Common BD Traps for Partners and Directors
Being a Partner/Director/Principal in a Professional Services business involves keeping many balls in the air. Hitting budgets, generating work, keeping clients happy, navigating the politics and leading teams are not easy. Below are three common BD-related traps that I see people fall into and that keep people stuck, especially when relatively new in these roles, and some ways of getting out of them. Of course, everyone is different. What is a trap for one person may not be for another. These traps can also apply to Managers in businesses who need to deliver services across their organisation.
The Confidence Trap
The Confidence Trap is thinking that you need to always feel confident in order to have good conversations with clients. Many people have imposter syndrome, particularly when new in a role. This can be problematic if it stops us having conversations with clients or if it turns our focus too much on ourselves in those conversations. A useful way to move past this is to acknowledge these feelings (which will come and go, and are often false alarms and not helpful), and make an accurate assessment of your competence: remind yourself that you (and your firm) have the competence to deliver what clients need. Once you have accepted this, your job is to forget about yourself, and focus on helping your clients – even if you don’t feel confident all the time or with every client. The maxim - “feeling like doing something is not a requirement for doing it” - applies here.
The Knowledge Trap
This trap, which I sometimes call the ego trap, goes something like “I have all the knowledge and know what clients have to do”. This can very subtlety but noticeably create distance between you and your potential clients. This is an understandable trap for some, given the emphasis that is placed on knowledge in our training and education. What this perspective misses are the nuances of a client’s problems and the importance of building trust and connections with clients. If we feel that we shouldn’t have to do B.D, we do it begrudgingly or if we aren’t asking enough questions that have us connect with and understand potential clients, then you may be in the knowledge trap . Our job is not to say what we know, but rather, to help clients identify the source of the problem and use our relationship with them, our experience and knowledge to help them solve it.
The Perfectionist Trap
This is another understandable but ineffective trap. We build our identities and careers by doing things to a high standard and want to ensure that we are doing the highest quality work. This helps keep clients satisfied, enhances our reputation and drives continuous improvement. However, it becomes a trap when we become overly focused on being ‘all-knowing’ and forget that we need to take people with us, and in doing so, dismiss the contributions of others. Focusing too much on perfection can produce fear of making mistakes and impact on the wellbeing, confidence and productivity of others. A healthier approach is to commit to high quality work, but to also think about what’s most helpful for the client. Perhaps a phone call followed up by a short email might be more useful than a PowerPoint deck or a 20 page report. In judging whether work is high quality, we are basing that on certain standards. Often those standards are applicable and need to be maintained. In those cases, it’s important to articulate those standards when delegating work, and offer support to help your people to deliver to them, which includes having the conversation in a mood that gives confidence to others. In other situations, there might be different ways of doing things - our way may not be the only way. Loosening our grip on perfection also saves time, builds confidence and competence in others, and paves the way for new ways of doing things.