In many professional service firms, business development planning happens in its own bubble. Partners and BD teams gather to discuss growth targets, sector opportunities and client relationships, often without marketing in the room.

On paper, it might seem logical. BD owns the relationships, after all. But this siloed approach leaves untapped opportunities on the table and can dilute the effectiveness of even the best-laid BD plans.

When marketing has a seat at the table, your firm benefits from a broader, more connected view of what’s possible. Without them, you risk missing overlaps, duplicating effort, and losing sight of the bigger picture that could transform your growth strategy.

The cost of leaving marketing on the sidelines

When marketing is excluded from BD planning, firms often experience problems that could have been easily avoided. These issues don’t just impact efficiency; they can significantly undermine your competitive position and waste valuable resources.

Missed campaign overlap across practice areas

Marketing can spot common themes across sectors or services and turn them into firmwide campaigns that amplify your message. Without their input, opportunities for cross-promotion go unnoticed, and you end up with multiple small campaigns instead of one powerful, coordinated effort.

For example, your employment team might be planning content about workplace changes, whilst your corporate team is developing material about business restructuring. Marketing can see that both topics appeal to the same audience of business leaders dealing with organisational change, creating an opportunity for a comprehensive campaign that serves both practice areas.

Fragmented messaging that confuses your audience

Different practice areas may be talking to the same audience with different messages, creating confusion and weakening your brand. When your corporate finance team describes your firm as “innovative and forward-thinking” whilst your litigation team positions you as “traditional and trusted”, potential clients receive mixed signals about who you really are.

Marketing brings consistency to your messaging, ensuring that all practice areas reinforce the same core brand values whilst maintaining their specific expertise positioning. This creates a stronger, more memorable impression in the minds of your target audience.

Duplication of effort and spend

Separate teams may commission similar content, attend the same events, or target the same contacts without coordination, doubling cost without doubling impact. You might discover that three different practice areas have each paid for research reports on business confidence, or that multiple partners are speaking at different sessions of the same conference without coordinating their messages.

Marketing can identify these overlaps before they happen, helping you consolidate spending and create more impactful initiatives. Instead of three separate research projects, you could commission one comprehensive study that positions your firm as the definitive voice on the topic.

Lost visibility of firmwide opportunities

Marketing can connect the dots between sector insights, client needs and market trends that individual practice areas might miss. They have a helicopter view of what’s happening across your entire client base and can spot patterns that create opportunities for the whole firm.

They might notice that clients across multiple sectors are all dealing with similar regulatory changes, creating an opportunity for a cross-sector campaign. Or they might identify that several practice areas are seeing increased demand from the same geographic region, suggesting the need for a coordinated market entry strategy.

What marketing brings to BD planning

A skilled marketing function isn’t just there to make things look good or create pretty brochures. They bring data, market insight and campaign expertise that can fundamentally strengthen your BD plans and improve your results.

A cross-practice perspective that identifies synergies

Marketing works across the whole firm, giving them visibility into sector and service priorities that individual teams might not see. They can identify overlaps where campaigns can be combined for greater impact, themes that resonate across multiple practice areas, and opportunities for partners to collaborate on business development initiatives.

This perspective is particularly valuable when you’re trying to break into new markets or sectors. Marketing can see which existing expertise and relationships can be leveraged to support the expansion, rather than starting from scratch.

Data-driven decision making that improves targeting

From website analytics to CRM reports, marketing can show which channels and content types are generating the most engagement and where BD should focus their efforts. They can tell you which sectors are showing the most interest in your content, which services are generating the most enquiries, and which marketing channels are delivering the highest-quality leads.

This data helps BD teams prioritise their time and effort on the activities most likely to generate results. Instead of attending networking events because “that’s what we’ve always done”, you can focus on the channels and tactics that actually work for your target audience.

Market positioning expertise that strengthens credibility

Marketing ensures that BD activity is consistent with your brand, tone and market positioning, making your outreach more credible and recognisable. They understand how your firm should sound and feel in the market, and can guide BD teams to communicate in a way that reinforces your competitive position.

This is particularly important when partners are speaking at events, writing articles, or engaging on social media. Marketing can provide messaging frameworks and content guidelines that help everyone communicate consistently whilst maintaining their individual expertise and personality.

Campaign coordination that maximises budget efficiency

Marketing can design integrated campaigns that support multiple BD priorities whilst maximising budget efficiency. Rather than running separate initiatives for each practice area, they can create campaigns that work across the business, sharing costs and amplifying impact.

They can also coordinate timing to avoid market fatigue. Instead of bombarding your target audience with multiple messages from different parts of your firm, marketing can orchestrate a sequence of communications that builds awareness and engagement over time.

