In a previous post I described professionals who wanted to hire business developers instead of doing the hard work of getting business, themselves. These people don’t think like partners, because they want to abrogate the single most critical responsibility of an owner in hard times, making sure there is a flow of work to maintain the staff and pay the rent. *

Contrast these people to Cleo. A year or two away from being put up for partner, she already thinks like an owner. She established herself as a high potential employee when the economy was hot by doing excellent work in large quantities and mentoring junior professionals. She also built a small, but productive network that feeds her new business. A staff member at one name corporation goes out of her way to find Cleo opportunities at the company.

Last fall, as the cold hand of recession gripped her firm, Cleo asked to have much of her client work reassigned to others who were under-utilized, so that she could devote more time to finding new business. She has found it tougher going than she had expected and hasn’t generated as much revenue as she had hoped. Even so, she has increased her already substantial respect among some key partners. She thinks like one of them.

* Note: Business developers can be hugely valuable to a firm. Here I refer to a partner’s recommendation to hire one as a way to avoid revenue responsibility, himself.

Brian Carroll has a post on getting leads from twitter that nicely complements may last post on getting leads from LinkedIn.

In an exchange with Alan Weiss last year, I argued that LinkedIn had become so large and multifaceted that some smart professionals were bound to find ways to generate leads from it. Having only one example, my case wasn’t strong. Our firm is supposed to know about these things, and, being research-based, this posed a natural challenge for us.

Gary Pines, Harding & Company’s leading advocate for LinkedIn, took up the challenge and has identified a number of people who have found ways to generate leads through the social network. Here are a few of the things you need to do use LinkedIn as a lead generator:

• Be a Joiner: LinkedIn has many special interest groups. “Join where your clients gather,” Lisa Nirell, who describes herself as Author, Strategic Marketing “Pied Piper,” and Growth Advisor - Chief Energy Officer - EnergizeGrowth LLC, told Gary, a sentiment echoed by others. Also, join where you will find others likely to want to help you, such as alumni groups. Gary received an email from a previous Towers Perrin colleague who found him through the Towers Perrin alumni group. They had not spoken since 1990, but now are helping each other gain leads.

• Reconnect: Connect with previous colleagues, clients, prospects, classmates, friends by searching for their names. Then ask them to be in your LinkedIn network. Because these people already know you, they aren’t inhibited by the Ethernet trust gap. They often want to help you as you want to help them. LinkedIn makes this process efficient. Many people have gotten leads from old contacts revived through LinkedIn.

• Answer Questions: The members of special interest groups often post questions on LinkedIn. Many of those Gary heard from recommended answering questions from people they might want to do business with. This is the social network expression of the old networking rule that you have to give to get. For example, rainmaker Toby Younis, Principal Consultant at B2B Marketing Pro, LLC, starts every day—every day—with a quick review of the requests for advice and information from members of the LinkedIn special interest group focused on the industry he consults to. When he finds a question he can answer well from someone sufficiently senior in a company he would like to do business with, he writes a detailed, high-value response. Some of those he helps this way contact him for more information and some of them eventually hire him.

• Make clear what you offer: Before contacting you, another LinkedIn member is likely to review your profile. Spend sufficient time on your profile to make it clear what you do and why you are good at it. Make sure it is compelling.

• Ask for access: Several people reported to Gary that they used LinkedIn to gain access to companies they had a specific interest in. One did a search for people with the job title of his typical client. Ten names came up within commuting distance. He sent emails to all and three agreed to meet. Another person wrote LinkedIn members who worked at a company he wanted to do business with to describe the value of his services and ask if there would be any interest in them. One referred him to two others in the company responsible for buying his kind of service. He sought and got meetings with the people.

Gary cautions that those who got leads from LinkedIn worked at this channel as relentlessly as those who get leads by giving speeches, working a professional association, making cold calls or any other method. If you are looking for an easy lead source, you won’t find it here. But the evidence is in: LinkedIn can be a good place to get leads. It is still a young service. As it matures and improves and more smart people use it, more ways to will be found to get leads from LinkedIn.
(We welcome any additional ideas and examples on this subject.)

(This post is another in our series of Rainmaking Problems.  We invite your comments on this problem and would also welcome any problems you would like to submit to get comments from other readers.) 

In my last post, I argued that often the suggestion to hire a business developer is no more than a way to avoid taking responsibility for sales. But business developers can be highly effective at professional firms, increasing lead flow and helping to land new clients and new work. So, when should a firm hire a business developer? I would value your opinions.

Several years ago some friends formed a firm and asked for advice on generating business. “Should we hire a full-time business developer?” one asked. “No,” I answered. “We’re all busy with our clients. It’s hard to make time for anything else. In that case, doesn’t it make sense to hire a dedicated business developer?” he responded. “No,” I said.

We talked about other things for a while, like the urgency to generate revenue. As I was about to leave, one friend said again, “Hiring a business developer seems to make a lot of sense.” “So, go ahead and hire one,” I responded somewhat curtly. Taken aback, my friends asked me why I thought it was a bad idea. “Because you own this problem,” I said. “Generating revenue will determine whether you and your firm succeed or fail, and none of you wants to own the problem. But, like it or not, you own it. You can’t off load it onto someone else.” Had even one of the three been an aggressive business getter, my advice might have been different. A business developer might complement their efforts, but never replace them.

I was reminded of this exchange yesterday, when a practice head at a mid-sized firm faced with declining revenue suggested hiring a business developer. I will call him James. James has probably worked for the firm for fifteen years and knows hundreds of former clients. Others in the firm say that many of these clients worship him. Adjusting for the obvious hyperbole, I have no doubt this is true. He is brilliant and kind and extends himself for his clients, should they make the smallest request. He knows his business cold. Yet, once these people become former clients, he never calls them, nor lifts a finger to get more business. A business developer might actually pick up the receiver and dial, but how empty the calls would be compared the ones James could have.

