Salary Survey - Marketing & Business Development 2015 promises to be a busy year for Marketing and BD departments in the legal sector and hopefully this salary survey will give you a snapshot of the various regional markets and the kinds of roles and challenges that exist. As it was compiled it became clear that there are a few similarities which are coming to the fore when recruiting wherever you are based in the country. Demand is up and supply is down! Simple really but after a number of years where, as an employer, you have been in the privileged position of being able to have choice when recruiting, it is now far harder to get that same level of choice. Employers are fighting harder to keep their quality talent and therefore attracting them into new roles is increasingly difficult to do. Part of this is because there is still a tendency to demand legal sector experience for all new employees, something that I feel will have to start changing as the year progresses or many firms will risk prolonged periods without someone in role. The full package on offer is also coming under increased scrutiny for all concerned. Not only the base on offer but benefits of all varieties are being looked at and weighed up from bonus to pension contribution, from flexible working hours to potential maternity / paternity packages. Every element needs to be thought through and transparent in order to ensure the targeted individual is successfully bought into the business. There needs to be an awareness of the increased risk of counter offer. As I mentioned earlier, employers are increasingly working on keeping their employee s happy, and as we all know happy employee s do not tend to look on the market but when they do, the firm on the departing end of the spectrum will often try and find a way to keep hold of that person to ensure they don t have to search themselves. This means that when preparing your offer, there needs to be a consideration at the start as to whether this is an offer that can easily be countered? There is always the risk that a candidate is intent on creating a circumstance where they can be bought back but it is not the norm in my experience so why take the risk? If you want the individual then make sure you get them with a quality offer. Finally, the actual monetary value of the offer has to be supported by the belief from the applicant that they are in demand and wanted. An easy way to create this is not to delay and stall over the process. The market is speeding up constantly and the firm s that will hire the best talent are those that know what they want and are prepared to move swiftly and decisively to get it. I hope you find the below information useful and of interest. If you would like any further information then please call me on 0845 241 5644 or send me an email.
The North West market is a dynamic, fast paced and varied market, particularly in the legal and accountancy sector. There are a few large teams in existence, mainly in Manchester and Liverpool but there are a far larger number of small and medium sized teams. This means that the demand for the specialist is still there but in limited supply whilst the full mix marketer will generally have more options. Salaries can vary widely as well but on the whole are fairly uniform for the larger firms and equally so for the smaller, regional firms. Location - North West The Yorkshire market has a wide spread of large and small teams within the legal sector. The main areas are Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield and York with a number of exceptions around the region. There tends to be a more equal demand between specialist BD Managers with specific sector focus. As for 2015 kicks in there is an increasing demand developing with all parties. Again the focus for this revolves around those firms bringing the marketing and BD in -house for the first time. These firms concentrate on bringing new business through the door so hiring the sales person and the large firms bulking up their capability around bids, BD and client care. Location - Yorkshire
The North East market from a Legal sector is relatively small. There are a number of roles in Newcastle from the larger firms and a few of the top tier regional firms in the area have strong marketing teams but the wealth of positions are few and far between. The emphasis is on strong full mix marketing executives and managers who can provide all round assistance to regional offices for the national firms and company wide support to the regional firms. Location - North East Marketing Manager 30,000-50,000 Marketing Executive 22,000-32,000 Marketing Assistant 16,000-23,000 Business Development Manager 30,000-50,000 Business Development Executive 22,000-32,000 Bid Manager 30,000-50,000 Bid Executive 20,000-32,000 PR Manager 28,000-45,000 PR Executive 20,000-30,000 Communications Manager 28,000-45,000 Communications Executive 17,000-30,000 Online Manager 28,000-45,000 Online Executive 18,000-30,000 The West Midlands is developing into one of the larger markets outside of London so far as the Legal sector is concerned. There are a good number of large national and international firms with large offices and big teams in Birmingham and the surrounding cities in the West midlands. Again this is backed up by a large number of highly respected regional firms who are challenging the larger businesses with regards to new business, client loyalty and quality service provision. Key to this is an increasing emphasis on the right Marketing and Business Development team support. The key growth is in bid support, digital roles and quality sector specific BD candidates. Alongside this is the increase in demand for full mix marketing managers to develop the capability of the niche practice. Location - West Midlands
The East Midlands is the surprise package with a decent number of roles coming to light in Nottingham, Leicester and Derby. Again there is a mix of National and regional players but the main demand has been around full mix marketing. People who can turn their hand to BD, off line and on line marketing and therefore help a firm on all fronts as the battle for new and existing business hot up in 2015. Location - East Midlands Marketing Manager 32,000-50,000 Marketing Executive 20,000-32,000 Marketing Assistant 17,000-23,000 Business Development Manager 32,000-50,000 Business Development Executive 20,000-32,000 Bid Manager 32,000-50,000 Bid Executive 20,000-32,000 PR Manager 28,000-45,000 PR Executive 20,000-30,000 Communications Manager 30,000-45,000 Communications Executive 20,000-30,000 Online Manager 30,000-45,000 Online Executive 18,000-30,000 There are a lot of firms in the South West who are challenging the established order of things but also working alongside the top tier London based firms. The demand exists across all areas and there is an expectation, akin to that in London for professionals with a much focused understanding of their sector group whether that is Real Estate, Financial Services, Healthcare or Insurance (amongst others). Every style of role is growing in demand across the whole spectrum of Business Development and Marketing. Location - South West Head of Marketing / Business Development 50,000-80,000 Marketing Manager 35,000-60,000
The London market has always been a world unto its own. The volume of legal firms of all shapes and sizes has meant that demand has not slowed over recent years to quite the extent it did in the regions but still there has been a significant increase in roles across the capital in 2014 and into 2015. Excitingly for many, a number have been about developing brand new capacity in firms to ensure they remain as competitive as they need to be in the current climate. There is an established requirement for sector expertise which makes the actual recruitment of these roles very challenging, but slowly this challenge is making firms realize they need to differentiate their offering from other firms otherwise face a slow and difficult process to recruit. The pressure on salaries is going upwards in the capital more than any other area and there are signs that this may well continue for a while. Location - London Director 90,000 + Head of Marketing / Business Development 60,000-130,000 Senior Marketing Manager 55,000-90,000 Marketing Manager 45,000-60,000 Marketing Executive 25,000-45,000 Marketing Assistant 20,000-25,000 Senior Business Development Manager 60,000-90,000 Business Development Manager 45,000-75,000 Business Development Executive 28,000-50,000 Senior Bid Manager 60,000-100,000 Bid Manager 40,000-75,000 Bid Executive 28,000-45,000 PR Manager 40,000-75,000 PR Executive 25,000-40,000 Communications Manager 40,000-75,000 Communications Executive 25,000-40,000 Online Manager 40,000-75,000 Online Executive 20,000-45,000 All salary information reflects basic salary information only; guaranteed bonuses, car allowances and other benefits which could be deemed to have a financial value have not been included in the data provided.