Your typical firm relies on successful seller-doers for new business development but avoids the term “sell,” instead referring to its best seller-doers as rainmakers. 

In the seller-doer model, business development is typically an afterthought, and any platform that enables it will have to compete with the technologies that enable client service.

That’s not to say that sales enablement software won’t work in the context of law, accounting, or other advisory firms, but it must be driven by the following seven best practices.

In early June, I discussed the state of business development with a group of legal marketing and business development experts during a virtual session of the LSSO Global Sales Summit. They were candid when asked about how their firms are currently faring in three critical areas: lead sourcing, lead tracking, and new business forecasting.  

If you’re wondering why business development is so hard, it’s because you may be contributing to a system that treats its prospects poorly.

Historically, Rainmakers have been – and often continue to be – heroes at their law firms. And with good reason. Their seemingly effortless ability to regularly bring in large clients is a significant factor in a firm’s financial success. But beware, the Rainmaker can be a double-edged sword when it comes to the firm’s future growth.   

There’s never a shortage of work to do when you own or manage a book of business. With an endless list of tasks, business developers have to decide which items to cross off today – and which will have to wait until another time.