Why Anticipating Your Client’s Next Problem Is Good Business Development
The strongest client relationships are built by helping clients navigate what comes next. Learn how anticipating future challenges positions you as a trusted adviser rather than a reactive service provider.
Most lawyers wait for the phone to ring. Rainmakers make the phone call.
In this edition of BD Tips Wednesday, I take a look at one of the simplest, but most underutilised, business development strategies available to lawyers: anticipating your client’s next problem.
The Shift: From Reactive to Strategic Business Development
Lawyers who build the strongest client relationships think differently. They are not just focused on solving the problem at-hand; they're already thinking about what comes next. This is the fundamental shift needed to succeed in business development: the move from being a reactive lawyer to a strategic rainmaker.
Most lawyers rightly pride themselves on their responsiveness. They deliver good work, turn things around quickly and keep clients informed throughout the matter. All of this is very important, but it is table-stakes in this day-and-age and is not what is differentiating you from the competition.
Lawyers who stand out from the competition are those who demonstrate foresight into their clients’ needs.
Problems Rarely Arrive Alone
Case in point: clients rarely experience legal issues in isolation. A contract dispute today, may lead to a restructuring tomorrow. A new company hire today may trigger employment risks in six months’ time.
When you begin to recognise patterns, something powerful happens. You stop seeing matters as standalone instructions and start to see them as part of a broader commercial journey.
This ability to strategically map what at first might appear to be unconnected events is an important milestone in your business development journey.
Seeing the Business, Not Just the Matter
When you start to look at your client relationships holistically, your perspective changes. Instead of asking:
“What has the client asked me to do?”
You start asking:
“Where is this client going?”
This is where real business development and growth opportunities live.
Because once you understand the trajectory of your client’s business - their growth plans, risk profile, industry pressures, bonus KPIs and internal constraints - you start to identify issues before they crystallise into urgent problems.
From Lawyer to Trusted Adviser
Trusted adviser, the Holy Grail! You are no longer just the lawyer who solves problems when they arise, you become the adviser who helps clients prepare for what is coming.
That distinction matters.
Any lawyer can respond to a brief. Very few lawyers consistently guide clients around corners they cannot see yet. Clients value this insight enormously because it reduces uncertainty and risk. It signals that you understand their commercial environment and not just the legal issue placed in front of you.
When you are able to anticipate your client’s next problem:
You deepen trust without needing to “sell”
You create natural pathways for future work
You position yourself as integral to the client’s decision-making
You reduce the risk of being replaced by a cheaper alternative.
In short, you move from being a service provider to a strategic asset.
Takeaway
Often, the most valuable sentence a lawyer can say to their client is:
“You may want to start thinking about this next…”
It's simple. But, when done right and in a non-sales way, it also signals foresight, commercial awareness and genuine investment in the client’s success.
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.
Borrowed Business Development Wisdom From Japan
Some of the most powerful business development lessons come from simple concepts. Explore Japanese principles such as Kaizen, Shoshin, Ikigai, Nemawashi and Oubaitori and learn how they can improve your business development efforts.
Over the summer holidays here in Australia I read a business related article that clumped together a number of different Japanese business concepts. I found the article refreshing and interesting, and thought I would share some of these concepts with you for this BD Tips Wednesday post.
Kaizen – Continuous improvement
Most business development plans fail because they aim for transformation instead of progress. In short, central to your business development plan this year should not be the need to get a new CRM, a new pitch deck or a new LinkedIn strategy.
What you do need is Kaizen, to get 1% better:
One better client conversation
One better follow-up habit
One better question in a pitch
Small improvements, done consistently, compound quickly.
Shoshin – Beginner’s mind
One of the biggest risks for experienced professionals is to make assumptions. In business development terms, these include assuming you know:
What the client wants
How they buy
Why they chose you last time
Approach each business development opportunity and conversation with the curiosity of a beginner's mind, not certainty of an old hand.
Ask more. Talk less. Listen harder.
