Your Views on Practice Development in the Firm Today

Part One: About the Firm’s Activities Now

Indicate your agreement or disagreement by scoring each question using the following scale: 1 (strongly disagree); 2 (somewhat disagree); 3 (neither agree nor disagree); 4 (somewhat agree); 5 (strongly agree).

1	We devote enough time to practice development	NA	1	2	3	4	5
2	We waste significant portions of our practice development time	NA	1	2	3	4	5
3	There is enough incentive to spend time on practice development	NA	1	2	3	4	5
4	Our existing clients represent the best source of new business for us	NA	1	2	3	4	5
5	In this firm, those who are good at practice development help others acquire the necessary skills	NA	1	2	3	4	5
6	We have enough opportunities to propose our services to new clients	NA	1	2	3	4	5
7	We win an acceptable percentage of those opportunities we choose to pursue	NA	1	2	3	4	5
8	We use teamwork well in our practice development efforts	NA	1	2	3	4	5
9	We chase too many opportunities (We should pursue fewer with more concentrated effort)	NA	1	2	3	4	5
10	Our brochure(s) is effective for the purposes it is (they are) meant to serve	NA	1	2	3	4	5
11	We have a distinctive competence – in some things we can do a markedly better job than our best competition	NA	1	2	3	4	5
12	We do a good job in ensuring that, for the client, using us is a comfortable, supportive “user-friendly” experience	NA	1	2	3	4	5
13	We frequently ask satisfied clients to refer us business	NA	1	2	3	4	5
14	Our level of repeat business from existing clients is acceptable	NA	1	2	3	4	5
15	We do a good job of cross-selling in this firm	NA	1	2	3	4	5
16	Clients perceive our firm as differentiated from our major competitors in significant ways	NA	1	2	3	4	5
17	We are targeting the right kind of clients	NA	1	2	3	4	5
18	Our practice development efforts are sufficiently focused on our best opportunities	NA	1	2	3	4	5
19	We are well known in those market segments in which we are interested	NA	1	2	3	4	5
20	Practice development skills in this firm are too highly concentrated in a few people	NA	1	2	3	4	5
21	Being good at business-getting is important in getting on in this firm	NA	1	2	3	4	5

Part Two: Possible Changes

1	We should be trying to get different kinds of assignments than those we currently do	NA	1	2	3	4	5
2	We should be trying to get different kinds of clients	NA	1	2	3	4	5
3	We need to reward business getting more	NA	1	2	3	4	5
4	We need to re-allocate our practice development efforts based upon an analysis of the profitability of different kinds of work and different kinds of clients	NA	1	2	3	4	5
5	We should formally organize cross-disciplinary teams to market to specific industries	NA	1	2	3	4	5
6	In our procedures for accepting new business we should rely more on profitability or strategic considerations, i.e. turn down some business on grounds other than conflicts or credit risk	NA	1	2	3	4	5
7	The Managing Partner (or some other member of the Management Committee) should spend more time visiting the clients of other partners to obtain feedback and conduct general client relations activities	NA	1	2	3	4	5
8	We should organize more formally to develop explicit “client level” practice development plans to generate more work from key existing clients	NA	1	2	3	4	5
9	We should have a system for routinely obtaining client feedback on their satisfaction with our services	NA	1	2	3	4	5
10	We need to spend more time researching clients before proposing	NA	1	2	3	4	5
11	We need a better system for monitoring and reporting on practice development efforts ( as well as results)	NA	1	2	3	4	5
12	Our senior non-partners should be actively involved in our practice development efforts	NA	1	2	3	4	5
13	Our different practice areas need to cooperate better in the development and execution of practice development plans	NA	1	2	3	4	5
14	Partners should be required to have (and to declare to practice leaders or firm management) a personal practice development plan	NA	1	2	3	4	5
15	We need to improve our presentation skills	NA	1	2	3	4	5
16	We need to rethink how we write proposals	NA	1	2	3	4	5
17	We make too much use of standardized materials in our practice development efforts	NA	1	2	3	4	5
18	We should conduct and/or participate in a market research effort to study client perceptions of our “Image “	NA	1	2	3	4	5

Part Three: Marketing Tactics

Here is a list of possible practice development tactics. Taking into account both out-of-pocket costs and the costs of time invested, please rank these items in the order that you think we should be increasing our investment and level of activity. Place a “1” by the six tactics you think we should focus on most, a “2” by the six tactics next in priority, and a “3” by the six tactics of least importance.

Please assign exactly six “1’s”, six “2’s”, and six “3’s”.

