What can you do to help make sure your star recruits don’t misfire?
Hiring talented lateral recruits is only the beginning. Learn why onboarding, integration and business development support are critical to helping star performers achieve long-term success.
First, apologies for the sporting references in this edition of BD Tips Wednesday.
Last weekend marked the end of the English Premier League season 2025-2026 and, surprisingly or unsurprisingly depending on your loyalties, West Ham United were one of the three teams relegated.
What caught my attention though wasn’t the result. It was the economics behind the result.
According to recent reporting (including in the Financial Times), since 2021 West Ham’s net transfer spend has exceeded £318 million. That places them among Europe’s biggest net transfer spenders during this period — despite selling their star player Declan Rice to cross town rivals Arsenal for a sizeable fee.
Think about that for a moment.
A club with a 62,000-seat stadium, one of the strongest supporter bases in England, and transfer spending north of £300 million in less than five years has been relegated from the world’s richest football competition.
Meanwhile, a club with a significantly smaller budget — AFC Bournemouth — came within touching distance of qualifying for European Championship League football.
How does this happen?
You would think the answer has to be down to a combination of two things: (2) Bad lateral recruitment; and/or (2) Bad management (on which point, several managers of West Ham have been released from their contract over the past two years).
And that got me thinking about professional services firms. Because law firms, accounting firms and other professional services firms have been on a similar gouge of lateral recruiting – often offering sizeable guaranteed incomes (in Australia the guaranteed amounts have been as high as $7M but overseas these numbers have been swamped), with no guarantee of income being given (i.e., results).
So what can you do to help make sure your star recruits don’t misfire?
The first 12 months matter more than the recruitment process
Most firms spend enormous amounts of time and money on recruitment, followed by almost no time onboarding and integrating the lateral into the team. A strong onboarding plan for senior lateral hires should answer practical questions such as:
What skill gap is this lateral plugging?
Who are the internal relationship builders?
Which partners are responsible for introductions?
Which existing clients create the best cross-selling opportunities?
What support will business development be providing and is there an integration plan in place?
How will momentum be measured in the first 90, 180 and 365 days?
How will success be measured?
What internal blockers might slow momentum?
Because if a senior lateral sits waiting for work to emerge organically, momentum disappears quickly. Confidence drops. Relationships with clients you are hoping to bring over will stall.
And eventually both sides will quietly admit: “This hasn’t worked.”
Beware the transfer fee mentality
Football clubs often assume expensive recruits will automatically change results. Professional services firms often think the same way.
Higher salary + Better title + Big Press Release = Problem solved.
Except growth rarely works like that. Because a lateral hire is not a growth strategy; it is part of a firm-wide growth strategy for previously identified shortfall areas.
In fact, pay the lateral too much and the existing partners might delight in seeing them fail.
The better question
When a star recruit underperforms, firms often ask:
“Did we hire the wrong person?”
When more often than not the better question is:
“Did we give the person the right conditions and support to succeed?”
Because occasionally the issue is not the lateral recruit but the support system around them.
West Ham will probably spend next season asking how so much investment delivered so little return. To avoid having to ask the same question, professional services firms should be asking themselves what due diligence have we done to ensure this lateral integrates with our firm and what support structure are we putting in place to help them achieve success?
And the answer to that will not come from the recruitment agent. It’ll come from the business development person you have in the room when you first discuss the need to hire the lateral…
Takeaway
Star performers rarely succeed alone. The rainmaker with the enviable client list will have exceptional internal support, strong cross-referral pathways, a trusted delivery team, or simply a brand that opened doors more easily.
If you hire the star individual, without the rest of the support structure, even exceptional people will struggle.
Need Help With Your Business Development?
Get in touch if you want to talk about any of this. We also offer a very affordable BD Audit and Training package.
Business Development Is A Confidence Game
Many professionals assume they have a business development problem when they actually have a confidence problem. Learn why confidence is often the missing ingredient in winning more work.
