ENABLING AND ENHANCING THE BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS AT PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FIRMS 

Make it Personal

By Dorothy Potash
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To quote one of my favorites, Charles Dickens, ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” These, are complicated times in which we live and do business. There is just so much that contradicts. The world has never been so connected, yet, never have so many, felt so detached. There is unlimited access to so much data; we are drowning in a sea of it, yet constantly struggling to locate the “right” information to get us to land.

More and more kids are graduating, having been so focused on high achievement as students and young athletes, now, as they evolve into young professionals, they seek more rounded fulfillment, and enjoyment.   They yearn and seek to find themselves part of something larger than themselves, larger than just achieving partnership. At the same time, their mentors, colleagues, two generations their senior, may question their own path to partner, or managing director, having had to give up so much in time that potentially could have been spent in other pursuits. And then there are those few; those with that “IT” rainmaker DNA, who scratch their heads and wonder.  Nothing has changed for them. They rely on their inner drive, instincts, flexibility and ability to embrace change to steer them through, or around those obstacles that stop others in their tracks. They always find a way. They are fulfilled. They love what they do.

If you are a law firm or an accounting firm, the rules have changed. There are multiple disrupters in play, disrupting your growth, your margins, and your success.

If you are a professional service provider, it is just hard. Clients are more sophisticated, and technology seems to demand more of our time than it gives back.

Our clients today require top-notch expertise. They expect you to understand their industry and their commercial enterprise. They expect you to arm them with enough of the right strategic intelligence and insight to advise their Boards, their CEOS and have an impact on the bottom line. Our clients expect us to be creative with fees, to think about project management, and account for and defend who did what work, why, and defend time spent doing it. They require specialized expertise and services. Some even require RFPS, forcing a firm through a dreaded procurement process. Some clients are bringing some services in house, while outsourcing others to low cost providers.

There are multiple threats coming from these “replacements” these outsourcing firms, providing low cost solutions and eating away at firm revenue.

And then, there is technology, the ultimate disruptor. Immersion in the cloud, and deployment of SAAS offerings, which require less investment in infrastructure and development yet real advances in artificial intelligence also present opportunities. Efficiencies are created, driving down cost and of course revenue, while at the same time, these technologies provide an array of opportunities for firms to increase their own value proposition, and increase knowledge sharing, while reducing overhead.

It reminds me of Stillwater’s tale, “The Farmers Luck” told by the giant Panda, Stillwater, in my little son’s book, Zen Shorts. As each good or bad event occurs, and the farmer’s neighbors reply, “Such bad luck” or “Such good luck”, the farmer stoically answers, “maybe”…knowing that each event that transpires, on the surface may appear good or bad, but along with it, brings a chain of events that in turn, may prove to be just the opposite of what it may appear.

It has all been said before. Gone are client loyalty, employer loyalty, and employee loyalty. Yet, there are billions of dollars spent on consultants each year to advise on loyalty programs, employee retention, and business development.

I have heard the words Trusted Advisor, so often that it makes me laugh. As really, how can you be a trusted advisor when you are never in front of the client, when you don’t talk to them, when you don’t truly understand their enterprise, and when you have not established a deep connection or rapport with them. Billing them even for 6 or 7 figures a year does not make you a trusted anything.

Thus, with all of this going on, confusing, blurring the big picture…I look at it all as an opportunity. A real opportunity to stand out, differentiate oneself, create value and create fulfillment for your internal client servers. How novel. How simple.   Differentiate, just by doing things the old fashioned way.   In person. Getting personal.  

Every GC, every CFO and CEO I speak with says the same thing. Everything is done in e-mail. “No one reaches out to me, calls me or comes to visit just to check in.”

I suggest, go back to the basics. Call your client on the phone, and say “Hello!” And then, ask her out to lunch. And then immediately explain that you are not billing for this call, or for the lunch. You are just calling to see how things are going.   Ask her, “How are things going?” And then, just listen. Ask her questions about herself, her family, her job, day to day.  Then, listen more. You will learn something. You will learn a lot. And hopefully you listened well enough to hear her mention that she loves to read, and you find out that she loves Biographies!

On your walk back to the office, you Google “new biographies” from the New York Times Book Review, and then stop in at Barnes & Noble and buy the new Biography on Jefferson, write an old-fashioned thank you note, put it in a little package and send it off to her right away. This thoughtful gesture will differentiate you.

You have to make it personal. If you are someone who is seeking more fulfillment, then get out of the office and get in front of people. Get to know your clients, your peers…the more you learn, the more you can help. There is no better way to feel self worth than to help someone else. Rainmakers are typically so fulfilled because rainmakers solve people’s problems. Not just business problems; personal, family problems, small, big, all kinds of problems.

So, when you are having a bad day, and questioning the hundreds of thousands you owe in student loans, as you sit miserable, in front of your computer…don’t go home early. Call a client, or take a prospect out to lunch. Hopefully, you used all of the incredible technology at your disposal in which your firm invested hundreds of thousands of dollars, to set up a Google and Law 360 Alert about your target, you compared mutual connections in LinkedIn, you searched across the firm’s knowledge sharing platform to inquire about firm expertise in the prospect’s industry, found out your neighbor down the hall is the leading expert on cross border issues, and published a white paper which your target downloaded just last week, and you have located and read through all recent regulatory changes impacting that industry, as well as found out that the target’s CFO just left the company, which you noted in the firm’s CRM.

Technology, marketing automation, lead generation, CRM…these tools are like WAZE. Helps you navigate but you still have to drive the car to get to where you are going.

Good luck, and if you ever want to talk about Business Development, just reach out. It happens to be one of my favorite topics.