As vital as Business Development is to growing your firm, it is not always perceived as a discipline. Repeatable processes and results aren’t there and there is no measurable outcome.
Traditionally, Business Developers have relied heavily on referral and upsell business. The problem is, it doesn’t facilitate finding net-new clients or replace any churn you have - and it certainly doesn’t grow business.
Oddly, as impactful as Business Development is to a firm’s success, it’s often an area that is structured without any expertise in prospect nurturing and lead generation. History, statistics and common sense indicate that a disciplined approach that integrates various types of interactions will impact growth.
“Lead Generation” - it’s kind of a dirty word.
“Lead Generation” often elicits visions of someone calling your prospects and dogging them until they relent to an appointment to speak with you. It also involves doing the mundane (building lists, cold calling, prospecting, emailing, nurturing). Not really something you envisioned someone in your role would be doing. It’s a serious misuse of talent.
Each of your consulting staff are experts. Adept and passionate about a specific area - they operate with ease and extreme confidence while providing your clients with unique and innovative solutions.
Likewise, it takes an extremely adept Business Developer to sell consulting services. It’s an intangible so they must speak to the value and successes of your organization and spin stories with factual evidence that is relevant to each varying situation. It takes skill.
That atmosphere of excellence is a prevalent part of the culture in most successful firms.
We'd like to help you providing the kind of expert support that makes Business Development a higher priority. Let’s explore how adding a Sales support function can impact your firm.