The value of events for effective business development in professional services

Business development (BD) professionals have all had the same thought, ‘There’s a full pipeline today, but where are my leads going to come from in 6-12 months from now?’

Averting the feast-famine cycle is one of the most valuable things any BD person can do. Being able to forecast potential new business over longer periods accurately allows for more achievable target setting and enables you to tell your seniors, “Here’s the business I predict will come in in the next 6-12 months – and here’s why.”

The question is, how do we do that? A calendar of engaging events can provide the answer.

In this blog, we explore the strategic value of online and in-person events for BD pipelines, how to maximise their value and why you should:

1. Aim for a mix of online and in-person events
2. Consider when and where you host them
3. Build events around subjects that are topical, interesting and valuable
4. Create a considered follow-up strategy for people who attended and didn’t
5. Use events as stage posts across the year, allowing you to predict future opportunities

Why events?

Events are a tried and tested method for building relationships, growing credibility and showcasing knowledge for professional firms. They achieve this by:

1. Getting several key prospects, clients and referrers in the same room or on a Zoom call.
2. Allowing you to speak to people about their challenges in an environment where those conversations flow naturally.
3. Allowing you and your firm an opportunity to showcase your expertise, experience and share knowledge.
4. Generating a data set of warm leads for targeted follow-up comms.

People appreciate being invited to events where they can learn something and meet their peers and competitors. There’s also something flattering about being chosen to attend an invite-only event. We all like to feel that we’re part of something exclusive.

If you’re thinking about running an event, here’s a basic checklist of what you need to consider:

1. An event that covers a topic that is relevant, timely and valuable for attendees.
2. A personal invite that shows the invitee you’re asking them personally to join, and that you understand who they are and their sector in the first line of the invite.
3. A time and location that is convenient for your audience. You’re less likely to get flocks of people attending your event on a Friday evening or weekend.

When, where and how often?

Knowing when, where and how often to host events is crucial, but it is an inexact science. If your firm has never hosted an event before, don’t plan more than one or two ahead. If event planning is already a key part of your BD strategy, you might want 6-12 months of events in the diary.

Let’s look at each in turn:

When

A good rule for many events is to plan them around mealtimes. A firm we work with runs seminars bookended by breakfast and lunch. Others have organised evening dinners with keynote speakers at a local, high-class restaurant or hotel.

Meals are a great way to start conversations. Food lowers social barriers; people feel more relaxed and less exposed, which lubricates conversation, whether personal or professional.

Where

Where you host an event depends on where your firm is based and where your market is.

If you’re a South West firm, serving South West clients, find somewhere that’s easy for your clients and future clients to get to… in the South West. If you’re a larger firm with a national or international scope, there’s little point looking anywhere outside of London’s Zone 1.

Earlier this year, we ran an event on the importance of balancing AI + EI within the professional services in an open discussion with key leaders across the full sweep of BD. We ran this event just off Oxford Circus, because it felt natural to host a discussion about such an important topic for the sector in the heart of the capital.

How often

Your end goal should be to have a full calendar of events, which you can use as staging posts for your BD activity, no matter the cadence at which they take place throughout the year.

At least one or two per quarter gives you a natural, well-paced cycle to get invites out, build relationships with invitees, host the event and follow up.

Online vs in-person

Online events, like webinars, or in-person roundtables or seminars, each have their pros and cons, so it’s best to aim for a mix of the two. Here’s a quick rundown of the pros and cons of each:

The all-important follow-up

One of the most under-appreciated elements of events for BD is the all-important follow-up.

Whether a registrant has attended, not attended, loved the event or was left feeling uninspired, there’s a BD opportunity to follow up.

1. For attendees, reference a conversation you had and ‘play back’ some of what was said, showing you listened to and remember them.
2. For no-shows, offer to bring a slice of the highlights directly to them in a one-on-one follow-up meeting. Sometimes, the most fruitful follow-up conversations are with those who didn’t attend.
3. Even if someone left less-than-good feedback about an event you’ve run, it provides an opportunity for you to start another conversation, probe into what they didn’t like and recalibrate your message accordingly.

Crucially, by staging events throughout the year, you’ll have a constant rhythm of outreach and follow-up comms which will spark new commercial conversations and help put an end to the feast-famine cycle.

How The BD Consultancy can help your firm grow

The BD Consultancy, helps firms strengthen relationships and build new business through our Market Partnership, Interim and Training offerings. Want to learn more about us and how we can help your firm grow?