Business Development Assistant

PKF FRANCIS CLARK; Bristol; Hybrid; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading firm in business development is looking for a proactive individual to support strategic growth initiatives. This role involves managing client events, delivering proposals, and using data for business development activities. The ideal candidate will have strong organizational skills, excellent communication abilities, and a collaborative attitude. This position offers flexible working arrangements and numerous health and financial benefits.

Benefits

Pension

Group life assurance

Health cash plan

Option to buy 5 extra days holiday

Counselling support

Virtual GP access

Cycle to work scheme

Shopping and gym discounts

Volunteering day support

Qualifications

• Detail-oriented with proactive and eager to learn attitude.
• Ability to build rapport easily with colleagues and clients.

Responsibilities

• Plan and deliver engaging client-facing events.
• Manage event logistics and follow-up to generate sales leads.
• Conduct market research to support strategic decision-making.
• Update CRM system to ensure accurate data.
• Produce reports and dashboards to measure performance.

Skills

Highly organised

Strong prioritisation and time management skills

Excellent communication abilities

Collaborative team player

Attention to detail

Proficient in Microsoft Office

Tools

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft Word

Job description

In a nutshell

Are you a proactive and detail-oriented individual looking to kickstart or grow your career in business development and marketing? This is an exciting opportunity to join a forward-thinking team where you'll play a vital role in supporting strategic growth initiatives. From coordinating impactful client events to driving data-led business development activities, your work will help shape how we connect with clients, win new business, and strengthen our market presence.

In this varied and fast-paced role, you'll work closely with colleagues across the business to deliver high-quality proposals, manage our CRM system, and uncover new opportunities through insightful reporting and analysis.

If you're someone who thrives on organisation, enjoys working collaboratively, and has a flair for communication, we’d love to hear from you.

What you'll be doing day to day

• Plan and deliver engaging client-facing events, seminars, and networking sessions
• Manage event logistics including venue sourcing, catering arrangements, invitations, and post-event follow-up to generate valuable sales leads
• Contribute creative ideas for corporate hospitality and client engagement activities
• Conduct market research to support strategic decision-making
• Coordinate the office’s business development pipeline, qualifying leads and identifying cross-selling opportunities
• Assist in the creation of compelling proposal documents and maintain a log of outcomes to inform future strategy
• Organise business development meetings and ensure follow-up actions are tracked and progressed
• Maintain and update the CRM system to ensure accurate and actionable data
• Monitor budgets and support financial tracking for BD activities
• Produce reports and dashboards to measure business development performance and pipeline health
• Use CRM insights and data analysis to uncover new opportunities for teams
• Collaborate with partners and managers to gather relevant content and insights
• Help teams build and strengthen relationships with key referrers

About you

• Highly organised with strong prioritisation and time management skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication abilities
• A collaborative team player who builds rapport easily with colleagues and clients
• Proactive and eager to learn, with a positive, can-do attitude
• Meticulous attention to detail
• Confident using Microsoft Office, especially Excel, PowerPoint, and Word

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