How to Create Consistency Around Business Development

Your business development initiatives are just like most everything else in life – you get what you put in. I.e. the fruits of your business development and marketing strategy depend wholly on the time, effort, and attention you give. This probably doesn’t come as news to anyone. We all know that hard work pays off, and hard work includes consistent action and routine, especially to reach goals that have layered and progressive pathways to business success, like business development. 

Creating consistency in our business development practices can be challenging. I mean, hello! Society 54 exists because of how challenging and time consuming it can be to reach business development goals, especially in legal where professionals focus on billable work, leaving little to no time to invest in consistently courting and growing new client work, even from existing clients whose business is low-hanging fruit ripe for the picking… which leads to a flowing pipeline of work that’s dwindled to a trickle.

 So… how do we combat that? What are the specific issues that plague professional service firms’ business development initiatives, and how do you combat them? Consistency is key, we’ll tell you that much now, but let’s take a deeper dive to see what that really means in practice.

Effective Business Development Starts with Great Leadership

Sometimes law firms and other professional service industries are plagued by a lack of interest in business development activities, but we probably don’t have to tell you that. We all know the monolithically positioned Partner in the corner office who has absolutely zero interest in attending the corporate happy hours or courting clients.

We also know the young associates who push back on BD tasks because their focus is “billable, billable, billable,” and you can’t really blame them because law school prepared them to fight for the top spot in their legal training and professional lives. Law school may have cultivated some courtroom killers, but we don’t see a lot of soft skill training that’s absolutely imperative for business development.

What’s the point we’re making here, and when do we get to the part where we solve these issues? Right now.

The key to creating consistency is starting with leadership. The bottom line is that tasks and initiatives outside of billable work are only as critical as the managing partner, CEO, or business owner thinks they are. If you have an unengaged audience of professionals and your business development strategies are falling on deaf ears, call in the big guns and have the managing partner kick off regular meetings by discussing the business development initiatives they have done, while stressing the importance of growing new business through continuous action.

Hearing from the top will light a fire under the most reluctant, autonomous workers in your firm, and having your managing partner break down the little steps and processes that fall under the BD umbrella will start fostering the soft skills and insight your younger professionals lack. You won't have to work so hard fighting your team on accountability and growth when they see their leader's performance.

Build Consistent Business Development Habits with Alignment

 One of the biggest complaints we hear when working with firms on their BD initiatives is a total lack of alignment and communication, especially when there are multiple offices across the state, country, or world. Being properly aligned with clearly communicated goals is essential if you want to spark consistent action in your team.

It’s easy so get sucked into the mentality of “that practice group did this,” and “that office didn’t have to attend these meetings,” which fans the flames of inaction and stifles consistency. Get everyone on the same page. Make certain that your business development goals and the steps to reach those goals are clearly communicated and include visible progress markers that you share with the entire firm.

Clearly written goals, transparency in participation, and an aligned team will be your foundation for creating consistent business development action.

Tools to Make Business Development Less Overwhelming

This is a lot to digest—we know—and, it can be overwhelming when you start to think of HOW you will implement a business development plan across a large network of professionals who all have tasks to complete to meet firm goals, and it’s downright scary when you think of tracking all of that progress as it relates to ROI, budgets, and future goals. You don’t have to tell us – we know. That’s why we created Inform 2.0, our seamless, informative, and comprehensive approach to business development for professional service teams.

Inform 2.0 includes gamification at its core, which encourages a fun competition of successful and consistent BD behaviors for an entire team.

Check it out: https://society54.com/inform

Speaking of fun team competition, join Society 54 for our annual NCAA March Madness bracket, which opens Sunday, March 13. Hey, even invite your entire firm to join, so you can see firsthand how fun a little competition can be for a professional service team.