The February 2021 BD round-up

February may be a short month, but it produced a heap of useful, practical, and insightful BD, sales and marketing insights. The below articles , in the February 2021 BD round-up, cover online lead generation, which types of video content to produce, emerging sales and marketing trends, and why you should (re)invent your marketing strategies and execution.

There’s a couple more which look at the internal BD structure within professional services firms, from the need to change your client relationship partner, to how to get the most out of the internal BD team.

That’s a lot of great BD advice to take in! Below is a quick summary of the best BD articles from February,

Welcome to the February 2021 BD round-up!

Necessity is the mother of (re)invention, by Rachel Evans, Co-Founder, Stack for Business

Are you doing the same actions with your marketing efforts? Is this producing any significant results for you? The research behind this article backs up what you probably already know. Simply continuing with the same profile-raising marketing won’t convince your clients to pick you. While that may have been important when you were building your brand initially, now in the new normal, it pays to reimagine and (re)invent your marketing strategy. This excellent article gives you the ‘why’ and some tips on the ‘how’.

How Savvy Midsize Firms Increase Sales in a Virtual World, by Robert Sher, Founding Principal, CEO to CEO, Inc.

No surprise that for those who rely on face-to-face interactions with clients that the last year has made that a real challenge. In this excellent article for HBR, Robert explains that using digital for mass communications, completely misses the mark. Instead, the virtual interactions need to still be personal. There are some great stories of how sales reps have done this in this article, which you can easily adopt. Robert also looks at how you can use the new normal to improve your sales process and widen your geographic reach.

Is it time to change your Client Relationship Partner? by Sue-Ella Prodonovich

This, unsurprisingly from Sue-Ella, hits the crux of the matter. Many firms are reluctant to change the main Client Relationship Partner (CRP) for a multitude of reasons. These range from “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”, to the CRP themselves wanting to protect their hard-earned position. However, over the years, clients evolve and relationships change. There are lots of benefits to changing your CRPs, read Sue-Ella’s excellent article to find out more.

8 Types of High-Performing Video Content to Upgrade Your Marketing Strategy [Infographic], by Mark Walker-Ford, Managing Director at Red Website Design

Not really an article, but I simply had to include this infographic. Lots of B2B and professional people are understandably exploring using video content more and more. This simple infographic shows you the types you can use, and what impact they will have. Enjoy!

Thriving in 2021: the top trends for sales and marketing leaders by James Frampton, SVP & GM EMEA, SugarCRM

A lot of us have been adjusting or ‘pivoting’ what we do, and how we do it, over the last 12 months or so. Many of us want to know what the future will be and how BD, sales and marketing will change. This article provides some fantastic ideas and potential answers. One of the really interesting areas to consider is how virtual reality will help to boost sales.

‘Too many lists and brochures’ – law firms urged to reset relationship between lawyers and BD teams,by Katie Dignan & Stephen Revell, Lexington consultants, summary by John Malpas, The Global Legal Post

This article summarises a video interview, in which Katie and Stephen talk about the frustrations of many BD professionals within law firms, whose skills are not being used to the fullest by their employers. I strongly suspect that this is the case in many professional services firms, not just the legal industry. The solution? I think an open honest conversation between BD and the firm’s leaders around their desired goals, and the best way of using the undoubted skills of the BD function to help drive the firm there.

10 Online Lead Generation Techniques for Professional Services, by Lee Frederiksen, Hinge

Another great article from Lee and the awesome Hinge team. This one’s title speaks for itself. If you want to move your online activity from a static online brochure, then red this article and follow the 10 steps. It will definitely improve your results.

Conclusion

2021 is not the year where under-investment in marketing and doing the “same old, same old” will produce results. Instead, you’ll need to rethink what you do, employ some new BD and marketing strategies and above all else, get the absolute maximum you can out of the resources you have at your disposal.

The articles in the February 2021 BD round-up, provide you with great help and guidance with that.