Stop asking partners to do business development
If I had a pound for every time I’ve heard someone say “the partners need to do more business development”, I’d probably be writing this from a beach somewhere.
It’s a frustration you’ll hear all over professional services firms. Your marketing team says it, your BD team says it, the managing partner says it. Sometimes the partners say it about themselves.
The assumption is nearly always the same: if only partners spent more time on business development, the firm would win more work.
But after years of working with firms like yours, I’ve come to a different conclusion.
Most partners already know they should be doing business development. The problem isn’t awareness. It’s that most firms make business development far harder than it needs to be.
So let’s look at why telling people to do more rarely works, and what to do instead.
Telling partners to do more business development doesn’t work
Let’s be honest. Your partners aren’t short of things to do.
They’re managing clients, delivering work, leading teams, hitting fee targets, managing risk, supporting colleagues and firefighting operational issues. And somewhere in amongst all that, they’re expected to build relationships, spot opportunities, cross-sell, attend events, write articles, speak on panels and keep a LinkedIn presence ticking over.
So when you tell a partner to “do more BD”, they usually hear one thing: another item on an already impossible list. The result is guilt, frustration, a bit of quiet resistance, and very little actual change.
Turning up the pressure almost never turns up the activity. If anything, it does the opposite.
The barriers are practical, not personal
There’s a tendency to assume that partners who aren’t doing business development simply don’t want to. In my experience, that’s rarely the real story.
The barriers are usually far more practical. Some partners don’t know where to focus, some genuinely can’t find the time, some aren’t confident networking, and some just don’t enjoy talking about themselves. Plenty have never had a scrap of formal BD training, and many aren’t sure how to turn the odd good conversation into something consistent.
Yet the typical response is to repeat the same message, “do more BD”, without ever tackling the things actually getting in the way. It’s a bit like telling someone to swim more while ignoring the fact they’ve never been shown how.
Business development needs structure
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is treating business development as something separate from the day job. Something that happens once the “real” work is done. Something to be squeezed into the gaps that never appear.
The firms that do this well take the opposite approach. They build structure around it, help partners identify their target clients and sectors, create simple plans, set clear priorities and offer practical support. Above all, they make business development feel achievable, because when something feels manageable, people actually do it.
Here’s a practical starting point. Instead of a vague “build your network”, help each partner pick five to ten named clients or contacts to focus on over the next quarter. A short, specific list beats a grand ambition every time, because they can see exactly who to call.
Support beats pressure, every time
Your marketing and BD team probably spends a lot of energy encouraging partners to get involved. The real question is whether that energy would be better spent supporting them instead.
Rather than asking a partner to write an article, could someone interview them for twenty minutes and draft it for them? Instead of telling them to network more, could you pick out the two or three events genuinely worth their time and line up introductions in advance? Rather than encouraging “cross-selling” in the abstract, could you bring them a specific opportunity with a specific client and talk it through?
The most successful firms remove friction wherever they can. They don’t just tell people what to do, they make it easier to do it. Every barrier you take away is one less reason for a busy partner to put it off.
Build habits, not one-off events
Business development is often approached as a series of big, occasional efforts. Attend the conference. Deliver the talk. Host the client dinner. Launch the campaign.
Those things have their place. But sustainable business development almost always comes from small actions repeated consistently. Checking in with a client. Making an introduction. Sharing something genuinely useful. Following up properly after a meeting. Asking a better question. Spotting a chance to connect two people who should know each other.
On their own, these look insignificant. Over time, they build the relationships and the trust that win work. The goal isn’t to turn every partner into a rainmaker overnight. It’s to help them develop habits that fit naturally into a normal working day.
A simple nudge that works well here: encourage each partner to end every client meeting by asking themselves one question, “who else would benefit from knowing this person, and what’s my reason to be back in touch?” It takes seconds, and it keeps relationships moving rather than going cold.
Make it part of the job, not an optional extra
Part of the reason business development struggles is that it’s treated as important but not urgent. And we all know what happens to important but non-urgent tasks. They slide.
The firms that crack this build a culture where business development is simply part of professional life. Not a separate activity, not a monthly target that appears and then vanishes. Just part of how people work.
They stay curious about their clients, treat relationship-building as a priority, not an afterthought. They celebrate collaboration and cross-referral when it happens, so people see it valued. And they recognise that business development isn’t the job of a motivated few. It’s something the whole firm contributes to, in small ways, all the time.
Final thoughts
The answer to better business development isn’t telling your partners to do more of it. Most of them already know it matters.
The real challenge is helping them do it in a way that feels practical, structured and achievable. Pressure rarely creates lasting change. Support does.
So if you want your partners to be more active in business development, stop asking them to do more. Start making it easier for them to succeed.
Because the firms that win the most work aren’t necessarily the ones with the most motivated partners. They’re the ones that have built the right environment, support and habits to make business development part of everyday practice. And that part, unlike a partner’s diary, is something you can actually change.
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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