Why the 'So What?' test is so important to the success of your business development efforts
Great business development messaging is not about what you do—it is about why it matters. Learn how the “So What?” test helps create clearer, more compelling client communications.
When I was younger, my mother would often say to me: "Because it's important to you Richard, doesn't make it important to me".
My mother had worked with lawyers earlier in her career, and I thought this piece of advice just profound (as you typically do with tidbits your mum says when growing up!). Until one day I was working with a partner who said exactly the same thing to me when I mentioned I had been waiting to see him all day!
So what's the point I'm trying to make here?
Well, as with most things in life, when we think about what our clients need/want we think of this from the prospective of what we can provide them, rather what their true needs/wants are. To try and minimise this, I often ask my clients: "So What?".
Asking "So What?" can sound abrasive. But, what it does is help to clarify the message, the reason, the rational we are sending to our clients about why they need our services/products and why they need them now.
And so for this BD Tips Wednesday post I thought I would run through a high-level overview of the "So What?" test.
What is the "So What?" Test?
Being required to answer the "So What?" question is a means of evaluating the relevance and impact of your proposal/messaging to clients or prospective clients.
Answering this simple question demands clarity, purpose, and a focus on client outcomes - and helps move the narrative away from the product/service you are trying to sell.
If you are unable to answer this simple question convincingly, then your proposal almost certainly lacks relevance to the client and will not resonate with them.
Benefits of getting the right answer(s) to the "So What?" Test
Aligns your offer with the what the customer values
Asking the "So What?" question forces you to examine whether your solutions genuinely solve the customer’s problem(s). This alignment ensures you focus on outcomes that genuinely matter to your client.
Sharpens your messaging
In proposals and presentations, cluttered messaging dilutes impact. The "So What?" question helps eliminate unnecessary fluff and refines your message to its core purpose. Clear, concise messaging drives client engagement.
Helps build credibility
Proactively applying the "So What?" question puts you in the shoes of your client. You are able to anticipate their questions and build a solid case for your services/products. Demonstrating this level of critical thinking goes along way to establishing trust and credibility - it's not about you, it's about them!
Ultimately it saves you time!
Actively applying the "So What?" question acts as a filter to identify opportunities that are worth pursuing. If you can’t articulate why an initiative matters, it might not be worth the investment of time and resources pursuing that opportunity!
Bringing it all together...
The "So What?" test isn’t just a question - it’s a discipline. Asking the question allows you the opportunity to refine your message - to sharpen your focus, align your efforts, and ensure you’re solving the right problem, for the right person, with the right tools.
Incorporating the "So What?" test into your business development efforts will result in your business development activities becoming more impactful; your messaging more persuasive; and your win/loss ratio becoming more transformative!
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"Who is it for?"
Understanding your audience is critical to winning new work. Explore the D.N.A. model and learn how to communicate effectively with decision makers, advocates and naysayers.
Seth Godin wrote in 'This is Marketing':
"Who's it for?" It has a subtle but magic power, the ability to shift the product you make, the story you tell, and where you tell it. Once you're clear on "who's it for", then the doors begin to open for you.
The same is true here regardless of whether you are selling a product or a service. Only in the case of selling a service, the answer may not be straight forward. Because, in most cases involving complex/mature buyers of services, there are typically multiple layers of "Who's it for?".
In this BD Tips Wednesday post we take a very high-level look at what those layers might look like.
The D.N.A of a client acquisition
If you have been reading my posts for any length of time, you'll know by now that I LOVE a good acronym (I'm also partial to the odd emoji 😁).
This is no different in the case, so let me quickly walk you through the D.N.A aspects of a client acquisition so that you can implement this in your next client pursuit.
D stands for...
"D" stands for the "Decision Makers". These are also known as the "economic buyers" of your services. Bluntly, they pay the bills. The information you give to a Decision Maker needs to be concise, to the point and value driven.
N stands for...
"N" stands for the "Naysayers". These are also known as "procurement" 😁. Two things drive procurement: (1) compliance issues, and (2) cost savings. The Naysayers are not interested in the same message you are giving to the Decision Makers. In fact, if you do feed them the same message as you are giving to the Decision Makers, you'll likely not going to win the work. So make sure to tailor your messaging so that the Naysayers hear what they need to hear (i.e., you are happy to provide monthly reporting and volume discounts!).
A stands for...
"A" stands for "Advocates". Advocates are your client champions. They are the people on the inside trying to help you win the work. They don't need to be told why you are the best in town at what you do, they already know. What they need to hear is how they can convivence people within their organization to support your case. You need to be providing your Advocates with this messaging if you are going to stand any chance of winning the work!
