As part of our series on a balanced approach to measuring partner performance, Rachel Stone moves on to business development and measuring partner activity.
It would seem logical that all partners have business development responsibilities for their team and firm. So we look here at some of the measures you might use as part of your balanced scorecard to assess how partners find and win new clients.
Building a pipeline
Each partner is different in their approach to the business development process. Some are veterans of the cocktail party and networking event, picking up business cards and new connections smoothly as they work the room. Others do far better in one-to-one situations where they can get under the skin of a prospect's business and quickly demonstrate their ability to add value. It's important that each partner knows their own business development strengths and builds these into a strategy for finding and winning new work. Helping partners to focus on their individual business plan and target list can add real value to this. It can give individual partners and departmental partner teams clear direction and momentum, even in difficult economic times. A business development planning tool can also help newer partners build an early prospect pipeline.
Effective measurement of business development activity and outcomes
When it comes to measuring business development activity and outcomes (and it's very rare to see great outcomes without high activity levels), you may wish to consider some of the following questions.
| √ | How active is this partner in promoting the firm to our business community? |
| √ | How successful is this partner's involvement in marketing activity for their team and for the firm as a whole? |
| √ | How much networking activity does this partner carry out and what comes of it? |
| √ | Does this partner have a robust process for generating new leads, following up on contacts and managing the conversion of prospects to clients? |
| √ | What success does this partner have with formal tender situations? |
| √ | What success does this partner have in informal business development situations where a proposal will suffice? |
| √ | What new work has this partner won for their team and others in the firm? |
Recognising individual styles
In terms of business development, one size rarely fits all and helping partners to identify and maximise the impact of their own style can pay dividends for the individual and the firm. Do not forget that confidence is crucial to the success of most business development activities, so investing in partner support and training is usually a wise move.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
