Committing time to business development (BD) can be a hard ask for junior team members and those who don’t have the frontline experience in dealing with clients on a day-to-day basis. This is particularly the case when they are already under pressure with existing client commitments.

Fortunately, there are some simple, yet effective steps not only to encourage inexperienced staff to undertake BD, but to also enjoy it and thrive!

1. Mindset

We need to look at the true meaning of business development. It should be seen as an extension of simply looking after our clients. In many cases, there is more we can be doing for our clients and in fact, as I have said countless times to groups of partners and senior staff at PwC, KPMG, EY, and many law firms over the many years I worked with them, you are doing your clients a disservice if you are not informing them of other services or of advice they may need, even down the track. If you are a trusted adviser in your client’s eyes, then you need to be proactive and assertive and take the time to recognise potential needs. Just as we need to make lifestyle changes to keep fit and maintain a healthy diet, positively changing commercial behaviours is the key. You need to commit by making it part of your and your staff’s work routine and culture.

2. Small steps – in planning

Depending on the level of experience, it makes sense to give more junior team members a starting point, without throwing them in the deep end. Some examples of this include inviting them to attend industry BD/marketing planning or account planning meetings your organisation runs for larger clients. Allowing junior members of the team to sit in on telephone account planning meetings with clients gives them an opportunity to learn in action how we develop these relationships and to develop skills in identifying the issues that clients may have that we can solve or offer to help with as a firm. Team members can undertake research and attend client meetings, for example. Consider taking a junior staff member with you (not two, not 10, just one) when you are having a face-to-face meeting with your client. Introduce them, encourage them. They will slowly get a feel for how you work and the rhythm of general commercial processes and the potential outcomes. For senior members of the team, it is all about taking ownership of the client relationship, setting the agenda for meetings, strategising the account plan and client needs, and facilitating the account team meetings to ensure they are productive and have all-of-team involvement. Members of your team can simply take the extra time to hear and see what your client is trying to achieve. Having a better understanding of your client’s business in general will go a long way to identifying new opportunities.

3. Incentive

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At the end of the day, encouragement by reward does wonders and this doesn’t always need to be in the form of money. In most cases, it’s worth considering a team-based incentive and I will explain why this can be more effective. Firstly, it is very hard to measure individual differences and systemic or industry-specific effects. In other words, if you have team members operating in a different market or industry, things can operate at a different pace and the buying cycle can vary dramatically. Individuals also have their own personal style and, as you will see when we get to coaching, this can be put to good use. A promotion or advancement goal is obviously going to be a big motivator and for relationship-driven organisations, BD is a must-have skill. But how do we motivate those who just don’t have those skills? Team-based incentives not only encourages teamwork, but also creates camaraderie, whereby lower-performing team members are encouraged or coached to do better by their peers.

This isn’t to say there shouldn’t be individual performance targets and one example I had was when managing a team of approximately eight business development executives, all working in different industries, with differing pressures. The first thing I set out to do when I started was to sit down with each one individually to understand what motivated them, what they wanted to achieve in their current role, and how they could make it happen. Each one of them had different goals and not surprisingly to me, only two or three were motivated by money. For one young lady, who was a mother of a young child, her goal was to spend more quality time at home. On the other side of the coin, one young exec was concerned he didn’t have the title to give him presence in the industry he was trying to develop. An industry that was all about status and authority and a sector where the word “sales executive” just wasn’t representative of the role he played.

4. Coaching

Being a good business developer requires you to home in on your own personal style and strengths. This is something that can’t be explored or developed through traditional sales training, focused purely on slick sales techniques. Something I have focused on is similar in approach to cognitive behaviour therapy, but from a business perspective. A BD coaching approach can alter unwanted patterns of thoughts, behaviours, and myths about business development practices, replacing them with skills based on the individual’s strengths and character traits. This support can be provided by more experienced team members or professional external BD coaches like myself, but again, junior staff see and learn from your behaviours and client interactions.

5. Sharing experiences

Going the extra mile makes a big difference, not only to the client, but gives us a sense of extra purpose, more than just the end result of a transaction or matter. For me, it’s about sharing industry thought leadership or assisting a client to succeed through connection with others, where I can. This applies equally whether it be potential clients for them or making life easier in the process. Sector or industry specialists should be sharing these experiences. So, getting team members to focus or even create some interesting thought leadership, based on their expertise or experience goes a long way to engaging them in BD activities and creating useful information for your clients at the same time!

Hans Morse is a professional services business development coach and trainer, having previously worked with EY, KPMG, PwC, Deloitte, and a number of law firms in full-time and consulting roles.