Bringing it all together
Problems start to occur in client acquisition pursuits when the message you tailor is not focused on who the audience is ("Who's it for?"). This can become worse when you think there is only one buyer of your service - whether that be the Advocate or the Naysayer (the Decision Maker is very often left out of this messaging by professional services firms, which is a big mistake).
So the next time you set out on a client acquisition strategy, take a few minutes to write down on a piece of paper: "Who's it for?" and then apply this through the D.N.A lens.
Need Help With Your Business Development?
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Add the personal touch to your business development with a handwritten Christmas card
In a digital world, handwritten Christmas cards remain a powerful way to strengthen client relationships and demonstrate genuine appreciation.
There are few more personal ways to thank a person for the support they have shown you and your business over the past 12 month than to send them a handwritten Christmas card.
Unlike e-cards, which to be honest I have never been a massive fan of (but can see both the financial and ecological savings if you are sending several hundred/thousand), a handwritten note in a Christmas card adds that personal touch to the message that, to me, enhances the gratitude being shown.
Some tips
If you're going to send a handwritten note in a Christmas card to a key contact or referrer this year, make sure to:
Provide context: to why the card is being sent. For example: "it been a pleasure working with you over the past 12 months and we look forward to supporting you in the future".
Personalise it: include a private note about something that happened this year.
Keep it professional: remember, it’s a Christmas card to a client/referrer, so be personal but keep it professional - no saucy joke cards you can find in some stores please!
Keep it brief: again, it's professional, so keep it brief. The recipient of the card doesn't have a lot of time to read this card and probably has a few more cards than just yours to read, so make sure to keep this to a couple of well-thought-out sentences at most.
The simple, relatively inexpensive, gesture of sending a handwritten Christmas card can leave a lasting impression on your client. It could well be the small differentiator that you are looking for to stand your business out from its competitors!
Need Help With Your Business Development?
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Voice of the client (VOC) feedback: Why you need to THINK about what is being said
Client feedback is one of the most valuable tools for improving service delivery. Learn how the THINK framework helps analyse feedback more effectively.
There are few better ways to build stronger relationships with your clients than to seek their feedback: on your performance, on your service offering overall, and on your responsiveness.
But when reviewing client feedback, I tell my clients/partners to apply the THINK approach to their analysis. So for this BD Tips Wednesday post I thought I would share a high-level overview of the THINK approach to VoC feedback.
THINK
If you hadn't already guesses it, 'THINK' is an acronym that stands for:
True
Helpful
Interesting
Necessary
Kind
It derives from an approach taken in public schools here in New South Wales, Australia around the way students are taught to interact and communicate with their fellow students.
But I have found it a helpful tool to use when considering client feedback. My approach has been to adopt this and ask:
Was the feedback True?
Whether positive or negative, you need to ask yourself the sobering question of whether the feedback provided was true?
Here, I'm not asking you to defend yourself against what has been said - at least, not yet; but to reasonably [apply the man on the Clapham omnibus test] determine whether the feedback was true or has an element of truth to it?
Is the feedback Helpful?
To be useful in the future development of your practice, the feedback needs to be helpful. If the feedback is not overly helpful, then there's not too much you can do with it.
Also, in my experience if a client is not willing to give helpful, actionable feedback, then it is almost certainly negative to the extent that you have all but lost the relationship.
Was the feedback Interesting?
Both positive and negative feedback can be enlightening. It can highlight both where you are doing something really good and progressive that you had not really thought of in that light; or, alternatively, it can bring to light a defect in your service offering, team, etc that you were not aware existed.
In a large part, this is why garnishing client feedback as part of a VoC program is so important!
Is the feedback Necessary?
The necessary question falls off the back of the interesting one. Knowing what you now know, was it necessary for you to find out what you now know?
In my experience the answer to this question is almost always: "yes".
Was the feedback Kind?
To be actionable, feedback needs to be constructive. It is very easy to give negative, unhelpful and, at times, spiteful feedback on a bad service delivery.
As anyone who listens to my conversations with utility providers can vouch, I'm not immune to this problem. But I accept the feedback I provide is never going to be actioned and is therefore all but useless (as an aside, did you know that you cannot give a Net Promoter Score feedback of 'zero/0'? Neither did I until I was speaking with a utility provider recently).
But, for a service delivery, I try to ensure my feedback is on point, polite, honest and immediately actionable. The service provider is putting it on the line, and the least I can do is respect that.
Bringing it all together
Okay then, we all agree that VoC feedback is an essential lifeline for service providers*. With that in mind, give some thought to applying a THINK approach to any feedback given (whether that is you giving the feedback or you analyzing feedback).
Further Reading
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Standing Out From The Crowd
Many firms claim to be different, but few can demonstrate genuine differentiation. Learn how the 3R Test can help assess whether your point of difference truly matters.
