Business Development Assistant (12 month fixed-term contract)

In a nutshell

You’re someone who enjoys organising projects, supporting busy teams, and keeping business development activity running smoothly from start to finish. You bring structure, curiosity and strong communication skills to your work, and you’re comfortable balancing a mix of tasks — from event planning and research to proposal support, CRM updates and relationship‑building.

If you like variety, collaborating with different people and being the reliable person others can count on, this role offers a brilliant opportunity to build a BD career within a friendly, energetic and supportive marketing & BD team.

What you'll be doing day to day

• Coordinate and deliver client‑facing events, seminars and networking sessions across Poole, Salisbury and Southampton, including logistics, venues, catering, invitations and on‑the‑day support.
• Manage post‑event follow‑up to help generate leads and ensure a great experience for attendees and internal teams.
• Come up with ideas for corporate hospitality and engagement activities that strengthen client relationships.
• Carry out market research on companies and the local marketplace to support BD planning.
• Coordinate the business development pipeline, qualify leads and help identify cross‑selling opportunities.
• Assist in producing proposal documents, logging wins and losses, and gathering content from partners and managers.
• Schedule, organise and support BD meetings — tracking actions and helping momentum stay on track.
• Maintain and update CRM data for the Poole and Southampton markets, producing simple reports and dashboards to help teams track activity.
• Use CRM insights to spot opportunities for teams and identify useful contact‑building prospects.
• Support teams in strengthening relationships with key referrers.
• Monitor budgets and assist with general BD/marketing activity as required.

About you

• A strong organiser who enjoys coordinating events and keeping multiple tasks on track.
• Confident communicator who finds it easy to build rapport and work well with different stakeholders.
• Proactive, positive and eager to learn — especially if you’re starting your career in BD or professional services.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong attention to detail and accuracy.
• Comfortable working independently, managing deadlines and juggling priorities.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office (Excel, PowerPoint and Word essential).
• Full driving licence and access to your own transport (required for attending events and travelling between offices).

Why work at PKF Francis Clark

As the largest firm of independent chartered accountants and business advisers in South West England, PKF Francis Clark offers a breadth of opportunities to develop your career in the way that’s right for you. 

Established in 1919, we’ve grown to a team of nearly 1,000 people, based across our offices in Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth, Poole, Salisbury, Southampton, Taunton, Torquay and Truro. This means we’re big enough to do challenging work for exciting clients, but small enough to maintain our friendly and supportive culture. 

We work hard to ensure you can belong, be yourself and be brilliant as part of a forward-thinking team. This includes a flexible approach to hybrid working. And our focus on wellbeing and learning and development has been recognised nationally. 

For the past three years, PKF Francis Clark has been certified as a Great Place to Work and ranked among the UK’s Best Workplaces. In 2025, we climbed four places to 20 out of 100 large organisations on this prestigious list. 

We’re also in the UK’s top 10 Best Workplaces for Women (6 out of 100 large organisations), as well as being ranked among the Best Workplaces for Wellbeing (35 out of 100), Best Workplaces for Development (24 out of 100) and Best Workplaces in Consulting and Professional Services. 

All these lists are compiled by workplace culture experts Great Place to Work. Our rankings are a direct result of feedback from our people in a confidential, independent annual survey. 

The success rates of our trainees mean we’re also ranked 33rd in The Sunday Times Top 100 Apprenticeship Employers 2025. 

While we’re proudly independent, we collaborate with colleagues around the world to enable our clients to succeed. PKF Francis Clark is a member of the PKF Global family of firms – together we’re the 12th largest provider of accountancy services in the UK. Being part of this international network provides opportunities to connect with like-minded accountants and business advisers in 150 countries. 

Your core benefits 

Financial benefits:
•    Pension
•    Group life assurance - up to four times your core salary
•    Group income protection
•    Health cash plan to help cover the costs of everyday healthcare 

Health & Wellbeing benefits:
•    Option to buy 5 extra days holiday*
•    Counselling and support for you and your immediate family
•    Virtual GP for you and your immediate family
•    Cycle to work*

Other benefits:
•    Medicash Extras providing you with shopping and gym discounts
•    Gifts for career and family milestones
•    One volunteering day per year to support local organisations
•    Emergency funding from the Francis Clark Charitable Foundation 

Please note
* These benefits are provided via a salary exchange and are subject to employee’s post exchange hourly rate remaining above the national minimum wage.

Additional information 

• Please be aware that the job title used internally may not align exactly with the title displayed in this advert
• This is a 12 month fixed-term contract 

IND1