1	Newsletters	1	2	3
2	Firm Brochures	1	2	3
3	Brochures for particular service areas	1	2	3
4	Seminars for non-clients	1	2	3
5	Community activities (churches, boards, civic activities, etc..)	1	2	3
6	Free in-house seminars for existing clients	1	2	3
7	Social activities with referral sources (“networking”)	1	2	3
8	Advertising	1	2	3
9	Public Relations	1	2	3
10	Articles in trade press of client industries	1	2	3
11	Articles in professional journals	1	2	3
12	Writing proposals	1	2	3
13	Presentations	1	2	3
14	Speeches at client industry meetings	1	2	3
15	Attendance at client industry meetings (when not on program)	1	2	3
16	Cold Calls	1	2	3
17	Direct Mail	1	2	3
18	Participation in professional association activities	1	2	3

Part Four: Possible Routes to Success

Listed below are some ways to improve practice development success. Place a “1” by the five tactics you think we should focus on most, a “2” by the five tactics next in priority, and a “3” by the five tactics of least importance.

Please assign exactly five “1’s”, five “2’s”, and five “3’s”.

1	Spend more time and money on practice development activities	1	2	3
2	Reallocate more time to marketing to existing clients, and less on new prospects	1	2	3
3	Change reward system to increase weight given to practice development success	1	2	3
4	Get more people involved in practice development activities	1	2	3
5	Improve selling skills	1	2	3
6	Focus more time on fewer opportunities	1	2	3
7	Devote more resources to generating new opportunities to present/propose/pitch	1	2	3
8	Spend more time researching prospects and their business	1	2	3
9	Spend more time on creative content of presentations/proposals/pitches	1	2	3
10	Spend more time on production values of presentations/proposals/pitches	1	2	3
11	Hire additional/different marketing specialists	1	2	3
12	Develop new services	1	2	3
13	Cross-sell other services	1	2	3
14	Generate additional PR for the office	1	2	3
15	Educate partners and non-partners in importance of new business	1	2	3

Part Five: This section is related to the way we deal with clients.

1	Our people are accessible	NA	1	2	3	4	5
2	We offer fast turnaround when requested	NA	1	2	3	4	5
3	We keep our promises on deadlines	NA	1	2	3	4	5
4	Our communications are free of jargon	NA	1	2	3	4	5
5	We keep clients sufficiently informed on progress	NA	1	2	3	4	5
6	We have a good understanding of the client’s business	NA	1	2	3	4	5
7	We listen well to what the client has to say	NA	1	2	3	4	5
8	We involve the client at major points in the engagement	NA	1	2	3	4	5
9	We let the client know in advance what we’re going to do	NA	1	2	3	4	5
10	We don’t waste the client’s time	NA	1	2	3	4	5
11	We keep the client informed on issues affecting their business	NA	1	2	3	4	5
12	We make our clients feel as if they’re important to us	NA	1	2	3	4	5
13	We show an interest in the client beyond the specifics of our tasks	NA	1	2	3	4	5
14	We don’t wait for the clients to initiate everything: we anticipate	NA	1	2	3	4	5
15	We give good explanations of what we’ve done and why	NA	1	2	3	4	5
16	We deal with problems in our relationships openly and quickly	NA	1	2	3	4	5
17	We notify the client promptly of changes in scope, and seek approval	NA	1	2	3	4	5
18	We are thorough in our approach to our work	NA	1	2	3	4	5
19	We show creativity in our proposed solutions	NA	1	2	3	4	5
20	We document our work activities well	NA	1	2	3	4	5
21	We are helpful in diagnosing the issues in the client situation	NA	1	2	3	4	5
22	We are helpful in redefining the client’s view of his situation	NA	1	2	3	4	5
23	We don’t jump to conclusions too quickly	NA	1	2	3	4	5
24	We make it our business to understand the client company	NA	1	2	3	4	5
25	We are up to date on what’s going on in the client’s world	NA	1	2	3	4	5

Part Six: About You

1	I would like to spend more time personally on practice development	NA	1	2	3	4	5
2	I would like to develop further my business-getting skills	NA	1	2	3	4	5
3	I am comfortable introducing my partners in other areas to my clients	NA	1	2	3	4	5
4	I would like some coaching in selling skills	NA	1	2	3	4	5
5	I would like some coaching in how to interview prospective clients	NA	1	2	3	4	5
6	I would like some coaching in presentation skills	NA	1	2	3	4	5
7	I have a personal list of prospective clients I am targeting	NA	1	2	3	4	5
8	I receive the guidance I need to fulfill my practice development responsibilities	NA	1	2	3	4	5

I spend _____ hours per month (on average) on some form of practice development

Of all the non-billable time I spend on any form of practice development, approximately _____ % is spent on trying to get new clients and _____ % is spent on trying to get more business from existing clients. (Must sum to 100 %)

Of all the non-billable time you spend on any form of practice development , estimate what proportion you would guess you spend targeting individual, specific clients or prospects versus time spent in “broadcast” activities trying to reach a broader audience. (Seminars, speeches, general community activities, newsletters, etc. would all constitute broadcast activities)

______% Single Prospect Efforts

______% Broadcast efforts

100 % Total

Part Seven: Final Thought

If you could spend (personally) 100 more hours in a year on some form of additional activity related to new revenue growth, how would you spend it?

The single most important thing we could do to improve our marketing efforts is:_________

The single biggest barrier for us in improving business development is:_________

Seminar Notes