I was preparing for a call with a long standing client of mine. His agenda before the call indicated that he was very concerned about his billing in quarter 2 due to the summer months and impact of Brexit. So I geared up for my usual pep talk about what to do when your pipeline looks a little light.
However, when my client came on the call his pipeline of new work looked radically different after 3 new clients had come in and some existing clients had pressed the ‘go’ button on pieces of work they had been dragging their heels on starting. This all happened within 24 hours after he had sent the email to me! Therefore, in this blog post I will share the key things to check BEFORE panicking about your pipeline.
1.Seasonality
I learnt fairly early on in my own career as a self-employed coach and speaker that I would have busy periods and quiet periods – and learn to embrace the quiet periods for what they are. (Time to recharge your batteries and get ahead with your marketing!) Most professional advisors, be they a lawyer, accountant or consultant will also have a level of seasonality to their practice. Before you worry about the phone NOT ringing, just check in with the more experienced people around you. Are they quiet too, and is this normal for this point in the year?
2. Are you doing the “right stuff” consistently?
If you are consistently marketing, then new instructions will come in from your clients and network. In the UK we have a phrase “you can wait for ages for a bus, then two always seem to come at once”, and it is often the same with business development. I can go a few weeks without any new client leads and then get a week where four good client leads turn up in 48 hours. It doesn’t stop me being on edge in the quiet weeks, but I’m getting used to relaxing when I’ve not had a new lead for a week or two. It will be the same for you.
If you are consistently, and the key word here is consistently, doing the right stuff with your marketing then stop worrying, new work is just around the corner. When I talk about the “right stuff” I mean a consistent business development routine which you implement weekly. Your routine will have you keeping in touch with your existing clients and introducers, maintaining a high profile where your clients/introducers hang out on-line and off-line, (yes, both are important), investing in producing high-quality valuable content that you share with your network… you get the picture. Of course, if you don’t do your marketing consistently then you risk the pain of feast and famine.
We have a great course in our subscriber-only site Progress to Partner called How to Make time for Business Development. The course gives you the structure, clarity, and guidance to create a daily business development habit and a business development plan that is focussed and not just based on friendly coffees.
3. Do you have a strong and visible reputation within your marketplace?
Unsurprisingly if you are your firm’s best kept secret, the phone is not going to be ringing frequently! If you have spent the time to build up a strong brand in your firm and external marketplace, work will come to you. It may not, as previously discussed, come in a consistent equally spaced out manner.
In summary,
If you’ve been doing the right things with your business development activities consistently and you are aware of seasonal peaks and troughs in demand for your services, then don’t worry, new leads will appear shortly.
To progress your career in practice, you need to move from being a great technician into someone who can be relied upon to win good quality work. Don’t neglect working on improving your business development skills.
We created the Progress to Partner subscriber-only site to make it as easy as possible to build your partner-ready skills.. There are guides, self-study courses, useful videos, workbooks waiting for you – everything you need to know about how to make partner all in one place! There are self-study courses on “How to make the Time for Business Development”, How to Delegate Like a Pro, How to Lead & Manage a Team and How to Build a Cast-Iron Business Case for Partner and many more.