Ikigai – Your reason for being
If your business development activity feels forced, there’s usually a misalignment in what you are trying to achieve and they way you are going about it.
In such a case, ask yourself:
Why this type of work?
Why these clients?
Why you?
When your business development activity aligns with what you’re good at, what you enjoy, what the market values, and what clients genuinely need momentum follows naturally.
Nemawashi – Preparing the ground
New business is very rarely won in the meeting. Its won doing the groundwork done before a proposal or meeting is ever requested.
If you’re going in cold and relying on the pitch alone to win you work, the chances are you’re already too late! The deal has already been done.
Oubaitori – Don’t compare
Stop watching competitors so closely that you lose confidence in your own positioning.
You don’t need to be cheaper.
You don’t need to be louder.
You don’t need to be a copy.
Focus on being distinct.
Takeaway
I don't profess to be an expert in Japanese business concepts - far from it in fact, but business development is about:
deliberate
consistency
with intent
In my view, these Japanese business concepts sum this up perfectly!
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.
Slow Down To Get Better Business Development Results
Business development is not always about doing more. Sometimes the best results come from slowing down, listening carefully and making more deliberate decisions.
Your business development results will improve the moment you slow down.
Sounds counter-intuitive to say you will get better business development results if you take a little time out to slow down and think things through. After all, aren’t all professionals supposed to be busy all the time? But when you think about it, how often do you hear partners (especially partners of smaller firms with less support resourcing) say:
“I know I should be doing more marketing and business development…but I’m just too busy today.”
Our instinct is to do more work and “find time” for business development between emailing clients and dropping the kids off at school. We then cross our fingers and toes and hope that the results will come in.
So for this BD Tips Wednesday post I’ll take a quick look at why your business development results will improve the moment you slow down.
Better conversations happen when you’re not in a hurry
When you're racing through your day, you rarely give a client or prospect the full attention they deserve. Slowing down gives you space to listen without distraction, ask more thoughtful questions and explore what the other person truly needs.
You’ll start to notice their hesitations, their priorities, their challenges and the opportunities. Importantly, you’ll have time to reflect before responding.
This depth of understanding is what helps build trust – and we know that trust is critical to the success of your business development endeavours as it’s what elevates you from a service provider to a trusted advisor.
The right opportunities present themselves when you hit the “pause” button
A fast-paced business development mindset pushes you to chase every opportunity. Any lead looks like a good lead when you’re in a rush. But when you slow down, you can evaluate an opportunity properly. You can see more clearly if it fits with your firm strategy. You can have an honest evaluation about whether the work is even going to be profitable. Crucially, you give yourself permission to say “no”.
Hitting the pause button on being busy will also help move you from being a price taker to the all-important price setter status.
Consistency comes from routine, not speed
Being busy means you're being reactive. And reactive business development is bad business development.
When you slow down, you create routines instead of relying on adrenaline. A simple 20-minute daily practice suddenly becomes achievable. You remember to reconnect. You take the time to personalise a message properly. You reflect on previous conversations and pick up threads you'd otherwise lose. You stop working from a sense of panic and start working from a sense of intention.
Slowing down reduces business development anxiety
The faster you go, the more overwhelmed you feel. Overwhelmed quickly becomes avoidance, and avoidance kills momentum.
When you slow down, the anxiety eases. You can separate what matters from what doesn’t. You can create a few simple priorities instead of twenty competing tasks. You can make space to prepare, reflect and plan - things that are impossible to do when you're sprinting.
Takeaway: How to slow down without losing productivity
Slowing down doesn’t mean doing less. It means doing fewer things with more intention. It means blocking a small amount of thinking time each day, choosing a manageable number of meaningful business development actions each week; and replacing generic “checking in” with moments of genuine value. It means taking a moment after each client interaction to reflect on what you learned and what the next step should be. It means ending the week with a brief review so you’re not starting Monday in a panic.
At the end of the day, you’ll also feel more in control once you stop trying to do everything at once.
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.