Many lawyers assume they have a business development problem when what they have is a confidence problem.
Most law firms employ highly capable subject matter expert lawyers with deep expertise and insight, strong client outcomes and years of experience. Yet many still struggle with inconsistent pipelines, overreliance on referrals and rainmakers, fee pressure, and a lack of new matters.
Why is this?
In this BD Tips Wednesday post, I suggest it’s because business development is not a selling game — it’s a confidence game.
Capability Does Not Automatically Create Confidence
A common assumption in professional services is that expertise naturally leads to work. Tell me if this sounds familiar:
Do good work → clients recognise value → more work follows.
Sounds logical.
But markets are not logical and rarely reward the most technically capable adviser. Otherwise, everyone who went to Harvard would be a rainmaker (trust me, they’re not!).
What markets do reward are lawyers who are:
visible
easy to engage
responsive
commercially aware
confident communicating value
There is very little subject matter expertise in any of that.
But this creates a frustrating dynamic for many lawyers: ➡️ Strong technical practitioners assume business development happens organically, while commercially confident competitors (who are often not as technically strong) steadily strengthen relationships, are more responsive, ask better questions, stay visible, and steal all the thunder.
The Confidence Gap
Low confidence in business development rarely announces itself directly. Instead, it quietly shows up in behavours that many firm leaders overlook. It appears when lawyers:
hesitate to follow up after meetings
avoid asking for introductions or referrals
feel uncomfortable discussing fees
discount too quickly
avoid commercial conversations
assume good work alone will generate future matters
Confidence Is Built, Not Found
One of the biggest misconceptions about business development is the belief that confidence arrives first. It doesn’t.
Confidence is typically:
After the awkward networking event
After the follow-up call
After the uncomfortable pricing conversation
After asking for the meeting
After hearing “no” more times than you would like to and realising the world doesn’t end.
The lawyer who appears naturally good at business development is often the lawyer who has kept showing up enough to become part of the furniture.
Confidence is not a personality trait. It’s a skill. And like every skill, it improves through repetition and training.
Takeaway: Clients Buy Confidence
Clients are not simply buying your technical expertise; they’re buying the confidence you bring to the matter. Confidence that:
you understand their issue
you have solved similar problems before
you will guide them through uncertainty
you understand commercial realities
you will help them make good decisions
Technical ability matters, but confidence is where trust is created.
Need Help With Your Business Development?
Get in touch if you want to talk about any of this. We also offer a very affordable BD Audit and Training package.
Business Development Requires That You Be Informed
Successful business development starts with awareness. Understanding your clients, industry trends, competitors and market changes allows you to have more relevant conversations and identify opportunities before others do.
Most professionals think business development is about actions: send an email here, post on LinkedIn there, attend a few events every now and then. But the truth is, while these are crucial components of your business development strategy, they are not what dictates "success".
To be successful at business development you need a different superpower: Awareness. Because to grow your pipeline, you first need to be informed.
So for this BD Tips Wednesday post I thought I would do a whistle-stop tour of what it means to be aware and informed, and how this will help supercharge your business development efforts.
Know Your Clients Deeply
Being informed begins with understanding the people you serve. This means staying close to what’s happening in their world; not just their business, but their industry pressures, upcoming projects, regulatory changes and emerging challenges.
When you walk into a conversation with your client already aware of what’s going on in their world, you don’t need to “sell.” You simply connect what you offer to what they already care about.
This transforms your communication. Instead of generic check-ins, you send timely insights. Instead of hoping they remember you, you demonstrate relevance.
Informed advisers stand out because they see change before their clients do and help them navigate it.
Know Your Market and What’s Changing
Great business development stems from understanding the economic landscape. Industries shift. Procurement rules tighten. Competitors innovate. Technology reshapes expectations. Clients explore new models of buying and engagement.
