13 Signs you have a weak Business Development culture (and what to do about it).

Do you have a strong business development culture at your firm?

If you recognise one or more of these signs, you are not doing all that you can to build your business and win new clients.

1. Only a few partners/fee earners generate most of the new business.
2. Your firm website produces few leads and little converted business.
3. Business development is not a part of regular appraisal meetings.
4. There are no incentives or bonus schemes for professionals to generate new business.
5. Few partners, if any, have documented individual business plans.
6. Professionals have memberships to many organisations, but few are in an influential leadership position.
7. Many professionals are willing to market themselves and the firm, but don’t know what to do.
8. Cross selling is a goal of the business, but it doesn’t seem to happen.
9. The firm has not identified and communicated target market sectors where it wants to develop new business.
10. There are no formal referral strategies in place.
11. Professionals attend networking events but achieve very little.
12. You don’t maximise the potential of social media, blogs, podcasts, webinars and online video.
13. You spend a lot of marketing time and money on hospitality, seminars, brochures, event tickets, sponsorships, PR and advertising, but can’t track or measure the results of your efforts.

If you recognise your organisation here, don’t worry – you can start to counteract these harmful habits. Sit down with your teams and find answers to the following questions:

• Who do you want to talk to? Create lists of target clients and decision makers – and be specific.
• Where are you going to find them?
• What are you going to tell them?
• Why should they bother to listen?

Finding answers to these questions is not easy, but if you commit to it you will soon be out-performing your competitors who are still struggling to build a business development culture.

Remember, culture is the behaviour that you tolerate and reward.

What will you change moving forward?