may2021 - 23

BRIDGING THE GAP
Creating a Business Development
Pipeline That Works
JON HUBBARD
Shareholder/Consultant, Boomer Consulting, Inc.
In many firms, the business development process can best be described as " throw things
at the wall and see what sticks. " This kind of business development doesn't involve a lot
of planning and results in a lot of wasted time spent on nurturing the wrong prospects,
confusing potential clients, and building proposals with very little idea of whether you have
a chance of closing the deal. A business development pipeline can solve this problem.
Essentially, a business development pipeline is a way
of moving prospects through stages, from discovering your
firm to closing the deal. If your busy team is juggling many
prospects and other responsibilities, it can be easy to have
one or more fall through the cracks. Having a pipeline helps
you easily track each lead, sell to new prospects systematically
and run a more efficient and profitable firm.
While there is no set standard for creating your pipeline,
and every firm may do it differently, the following five
phases are a good place to start.
PHASE 1: DISCOVERY
The discovery phase begins as soon as a potential client
discovers your services - usually when your marketing
efforts generate interest and create a lead for the sales
team. At this point, you should have a Discovery Call
with the potential client to:
■ Answer their initial questions
■ Gain an understanding of their pain points
■ Gain an understanding of their decision-making process
■ Match the prospect's needs to your capabilities
The discovery phase qualifies potential leads to ensure
you aren't wasting time on prospects who can't or won't
engage your firm, who might be wrong for your services
or cause problems down the line.
PHASE 2: DEEP DIVE
During the Deep Dive phase, you have a more in-depth
conversation with the prospect about their pain points
and exactly what problems they need you to solve.
Sometimes, clients aren't really clear on what their
problems are. During this phase, you ask detailed questions
to pinpoint the problem, collaboratively develop a game
plan to solve them and discuss your process and pricing.
PHASE 3: DECISION MAKING
By the end of the Deep Dive phase, your prospect
should have all of the information they need to make
a decision. Now it's up to them to work through their
own decision-making process. They may compare your
offering to other firms or solutions.
Your role during this phase is to follow up with the
prospect at the pre-scheduled time and be available to ask
any additional questions that might arise.
PHASE 4: AWAITING SIGNATURE
Once the client agrees to engage with your firm, you
send the contract or engagement letter and wait for
them to sign it. You may need to follow up with the
client to ensure you get the signed contract or engagement
letter back before beginning work.
PHASE 5: CLOSE
At the end of the business development pipeline, you've
either won or lost the client. Either way, you need to
ensure you communicate with the appropriate parties.
If you didn't win the client, it's always a smart idea to
find out why. This feedback can help you look for ways to
continuously improve your business development process.
Even minuscule increases in your conversion rate at each
stage can lead to big results further down the pipeline.
If you win the client, build scheduling next year's work
into your business development process to win again. This
helps ensure you have recurring clients, which is especially
helpful for advisory and consulting services.
Your firm's business development pipeline may look different,
but no matter how you structure it, you should have
defined steps. Ensure you know which conditions must be
satisfied for the prospect to move to the next phase of the
pipeline. Otherwise, your team may not know which step
the client is in. It can be embarrassing to send a prospect
an engagement letter for signature when in reality, you
still need to have a deep dive conversation to find out what
they really need.
Once you've created a business development pipeline
for your firm, don't be afraid to revise it if it seems like
your pipeline needs fewer or more stages. Honing it will
make it more effective, which will help your firm meet its
growth goals. ■
MAY 2021 ■ www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
23

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of may2021