When business falls off in a downturn, you can count on someone suggesting hiring a professional business developer. And, sometimes it makes sense to do so. More often it is simply a professional’s attempt to avoid responsibility for sales. People who do that aren’t thinking like partners.

(My next post will address when it might be a good idea to hire a business developer.)

A Canadian friend recently brought a problem to me that is common enough to warrant a comment: the unproductive network.  Margareta, for so I will call her, has built a substantial network and works hard at maintaining it, but it generates only a dribble of leads.

If this happens, ask yourself three questions:

Am I networking with the right people?

Long ago a colleague of mine worked an association for two years.  She was welcomed, cultivated, wined and dined at the annual meetings.   Popular because of her personality and potential to pass out leads to the other members, she got attention, but little else in return.  On reflection she realized that few of the members would ever be in a position to give her leads.  She refocused her efforts elsewhere and had more success.

Ask yourself if your network contains enough buyers of your services and people who have influence with buyers.  If not, you must find ways to meet and stay in front of such people and reallocate your time to those activities.

Do they know what I do?

Yes, at some level they know, but how fresh and accurate is that knowledge?  Two weeks ago, I missed an opportunity to make a referral to a friend, because I didn’t see the client’s request as something he would help with.  Fortunately, he got the introduction through another channel.

I was embarrassed, and realized that I hadn’t reviewed the kind of work he did with him for over a year.  Shame on me.  Shame on him.  “We’re seeing an uptick in healthcare work.”  “We are getting a lot of requests to help renegotiate contracts.”  Remind your contacts of what you do with brief statements like these.  Sit with them from time to time to refresh your understanding of what each other do.

 But don’t, don’t, assume that they know.

Do they know what I want?

Never assume that your contacts know you want referrals, either.  Never make that assumption.  If you don’t make it clear that you want referrals, you won’t get any.  “Right now we could use a client in the casualty insurance industry.” “The revenue cliff is a little closer than we like to see it.”  “We’re busy, though, of course, we are always interested in new clients.”  “Our lead flow is down.  How about yours?”  Your words should remind your contacts of your interest in new business.

Reviewing these questions with Margareta, we developed some language she could use to make it easier for her contacts to recognize opportunities for her.  She will also make it clearer that she wants referrals.  Let’s see what happens.

Charlie Green’s Trust Matters Blog is running an interesting series of posts on selling in a recession.

Many professional service firms have up-or-out policies, meaning that any professional who is passed over for promotion twice is asked to leave the firm.  The firms exercise this policy most strictly on promotions to partner, where the stakes are the highest for the young professional.  By that time she has invested heavily in the firm in unpaid overtime, lost time with family and friends, and a more general loss of balance in her life.  If she gets promoted, she reaps the status and financial rewards of partnership.  If not, she’s out of a job.

Though a few professionals might make partner purely on the basis of their technical competence, the overwhelming majority must demonstrate commercial success to get the nod.  In short, they must show that they can bring in work to get and keep the title of partner. The financial logic of the firms dictates this requirement.

Other firms state explicitly that they do not have an up-or-out policy.  At these firms a professional may opt to stay at a less-than-partner level for a career, if they are willing to forgo the benefits of partnership. In a boom economy, this lack of up-or-out mentality allows a firm to keep talent sorely need to get the work out the door.

But when the economy turns, there isn’t enough work to go around.  The company must then decide whom to let go. The professional who will never make partner and who, due to longevity, is near the top of her pay grade, may not be the first to be laid off.  Come the second round of cutbacks, she is a ripe target.  In other words, firms that do not have an up-or-out policy exhibit up-or-out behavior when times get tough.

This is just a long way of saying that anyone seeking a career at a professional services firm should take statements that her potential employer isn’t an up-or-out firm with a large grain of salt.  Management means it when they say it.  They simply find it impossible to hold to it in the face of financial stress.

If you want control over your own destiny, stay in touch with your former clients, build your network and bring in business. If you can do that, you will have a do well at your current firm and have more to offer another fimr, if you choose to move on.

Steve Shu, who gave up blogging for a year, is back at it.  He explains why in an interesting post.

Steve, you didn’t mention that it is also addicting.

(This is part of my series on Rainmaker Problems. I hope you will leave a comment with your thoughts on a solution to this problem.)

At any one time a professional in a mature practice is usually pursuing several opportunities. That not only diversifies risk, but also reduces pressure to win any one of them. To get to this state a professional building a practice almost always passes through a period when there is only one big lead. The pressure the professional feels to win it can be counterproductive.

Lenore is the primary salary earner in her family, juggling the demands of being a mother and a professional. She joined a new firm eighteen months ago. At the level at which she was hired, she is expected to bring in about $1 million in fees a year. The year is not off to a promising start, and she feels tremendous pressure to generate business quickly. Her client base from her former firm is largely irrelevant to her current situation.

Lenore’s most immediate problem is lead flow. Two weeks ago she had
leads for two assignments, each worth about $250,000 in fees, and having potential for significant add-on work. She lost one two a small competitor, and so is down to one. That one she generated at a meeting with the CEO of a client company to discuss a current assignment. She introduced a subject not on the agenda and found he was looking for help in that area. She will be making a competitive presentation on her firm’s approach to this problem and its capabilities in a couple of weeks. Afterwards, win or lose, her lead count will drop to zero, unless she can turn up some more in the interim. That fact intensifies her need to win this client to a degree that does not help her.

What can she do to reduce the pressure or to deal with it effectively?

(Got a problem selling professional services? Feel free to email me your problem and it may become a future “Rainmaking Problem of the Week.”)