In professional services, we often talk about "standing out from the crowd". But the truth is, more often than not, we are in the centre of the crowd! So for this BD Tips Wednesday post I thought I would share with you what my daughters' call the '3R Test' when considering/deciding whether a differentiator really is a differentiator and helps that business truly standout from its competition.
Is it Respectful?
The first test is: Is it respectful? Here, what we mean is: Is it honest/true?
More often then not, professional services firms set themselves out as being different to their competitors with motherhood statements and hyperbole. Stress test the point, and it quickly falls apart.
By way of example, how many professional services firms state that they are "client centric"? Do a Google search and I suspect you'll get a lot of hits!
Now, leaving side the issue for one second if saying such a statement really differentiates you or makes you another in the pack, a broader question arises: 'Are they being respectful to their clients in saying this?'
Is it Responsible?
A responsible point of difference is one that actually matters to your customers - not you. By having this point of difference, are you trying to make a difference to your clients lives/business, or are you merely trying to standout from the crowd so your business can win more work?
If it is the latter, i.e. you are only trying to win more work and don't really care about the customer, then this is NOT a responsible point of difference and therefore is not a true differentiator.
An example here would be a claim that your firm provided an 'efficient' services (note, not effective, which would be different). The questions that arise here are: (a) is this actually true?, and (b) who gains from these efficiencies - you or the customer?
Because, assume your claim is actually true, if you - the service provider - are the net winner from the efficient service delivery - at the cost of the overall service delivery to the customer - then it is not a responsible differentiator, and therefore it is not a genuine point of difference!
Is it Resilient?
Is the point of difference resilient? Will it stand being stress-tested - by your customers and competition? Will it survive your competition's attempts to copy it (if it really is a point of difference)?
In short, will your point of difference stand the test of time?
Further Reading
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Toolkit: The Ivy Lee Method
The Ivy Lee Method is a simple productivity framework that helps professionals focus on the most important tasks each day and maintain business development momentum.
In this BD Tips Wednesday post I take a look at: The Ivy Lee Method.
The Ivy Lee Method
Named after the productivity consultant who came up with the concept in 1918, the Ivy Lee Method is a simple 5-step task management tool that aims to boost your daily productivity:
At the end of each day, write down the 6 most important things you need to do/achieve/accomplish tomorrow.
Prioritize those 6 items in order of importance.
When you start work in the morning, start with the task you ranked #1 in order of importance. When that task is finished, and only when that task is finished, move to task #2.
As your day progresses, move through your list. At the end of the day, if you haven't finished all 6 items on your list, throw them back in the pot for tomorrow and select a new list of 6 tasks to do/achieve/accomplish tomorrow (which may, or may not, include those unfinished items from today, depending on their residual importance against the new tasks).
Repeat process - every [working] day.
Pros and Cons of the Ivy Lee Method
What I like about the Ivy Lee Method is this: your business development activities need to be pro-active.
What I dislike about the Ivy Lee Method is this: your business development activities need to be pro-active, so you cannot react to opportunities that might arise during the day.
That said, I find the Ivy Lee Method helps me stay focused on what business development activities are important to me at any moment in time.
Staying focused on short-term and longer-term goals allows me to move the dial - to get that 1% better every day that eventually will get me to where I need to be. And,
If the opportunity is going to break my daily routine, then it had better be a very good opportunity and not just chasing another rabbit down a hole.
What's with the number 6?
Sorry to disappoint those in professional services who bill by the hour in six minute increments, but nobody - other than Lee, and good luck asking them - knows why Lee selected 6 tasks per day and not 5 or 7.
Fate?
Further Reading
Need Help With Your Business Development?
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Why Being Credible Is Critical To The Success Of Your Business Development Efforts
Trust and credibility underpin every successful client relationship. Learn the five behaviours that help professionals establish authority, reliability and long-term trust.
A huge part in the success of your business development efforts lies in what I like to call your: 'Credibility Score'.
So in this BD Tips Wednesday post I thought it would be good to go through why credibility is so important to the success of your business development activities.
Before we go there though, why is credibility an issue?
Information overload
The internet has resulted in information overload. We all have access to way too much information.
But 'information' is not the same as 'knowledge' - and professionals work (or should be working!) in a knowledge economy.
Which leads to a bigger problem from the client perspective: with so much information out there, how do I know who to trust?
QED: Credibility!
The '5' Bs on building credibility with your clients
Be ahead of the pack
Industries change and so should your knowledge and skills. Keep up with the latest trends, technologies and practices in your field.
If you can show that you're aware of new developments and can adapt your approach, you'll be seen as a credible forward-thinking partner.
Be transparent
The starting point in any attempt to being credible is open and transparent communication.
Be honest about what you can and cannot do.
