In our most recent State of CRM in Professional Services Firms industry study, we learned that 40% of marketing and business development professionals cite seller-doers’ lack of skills as a top business development challenge. We also learned that 38% of professional service firms provide business development coaching by internal managers and 54% by external coaches.
Professional services firms realize seller-doer coaching is essential to optimize business development performance. However, marketers and business developers also know that implementing a successful coaching initiative is no small task, nor is being a world-class seller-doer coach.
That’s why, when budget season nears and you need to determine how to best use your money and resources next year, you should consider the top five reasons to outsource your business development coaching.
1. Your team doesn’t have the bandwidth to insource.
A strong coaching initiative takes planning, time, and talent and firm marketers and business developers are busier than ever handling the many other responsibilities that come with their role.
2. Your team lacks the skills to provide effective coaching.
Providing encouragement and support may come easily for many marketers and business developers, but successful coaching is a specialty.
Moreover, business development coaching involves holding seller-doers accountable, which can be uncomfortable for marketers and business developers. Outside coaches are expected to make sure seller-doers consistently work on business development and are skilled at pointing out when they use excuses to justify unmet goals and at getting them back on track.
3. Your team lacks the internal credibility for internal coaching to be effective.
Many marketers and business developers have the skills to be effective coaches and even may say many of the same things an outsourced coach would say. Seller-doers, however, often react more favorably to outside experts simply because they view them as being more credible. After all, seller-doers are specialists in their fields and respect others who are experts in theirs.
4. Your team needs “best in show” results to justify the value of the coaching initiative.
Maybe your team has enough bandwidth and talent to provide sufficient coaching, but leadership will be watching closely to see if the outcome is worth the perceived time and effort. It can often be politically risky to provide internal coaching if you’re not confident that your results will exceed expectations in the eyes of leadership.
5. Your firm lacks the technology to support seller-doers.
In our State of CRM in Professional Services industry study, 62% of firm marketers and business developers report that seller-doers’ lack of technology to be effective is one of their top business development challenges.
The study also shows seller-doers don’t frequently or effectively use CRM for sales pipeline management, even though nearly all firms have it. In the report 2022 Strengths and Weaknesses of Professional Services Marketing/Business Development Teams, however, marketers and business developers reveal coaching combined with technology is the most effective strategy in supporting seller-doers in their business development efforts.
PipelinePlus Coaching is designed to help seller-doers optimize their sales acceleration software usage and business development performance. In both group and individual sessions, expert coaches help seller-doers master critical business development skills, covering everything from setting SMART goals and developing a business development mindset to preparing for pitches and negotiating with fee-sensitive clients.
The results speak for themselves. Former Director of Business Development Heidi Leach of Farmer Law says, “The implementation of PIPELINEPLUS Coaching and sales processes resulted in over $5M in new annual revenue.” Learn more.