When you pay attention to these signals, your business development efforts naturally become more strategic. You frame conversations differently. You position your offers more confidently. You anticipate needs before they are expressed.
In an environment where clients value foresight, simply being informed elevates your value.
Clarity Leads to Better Decisions
When you’re informed, everything becomes easier: choosing which opportunities to pursue, saying no to the wrong ones, prioritising the conversations that matter and directing your time toward the highest-value actions.
You start to make fewer reactive decisions and more proactive ones.
Crucially, your business development efforts stop being chaotic and start to become more strategic and focussed.
Being Informed Makes You More Valuable
Clients gravitate to people who help them see what’s ahead. When you consistently bring insight - market awareness, early warnings, relevant trends - you become more than a service provider. You become a trusted guide.
Informed professionals open more doors, build stronger relationships and convert opportunities with less friction.
Know the Signals Before They Become Opportunities
Being informed is ultimately about spotting the subtle cues others miss:
the promotion of a key instructor,
an organisational reshuffle,
the shift in a client’s internal and external language,
sudden silence where there used to be momentum.
These small signals often appear long before a formal opportunity does. When you learn to notice them, you place yourself ahead of the curve.
Most business development success isn’t won in the big moments; it’s won by noticing the quiet ones that nobody else is paying attention to!
Takeaway: The Bottom Line
You don’t need to simply “do more” business development. You need to know more so the actions you take are smart, timely and aligned with opportunity.
As my first partner said to me:
Read the financial press every day and pay attention to what’s going on in your clients’ world.
Because in business development, the professional who stays informed is the one who stays in demand.
Further Reading
Need Help With Your Business Development?
Get in touch if you want to talk about any of this. We also offer a very affordable BD Audit and Training package.
But What If I Fail?
Fear of failure stops many professionals from taking action. Discover why momentum, experimentation and learning matter more than avoiding mistakes.
It’s a simple five-word question, yet a lot of my clients have confided in me recently: “But what if I fail?”.
My response?
Since going out on my own two and a half years ago; it’s a question I ask myself daily. Every time I submit a pitch or proposal to do some work. Every time someone asks me to reduce my price and I say “no”, possibly losing their work. Every time I go to an event and see no one I know in the room. Every time I see a competitor getting attention on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook or wherever else I might be a the time.
But here’s the thing. While the question might keep you up at night, it’s the wrong question to be focussed on.
Failure Isn’t the Real Risk, Inaction Is
Let’s face facts, when you run your own show and do serious business development you WILL fail from time-to-time. It’s a fact of life. However, failure (if that’s the word we are going to use) doesn’t come from a bad proposal - it comes from not having a plan | strategy, from not showing up often enough to be seen.
Too many professionals only do business development when the “perfect” opportunity comes along, or only reach out when they feel 100% certain the person is going to respond. That's because Type A's typically want to protect their reputation and themselves from the sting of rejection; but in doing so, they're only protecting their competitors' market share.
If you never risk a “no,” you never earn the chance for a “yes.”
The Hidden Cost of Playing Safe
For most professionals, hesitation and a reluctance to be seen “selling” has a compounding cost:
Missed momentum: Every unanswered email and phone call delays your pipeline of work.
Brand invisibility: If clients don’t see you regularly, they assume you’re too busy and won’t consider you for work.
Confidence erosion: Each decision not to act reinforces the story that “we’re not ready yet.”
Safety feels rational, but it’s silently expensive.
Reframing Failure as Feedback
Business development is an experiment, not a life-threatening medical exam. Every lost pitch teaches you how clients think. Every pricing conversation reveals where your perceived value sits. Every “no” moves you closer to understanding what earns a “yes.”
The firms that grow fastest aren’t those with perfect hit rates. They’re the ones who measure, learn, adjust and try again quickly.
A Simple Rule: Fail Small, Learn Fast, Win Big
You don’t need to gamble everything on one massive opportunity or a single flagship client. Instead, build a rhythm of small, controlled tasks:
Test your new pricing model on one client, not ten.
