Executing on Your Business and Strategic Plans? Here’s How to Get Your BD Team to Deliver the Support You Need

Why are law firm business and strategic plans so often poorly executed? One key reason: many plans lack the actionable details and data needed to drive success.

Why does this happen? Plan fatigue is a real challenge, especially for firm and group leaders who juggle numerous plans—firm-wide, individual, practice, and industry plans—all while dealing with year-end priorities like collections and closings. The result? Plans often fall short on quality and thwart execution.

So, as a group leader, how can you work with your BD team to idiot-proof plan execution and ensure results?

Start by working with your BD professional to clarify the objectives of the plan, determine KPIs, and establish a reporting framework and an update schedule. For instance, if your goal is to increase revenue from the group’s top 10 clients, gather accounting details for the clients and contact and engagement data for the decision-makers (who-knows-who, event attendance, thought leadership subscriptions, etc.).

From there, ask your BD professional to:

- Create and maintain a simple action plan; decision-maker name, task, and responsible parties,

- Make the plan and baseline report visible to all responsible parties via a shared intranet or bi-weekly emails,

- Pre-schedule meetings for the year to agree on next steps (not to review activity), and

- Provide actionable business intelligence to the responsible parties.

Practical Tips:

What If You Don’t Have the Decision-Maker’s Name? 

Your BD professional's first task is to get the name. If online research doesn’t yield results, explore connections within the firm or through industry contacts, trade associations, or even recruiters who may help with introductions. Once you have the name, your BD professional can compile some actionable business intelligence and help plan a creative approach. If you do not identify your decision-maker, update your plan to include a target that you can.

How Do You Make Business Intelligence Actionable? 

Actionable intelligence includes insights about the contact’s goals, preferences, and challenges, coupled with specific recommendations for engagement. Examples:

- Information on the contact's goals and objectives from earnings reports or investor calls along with suggestions on firm resources that align with those objectives or value-driven opportunities like a roundtable where they can collaborate with peers facing similar challenges.

- Statements by the contact about their expectations of outside counsel in an RFP, a Chambers quote, or a Corporate Counsel webinar or article along with ideas on how the firm can demonstrate its commitment to deliver on those expectations.

By focusing on what your client contact’s needs to succeed, your BD team can deliver meaningful, targeted support that aligns with your strategic goals—and drives results.