How to involve marketing in BD planning effectively

Bringing marketing into BD planning doesn’t mean adding more meetings for the sake of it. It’s about creating purposeful collaboration that saves time and delivers better results for everyone involved.

Start with the annual planning process

Invite marketing to annual BD planning sessions for each sector and practice area. This gives them insight into priorities and goals from the outset, rather than trying to retrofit marketing support around plans that are already set in stone.

During these sessions, marketing can share insights about market trends, competitive activity, and audience behaviour that inform BD strategy. They can also identify opportunities for collaboration between different practice areas or sectors.

Share information systematically

Ensure that marketing has access to sector and service BD plans so they can map overlaps and identify shared themes. Create a simple template that captures key information: target audience, key messages, planned activities, budget allocation, and success metrics.

This information sharing should go both ways. Marketing should also share their insights about audience behaviour, content performance, and market trends with BD teams, so everyone has access to the same intelligence.

Review and adjust regularly

Schedule quarterly reviews of campaign plans to adjust priorities based on results and changing business needs. These sessions should focus on what’s working, what isn’t, and where resources should be reallocated for maximum impact.

Use these reviews to celebrate successes and learn from challenges. If a particular approach isn’t working, the combined BD and marketing team can quickly pivot to more effective tactics.

Align metrics and measurement

Give marketing access to BD metrics so they can align their activity with commercial outcomes. This might include pipeline value, conversion rates, and client acquisition costs by source. Similarly, BD teams should have access to marketing metrics like website traffic, content engagement, and lead quality scores.

When everyone is working towards the same goals and measuring success in the same way, collaboration becomes much more natural and effective.

Create communication channels that work

Establish regular communication channels that don’t add unnecessary bureaucracy. This might be a monthly update email, a shared project management system, or brief weekly check-ins between BD and marketing leaders.

The key is to create systems that facilitate information sharing without becoming a burden. The goal is better coordination, not more administration.

Practical steps to get started

If your firm currently keeps BD and marketing separate, here’s how to start bringing them together:

Begin with a pilot project

Choose one sector or practice area to test the integrated approach. This allows you to demonstrate value without disrupting existing processes across the entire firm. Select an area where there’s already good cooperation between BD and marketing, or where there’s a clear opportunity for improvement.

Document the process and results so you can share learnings with other parts of the firm. This evidence-based approach makes it easier to expand the model more widely.

Map your current activities

Create a simple overview of current BD and marketing activities across the firm. Look for overlaps, gaps, and opportunities for better coordination. This mapping exercise often reveals surprising duplications and missed opportunities that provide compelling reasons for closer collaboration.

Establish clear roles and responsibilities

Define how BD and marketing will work together, including decision-making processes, budget responsibilities, and accountability for results. Clarity about roles prevents confusion and conflict later on.

Invest in the right tools and systems

Ensure that both BD and marketing teams have access to the same CRM systems, analytics tools, and project management platforms. Shared systems make collaboration much easier and more effective.

Train teams on collaborative working

Provide training to help BD and marketing teams understand each other’s priorities, constraints, and capabilities. BD professionals might not understand the time required for content creation, whilst marketing teams might not appreciate the relationship-building aspects of professional services BD.

The long-term benefits of integration

When BD and marketing work together effectively, the benefits extend far beyond immediate campaign results. You create a more coordinated, professional approach to market that strengthens your competitive position over time.

Stronger market presence

Coordinated BD and marketing activities create a stronger, more consistent presence in your target markets. Instead of sporadic, disconnected touchpoints, you create a sustained drumbeat of valuable communication that keeps your firm top-of-mind.

Better resource utilisation

By avoiding duplication and focusing effort on the most effective activities, you get better results from the same budget. This improved efficiency creates capacity for additional growth initiatives or allows you to compete more effectively on price.

Enhanced reputation and credibility

Consistent messaging and professional execution across all channels enhances your firm’s reputation and credibility in the market. Clients and prospects see a well-organised, strategic approach that reflects positively on your ability to handle their business.

Improved measurement and accountability

When BD and marketing work together, it becomes much easier to track the client journey from initial awareness through to instruction. This improved measurement helps you understand what’s really driving growth and where to invest for maximum impact.

The truth is, leaving marketing out of BD planning isn’t just an oversight; it’s a missed opportunity that could be costing your firm significant growth potential. When marketing has a seat at the table, your firm benefits from joined-up campaigns across the business, stronger and more consistent messaging, better use of budget and resources, and a clearer link between activity and results.

The most effective BD plans are those built with marketing from the start, not added as an afterthought. The question is: are you ready to give marketing the seat at the table they deserve?

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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