In Conversation with…
Belinda Moore
Belinda Moore’s career path has been anything but predictable. She’s sold vodka to the Russians (literally), helmed the marketing and communications for Britain’s largest energy provider, and worked across healthcare, travel and personal care products. Her colleague Jake Foxford talks to her about now finding herself steering the BD – and sitting on the board of – a top 100 UK law firm.
Belinda Moore, Business Development and Marketing Director, Birketts LLP
belinda-moore@birketts.co.uk
Having come from a non-professional services background, what are the biggest differences in the approach to marketing?
I think for me, coming fresh into non-professional services, it was really about understanding the complex set of stakeholders. I come from a world where it's all about the consumer. So, everything the marketing team and BD team do is looking at consumers, looking at their needs, and developing products, services, and communication approaches accordingly. I think in professional services, the role of the lawyer is so key. In addition, I've often had conversations with my team about who is our customer? Is it the lawyer, or is it person who pays the bills? This is quite different, because both what the lawyer wants and the client needs have to be balanced.
Since starting at Birketts I’ve repeatedly seen this positive approach amongst my colleagues, emulating the brand and values the firm– it’s been so friendly. I've worked across all sorts of different sectors. I've worked in private equity owned businesses, so I've known some pretty hard-nosed commercial enterprises and I wasn't quite sure what a law firm was going to be like, but it’s been an excellent start. It's respectful of different people's professional backgrounds and competencies and things that I feel are important. I think we’ve grown a lot, even recently with our merger with EC3 in 2020, so we now have an established London presence.
Like many other firms reacting to Coronavirus we've now got people who are based all over the country, so the firm has worked hard to keep its culture alive. I joined during the pandemic so I have still only met 10 per cent of my colleagues face-to-face, but I still feel part of the firm and understand how it ticks.
What is the role of branding in professional services?
The personal brand of the lawyer is so important. Very often, clients and companies will be choosing a firm because a lawyer worked for them in the past – they know them, they know their reputation.
However, as Birketts has rapidly expanded in recent years, the role of the firm itself is increasingly important from both a client perspective and a candidate attraction one. A law firm is only as good as the lawyers who work there, so a firm’s brand has a crucial part to play in how we attract the right people at any level, how we retain them, and how we inspire them.
A brand is always so much more than the logo or a set of colours; it's the whole belief and proposition of the firm and how we do things. For the lawyers to understand it, appreciate it and buy into it is really important.
I think one of the things that has impressed me most at Birketts is the culture. Many people who have worked elsewhere have talked very positively about it, so I think holding on to that as a firm becomes larger is important. Whatever you do with your brand, you need to be true to that.
This issue of Centrum is highlighting younger members of the marketing and BD profession working in professional services. What do you feel marks out a top-class employer in terms of not just identifying but developing new talent?
I think opportunities to grow and develop are key. This might be access to further training and development, external training courses, or potentially secondments into different parts of the business.
Treating people respectfully is important. PR and BD professionals have a view in professional services and a right to express that view. I think our views in Birketts are well respected. That respect and treatment as an expert in the field is an important component of developing new talent, giving the team the backing to take their career further within the professional services sector and across the firm specifically.
I've encouraged my team very much to present themselves as the BD and marketing professionals in the same way the lawyers are the legal professionals.
This age group is seeing the workplace change unlike that witnessed by many before them (and that was even before COVID). What advice do you have for them to as they negotiate the earlier stages of their careers? How can we better support career development?
It's so important to be known in the company in which you work. I think we have all embraced flexible working, it has gone really well for everybody in the last 18 changeable months, but I think that as you start your career you need to network.
That still can be done virtually, of course it can, but you need to pick up the phone and call people to get your face known, to get your views known. No one should expect their career to be to be developed for them. I do believe as an individual, you’re in charge of how you develop your career and what you do. The firm supports you and enables you to do that.
A piece of advice I was given early on was to be curious. It’s the biggest asset when you start your career. Poke your nose into areas you don’t work in. Find out what's going on. Never be afraid to ask questions because there is always someone else who's got the same question buzzing around.
Stick your head above the parapet, volunteer for projects, offer to do things that you know will force you out of your comfort zone. All of this helps you grow, gain experience, mature, and understand what you enjoy.