Talking up what you can do for a client and under-delivering on that talk damages your credibility. So keep it simple: Deliver on what you say you can deliver on!
Be reliable
The easiest way to building long-term credibility is by consistently delivering on your promises. Reliability and consistency in performance over time create a strong foundation of trust. Make sure you follow through on timelines, deliverables, and commitments.
If something goes pear-shape, take accountability for it and work to quickly resolve it!
Be honest
Always tell the truth, even when it’s difficult or uncomfortable. If you make a mistake, admit it. People respect honesty, and owning up to your shortcomings is an important way to build trust.
Also, always maintain ethical standards in your dealings with your clients.
Be committed
Focus on building relationships rather than simply making deals. The more you invest in your client relationships, the more credible and trustworthy you appear.
Regularly check in on your clients, even when you're not pitching something new.
Being genuinely interested in your client's long-term success will enhance your reputation as a credible partner.
Need Help With Your Business Development?
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Why Having A Watercooler In Your Office Is Critical For Business Development
Some of the best business development ideas emerge from informal conversations. Discover why watercooler discussions play an important role in networking, collaboration and growth.
You'd be amazed at the amount of work I have won for my partners just standing next to the watercooler chewing the fat!
To many it seems like a waste of time, so for this BD Tips Wednesday I thought I'd outline '5 Reasons You Need To Have A Watercooler In Your Office'.
1. The Icebreaker
The biggest benefit of small talk is that it serves as a buffer, an icebreaker.
Small talking around a watercooler allows you the double-whammy of not only being able to chat freely, but do so knowing that you're very unlikely to be judged for the whacky business development ideas you throw out there!
QED: the watercooler is a great place to road test some of your more bizarre business development ideas!
2. The Power of Small Talk
Everyone loves to chat - it's human nature (trust me, I know - and anyone who knows me well will gladly verify)!
But, small talk is a lot more than just causal chat. It can be the start of a meaningful relationships. It's also the start of great insights. Because chit-chat/gossip helps break down barriers - you become human to others and that makes people more comfortable talking to you - which in turn makes them more comfortable doing business with you!
3. Common Ground
Ever wondered where you're going to turn to next, only to have a chat with some of your colleagues at the watercooler and come away inspired?
Yep, common ground. Common interests. Common desires. Really, really important in the early phases of a business development pursuit.
4. Network
Central to the success of your business development initiatives is the ability to start, develop and grow a network. This network of shared interests starts by developing relationships with people - and a good place to start that is at the watercooler!
5(a). The Trusted Advisor
Every watercooler has a trusted advisor - the person we all wait to go and speak to.
The font of all knowledge is found at the watercooler.
Become that font of all [BD] knowledge!
5(b). Small business enterprises
For the SME firms out there - the watercooler is a coffee shop. It's a chamber of commerce. It's a gathering point.
Because small talk acts as a bridge between formal business objectives and an individual's need to build trust!
Need Help With Your Business Development?
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Use The GROW Model To Grow Your Book Of Business
The GROW coaching model provides a structured framework for setting goals, assessing reality, overcoming obstacles and creating a clear path forward for growth.
In this BD Tips Wednesday post I’m sharing a professional development growth model that has been around since the 1980s and used relatively frequently by coaches such as me. It's called the GROW model, named in honor of the GROW acronym:
Goal
Reality
Obstacles and Options, and
Way forward
Grow
Where:
Goal = The end point. Where you want to get to. Your Goal. This needs to be structured/set-out in a way where it is obvious there is a finish line.
Reality = Warts and all – where are you now? How far do you need to travel to reach the ‘Goal’? Is the ‘Goal’ pie in the sky or a reality?
Obstacles and Options = What Obstacles are in the way of you achieving your ‘Goal’? Once the Obstacles have been identified, do you have Options to deal with these Obstacles that will allow you to achieve your Goal?
Way forward = Last but not least, what action steps need to be put in place in order for you to achieve your Goal. In other words, what is the Way Forward!
Bringing it all together
Using the GROW Model in your business development planning should add a little bit of perspective around the realistic nature of you achieving your Goal(s). It not only identifies what your Goal is - which is a great start in business development, but its also sets parameters around this so you clearly know when you have completed the Goal.
What I particularly like though is it highlights what the challenges will likely be and allows you to start working through how you can overcome those challenges - rather than waiting for the challenge to hit you on the nose!
Don't get me wrong, GROW is not the only business development strategy tool you can use - and we will certainly be covering off others on BD Tips Wednesdays of the future, but it is a very useful tool to keep in your toolkit!
Further Reading
Need Help With Your Business Development?
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Useful Tool: The Eisenhower Task Matrix
The Eisenhower Matrix helps professionals focus on high-value activities rather than distractions. Learn how to prioritise business development tasks for maximum impact.
