Strategic Planning

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Anyone can become a successful business developer. Even a rainmaker.

I say this without reservation…knowing many will disagree.

Like Mindy did.

She was upfront, telling me the first time we sat down to discuss growing her practice that she just didn’t have the right personality.

“Networking events are worse than a root canal,” she told me. “And when it comes to talking someone into hiring me…I am not a salesperson.”

Mindy had bought into the idea that you’re either a born rainmaker, or you’re not.Continue Reading If You Feel Like You Have To Become A Different Person To Succeed At Business Development, You’re Doing It Wrong

Wherever business development initiatives aren’t delivering ROI in the form of increased revenue, the problem often boils down to missing the target more often than not.

It is easy to do.

An entire industry has a vested interest in convincing you that getting your name out there amounts to smart business development. Once you make this leap it is tempting to buy the ads, sign up for the sponsorships, get the copy points and colors just right on your website, catalogue every capability…and then wait for the market to beat a path to your door.

If neither time or budget is an issue, and assuming your visibility campaign in some way differentiates you from everyone else — this might work.

But odds are you’ll over spend, waste time and miss connecting with any real targets.Continue Reading When BizDev Efforts Fail To Increase Revenue, You Have An Aim Problem

  1. Can you name the target(s) key to your success?
  2. Do you know and understand the core concerns of your target(s)?
  3. Do you have a clear solution/answer for these concerns?
  4. How will you create visibility, deliver value and build trust with your target?

Whether you are marketing a professional service, selling a product or seeking support for a cause, four questions provide the framework for increasing revenue.Continue Reading Four Steps That Will Increase Revenue

Any discussion of business development should begin with this disclaimer:

There are no one-size-fits-all solutions or formulas. Silver bullets and cookie-cutters might work elsewhere; but not here.

With that stipulation, there are solid cornerstones that will ensure the resources invested in BizDev aren’t experimental in nature, leaving you to hope the market finds you.

In fact, a volatile market or a distaste for “selling” notwithstanding, it is possible to create an approach to business development that produces results — if you possess the will to build a plan on these four cornerstones.Continue Reading Unlocking Business Development Success: Build a Solid Foundation with these Four Cornerstones

A compass with text and icons – Principles

If your firm is puzzling over conversations about business development, inclusion, mental health in the work place, succession, stability or any aspect of how to grow, consider that this might be a sign that critical areas of your organization may not be aligned.

Not that these topics aren’t challenging. Indeed, each calls for the best a leader or leadership team can bring to the table.

But if you’re having trouble addressing these challenges, the elements essential to a highly functioning organization are either missing or out of alignment. As a result, the pressure on productivity, profitability and stability is likely to intensify.

An uncertain marketplace only adds to the pressure.Continue Reading Why Leaders Should Focus On A Set Of Guiding Principles

If you’re like most professional service providers I know, the motivation behind your choice of profession had nothing to do with a desire to get into sales…never mind being required to sell in order to do what you set out to do in the first place.

The real-world result of this is a “two-hats” dilemma — requiring one hat for your role as a business builder and a second one as a service provider.

Business development feels like it requires a personality, skill set and tool kit completely different from those associated with the counsel or service you provide.

How do you find prospects? How do you manage your time and create new growth opportunities?

The good news is that there are productive business development strategies that relieve this stress and bridge the disconnect.

The key is to create an approach to business development that grows out of the way you serve your clients. Do this and building a practice becomes much more organic. 

Where To Begin
Continue Reading Stressed Over Business Development? Relax, You Don’t Need More Prospects

I’ve spent the last couple of decades believing the surest way for any team, tribe, enterprise or community to realize its mission is to identify and build around a set of shared values. 

The premise is simple. A group will rarely agree on everything. The identification of a set of common values provides a framework against which strategy, investments and actions can be tested.

Does a particular direction run counter to shared values? If so, it threatens the mission, and should be abandoned or reconstituted.

Shared values are the fabric of culture.

But it turns out I have been cutting the conversation short

Strong groups (of any ilk) intuitively understand that alignment around what we share is the initial hurdle to be cleared in pursuit of any goal. Shared values unite us.
Continue Reading What Do We Value Most?

Succession planning for many firms is what the preparation of a Last Will and Testament is to a majority of individuals. Who wants to take time today to consider the (distant) end to something?

It is easy to move both of these future focused opportunities to the back burner — until urgency takes over.
Continue Reading It’s Time To Rethink Succession Planning

If you secretly fear your approach to business development is underperforming, you are not alone. In fact, you’re among a majority of law, accounting and consulting professionals and firms I know.

I know there is little comfort in numbers in this case; but this prompts a question: when will the lack of results from the way it’s always been done finally push rethinking the conversation? 
Continue Reading Will Your Investments In Business Development Pay Off?