David Maister has a nice post this morning on the pluses and minuses (mostly minuses) of firms attempting to build business by hiring senior people laterally. The idea is that these senior hires arrive with their own book of business, which is what the firms are really paying for. This strikes me as yet another version of a question I get a lot: "What kind of results can you guarantee?"
The answer is "None."
One of the most difficult things for a lot of my clients to grasp is that I guarantee nothing. I do not guarantee results. I do not promise anything. It's quite possible to spend a lot of time and money working with me, and not acquire a single new client.
Why is this?
Because the business development equation is complex. Bringing in new clients, or expanding the revenue you're getting from existing ones, involves time, other people, and a host of other variables. You have to work at it. You have to think about it. You have to master a set of skills that may be unfamiliar. And ultimately, the new client you're pursuing has to participate in the process. If they don't, no matter what I teach or my clients do, there will be no new business.
This is really difficult for some of my clients to grasp. The bottom line is that in the short term, there may be a tenuous connection, or none at all, between business development effort and business development results. You can go to a dozen events, network your brains out, sow a lot of seeds, and see no results at all. Then, one day, seemingly out of the blue, you land two new clients.
Over the long term, of course, the connection is profound. The laws of probability see to that. If you do no business development, you will see no results. And over time, business development always pays off. It's just the link between business development input and results is erratic and unpredictable. This is the nature of all sales, and it's true here, too.
And as Maister points out, firms that attempt to buy business by hiring senior laterals are simply trying to avoid this fact. And as Maister further points out, it usually doesn't work. In business developments, there are simply no shortcuts. Believing otherwise can be a very costly mistake.
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