If you've ever been overwhelmed with your business development 'To Do' list - and frankly, who hasn't? - you could well find yourself chasing [inset: "easy"] opportunities that might not be the 'right' type of business for your practice.
That's why I always suggest you start your day or week by pulling out your Eisenhower Task Matrix!
What is the Eisenhower Task Matrix?
Named after the famous US president and 5-Star General, the Eisenhower Task Matrix (which is also known as the Eisenhower Box or Eisenhower Decision Matrix) (Matrix) is a productivity tool used to help you prioritize your tasks. In this case your business development tasks.
Done right, the Matrix based helps you focus on your most critical business development task(s), while delegating or eliminating less important ones; under the following four quadrants of the Matrix:
Urgent and Important
These are tasks that need to be done immediately as they may have a significant impact on your business development goals/responsibilities.
Example: A tender - that you actually have a chance of winning - with a deadline today!
Not Urgent, but Important
These are tasks that are important to the long-term success of your practice, but don't require immediate action and can be postponed to a later time.
Example: Having coffee with a referrer.
Urgent, but Not Important
These are tasks that need immediate attention, but can be handled by someone else.
Example: Project managing a capability statement response that a Senior Associate can manage.
Not Urgent and Not Important
This is the one we all want to keep, which takes up most of our time, and should actually be referred out - either to another practitioner or you in-house support team, as these tasks are a massive distraction sucking up your time and don’t contribute significantly to your business development goals.
Example: Twitter/X posts!
How this can help!
The goal here is not to identify the 'low hanging fruit', but to spend more time on tasks that are going to give you the greatest Return on your Investment (ROI).
The reality is, you don't have much time in your day/week to be doing business development, so make it count!
Eisenhower Matrix adapted for business development
And so here is my adaption of the Eisenhower Matrix, which I use at the start of every day!
Need Help With Your Business Development?
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Using Microsoft's Outlook And To Do To Supercharge Your Business Development Efforts!
You don't need expensive CRM software to improve business development habits. Learn how Microsoft Outlook and To Do can help you stay organised, consistent and proactive.
[First posted to LinkedIn 28 August 2024]
Success is the product of daily habits - not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.
- James Clear, Atomic Habits
Just as James Clear wrote in his best selling novel Atomic Habits, success in business development is the sum of your daily habits and not a once-in-a-career pitch win!
To this end, while most professional services firms employ sophisticated Client Relationship Management (CRM) platforms, my experience has been that the greatest success in building daily business development rituals and habits comes from utlising the existing tools you have and are already familiar with - namely your Microsoft 'Outlook' and 'To Do' apps.
So for this BD Tips Wednesday post I thought I would take a very high-level look at how you can be using Microsoft's Outlook and To Do apps to advance your business development efforts:
Tips with using Outlook for your Business Development
Block-out 15 minutes each morning in your Outlook diary to post and comment on social media platforms, such as LinkedIn.
Block-out 15 minutes each lunchtime to call or email 1 client, prospect or referrer to catch-up and see how they are doing and whether there is anything you can be doing for them.
Use your Outlook email scheduling function to write marketing emails at a time more convenient for you (in my case 11pm!), but to be sent when they are more likely to be read by your target audience (say, 8am the next day!).
Use the email 'categories' function to organize your business development and marketing emails by campaign, client or project. This should make searching for emails in the future much easier [trust me, Future You will love Present You if all you do is do this!].
If you are working as part of a team, sync your Outlook calendar with the other members of your team so you can easily see when team members are free.
Schedule time each month in your Outlook diary to review and assess how your business development activities are fairing and determine if you need to make adjustments to your strategy/methodology.
Tips with using To Do for your Business Development
Schedule To Do reminders for re-occurring tasks, like writing and scheduling your social media posts.
Set To Do reminders ahead of time for important dates and events. An example here might be to schedule a reminder in your To Do app that the birthday of a client is coming up next week and you need to send them a handwritten card!
Use your To Do app to schedule follow-up reminders for people you meet at events, emails you have sent that have not been responded to, or actions you have promised to complete.
Used properly, your Microsoft Outlook and To Do apps can be very powerful business development tools. Ones which are typically very much under utilised by most professionals.
Need Help With Your Business Development?
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Answer These 3 Questions And You'll Super Charge Your Business Development Efforts
Business development becomes easier when you understand who makes decisions, what matters to them and how they buy. These three questions underpin every successful growth strategy.
Business development is really easy. All you need to be able to do is answer 3 simple questions:
Who makes the decision to buy?
What are their priorities?
How do they buy?
But, getting the answer(s) to those 3 simple questions isn't so easy. It takes time, planning, insight and an awful lot of legwork.