Previous organisations I’ve worked for have had a culture of ‘failing fast’. Try something and, if it fails, move on and that is fine. It is only by trying lots of things you will find out what works. So if you fail, it's not the end of the world, just start again. A good bit of advice is to not let perfection stand in the way of something good. Sometimes I think we all want everything to be perfect, but it is more important to push ahead and make something good rather than nothing at all.
“I've always been curious; I like different things, whether it's working internationally, whether it's different sectors or different industries. When you have a very broad and diverse experience, you can bring new ideas to the table.”
How can professional services be made an exciting career option for marketing and BD professionals?
The industry is all about bringing ideas to the table and challenging preconceptions. It’s ideal for someone who will find a new way to do things. We should encourage and allow people to read around topics, research, stay curious, and come with their own ideas and suggestions and be prepared to debate them. It makes a much more stimulating environment, and feeds into the concept of failing fast.
Everyone will bring a different perspective and those perspectives will thrive in professional services as well. For example, newer BD and marketing professionals are going to have much more experience than I have with social media, so anyone willing to bring ideas to the table from their own experiences will find professional services an exciting career prospect.
With all of this in mind, in your words, what makes a good manager?
One thing is encouraging your team to be accountable; that means understand their own roles, their team’s role and the contribution they make. When discussing the importance of culture, having one that encourages people to express their own opinions and their own views is crucial.
I think understanding different styles is important as a manager too. Some people like to absorb information, reflect, and come back with their ideas formed. Others like get all the ideas out on the table right away, so it’s important to understand why introverted and extroverted team members will respond differently. Being flexible in response to your team’s style is very important. You cannot expect everyone to respond in the same way.
Should those in marketing and BD roles be on the board of a law firm, or should BD teams play a more client-facing role?
I believe BD and marketing have a place on the board, and this is somewhere Birketts are markedly different to many in the legal sector, because as well as having myself on the board we also have a non-legal CEO in Jonathan Agar. Birketts specifically has always challenged itself, strived upwards and aimed for the next level.
Arguably it's been very successful as it’s recorded several consecutive years of double-digit growth. It’s clearly doing something right. The firm has now had two non-lawyers as the CEO, having adopted the idea early on. This brought a real corporate understanding into the firm and allowed the lawyers to focus on what they do best.
Similarly, with the role of marketing and BD, it's really important to have that role represented on the board. In that position you are the voice of the customer – and I use customer deliberately there – and you always have to ensure strategic board decisions are taken considering the impact on a customer.
A BD and marketing director role should play an active role in strategic debate. They shouldn't be the order taker, and most importantly they need to be armed with insight. This might be client insight, industry, insight, sector insight – it all comes under a marketing umbrella and skillset. If marketing is not there, who's going to bring that understanding? Without that role and insight you can be left with opinions where you need views backed up by data.
While we are on the topic, are law firms working with clients or customers? Does it matter which term is used?
I think I have used both so I don’t think it does. As long as you understand the needs of the person buying your service, give a fantastic service and listen to them, I don’t think it matters.
There is a lot of discussion around defining a law firms ‘purpose’ – what should a firm’s purpose be, and what should inform reaching that conclusion? What are the best examples of companies who truly deliver on their purpose?
I think that clearly defining and articulating a company’s purpose can move it forward. Purpose helps set long-term business strategy, creates a bigger competitive advantage and differentiation in the marketplace and inspires innovation.
In this sector especially, I think it really matters to colleagues.How good a law firm is and how successful it becomes ultimately depends on the quality of the people the firm employs, so attracting and retaining the best talent is essential to succeed. At the moment the employment market is hugely competitive and I think more and more people are looking beneath the surface to see the culture of the company, how authentic it is and whether it delivers on its purpose. Kantar has published research showing that purpose-led firms perform better, and this is expected to remain the case coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Who does it well? You probably have to look at some of the B2C brands – Timberland for example are an oft-quoted example of a business delivering on its purpose.
As another member of the Birketts’ BD and marketing team, I know just how much work goes into capturing client feedback. What techniques have you seen in your previous positions that could be implemented by professional services to enhance their client feedback collection?
It’s a lot of vital work ensuring Birketts has effective client listening programmes across all of our different client cohorts. Having a full-service law firm means we need programmes across the different types of clients. This mirrors very much what I've done and seen in other industries.
