By assisting the members of its target market with their respective
businesses, the firm ensures its place at the forefront of their thoughts and has driven extensive business from these outings.
Developing Business through Relationships
Developing business for a professional services firm is not a function of merely selling the firm and the skills of its human capital. Rather, business is driven by developing relationships of trust and confidence with existing and potential clients. Several years ago, professionals experienced substantial success by merely befriending clients and potential clients. However, competition today mandates that you do much more than just be a good friend. In today’s competitive market, it is critical that you instill in your clients and potential clients a sense of trust and confidence in your abilities. The combination of a strong, competitive service offering and a personal trusted relationship is a powerful driver of successful professional services business development.
When considering the strategies outlined here, keep in mind a few basic rules:
• Make sure you have sufficiently defined the firm, the services, and the target markets.
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• Develop relationships within the target market. For example, if the firm is targeting money managers, then the most helpful relationships will be with professionals in that area, or in related areas.
• Before beginning a relationship, do your homework. Business development professionals should become acquainted and proficient with re-
search tools and learn as much as possible about a potential client
before even meeting him or her.
After defining the firm and its service offerings, defining the target market and ideal client, and doing your homework, there are several techniques that, if utilized, can effectively drive business through the development of relationships. Those techniques include the following: (1) developing a network for business referrals; (2) forming strategic alliances; (3) participating in charitable and community organizations; (4) maintaining and cultivating relationships; (5) presenting yourself with confidence; (6) practicing diligence and perseverance; (7) focusing; and (8) offering assistance to everyone, even those who may not be able to help you as much as you can help them. More specifically:
1. Many smaller and even some larger firms receive a great deal of new business through referrals. Firms are often conf licted from representing new or existing clients based on actual conf licts of interest due to existing clients and staffing issues. By establishing relationships with your peers, which may also be competitors, you can posi-
tion yourself to benefit from referrals. However, it is important
exercise diligence in following up on referrals and delivering for
them. “Dropped” referrals and poorly executed delivery will end all
further referrals from that source.
2. Firms offering specialized services often form strategic relationships with firms that offer other and complementary services. For example, if you operate a law firm that exclusively focuses on serving the litigation needs of its clients, you can benefit by forming a relationship with firms that specialize in other areas of law such as securities compliance. By doing this, you can establish mutually beneficial relationships. For example, the litigation firm can refer its corporate
work to a firm specializing in corporate law and vice versa. However, be careful to select your strategic partners wisely—they may become
an important source of revenue. Strategic partnerships are the focus of Chapter 6.
3. Giving back to the community by participating in charitable organizations is beneficial on a personal level for professional staff and often provides the additional benefit of improving networks and driving business. When selecting a charitable organization, pick one that
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focuses on a cause you believe in. Although participating in charitable organizations is hard work, it is very rewarding. You can en-
hance your reputation within the community by giving your time to
help others. Further, you will be surprised how many potential
clients you will meet during your involvement. It is human nature to want to help those who are helping others. For example, many professionals have found that joining their local Rotary Club has positively impacted their practice while providing them with a rich sense of
community.
4. Take advantage of your past. Keeping in touch with childhood, college, and postgraduate friends is helpful on several levels. For purposes of developing business, those long-term relationships can prove invaluable. You can either maintain these relationships on your own or
through the assistance of organized alumni associations. Every major university, fraternity, and sorority organizes reunions around the country. The easiest way to locate these groups is to search the Internet for organizational information. By being involved, you are assured of
meeting people with interests similar to yours. This is a great way to begin new relationships and further develop existing ones. When
searching out clients, you will be pleasantly surprised at the difference a common bond will make.
5. While it is important to always present yourself as confident and engaging, professionals must be aware of the fine line between confi-
dence and arrogance. While confidence is contagious, arrogance is not.
6. Be diligent and persevere. Networking is time consuming and difficult to do well. After every encounter, you should follow up with an e-mail, a handwritten note, or a telephone call. The personal touch of a note or call is always appreciated and memorable, but if time does not permit then an e-mail will suffice. The most important reason,
however, to be diligent is that most people are not. Diligence and
perseverance in your personal relationships is an easy way to differentiate yourself. Remember, if you decide to use relationships as a
means of driving business, keep your focus, remain diligent, and you will see results.
7. Maintaining focus, while difficult, is essential to successfully developing business and operating a professional services firm. Without
focus, your ability to develop business is greatly compromised. For example, it is important to address administrative issues. However, if you spend too much time worrying about administrative issues, you
may lose sight of your primary goals and the firm will suffer. Often internal, administrative, and delivery issues are more attractive to professional staff than developing new business. Addressing such issues does not carry the risk of rejection and still feels like “work”
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to firm management. Guarding against this tendency and staying
focused on new opportunities is critical for the firm, particularly with the partner-based sales model.
8. It is important to always be willing to offer assistance to others before asking for assistance yourself. If you are truly willing to help someone and ask for nothing in return, it is almost certain that he or she will return the favor at some point. Ask what you can do to help and make sure to follow through. When those whom you have assisted, or even
offered to assist, return the favor and offer to help you, be ready with a response. Be specific. Always let people know exactly what they can do to help. By being specific in your request for assistance, you increase the chances that assistance will be provided. For example, if people ask you how they can help, it is not constructive to merely ask them to refer business to you or keep your firm in mind if they are ever in need of assistance. Rather, be specific. Ask to be introduced to someone in particular. If you are an accountant, you may ask to be introduced to a high net-worth client. By being specific, you can more easily follow up. If you ask people to refer business to you, it is difficult to follow up by asking why they have failed to do so. However, if you ask for a specific introduction, you can follow up if the introduction is not made in a timely manner.
In summary, the main characteristics of a successful marketer are (1) diligence and perseverance, (2) focus, (3) confidence, (4) a willingness to assist others, and (5) an ability to maintain and cultivate relationships.
When deciding which marketing and business development techniques
work best for a given situation, remember that you can mix and match. There is no wrong technique, provided it assists in developing business. Although the subject matter and relationship approaches are discussed separately, firms should not focus exclusively on one at the expense of the other. The most successful rainmakers blend multiple techniques. Demonstrating your competency while developing relationships is a powerful marketing combination. You never know where your next big client will come from. Therefore, always make sure you are positioned to capitalize on every opportunity.
Successfully Managing Clients and
Their Expectations
The challenge of maximizing the potential of a new client immediately follows the development of the new relationship. Earlier we discussed the fact that it is many times more expensive to develop a new client than cultivate and nurture an existing one—commonly referred to as “farming versus
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hunting.” While client management may not initially appear to be an appropriate discussion in the context of marketing and developing business, a closer look reveals that it is a crucial component of developing business.