For this week's BD Tips Wednesday post I'll take a very high-level look at what this means...
Who makes the decision to buy?
More than 50% of General Counsel report directly to the...?
... Chief Financial Officer.
When you look at who makes the decision to buy, it is rarely the person giving you the instruction.
What are their priorities?
The priorities of the 'economic' buyer are rarely the same priorities as the person giving you the instruction. Make sure to canvas both if you want your fee paid!
How do they buy?
Hopefully you are lucky enough to have a client that doesn't use Request for Proposals and Tenders to buy your services.
Hopefully you have a client that still relies on relationships to buy your services.
But, don't depend on 'hope' - know. Ask the question.
Further Reading
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Do You Know Where Your Next Piece Of Work Is Coming From?
Understanding where your work originates is critical to sustainable growth. Explore the four key sources of revenue and learn how to prioritise your business development efforts.
Understanding and knowing where your work comes from is critical to the overall success of your business development activities. Have a good understanding of this process and you'll have a viable, sustainable practice. Miss read the tea-leaves, and all you'll be doing is rounding around in circles.
So, for this BD Tips Wednesday I thought I would provide a high-level overview of the four primary sources of revenue for professional services firms:
Existing clients. Top of the list, without doubt, is existing clients. This is true even in transactional practices. By "existing clients" here I don't literally mean clients you are currently working for - although that does go without saying, but also clients who you have worked with over the past 3 years. That's why I always suggest that when you look at your 'client list', that list be a list of clients you have worked with over a rolling 3-year period. This is the group you should be spending 80% of your business development time, resources and budget on!
Former clients. Next up is former clients. These are clients who you have previously worked with but have not done any work with for more than 3 years. The trick here is to work out why you have not worked with this client for more than 3 years and see if you can rectify that. If you can, this is a good source of work because you are a known product. If not, move on.
Referrers. Next up is referrers. Always a good source of work and a very much overlooked group. Again, you are a known product because in most cases you have worked with or for this group previously. This what I like to call your 'Google Review' crowd - those people who would happily leave a great review about you and your services on Google.
Prospects. Last but not least on your list is prospects. What I call the 'Rabbit down the hole' crowd.
It is important that you include prospects in your business development activities; but it is vital that you do not let the possibilities that prospects might offer cloud your business development judgment to the detriment of the other 3 groups, who rightly should have preference.
All too often though, when I'm reviewing the activities of a partner/principal who isn't currently having much success with their business development endeavors, it's typically because they are 80% focused on prospects and 20% focused on existing clients [maybe because they don't have too many existing clients], rather than the other way round!
So, go away, get a piece of paper, draw 4 boxes and write the names of clients and targets in the 4 boxes ranking them according to the above.
What you end up with is something like this:
And what you end up with is a ranked target client list for your next business development campaign.
Need Help With Your Business Development?
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Knowing Your Point Of Difference
Many professional services firms struggle to explain how they differ from competitors. Learn how a Feature Comparison Table and Client Value Matrix can help identify meaningful points of difference and support premium pricing.
I often hear partners and business development managers tell me that it is hard, if not impossible, to tell the point of difference (POD) between what their firm offers with what their competitor firms are offering.
With this in mind, for this BD Tips Wednesday I thought I would share with you two tools that I use that should help you not only know what/where your POD is, but also how you can be maximizing the value from that POD.
Step 1: Feature Comparison Table
Step 1 is to complete a Feature Comparison Table.
Here, you need to write down a list of products that both your firm and your competitors offer.
The 'products' here can be:
'Services': such as tax, equity/debt capital markets, or mergers & acquisitions.
'Geographic': such as offices in all the major capital cities.
'People': such as the number of partners/senior associates you have in each office.
What you are looking for is a table that looks something line this:
Step 2: Client Value Matrix
Step 2 is to complete a Client Value Matrix.
Here, you need to keep the same 'products' you had in Step 1, but you then need to ascertain/determine if your client or target client values this product (I would suggest you use a 1-10 scale here).
The matrix should look something like this:
Bringing it all together
Once you have completed Steps 1 and 2, overlay the results of Step 2 on Step 1 and you not only have a POV, but you also a Client Value Matrix.
Here's the kicker, do this right and you'll know what your client/target values, as well as how you differ from your competitors and QED you can charge a premium - otherwise known as 'value pricing'.
If you have stuck with me this far, here's a TIP:
Use these tools with the tool I suggested in 'Resell before you Cross-sell' and you will have a bag of tools that will go long way to helping you standout from your competitors.
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.
Is Your Firm's Pricing Too Low?
Many professional services firms underprice their expertise. Discover Daniel Langer's 4E Framework and learn how emotion, experience, engagement and exclusivity support premium pricing.
