Business Development
for Professionals

A relationship-centered approach to business development

A website doesn't sign a contract.
A real person does.

And that real person will not sign a contract unless they have a strong relationship with you.

Most professionals know this already, but the practicality of "how" this should be done is often more opportunistic than strategic. Or they model what others do, but knowledge gaps are passed on, rather than closed. Our training is designed to close this gap, and help build solid business development skills.

The impact of our training:
• Improved efficiency and effectiveness in each person's networking and business development efforts.
• It leverages your existing marketing investments.
• It builds a stronger bench of business builders, and clarifies individual potential.

One-time business development training rarely sticks, and certainly doesn't produce results. Full day workshops are hard to coordinate and take people away from fee-generating activities. And one-size-fits-all approaches do not recognize that each person is unique; they have their own strengths and their own business development preferences and interests.

Our approach provides a common and aligned base of knowledge, individual activation meetings to translate what they learned into action, plus access to self-paced professional development to extend the learning. The goal of the training is not “training”, but to kick-start a more strategic and results-oriented process… and ultimately deliver results.

Business Development Program for Professionals

Our 4-step approach to business development and networking training.
Intentionally sequential to create accountability and reinforce the learning.

Business Development and Networking seminar (1.5h)

This in-person seminar is designed to provide practical networking skills that can be used immediately.

We will ask the participants to complete a very short assessment (so we can more precisely customize the seminar), and provide several short readings (so that the group can hit the ground running). Our efforts include: prep, the pre-assessment, customization of the seminar, customization of post-seminar assignment, and on-site delivery of the training.

Topics covered in the seminar include: (subject to change based on our discussions with you.)
• The connection between marketing and business development: moving your contacts through the 4 stages of the Trust Curve.
• Price-Expertise-Trust: The connection between networking and positioning yourself as a thought leader and trusted advisor.
• Fish Where the Fish Are: Learning to start a relationship: It’s more than giving out your business card.
• Give to Get: practical tips and the mechanics of adding value to referral sources (and prospects).
• Post seminar assignment: Based on the outline provided, participants put together their own business development and networking action plan.

One-on-one 1h Activation Meetings with each team member (~2 and ~4 weeks after the seminar)

• The first meeting will be to review each person's action plan, provide feedback and suggestions, and answer any questions. The goal is to “activate” the knowledge from the seminar, and then translate the concepts to concrete activities on their calendar.

• The second meeting, two weeks after the first, will be to review progress, address any “blockers”, and answer any new questions that come up.

• The reason for scheduling an entire hour is to provide space for more detailed conversations… and make sure that business development and networking activities are actually scheduled. For those who are more advanced, the conversations will also address efficiency and optimization.

Access to Thought Leadership to Grow Your Business
(Self-paced course)

• This course has 33 modules that are focused on moving from “Expert” to “Thought Leader”, and 8 modules to leverage it to build your business. (There are 53 modules in total.)

• The course uses a micro-learning approach where each module is between 1-3 minutes. If the business development idea resonates, the lawyer then has the choice to do a base level of activity, or for a great impact, an “extra mile” activity.

• Each person can choose the types of activities that make the most sense for them. Later, they can also compare notes. If they then choose to do something that a colleague is doing, they need only review the appropriate module to get started.

• Course outline and details are available on the Thought Leadership to Grow Your Business course page.

• Optional: The self-paced course typically includes four one-hour coaching sessions, which we can remove to provide more economical costing. Coaching can optionally be added back in.

Impact Meeting

• Six months after the networking and business development seminar, we will meet with the leadership team (or CEO or Managing Partner) to assess the impact, and answer any questions with respect to building the team’s ability to network and do business development.

• Optional: Impact Meetings with each individual person (1h each). For those who are having success, the conversation will be about efficiency, brainstorming new referral sources, and optimization. For those who are not having success, the goal is to discover why, and then provide practical suggestions for how to do so successfully. For those who have chosen to stop their networking and business development activities, we will brainstorm on other potential ways they can grow the business.

Insights Feature: Business Development for Firms (3 part series)

Listen in to this deep dive into business development with a focus on professional service firms.

Part 1
(29 minutes)

Opening remarks from Randall Craig, with questions from Ronja Francoeur:

• Growing your firm through thought leadership.

• Navigating the time investment required to create thought leadership verses the pressures of billable hours.

• The shared responsibilities of Marketing, HR, and IT in the bus dev process, and

• Business development training opportunities for professional services.

Part 2
(35 minutes)

Q&A on topics such as:

• Business development goals and accountability.

• Client experience, client touch points, and referrals.

• New geographies, virtual offices, and cultural fit with clients.

• The Price/Expertise/Trust Model, and

• How IP and thought leadership collateral can be used within the business development process.

Part 3
(30 minutes)

Q&A continued on:

• DEI, ESG, and other trends on bus dev.

• How to measure the success of your business development initiatives, and when change may be needed?

• How might an emphasis on (or lack thereof on) in-house training investment impact the firm brand?

• Is the juice worth the squeeze when it comes to your bus dev investments?