Law firms are adopting new practices and platforms at a heightened rate to remain competitive. Legal careers are becoming more tech-focused, and there’s a benefit to all this: useful metrics are easier than ever to come by.

There have been recent reports on a ghosting trend in the legal industry, both large law firms being ghosted by legal department clients and in-house lawyers being ghosted by recruiters. With Halloween quickly approaching, we thought it would be an apt time to address the former.   

We recently presented the webinar “Calibrating BD Strategies to the Economy,” where we discussed what firms can learn from the last economic slowdown and the past two years and how can we apply those lessons to 2023, especially as marketing and business development leaders work through the budgeting process.  

In our most recent State of CRM in Professional Services Firms industry study, we learned that 40% of marketing and business development professionals cite seller-doers’ lack of skills as a top business development challenge. We also learned that 38% of professional service firms provide business development coaching by internal managers and 54% by external coaches. 

Most people in professional services have referral sources but managing those relationships can be like herding cats. Instead of the inefficient, laborious traditional approach, try setting up a curated referral group made up of proven referral sources.

With markets softening, it’s very likely that client demand will weaken in the coming months. So, many firms are turning their attention back to business development.

If you look to technology to help with business development, Client Relationship Management would seem to be the obvious choice, and your firm likely already has it. According to our survey* of more than 600 small to mid-size professional services firms, 93% do.

But the research also shows several reasons why CRM doesn’t work as a business development solution.

You’re so busy juggling client work it’s no wonder business development often gets put on the back burner. But for many seller-doers, it’s not just having the time to do business development that’s holding them back.  Here are four tips to help and for Developing a Rainmaker Mindset.

As a professional services firm marketer or business developer, one of the many hats you may wear is that of a business development coach. It’s a crucial role and, if played well, can contribute significantly to your department’s success.

At Ackert, knowing selling professional services is much more a marathon than a sprint, we have long been strong proponents of a Systematic Approach for Business Development. Recently we discovered a valuable infographic that supports many of our findings from The Rain Group, a fellow firm that offers sales coaching to professional service firms and several other industries as well.

Addressing the disconnect between the business development team’s (and the firm’s) strategic goals and the seller-doers’ desires requires a culture change that can be difficult to achieve without external resources. That’s why more than 70% of U.S. firms adopt business development training and coaching programs.  

The PipelinePlus Platform offers the perfect tools for capturing pertinent details and prospective opportunities with current clients as soon as they arise.