All aboard

The past year has seen a series of breakfast seminars, networking events, lectures, endless cups of coffee, and more prospect and intermediary meetings than I can remember. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for marketing and business development. Without it, firms would not survive.

What vexes me is that this burden is carried by so few people in most offices. If a firm is to reach its true potential, at least 75 per cent of the partners and managers need to be actively developing business. But how do you ensure that as many people as possible contribute and how do you create a positive culture of business development rather than a negative pressure to sell?

First, if you want people to give up their evenings to bring in work for you, recognise that contribution. Just paying them 10 per cent of any fee they generate then applying PAYE is hardly an incentive. Most people prefer career development.

Therefore, assess business development and PR work as part of staff (and partner) appraisals. If they are not contributing in this area, their career will suffer in relation to those who are making the effort. Business development should not be seen as optional.

Second, sales has always had a pejorative overtone with images of second-hand car dealers on the Old Kent Road or double-glazing salespeople. This has to end. Business development is not about short-term sales. It is about building long-term relationships and trust that can lead to rewarding professional relationships. Sometimes, good quality clients can take years to finally sign on the dotted line.

When I attend networking events, I don’t think about today, I think about who may refer work to me in a year or five. I also think about what I can do for them. One-sided relationships are not likely to last very long. The best business developers that I know have been meeting people for years, have a huge network, keep a high professional and public profile, and spend a lot of time keeping in touch with their contacts.

This is not selling. This is long-term business development and does not happen overnight.

Partners and staff should also be benchmarked so they have some measure of how they are doing. I would set indicative new work targets, say something north of £50,000 a year for a partner and perhaps £10,000 a year for a manager. Clearly, if you are a manager bringing in £100,000 a year, you will be highly valued and promotion will be imminent. And people will expect it.

I also believe that good business developers should have some publicity in the firm. If someone has brought in a client with recurrent fees of £100,000, everyone should know. To this end, I suggest that a weekly or fortnightly business development bulletin is circulated showing all the pitches under way, who is responsible and any wins. This is inclusive and emphasises the importance of sales.

If you can also persuade partners to own up to client losses, that provides very useful data, as it shows how much new work is required each year just to stand still. If staff can see all this, they are much more likely to buy into the need for business development.

All the above must form part of an integrated approach to business development. Individuals cannot go off and plough their own furrow. The firm needs to have sector targets, events that they will either attend or present at, and key players in the industry need to be identified and approached.

Geraint Jones is a private client partner at Reeves

He writes the regular in-practice article on doing business for Private Client Adviser