Does your firm really do business development or just marketing?

Suzanne had recently lost her aunt and unexpectedly inherited a larger sum of money. Although she had a well-paid job as an Operations Manager for a manufacturing business, owned a home and had a decent lifestyle with trips to the theatre and meals out, she wasn’t used to having this amount of money in her bank account.

She started to internet search her situation and read some articles about what she could do with this money. She came across websites for different wealth management companies, selected a couple she liked the look of and contacted them. One firm called her back, and she had a helpful conversation; the other never responded to her enquiry. Suzanne then found some useful online articles written by wealth managers, looked up the authors generally online and on LinkedIn and based on what she saw and read, contacted one of those individuals for a conversation.

She also happened to go to dinner with some friends, and after mentioning the money she had come into, her private banker friend Rob said he had recently met a wealth manager at a networking event who seemed like a nice person, so he’d put her in touch with them.

This paints a picture of the role both marketing and business development play.

Most firms do some marketing, even the smallest ones. This might include having a website, sending out a newsletter or on a larger scale, sponsoring a sporting event.

Marketing fundamentally raises awareness of your firm. It gets your firm’s name recognised by the market, including prospective clients. It starts to build a perception of what your firm stands for and how it helps clients.  Hopefully, it means that when a client needs your service, if your marketing has been clear, then they will think of you.

Business development is not marketing, although there is some crossover. If your firm wants to continue bringing in work and to grow, then a structured, skilled and people-centred approach to business development that builds on marketing is essential. Ultimately, to establish a Business Development Culture.

What is business development?

Whilst marketing should be targeted to generate awareness and consideration with the right clients, business development is laser-focused and relationship-driven. Business development is where a firm looks more strategically at the work they want to be doing and for which clients. It’s then about individuals developing their profile and building the right relationships to win that sort of work with those clients.

After all, in service industries such as law, accountancy, and consultancy, expertise matters, but it is often assumed that’s where ‘people buy people’ comes strongly into play.

How do business development activities differ from marketing activities?

Essentially, business development activities involve individuals getting themselves known in the market for the work they do amongst the defined profile of target clients or intermediaries who could introduce them to prospective clients. Then, building relationships with specific and relevant organisations and individuals.

What business development activities could we consider as individuals/teams?

Here are some simple examples that need to be tailored to the work you want to do and the clients you want to work with.

1. Strong LinkedIn profile – a key foundation as you want to be connecting with people on the platform after you have met them somewhere else.
2. Article writing – for key publications to get people thinking about why they may need your help, to showcase your expertise and give potential clients a feel for what you are like.
3. Networking – to meet potential clients directly, where relevant or intermediaries you could work strategically with.
4. Internal lunch & learns – to demonstrate to other departments in your firm how you help clients – when paired with relationship building, this generates internal referrals. Most firms are very weak in this area.
5. Speaking at conferences – a great way to build your profile, showcase knowledge and help people get to know you.
6. Getting to know existing clients better – moving beyond the transactional to build a trusted advisor relationship, which could include more time in conversation over a coffee or lunch, this is an easy way to generate more opportunities.

On the flip side, having a website, investing time in Search Engine Optimisation so your website gets found, and creating brochures are marketing activity examples, not business development ones.

How to get started?

If your firm doesn’t currently do much business development, then it is important to avoid overwhelm and instead be super focused. Once you have defined the key services you want to be delivering and for whom, it is worth considering which lever(s) you want to focus on:

1. existing clients,
2. intermediaries and/or
3. new clients directly.

Making time for thinking this through thoroughly will help you build a realistic and actionable business development activity plan.

So does your firm do business development or just marketing?

Want to discuss how you can leverage your marketing activities by getting started with business development or improving the business development you currently do? Contact me for a no-obligation conversation.