Submit one extra EOI each quarter.
Run one webinar to see who shows up.
Make one bolder ask in your next proposal.
Each micro-failure is tuition, not a tax.
The Real Fear Isn’t Failure, It’s Exposure
When professionals say “I’m afraid of failing,” what they usually mean is, “I’m afraid people will see me fail.”
But the irony is: no one is watching as closely as you think. Clients are busy. Your competitors are busy. And, the market has a very short memory.
What everyone does remember is consistency: the lawyer who keeps showing up, keeps improving and keeps asking for work is the lawyer who will win in the long run.
Takeaway
If you want to build a sustainable business development habit, reframe the question.
Don’t ask: “What if I fail?”
Ask: “What will I learn if I try?”
Because in business development: the opposite of failure isn’t success, it’s momentum.
Need Help With Your Business Development?
Get in touch if you want to talk about any of this. We also offer a very affordable BD Audit and Training package.
4 Tips On Breaking Out Of The Worker Bee Mentality
Moving from technical expert to business owner requires a shift in mindset. Discover four practical ways professionals can become more entrepreneurial and growth-focused.
Prior to setting up GSJ Consulting, I had been a ‘worker’ for over 35 years. Everyday I had gone to work and accounted for every minute of my working day. The degree of success or failure of my endeavours was not so much in the results I produced (after all, how can these be calculated in the long game of business development?), but in the inputs and relationships I formed.
Then I set up on my own. And I realised, being “busy” every day wasn’t actually a good thing. So for this BD Tips Wednesday post I thought I would draw on my own failings to give 4 tips on how to move from being a worker lawyer to an entrepreneurial partner.
Think Like a Business Owner, Not an Employee
The first tip sounds all to obvious: You need to start thinking like a business owner and not an employee. Every day you need to ask yourself:
What market are we really in?
Where is client demand heading?
What would make us indispensable to our clients’ growth?
Instead of waiting for instructions, you need to start finding them!
Learn to Read A P&L
One of things I found odd when I was in private practice is how few equity partners knew what firm money was being spent on. The standout partners were those with the commercial literacy to know how their clients and their own firm makes a profit.
In short, if you want a seat at the table you need to speak both legal and financial jargon. That means knowing:
Client profitability vs. revenue.
Cost of your service delivery.
The difference between activity/utilisation (busy) and productivity (profitable).
Build Teams
Create ecosystems. Treat juniors with respect.
An entrepreneurial partner delegates early and empowers others. They build self-sufficient teams who can run matters while they focus on growth, mentoring and strategy (and even go on holiday!).
True leverage isn’t about freeing up your time; it’s about multiplying your impact!
Stop Waiting for Permission
Last but not least: Stop waiting for permission to do something. No one appoints you the Big Cheese: you decide you want to be the Big Cheese and act like it.
Stop waiting for the title, the business card or the partner vote. Start behaving like the kind of partner the firm can’t afford to lose.
Need Help With Your Business Development?
Get in touch if you want to talk about any of this. We also offer a very affordable BD Audit and Training package.
Why You Need Engaged Mentors to Help with Your Business Development Strategy
An engaged mentor provides accountability, guidance and access to valuable networks. Learn why mentorship can accelerate your business development success.
Business development isn’t about chasing new opportunities, it’s about: building habits (showing up); sharpening strategy; and developing the confidence to execute consistently. While blog posts (like this one), books, workshops and training programs can give you frameworks, the real accelerant often comes from having the right mentor by your side. However, not just any mentor but an engaged one - someone who is invested in your growth, challenges your thinking and celebrates your wins with you!
For this BD Tips Wednesday post I'll run through a high-level overview of 'Why You Need Engaged Mentors to Help with Your Business Development Strategy'.
