A working definition of business development intelligence
Why relationship-led firms need a different category of software from CRM, and what business development intelligence actually consists of.
6 min read
Resources
Working notes on how firms win work.
Short, practical guides for partners and business development leaders, no gate, no form, no fluff.
Prefer slides? Twelve of these guides are condensed into a swipeable deck, built for sharing with the partnership.
01Foundations
From market signal to pursuit: an operating model
The ten-step path a well-run firm takes from noticing a market signal to running a resourced pursuit, and where the path usually breaks.
7 min read
02Relationships
Relationship coverage beats contact lists
A contact database tells you who exists. Coverage tells you who owns each relationship, how strong it is, and which decision-makers nobody has a route to.
5 min read
Ask partners only for what they uniquely know
BD systems fail in professional firms when they tax fee earners with clerical work. The fix is a strict division of labour.
4 min read
The shortest route in is usually two desks away
Firms carry far more relationship capital than they can see. The waste is not knowing who already knows whom.
4 min read
Account plans that survive Monday morning
Most key account plans are written for a review meeting and die there. A live plan is short, owned and checked against actions.
4 min read
Key person risk works both ways
Firms track which clients depend on one partner. Fewer notice which revenues depend on one relationship on the client side.
4 min read
Cross-selling fails as an aspiration
Every multi-service firm wants its clients to buy more services. Wanting is not a mechanism.
5 min read
Dormant clients are warm, not cold
The cheapest pipeline in the firm is sitting in accounts that simply stopped calling. Reactivation is a system, not an apology.
4 min read
The referral network you cannot see
Every relationship-led firm runs on referrals it never records. How to make partner and firm referral routes visible, and reciprocal.
6 min read
The first meeting is rarely the first touch
Warm introductions look like luck. They are usually the visible end of a path you could have mapped. How to find the route in.
6 min read
When two partners know the same client
Overlapping relationships are an asset, not a problem, until turf instinct turns them into one. How to coordinate coverage without the politics.
6 min read
The handover that quietly loses the account
Accounts rarely leave in a moment. They drift after a partner moves on and the relationship was never transferred. How to make succession a plan, not an accident.
6 min read
03Pipeline & forecasting
A weighted pipeline is a promise about behaviour
Stage probabilities are not decoration. They are the firm agreeing what a stage means, and then being held to it.
4 min read
Pursuits rarely die, they drift
Few opportunities are lost in a decisive moment. Most fade through weeks of nobody quite owning the next move.
4 min read
Forecast with a floor, a likely case and an upside
A single revenue number invites argument. A range with named contents invites management.
4 min read
The pipeline review that earns its hour
Most pipeline reviews are status theatre. Here is an agenda that forces decisions, reallocates effort, and sends people out with actions.
6 min read
Capacity is a pipeline input
Winning work you cannot deliver is not a win. Why delivery capacity belongs in qualification, and how to weight a pipeline you can actually service.
6 min read
04Bids & tenders
Bid/no-bid is a portfolio decision, not a bravery test
Firms lose margin one reasonable-sounding bid at a time. The fix is deciding across the portfolio, with the reasons recorded.
5 min read
Framework renewals are won a year early
By the time the re-procurement notice appears, the incumbents and challengers have mostly already sorted themselves. Positioning is a calendar discipline.
5 min read
Win/loss reviews that change next quarter
Most loss reviews produce a story. Useful ones produce a decision that is checked ninety days later.
5 min read
The tender is the exam, not the course
If the first conversation happens after the notice is published, you are sitting an exam for a course someone else taught.
4 min read
Evidence rots quietly
Case studies age, CVs drift out of date, accreditations expire. Untended, the proof library becomes a liability with a search box.
4 min read
Losing well: the debrief you are owed
A lost bid has one remaining asset: the evaluator's candour. Most firms leave it uncollected.
4 min read
Qualifying out is a growth strategy
A disciplined no protects win rate, capacity and morale. Why the bids you decline matter as much as the ones you chase.
6 min read
What a framework position is actually worth
Winning a place on a framework is the start, not the prize. How to value a position honestly and work it once you are on.
7 min read
The true cost of a bid nobody counts
Bids feel free because the hours are already paid for. Counting the real cost of a pursuit changes what you chase, and what you walk away from.
7 min read
05Market intelligence
Reading planning activity before it becomes a tender
For built-environment firms, the public planning system is a broadcast of future procurement. Most of the market is not listening.
5 min read
Competitor intelligence, from public records only
You do not need gossip to know your rivals. Award notices, planning documents and framework lists say plenty, legitimately.
4 min read
Which market signals are noise
A feed of everything is a feed of nothing. How scoring signals against real capability turns market noise into a shortlist of pursuits.
6 min read
06Leadership
What the board actually asks about BD
Five questions recur in every boardroom. A BD function earns credibility by answering them from records, not recollection.
4 min read
BD metrics for firms that do not run a sales floor
Borrowed SaaS metrics measure the wrong things in a partnership. Count what predicts won work in a relationship-led firm.
5 min read
A BD director's first ninety days in a professional firm
You inherit spreadsheets, folklore and polite scepticism. The sequence that works: see, then standardise, then systematise.
5 min read
Run the partnership meeting from one number
Partners will trust a single honest pipeline figure long before they trust a slide of caveats. How to build the number they believe.
7 min read
Sector focus beats sector spread
A firm that competes everywhere competes nowhere with conviction. How to choose the sectors you own, and have the discipline to decline the rest.
7 min read
07New guides
See what a connected business development process could look like for your firm.
Book a demonstration based on your industry, team structure and current approach to managing relationships and opportunities.