Over the past few years, we’ve seen a welcome shift in how firms approach Business Development (BD) and Marketing. Firms are no longer lumping these distinct functions into a single, mismatched role. Instead, they’re establishing teams of Client Relationship Managers to safeguard and protect existing business while finding ways to boost profitability. This is refreshing—and long overdue.
But is it enough?
While safeguarding your client base is crucial, it’s only half of the equation. New business development remains a key area that many professional services firms have yet to fully embrace or master. True, strategic business development is proactive, consultative, and essential for growth.
Strategic Business Development: What It Really Means
To fully understand the value of strategic BD, let’s break down its core functions. Effective business development:
- Identifies and enables business opportunities
Proactively seeking opportunities, both within existing client relationships and in new markets, is key to ensuring a steady flow of high-quality work. - Targets prospects and converts them into new clients
New revenue streams are essential for sustainable growth, and targeting the right prospects is what drives successful business development. - Manages a continuous pipeline of business
Strategic BD isn’t just about landing the next deal—it’s about maintaining a consistent flow of both new and existing business, ensuring your firm remains in a growth mode. - Deepens client relationships
The goal is to become indispensable to your client, not dependent on one individual at the client’s firm. BD professionals work to expand relationships beyond the primary point of contact. - Adds value to your client’s business
When done well, business development adds value to your client’s operations, creating goodwill that reflects positively on your firm and leads to longer-term client loyalty. - Maximizes return on marketing spend
By ensuring that marketing and business development efforts are aligned, firms can achieve measurable return on investment (ROI) from their marketing spend. - Introduces the entire firm, not just one attorney
When you position your entire firm, and not just one individual, as the trusted partner for your clients, you build a stronger, more sustainable relationship that’s not tied to any single person. - Synchronizes business development and marketing efforts
When BD and marketing are strategically aligned, it enhances how your firm is perceived and helps translate that perception into new business opportunities. - Ensures no opportunity is missed
The best business development teams are proactive—they connect the dots, ensuring your firm is strategically placed to capture every opportunity that comes your way.
The Need for High-Quality Business Development Professionals
Strategic BD cannot succeed without the right people in place. High-quality business development professionalsbring a unique skill set to the table:
- They understand the client’s buying process
Business development professionals know how to guide a prospect from interest to action. There’s no place for cold selling; instead, they create consultative, value-driven relationships that ultimately convert prospects into loyal clients. - They safeguard client relationships
Maintaining strong relationships with existing clients is critical, but the best BD professionals go a step further by engineering strategies to upsell and cross-sell within those relationships, securing higher profitability margins. - They have high emotional intelligence (EQ)
By using emotional intelligence to read and respond to client needs, business development professionals build trust and strengthen relationships, positioning themselves as trusted advisors. - They differentiate your firm
In a crowded market, standing out is essential to winning new clients. High-quality BD professionals work closely with your marketing and client relations teams to create a differentiated client experience that ensures your firm remains top of mind.
How Are You Engaging Your Team to Stand Out?
Building relationships is key to securing client loyalty and ensuring that clients see your firm as a strategic partner, not just a vendor. The question is:
- What measures are you taking to differentiate your firm from others?
- How are you actively engaging your lawyers, business development, and client relations professionals to strategically develop both new and existing relationships?
Business development is no longer a nice-to-have—it’s a necessity. To stay ahead, your firm must innovate and be strategic in its approach to BD, ensuring that every relationship is nurtured and every opportunity is captured.
How Autem Helps Firms Innovate Their Business Development Strategy
At autem, we help firms go beyond safeguarding their client base. We work with you to implement a strategic, innovative approach to business development that drives long-term growth. Our focus is on helping you stay ahead of the competition by ensuring your business development and marketing efforts are proactive, coordinated, and client-focused.
Here’s how we can help:
- Building a Client Relationship Management (CRM) Strategy
We help firms establish a systematic approach to client relationship management that ensures your most valuable clients are continuously engaged, while creating opportunities to upsell and cross-sell across different services. - Proactive Business Development
At autem, we implement strategies that help you target new business while maintaining a steady pipeline of opportunities. We help your team connect the dots, ensuring you never miss out on potential revenue. - Training for Lawyers and BD Teams
We offer training and coaching to help your lawyers, BD professionals, and client relations teams work more effectively together. Our training focuses on consultative selling—teaching your teams how to build trust, add value, and deepen client relationships. - Aligning BD and Marketing for Maximum Impact
autem ensures that your business development and marketing strategies are fully aligned, creating a unified approach to client engagement. By synchronizing your efforts, we help you maximize your ROI and position your firm for growth.
The Result: A Firm That Stands Out and Stays Ahead
In today’s competitive landscape, standing out is essential to winning and retaining clients. autem can help your firm build a differentiated business development strategy that not only protects your current client base but also drives new business and increases profitability.