Mentorship vs. Engagement
Plenty of professionals have “mentors” who are mentors in name only: senior figures who may offer occasional advice over a coffee catch-up every 3 to 6 months. That’s helpful, but engagement is the difference between passive support and active partnership.
An engaged mentor is someone who:
Understands your business development goals and context.
Provides constructive feedback tailored to your situation.
Holds you accountable to follow through on your commitments.
Shares networks, introductions and insights to open new doors.
This level of involvement can turn sporadic progress into a deliberate growth trajectory.
Why Engaged Mentors Matter For Your Business Development Strategy
1. Clarify the Noise
Business development can be overwhelming. Should you double down on client meetings, invest in thought leadership or pursue all those tenders you are seeing advertised?
An engaged mentor helps you cut through all this noise; helping you to refine your focus and set realistic, impactful priorities.
2. Confidence And Accountability
It’s easy to let Business Development slip when billable work or internal pressures take over. Engaged mentors keep you accountable to the actions you’ve committed to, whether that’s making five new introductions a month, submitting tenders or carving out time to publish a thought leadership piece.
Your engaged mentor will remind you that consistency, not intensity, drives results.
3. Access To Experience And Networks
Engaged mentors bring lived experience: the mistakes they’ve made, the strategies that worked and the people they know.
In business development, access to networks and “social proof” can open doors that cold outreach never will.
4. A Safe Space To Test Ideas
Not every Business Development idea is ready to roll out to a client. Engaged mentors create a safe space for testing, brainstorming, and challenging assumptions. They help you refine ideas before you put them into market, reducing risk and increasing effectiveness.
5. Long-Term Growth Mindset
Business Development isn’t about quick wins, it’s about building a sustainable pipeline. Engaged mentors keep you thinking long-term: client retention; cross-serving; up-selling; and building reputation. They ensure you don’t just win work today, but build the habits and strategy to keep winning tomorrow.
What Makes a Good Engaged Mentor?
Accessibility: They make time, not excuses.
Relevance: They’ve navigated similar markets, clients or industries.
Challenge: They don’t just affirm, they push you to improve.
Investment: They want to see you succeed, not just tick a box.
The best mentor-mentee relationships are reciprocal: you bring energy, commitment and openness to learn, while they bring perspective, guidance and advocacy.
The Bottom Line
An engaged mentor is not a luxury, it’s a competitive advantage.
In a world where professional services are seeing more and more competition, the firms and individuals who stand out are those who invest in strategic, consistent and well-supported Business Development efforts. With the right mentors, you’ll not only accelerate your growth but also avoid the blind spots and missteps that slow so many others down.
Need Help With Your Business Development?
Get in touch if you want to talk about any of this. We also offer a very affordable BD Audit and Training package.
It’s Okay to Acknowledge Your Limitations – It Helps Build Trust
Clients value honesty. Learn why acknowledging limitations can strengthen trust, improve credibility and create stronger long-term relationships.
The title to this BD Tips Wednesday post comes from an article I was read. The article itself had nothing to do with professional services, but in a world full of Alpha high achieving professionals, admitting a short-coming is about as frequent as a cab for hire in a rainstorm!
But the reality is, acknowledging your limitations is an important skill development if you want to be successful. While clients expect us to have the answers to their problems/issues, pretending to be flawless and know everything about anything is not what builds trust.
The building blocks of trust
Honesty, self-awareness and integrity are the building blocks of trust. Professionals have these traits in abundance. But saying you can be all things to all people simply isn't possible. And clients know this. They sense you are faking it, and call you out as a fake.
Ignoring your limitations send the wrong message to your clients. It is far better for you to say: "This is not my area of expertise, but I can refer you to a colleague who is a whiz at this", than it is to try and do the work for fear of losing the work to a competitor. Because in all likelihood, you'll mess the job up and lose the client in any event!
Clarity creates trust
Acknowledging limitations reflects a reality: no one is an expert at everything - not even you! Being able to say, “This is not my area of expertise” shows maturity and strength.
