed project plan with timelines and responsibilities
Produce high quality content – and distribute/repurpose after the event
Brief, train and rehearse the speakers
Plan the follow up activities in advance (and support implementation)
Measure audience satisfaction and assess feedback (learn for the future)
Assess the effectiveness and return on investment

The venue is often a key reason why delegates decide to attend. Some venues mentioned by delegates included: The Barbican, Sky Garden, the Gherkin and St Paul’s Crypt.

Consider joining #EventProfs Community

Delegate poll results

Have you formally studied marketing?

36% Yes
64% No
0% It’s complicated

Where is most of your time spent?

7% Strategic marketing
33% Tactical marketing/communications
0% Selling
20% Client and referrer relationships
33% All aspects
7% It’s complicated

“I chose it’s complicated because I think most of my role is spent researching suppliers/companies to use for our events”

What do you spend most of your time doing?

25% Supporting M&BD executives and managers
19% Organising events
13% Supporting internal communications
6% Managing data, databases and systems
6% Undertaking research
6% Preparing pitches and tenders
6% Answering queries from fee-earners
6% Drafting and editing copy/content
6% Issuing and managing mailings
6% Something else

Where do you want to spend more time in the future?

31% Strategy and planning
23% Key Account Management
23% Pitches and proposals
15% Digital marketing, content management and social media
8% Profile raising, PR and media relations

After reviewing those key marketing theories, how would you rate your knowledge?

6% Really good – I knew much more than I thought
38% Good – I am familiar with most ideas
50% OK – I’ve just learned quite a bit
6% Needs improvement – I have a lot of learning ahead!

How happy are you with your CRM (and integrated mailing, analytics and relationship management capabilities)?

8% Really unhappy
17% Unhappy
50% It’s OK
17% Happy
8% Really happy

One firm didn’t have a CRM

Amongst the delegates the most common CRMs in use were Salesforce and InterAction

How would you rate your firm’s digital marketing strategy?

8% Brilliant
42% Really good
33% Average
17% Needs improvement

Book review: Build your digital marketing strategy by Steve Brennan (kimtasso.com)

Do you think you and your fee-earners are mostly:

	Me	My fee-earners
Dogs	80%	7%
Cats	20%	53%
Bears	0%	40%

See: dog, cat and bear personalities – Better business relationships (kimtasso.com)

How would you rate your skill/ability in selling?

7% Very low
27% Low
33% Average
33% Good
0% Very good

What do you think is the most important skill/attribute of an aspiring M&BD professional?

33% Delivery of value and results
27% Ability to work with fee-earners and M&BD team members
27% Communications skills
7% Understanding of markets and clients
7% Strategic ability
0% Service orientation – proactive and responsive
0% Marketing/sales technical knowledge and qualifications

What percentage of your fee-earners do you think are engaged with and keen to do marketing/BD?

7% 10-40% of fee-earners
21% About 50% of fee-earners
43% 50%-70% of fee-earners
7% Over 70% of fee-earners

How do you feel about your career development prospects?

0% I’m confident I will be promoted in the short-medium term
14% There is a clear path for my promotion
57% My firm supports my development and progression
7% I have a lot to learn and do before I will be promoted
21% I would like to specialise in a specific area of M&BD
0% I doubt there will be progression for me at my firm

About the MBD assistant delegates

Perception

Variety is the spice of life

Event management

Delegate poll results

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MBD Assistants – Perception, variety, events and specialising for career progression

About the MBD assistant delegates

Perception

Variety is the spice of life

Event management

Delegate poll results

Related posts for Marketing and Business Development Assistants

Connected to the marketing and business development topics discussed at the session

From previous sessions for marketing and business development assistants

Tags

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