Creating The Future Through Business Development Training

In professional service firms, opportunity is greatest for those that create growth. A truth for both firms and individuals. As Abraham Lincoln said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

Providing focused business development (BD) training early in someone’s career impacts the future of the business as much as it does the professional. It can lead to alignment of goals with career development, better clients, and increased retention. Despite the best intentions, BD is often pushed aside to deal with other priorities. This means it can be an afterthought or challenge that is neglected until it becomes necessary.

It is time to get active in providing BD training as early as possible in someone’s career to build better firms and create more opportunities. Industry-wide there is a strain on resources and talent, and firms are missing a chance to build a better business. BD is not a “soft” skill, it is a necessary business acumen skill, and it provides for an improved experience for our professionals, clients, and firms.

A principal at a firm recently shared how they wished they had access to business development tools much earlier in their career. So why are these tools not provided sooner? They should be, and when it comes to BD training, consideration should be given to purpose, content, career level, frequency, and delivery. Implement a plan that works for you.

What to Include in a BD Training Program

Each firm has differences in resources, time, philosophies, and relationships, but these general considerations can be the basis of an adoptable program.

1. Provide training that aligns with career level and firm expectations. Do performance measurements, career progression, and compensation have any BD components? For example, if a professional is expected to participate in proposals, attend a certain number of networking events, identify $x,xxx of opportunity, are they being given the training that sets them up for success in meeting those goals? Alignment here means more chances to emphasize the importance of BD and directly impact adoption.
2. Build on skills that progress with the individual and career milestones. This is training that takes a skill and builds on it in a stair-step approach that matches development. There is a natural progression to the BD process and training can be built to align skills with real-world situations professionals will find themselves in at various stages of their career. Early in a career, the majority of new BD will come from existing clients. How are you educating professionals to listen to what their clients are saying, ask appropriate questions, and have a conversation about expanded fees? Are you helping them understand the firm’s depth and breadth of services to identify potential cross-serve opportunities when to elevate an idea, or whom to go to for relevant expertise?
3. Repetition is not an issue. Adult learners learn in multiple ways and repetition through various methods is key to retention. Knowledge and implementation are also quite different. Provide an environment where skills are reinforced, practice is encouraged, mistakes are accepted, and accountability is implemented so that the knowledge attained can be put into practice. This can mean ride-a-longs, mentoring, coaching, and even the dreaded role-playing. Make it a part of training at regular intervals as well as when career milestones are achieved.
4. Encourage and coach. Celebrate successes and learn from stumbles. Reiterate expectations, reward engagement, and recognize involvement. Many professionals who are quite successful in BD have done and forgotten many of the things that people newer to BD have yet to experience. They may take that knowledge for granted or have a different approach that works better for themselves, but times are changing and approaches can vary.
5. Make time. As a BDE or marketing executive, be accessible to the professionals who are going through training or show an interest in BD. Leverage those relationships and try to pull people into BD, instead of pushing them to develop business. Make it comfortable and individualized as much as possible. Make sure the firm is empowering individuals to participate in the training and make BD an appropriate amount of their schedule. You cannot ask folks to be a part of the firm’s growth goals and not allow them the time do so.

It is amazing to see how someone will get involved in business development as they start to have success in creating growth for the firm. This creates opportunities for the individual and emphasizes the importance of the BD role. All of this leads to better clients, increased retention rate of professionals and clients, and alignment of firm goals which creates the future!

The journey can begin with you! Yes, you. Start wherever you are and bring others along and you can help create the future you, your people, and the firm want.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Chris Lazzuri is an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) who has been in the professional services industry for more than 20 years in various leadership, business development, mentoring, coaching, strategy, learning, and development roles. He has worked with individuals across all industries, service lines, geographies, and with all sizes of firms. Today, he uses that experience and passion to help accountants and their organizations grow.