An open letter from your Executive, Manager and Director.

You’re running a firm. Winning clients. Juggling responsibilities. We see the pressure you’re under.

We also know marketing and business development often land on your desk as a “necessary extra”, something to sign off, delegate or squeeze in between client matters.

But if you want better results from your team, your pipeline and your brand, there are some things you deserve to hear, directly and honestly, from the people inside your firm who are tasked with making it all happen.

So, with respect, here’s what we’d say, from all levels of the marketing and BD function.

From your Marketing and BD Executive

“We need direction, not just tasks.”

Dear Partner,

You might know me as the one sending out emails, building proposals or posting on LinkedIn. I work hard to get things done quickly, but often, I don’t have the bigger picture.

Sometimes I’m told to “make something happen”, a blog, a flyer, a new campaign, but I don’t always understand why we’re doing it or how success will be measured.

When I ask for clarity, the answer is often: “Just get it out.”

I want to contribute more. I want to learn what’s working and what’s not. But I need a space to ask questions, not just be given instructions.

Here’s what happens when I don’t have context: I write a LinkedIn post that misses the mark because I didn’t know we were targeting a specific sector. I create a case study highlighting the wrong aspects of a project because nobody told me what message we’re trying to reinforce. I spend hours designing something that gets rejected because the brief wasn’t clear in the first place.

It’s frustrating for both of us. You’re disappointed with the output, and I’m left feeling like I’ve failed, when really we just weren’t aligned from the start.

What would help:

• A five-minute conversation before I start, not after I’ve finished
• Understanding who the audience is and what we want them to do
• Knowing what success looks like, even if it’s simply “we want three people to respond” or “this needs to position us for a specific opportunity”
• Permission to ask “why” without it being seen as questioning your judgement

Please don’t underestimate the value of involving me early. I may not be in partner meetings, but I often know how things land with clients. I see what gets engagement. I hear what others say behind the scenes.

I notice when certain content formats work better than others. I spot when prospects engage with particular topics. I understand which channels your target clients actually use. This isn’t strategic insight yet, but it’s valuable intelligence that could inform better decisions if anyone asked me.

We’ll all get better results if I know why we’re doing something, not just what you need.

Sincerely, Your Marketing and BD Executive

From your Marketing and BD Manager

“We’re stuck between strategy and execution.”

Dear Partner,

My job is to translate ideas into action. To align what you want with what the team can deliver. And to make sure the firm’s marketing activity supports growth.

But here’s what I face:

• Multiple requests from different departments, often with no clear brief
• Conflicting opinions about what “good” looks like
• A lack of feedback or follow-through after things go live
• Priorities that shift weekly based on who spoke to you most recently

It puts us in reactive mode. We spend more time chasing sign-offs and rewriting proposals than moving forward strategically.

Let me give you a typical week: Monday morning, Partner A needs a pitch document by Wednesday. Tuesday, Partner B wants to completely redesign the website. Wednesday, Partner C is unhappy with our social media presence and wants us to “do more”. Thursday, the original pitch gets postponed and Partner A now wants something completely different. Friday, I’m still waiting for feedback on the content I sent for approval three weeks ago.

Meanwhile, the strategic projects we agreed were priorities, the new positioning work, the client nurture programme, the referrer engagement plan, sit untouched because there’s no space to work on them.

I’m not saying urgent requests shouldn’t happen. Client work comes first, and opportunities need quick turnarounds. But when everything is urgent and nothing is planned, we lose the ability to be proactive.

What I really need:

Time with you, not to take up hours, but to align. Help me understand:

• Your goals for the quarter
• The big-picture vision for where the firm is heading
• What you think success looks like
• Which opportunities are genuinely priorities versus nice-to-haves

I also need some consistency in the feedback loop. When we produce something, let me know whether it worked. Not just “fine, thanks”, but genuine insight. Did that proposal help win the pitch? Did that article generate any conversations? Did anyone mention our recent campaign?