I recently had the opportunity to listen to Ron Baker and Ed Kless on their 19th July edition of The Soul Of Enterprise podcast discuss Daniel Langer’s 4E Framework. If you’re not aware of who Langer is, or what the 4E Framework is - and I certainly wasn’t, then all I will say is it's a great primer for evaluating whether or not your firm is pricing too low - and so the subject of this BD Tips Wednesday post!
Langer’s 4E Framework is centered around:
Emotion
Experience
Engagement
Exclusivity
Taking each in turn then:
Emotion
"Emotion" is the ability to create an emotional response. It's the ability to create a “deep connection” with your customers.
In professional services lingo, it's having a “customer-centric culture”.
As Langer states: “Without emotion there is no desirability”. And without desirability, there is no intention to buy.
To create emotion, and thus desirability, you need to share stories that resonate with your clients, create emotions and feelings and allow your clients to feel connected to your firm brand.
Experience
Next up is “experience”.
In professional services lingo, this is what we call the “customer journey” - or the CX - and not your firm's experience.
You need to create a memorable, personalized and tailored experiences to tick this box.
Keep in mind that customers of professional services firms are no longer just buying accesses to your expertise, they want an experience - they want to feel valued.
This is the Disney effect!
Engagement
Engagement is about deep and meaningful connections. It means actively engaging with your customers. It’s about building trust and loyalty.
What it’s not about is sending your customers generic newsletters that are not tailored to their needs. It’s not about generic social media posts that talk about how well you're doing because you've been ranked in an unknown directory or won an award that no one has ever heard of!
What it is about is creating opportunities for your customers to connect with you - to engage with you - around a common issue.
Exclusivity
Importantly “exclusivity” is not about rarity or singularity, it’s much broader than that - it’s about providing an 'exclusive feeling of being valued'.
In professional services lingo, this is “empathy” - understanding the uniqueness of your customer’s problem while also telling them you have done this hundreds of times before so that is why they should trust you!
The 4E Framework effect on your pricing!
In today’s hyper-competitive world, those professional services firms that can tick all four of the 4E Framework boxes are in the box seat to be able to charge a premium for their services!
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.
Resell Before You Cross-Sell
Before relying on colleagues to introduce your services, look at the untapped opportunities within your existing client base. Discover how the Resell Matrix can uncover hidden revenue opportunities.
Whenever I catch-up with a partner for a chat, at some point the discussion inevitably turns to the issue of "cross-selling". More specifically, a little moan about how their fellow partners don't understand the value the partner can provide to the referring [cross-selling] partner's clients and so don't try hard enough to cross-sell to them.
It's around this time I ask the partner what effort they are putting into reselling their services?
Nine times out of 10, the answer to that is a blank face looking out to space.
So for this BD Tips Wednesday I thought I would quickly highlight how reselling could be doing you a lot more favors in developing your book of business than cross-selling.
"Reselling": refers to the practice of selling a service you provide to clients of yours who currently doesn't use that service.
"Cross-selling": refers to the practice of selling a service you provide to a customer of one of your fellow partners.
The crux here is that in the first instance you are driving the business development activity, whereas in the second instance you need to rely on a third party to help you with your business development activity.
Cross-Selling
In business development we call the act of waiting for a third party to do or act on something for you a "dependency event" - in that you are 'dependent' on them doing or actioning their part before you can fulfill yours.
Cross-selling is a dependency event.
By and large, "dependency events" are not good for building a book of business. The opportunity goes stale. The client moves on. People we need to help us are busy.
So, while cross-selling can be a useful tool to have in your business development toolkit, it shouldn't be the great big hope you have to kick-start your flagging book of business.
Reselling
To "resell":
draw a matrix box.
across the vertical outline all the services you provide to your clients.
across the horizontal list your top 25 clients (assuming you have 25 clients, if not put down as any as you can).
put a tick in each of the boxes where you provide a service to that client.
take a step back.
look at all the areas where you provide a service, but are not providing that service to that client.
It should look something like this:
All of those blank white spaces are your resell opportunities. They are not dependent on any third party - it's down to you!
Now you know all about the Resell Matrix you can get out there do some reselling and stop worrying so much about the cross-selling...
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.
Law Firm Financial Metrics
Understanding key financial metrics helps professionals make better business development decisions. Explore 15 essential measures that influence profitability, growth and firm performance.
An understanding of your firm's financial metrics is a proven way to increase revenue and profitability. And why would it not: If you know how your firm is making its money and profit, then you're better placed to make sure you contribute to this conversation.
Yet, BigHand's 'Trends Analysis for Legal Pricing and Budgeting' publication recently reported that:
Although almost three quarters of firms are providing key financial metrics to associates relating to their matters, only 33% have dedicated training programs in place for them, leading to the question – are associates able to action the financial insights effectively?