What I’ve seen elsewhere is so important is ‘closing the loop’. It's so easy sometimes to gather loads and loads of data and get very interested by what it's telling you… but you don't do anything with it. You just get another lot of data. So closing that loop in this case would be interrogating this data and asking questions like, “How do I see the root cause of any issues I am aware of?” If you know a problem is persisting, using the data to identify the root cause and addressing that cause is so important.
The other thing that I've seen happen very successfully is to really talk to clients. Having feedback groups where you gather a group of clients together to discuss a particular issue and work through it together there and then solving it. This approach means you’re really getting the voice of the customer into your business. It’s critical work and Birketts is doing a good job; our results are fantastic but I think it's important not to become complacent.
“I believe BD and marketing have a place on the board, and this is somewhere Birketts are markedly different to many in the legal sector, because as well as having myself on the board we also have a non-legal CEO in Jonathan Agar. The firm has now had two non-lawyers as its CEO.”
How great an emphasis should be placed on client feedback in BD, and what do you look for in that feedback?
You have always got to know what your clients think so you can shape your service delivery going forward. In business development we are constantly either targeting new customers or responding to tenders with pitches and proposals. This means understanding what clients thought, or what a similar client thought about the similar service, helps us frame our approach to the next client.
A big trap firms can fall into is assuming they know what their client wants rather than focusing on feedback. If you have been providing a service for years, you may think you know exactly what clients want, the service they want, that they want to pay their bill online – but do you actually know that? Never assume you know the answer until you have asked the question, and then use that data to inform how you go forward.
As I said before, Birketts receives some fantastic feedback, and we know there is nothing stronger than a client testimonial. We all like to buy from people we trust and recommendations let us know who we can trust. Testimonials are absolutely critical, especially in this type of business where clients want to know they are making the right choice.
You have an impressive and diverse CV, including quite literally selling vodka to the Russians. While working predominantly in the professional marketing sector, you have operated internationally, across several industries – how important is that variety and life experience in BD?
I think variety and life experience are great things to have – ‘variety’ probably sums up my career quite well as well. I've always been curious; I like different things, whether it's working internationally, whether it's different sectors or different industries. When you have a very broad and diverse experience, you can bring new ideas to the table.
However, as with any team, you need a good mix of people, so you probably can't have a team of people just like me! You need people who have a thorough understanding of your industry as well, who can counter your suggestions with their own, and provide their own insights driven by data. That variety will mean you have a team who you are confident know what they are talking about.
Snap Shot
2020
Marketing & Business Development Director Birketts 2016 – 2020
Marketing & Communications Director E.ON UK 2011 – 2015
Group Marketing & Communications Director Care UK
2007 – 2011 Group Marketing Director BMI Healthcare
2005 – 2007 Head of International Marketing & Operations Britvic Soft Drinks 2003 – 2005
Marketing Director Whitbread
1988 – 2003
General Manager, Europe Tui
1988 – 2003 Marketing Director, Russia Gillette
Getting to Know You
Best bit of advice you’ve been given?
Don’t be afraid to ask the burning question or say you don’t understand. You can guarantee others in the room will be thinking the same. Best bit of advice you’d give someone at the start of their career?
Be curious – never have the view “that’s not my job” learn as much as you can about as much as you can. When you start out you never quite know what you like and what you’re good at so volunteer to get involved in as much as possible. Your BD business hero?
I admire anyone who builds their own business, entrepreneurs and leaders of family-owned businesses who have risked everything to build their legacy. I have always worked in large corporates with a degree of protection and lots of support but to go out there on your own and make it happen is inspirational.
What led you to this career?
I have had a winding path to a career in BD and marketing, a degree in Russian and a love of travel and exploring led to expat roles in Turkey and Russia. My career has been a never-ending quest for “a blank sheet of paper” – a fresh challenge, I enjoy starting things from scratch, challenging the status-quo and really bringing that ability to make things happen to businesses. Best holiday destination?
Isles of Scilly – my parents honeymooned there a very long time ago and I have visited almost every year since I was a child. Kick off your shoes, walk on glorious sandy beaches and (if brave enough, it is the Atlantic after all) swim in crystal clear waters; there’s no cars, not many people and no crowds. Bliss. Favourite pastime?
I really have got into fitness since the pandemic so love my sessions with my personal trainer and running with my dogs. I’m definitely not super fit but just adore being outdoors.
Photo of Jake Foxford © Carle Middleditch of Bushfire Photography