By Dorothy Potash

We all understand the importance of setting goals, but often many of us do not continue digging deep enough to build the right plan that will provide the best foundational architecture to help us achieve our goals. We have to start thinking more holistically about what we want for ourselves, and amplify our goals by identifying the specific steps we will take to hit them. Otherwise, our goals become meaningless.

When creating a business development plan, one should start by identifying overarching goals. Think about what you want your practice to look like in five and 10 years. What is the landscape of that practice that you seek, and what niches or industries are you focused on? Who are the clients you want to represent, what are the most important attributes that they share, and where are they found? What type of work do you most enjoy doing that is both profitable and sustainable? Next, think about how you are currently viewed. Does “how you want to be viewed” match up with “how you are currently seen”? Identify what strengths you can leverage to help you build the practice and your place in the community that you desire. Also, list those things that are obstacles or gaps that may make it challenging for you to achieve your overarching goals. Finally, identify the immediate actions or steps required to optimize your strengths and opportunities as well as what actions you will need to take to neutralize the gaps and threats that may impede reaching your goals.

Now, let’s get more specific.

Do you want to be an equity partner? If so, do you know what is required and how you will be measured? How do you match up, and where do you have gaps? Identify a plan to fill in those gaps within a practical timeline, identify who will help you, and detail what actions you will need to take. Identify what you will need to demonstrate in billable hours and in origination? How big does your book of business need to be? In addition to breaking down your current book, you will need to have a plan for sustainable growth. You will need to identify how many clients or potential clients you need to be pitching to generate the number of opportunities that will pull in enough revenue to hit your origination goals. What is your realization rate? That will suggest how many wins you will need, how many pitches, how many opportunities, how many meetings, and so on. You will need to identify the likeliest origins of those opportunities. Not only who is most likely to hire you, but who do you know or need to know that are close to many of these organizations who may be a source of future referrals or insight. Think about all these smaller goals as helping you reach your overarching objectives.

Every hour you spend on business development must be intentional, and there must be a return on your investment of time. To realize your achievable goals, ensure that you have thought through who among your potential contacts are the most important. Identifying a bare minimum of contacts that you can consistently commit to every week – during busy season, during a big transaction – is a necessity that can help smooth out the peaks and valleys of an episodic practice.

At its core, business development is cultivating and deepening relationships to best enable one to give, to connect with, and to provide help to those who are most important. If you share time with people you like it never feels like work. If you can break down the artificial work-life boundary and incorporate business development into your overall mindset, it will become a natural part of your day. It will be more enjoyable and not the thing you know you need to do but never have time for.

A personal business development plan is really nothing more than a journey map. It starts with your goals and then identifies the people, places, activities, and investment required to get you from where you are to where you want to be.

If you want a $2 million practice made up of clients in the life science sector, then you need to identify the clients, targets, and referral sources in that world for whom you and your firm can add value. You also need to identify the individuals who can best serve all those clients, targets, and referral sources and solve their problems. One side of your network is made up of the people you most want to help, and then the other side of your network is all of the people who will best help them. It won’t, nor can it, always be you. Focus on those who you like and how you can help them, those who you know can help you or serve as coaches, those who can make introductions and assist in navigating the industry, and those who can help you build your practice. Consider the types of things you will need to do to establish yourself as an expert in the sector. Are there gaps in your skill set or in your network that may impede your growth? How much time and budget will you need to expand your skills or knowledge or to deepen the relationships with your clients, targets, and their trusted advisors. In what environments are you most confident and how can you share your passions? What do you have in common on a personal level with those in your network? Do you know enough people in other disciplines who have valuable skills that your clients will find helpful?

If public speaking is a skills gap impacting how you present to new clients or interact with boards or audit committees of your current clients, then some of your goals should address this gap. For instance, actions you could take may include spending time and money attending a workshop or working with a public speaking coach or communications consultant. If you can identify specific skills you need to master in your practice, the next step is to think about how you will acquire those skills. Are there certain partners who can assign you that kind of work to develop those skills? Do you need to do pro bono work to develop that experience?

From there, set practical goals that will help create habits. How many nonbillable standing calls can you commit to with existing clients to have conversations that may bring to light specific new opportunities or vulnerabilities in your relationship? How many face-to-face meetings can you commit to each week with potential referral sources? Then, do whatever is necessary to fill up your dance card each week to hit that number of meetings. Be sure to set a goal for each meeting and each relationship to better detail how you can best serve each relationship. It is important that each touch advances the relationship. What do you need to do, what do you need to learn, what do you need to create to add the most value to that specific relationship? How can you help them, who can you introduce them to, are they in need of information or a specific resource? When your goals are aligned with the follow-up tasks for each meeting, it creates momentum and new goals for the coming weeks and months. If it takes most people an average of 10 meaningful touches with a potential target to create an opportunity, you have to identify how to create those meaningful touches.

Plans are only forward-looking frameworks, so make sure you have a system to measure if your plan is working and identify what is and what isn’t working, where you may need to pivot, and what the real return on investment is on what you are doing. This requires an honest and in-depth review every quarter. Are the people you are spending the most time with the right people, and are you adding value to those relationships?

Even when we plan, life happens. Clients get acquired, our best referral source retires, something catastrophic happens that blows up your plan. This happens to all of us at different points in our careers. Having a plan – even a plan that was the “wrong” plan – brings comfort and organization to chaos. Sometimes, what ends up working is not what we initially planned for… we just get lucky. Though, I propose that luck is never really luck: because of our thorough planning, we put ourselves in the right place with the right people at the right time for magic to happen.

Dorothy Potash is the president and co-founder of Development Dynamx in Radnor, Pa. She can be reached at dorothy@developmentdynamx.com.

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^{Statements of fact and opinion are the authors’ responsibility alone and do not imply an opinion on the part of the PICPA's officers or members. The information contained herein does not constitute accounting, legal, or professional advice. For actionable advice, you must engage or consult with a qualified professional.}