A very fair question to ask.
What's the use of having data if you have no idea how to interpret it.
So for this BD Tips Wednesday I thought I would provide a cheat-sheet of 15 Key Financial Metrics for professional services firms, starting off with one we all know well!
Billable Hours: The number of hours that need to be billed in a financial year.
Average Billable Rate per Hour: The average billing rate per hour across the firm.
Average Billable Rate (ABR) for a fee earner: The average billing rate for an individual fee earner over a financial year. This is also known as the True Market Rate or True Market Value.
Utilization Rate: The percentage of time spent on billable work versus total available working hours.
Realization Rate: The percentage of billable hours that are actually billed to clients.
Lock-Up Days: The time it takes to convert work in progress (WIP) and receivables into cash.
Average Number of Days per File: The average number of days it takes from opening a file to closing a file.
Average Number of Files Opened each Month: The average number of files opened a month. This is an important metric because if the number declines you have a forward looking view to possible revenue problems and a need to seek BD support quickly.
Average value per file: The average amount you are paid per file by a client over a year. This metric is important in tracking where you are on the value chain.
Profit Per Partner (PPP): The average profit earned by each partner in a financial year.
Net Profit Margin: The percentage of revenue that translates into profit.
Debt to Equity Ratio: Total Debt / Total Equity.
Shared costs: The costs of the business that need to be shared among all business units - an example here would be rent.
Average Client Value (ACV): The average revenue generated per client.
Client Acquisition Cost (CAC): The cost of acquiring a new client. (you don't actually hear this one much)
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.
The Six Steps of Business Development: A Guide to Growing Your Book of Business
Business development does not need to be a mystery. This practical six-step framework provides a structured approach to identifying opportunities, winning work and delivering results.
Business Development is the lifeline of your practice. Get it right and your practice will prosper, grow and thrive. Get it wrong - or worse, don't do it at all, and your practice will eventually die and very painful death.
To many though business development is an enigma. The 'Dark Art'. To those people, business development is a guessing game - akin to throwing darts in a dartboard and hoping one will stick!
But this doesn't have to be the case. If you follow these six simple steps you'll be streets ahead of your competition when it comes to the success of your business development endeavors.
First of all you need to identify potential leads. These need to be 'genuine' leads, not pie-in-the-sky wish-lists.
So you need to (either yourself or by outsourcing this to someone like GSJ):
Do some market research.
Understand and evaluate market trends - get a lay of the land.
Anticipate customer/client needs.
Determine which customers and industries are likely going to need your help.
You also need to understand what your competitive environment looks like - what we at GSJ call a Competitor Intelligence Analysis (CIA) report.
HINT: Get out your SWOT matrix template.
Step 2: Qualify
Identifying a lead is the easy part, Step 2 on your list is to qualify that lead.
Here you need to consider things such as a 'Who Knows Who' matrix. You also need to be developing your road-map for capturing the lead.
This is probably the most critical part of the lead capture process that most professionals shortcut or simply bypass.
It's here where you need to be saying 'no go' a lot more than you say 'pursue'. By way of example, at GSJ we tell clients to throw 8 out of every 10 genuine lead opportunities - an application of the Pareto principal to business development opportunities!
HINT: Dust off your Strategic Plan template.
Step 3: Engage
As the name suggests, Step 3 is where you need to engage with prospects/customers to establish a relationship with them (if you don't already have a relationship) and to show them that you are the subject matter expert that will help solve all of their problems - both those they know about and those they don't yet know about!
HINT: Network, speak at conference, present client CLEs, write articles, publish to LinkedIn, do client feedback sessions, develop alliances with other businesses who don't compete with you.
Step 4: Pitch
Step 4 and the time has come for you to pitch your services to your target.
Make sure your proposal is tailored to the specific issues of your target and not generic to the problem.
HINT: Make it count: Look to the problem you are solving, not the service you are providing.
Step 5: Close
Step 5 is where you close the deal and get the cigar out!
Only this step is often problematic and can result in all the hard work you have done in the pursuit campaign coming to nothing - especially when procurement teams get involved; As, often, this is where you will be asked to sharpen your pencil on pricing and negotiate contract terms that are not too favorable to you.
HINT: Even after all the hard work, always be willing to walk away from a bad deal.
The last Step is to deliver on what you have promised!
A really important part of this process - and one that is often overlooked by professionals - is to actually ask the customer themselves if they got what they thought they were paying for.
HINT: Do an After Action Review - continuous improvement and refining your strategy will help you with your next pursuit!
Following these six steps doesn't automatically guarantee you a million dollar book of business, but what it will do is create the structure and attitude towards business development that you need to help you identify and growth opportunities in your business and - importantly - how to then capitalize on those opportunities.
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.