It makes you look stronger. It makes your team stronger.
Why? Because the client has clarity, they know what you can and cannot do. So when you say you can do it, they believe you - they don't wonder if you are telling them the truth and worry they may have made a mistake in appointing you to act for them!
Final thought
The more we pretend to have all the answers, the less trustworthy we become. But when we lead with honesty and humility, we invite real connectivity.
So next time you hit the edge of your expertise, don’t bluff your way through. Say, “Let me check on that,” or “That’s not my strength, but I know someone who can help.” Because acknowledging your limitations doesn’t weaken your reputation. It strengthens it.
In turn, this will make your business development efforts more successful, which will lead to a stronger book of business.
Need Help With Your Business Development?
Get in touch if you want to talk about any of this. We also offer a very affordable BD Audit and Training package.
Adopt an ‘Outward Mindset’ to transform the relationship – and results - you have with your clients!
The most successful professionals focus on understanding and solving client problems rather than promoting themselves. Discover how an outward mindset improves relationships and results.
If you play Buzzword Bingo, and frankly who doesn’t enjoy a good game of Buzzword Bingo during a long staff meeting, then there are bound to be some standard ‘go-tos’ you have on your playing card. They’ll likely include: Growth Mindset, Collaborative, Innovative, Synergies, Proactive, Blue Sky Thinking, Shared Goals, to name just a few.
One phrase you probably won’t see on your bingo card however is having an "Outward Mindset”. Yet, if you’re truly going to adopt a “client centric mindset” [another contender for the bingo card], then you’ll need to employ an Outward Mindset to help you get there – otherwise it is all mere talk.
But, if this is so important, what do we mean by an “Outward Mindset”?
In order to help answer that, for this BD Tips Wednesday post I walk through a very high-level overview of what an Outward Mindset is all about and why it is so important you apply this type of strategic thinking to your business development activities.
What is an Outward Mindset?
Let's start off with a general definition of what an Outward Mindset is:
An Outward Mindset is a way of thinking and acting that prioritizes the understanding, needs, challenges and objectives of your clients. It’s about expanding your awareness to prioritize the needs of your clients before yours.
If you’re able to do this, the result will be true collaboration with your client leading to a deeper and more trusted connection.
How applying an Outward Mindset will benefit your business development activities
Enhances your client relationships
When you apply an Outward Mindset, the interactions you have with your clients become more focused and meaningful. Instead of seeing your clients as a means to an end in meeting your KPIs, you start to see them as people with their own KPIs that you need to help them achieve. This mindset shift helps build trust with your clients and strengthens your relationships.
Improves teamwork and staff retention
Collaboration is the Holy Grail of any professional services firm.
Applying an Outward Mindset helps to breakdown silos and encourages all of your firm’s principals and employees to align their efforts towards shared objectives.
Also, seeing how their efforts are directly benefiting their clients results in team members becoming more engaged, more motivated. This helps with staff retention – your team really is doing work that matters for your clients!
Improves your problem-solving skills and makes you more innovative!
Being able to see situations through the eyes of others helps improve your problem-solving skills – skills that are critical to the career development of many professionals and what often stands one professional out from another.
Enhanced problem-solving skills can also lead to a more innovate approach to problem-solving. This leads to enhanced creativity.
Innovation and creativity = two crucial client-facing traits that will help stand you apart from your competition!
Tips on how to cultivate an Outward Mindset
Moving from a growth mindset to an Outward Mindset requires effort.
The first step on this journey starts with empathy. Take the time to understand the challenges and aspirations of your clients. Put yourself in their shoes. Ask them open-ended questions and listen actively to their responses.
Armed with this information, think about how you can help your client(s) succeed.
And so now you have started your journey to an Outward Mindset...
Need Help With Your Business Development?
Get in touch if you want to talk about any of this. We also offer a very affordable BD Audit and Training package.