This feedback helps me improve what we do next. Without it, I’m guessing. And when I guess wrong, we’ve wasted time and budget.

I need authority to push back sometimes, not because I don’t want to help, but because I can see when we’re spreading ourselves too thin or duplicating effort. If you trust me to manage the function, trust me when I say “we need to focus” or “this isn’t the right approach”.

That way, I can make sure the team is working on the right things, not just the loudest things.

Sincerely, Your Manager

From your Marketing and BD Director

“We need to be seen as part of the leadership conversation.”

Dear Partner,

I’m here to help drive growth, not just run campaigns. But too often, marketing and BD are treated as support functions, not strategic partners.

We get invited after decisions are made. We’re expected to report on results, but not involved in shaping the plan. We’re held accountable for lead generation, but don’t have access to the full client lifecycle data.

Here’s a scenario you might recognise: the firm decides to launch a new service line. The decision gets made in a partner meeting. Weeks later, I’m told “we need marketing materials for this new service”. But by then, the positioning is already set, the pricing is decided, and the target market is assumed rather than researched.

I’m left trying to market something I don’t fully understand, to an audience nobody has properly defined, with messages that haven’t been tested.

Then six months later, when the service hasn’t gained traction, marketing gets questioned. But we were never set up to succeed because we weren’t part of the strategic conversation from the beginning.

Here’s the truth: we can’t influence what we’re not part of.

I have perspective you might not have. I understand what messages are resonating in the market right now. I know what your competitors are doing and saying. I can see where there are gaps in your positioning that might be confusing potential clients. I have insight into which sectors are engaging with your content and which are ignoring you.

But if I’m only brought in to execute, not to inform, you’re not getting the full value of what marketing and BD leadership should provide.

Let’s change that:

Involve marketing and BD early, in service line planning, in board discussions, in fee earner development. Let us help define how the firm shows up in the market, not just package it afterward.

When you’re planning your strategic priorities, we should be in that conversation. When you’re discussing which sectors to target, we should have a voice. When you’re reviewing why certain pitches failed, we should be helping analyse what happened.

We can’t fix BD in isolation. We need:

• Aligned messaging across all client touchpoints
• Shared ownership of growth, not just marketing being responsible for leads while fee earners do their own thing
• Access to the data and conversations that help us understand what’s actually driving decisions
• Time in the room where decisions are made, so we can contribute properly

I also need you to trust our expertise. You wouldn’t tell your tax specialists how to structure a transaction. You wouldn’t instruct your litigators on courtroom strategy. But marketing advice gets overruled because everyone has an opinion on what makes “good” marketing.

I’m not saying personal preferences don’t matter. But when strategic recommendations get dismissed because “I don’t like blue” or “I don’t use LinkedIn so our clients probably don’t either”, we’re not having professional conversations about what will actually work.

We don’t want a seat at the table for the sake of it. We want it so we can deliver more value.

Sincerely, Your Director

A final word

If you’re reading this, you care. You want marketing and BD to work.

Let’s make it a two-way conversation. Not just briefs and requests, but collaboration and planning. Not just outputs, but outcomes. Not just doing things, but doing the right things, together.

This doesn’t require dramatic changes. It starts with:

• Including marketing and BD in strategic conversations earlier
• Being clear about priorities and what success looks like
• Creating space for questions and honest feedback
• Trusting the expertise you’ve hired
• Treating marketing and BD as partners in growth, not just service providers

The firms that get the best results from their marketing and BD teams are the ones that genuinely involve them. They share information freely. They welcome challenge and input. They measure success together.

Your team wants to help you succeed. We just need you to help us do that effectively.

Signed, Your marketing and BD team

Need help?

If you would like help with your marketing, bringing on a marketing consultant with a fresh pair of eyes can make all the difference. I work with B2B businesses and professional service firms in London, Kent, the UK, and Europe, specialising as a legal marketing consultant. Please get in touch or book a free 30-minute consultation.

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