Book 1 Our Firm About the Business Development Group

Transcription

1 Book 1 Our Firm About the Business Development Group The Business Development Group is a consulting firm that was formed in 1992 to assist professional service organizations with issues related to business development. The firm consists of six principals and support staff members. Services of the firm focus exclusively on business development and include: Business Development Strategies and Tactics Client Satisfaction Interviews Internal Listening External Listening/Penetration Research Information Analysis Readership Surveys and Seminar Audits Assignment Monitoring Professional Development Specific Proposal Assistance Proposal Postmortems Marketing Materials "Jeffrey and Terry brought a combination of ideas, tactics, and techniques with a presentation of energy and enthusiasm that was well received at Mayer, Brown & Platt. I'm convinced our lawyers took away clear ways to improve their skills with existing clients, as well as to approach prospective clients." Brian Smith Mayer, Brown & Platt Each of these services is described in more detail on the pages that follow.

2 Our Consulting Services Business Development Strategies and Tactics The Business Development Group has significant experience working with the managing partners, marketing directors, and senior partners to develop business development strategies game plans for an office or firm in its marketplace. "Perkins Coie has been working with the Business Development Group since 1993 We've been delighted. Our lawyers have improved their skills, had fun and consistently rated the programs among the best the firm has ever provided. Put Perkins Coie on the "Happy Client" list!!" Client Satisfaction Interviews Mary Jane Pioli Perkins Coie Knowing how your clients especially your best clients really feel about the services your firm is providing is of critical importance to a professional service firm's success. Through face-to-face interviews with the firm's best clients, the Business Development Group can provide you with a clear picture of how your client sees you, including strengths, weaknesses, and areas in need of improvement. Internal Listening What lawyer, accountant, or consultant doesn't have an opinion about how the firm should be approaching business development? The Business Development Group provides an outlet for their concerns, acting as an impartial, confidential synthesizer (and protector from potential repercussions). This information is summarized in a confidential report. "Jeffrey Horn is one of those rare talents you meet only a few times in your life. He is smart, dynamic, and lives and breathes business development. He has made a major impact on the way in which the lawyers at Sills Cummis approach business development." External Listening/Penetration Research SM Carol J. Allen Kaye, Scholer (formerly with Sills Cummis) Just think how invaluable the knowledge would be of the image of your firm and its competitors, as well as the future professional service needs of major organizations in your marketplace both clients and prospects. As objective outside researchers, the Business Development Group can interview your prospects and/or clients and provide you with powerful data from the marketplace as it relates to you, your competitors, and the marketplace's plans for the future. Book 1 - Our Firm Page 2

3 Information Analysis The Business Development Group has significant experience analyzing call reports, new business tracking systems output, proposals, etc., and providing our clients with ideas for improvement. Readership Surveys and Seminar Audits Have you ever wondered about the effectiveness of your mailings and seminars? Given the significant investment of both time and money in these two business development efforts, the Business Development Group is ready to help you determine if you're getting your money's worth from these avenues. We can also assess the marketplace perception of your programs and how they might be improved. "We had three goals: immediate-return ideas, inspiration for innovative thinking, and a shared good time. We got all three this was not cookie-cutter consulting. The Business Development Group's "Out-of-the-Box" program was perfectly tailored to our needs our audience was engaged from beginning to end." Assignment Monitoring Cherie W. Olland Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue Implementing a plan is more difficult than designing one. By helping you around the roadblocks, through the construction zone, over the speed bumps, and out of the traffic jams, we can monitor your progress along the road to success. At an interval you determine (e.g., 3 months, 6 months, annually), we will review your actual achievements versus your goals and provide realistic guidance and assistance that will get you back on track. Professional Development The Business Development Group provides customized training programs to best meet the needs of our clients. The 80+ training programs we have conducted focus on two specific areas of business development: Building Client Relationships. We work with groups of approximately 25 focusing on how to super-please existing clients and convert prospects into clients. Breakthrough Training. We assist a small group of senior professionals in developing strategies for specific prospects. Each participant can expect to develop an action plan for converting one or two prospects into clients. "Working with the Business Development Group has really helped me sharpen the practice development/business development training for our professionals. He's added value, and we've had fun." Book 1 - Our Firm Page 3

4 Jim Hale Ernst & Young Specific Proposal Assistance The Business Development Group has presented workshops on how to produce winning and creative proposals. Prior to the workshop, the Business Development Group reviews earlier proposals and conducts postmortems. Other proposal assistance includes strategy, peer reviews, and presentation rehearsal critiques. Proposal Postmortems Don't you want to know why you won or lost on your proposal efforts? The Business Development Group can help you by interviewing proposal recipients to find out what you did right or wrong, what your competition did right or wrong, and what was best overall and why. This information is consistently shared more openly and directly with outside researchers. Marketing Materials "I thought the information the Business Development Group gathered in a whirlwind tour (28 meetings in one week) was very good marketing intelligence, very useful, and helped us formulate approaches to both prospects and existing clients where there were some issues." Frank Loewald Towers Perrin/New York The Business Development Group, with its significant experience helping other professional service firms develop their marketing materials, can help your firm develop truly memorable marketing materials designed to close the gap between your firm's ideal image and the marketplace's perceptions. Book 1 - Our Firm Page 4

5 The Professionals of the Business Development Group Jeffrey M. Horn Prior to establishing the firm in 1992, Mr. Horn was the National Business Development Director and a Managing Director for William M. Mercer, a management consulting firm with 8,000 employees worldwide. Before that, Mr. Horn was a Vice President and National Practice Leader for Towers Perrin, another management consulting firm with 8,000 employees nationwide. A 1973 graduate of the University of California at Davis, Mr. Horn earned a Master of Arts Degree in Interpersonal Communication from California State University in In 1986, Mr. Horn graduated from the Yale Management Program. Mr. Horn is a member of the Board of Directors of InfoBeat an Internet media company with three million subscribers and also serves as the Chairman of the Compensation Committee of that Board. He is also on the Board of Directors of Design & Image, a graphic design firm formerly on the Inc. 500 list. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and has spoken at gatherings of NALFMA, IFEBP, SHRM, AMA, ACA, IABC, the State Capital Law Firm Group, and the Association for Accounting Marketing. Donald K. Spies "Jeffrey brought a freshness and insight to our prospecting and client relationships in Australia. The feedback on our prospects was extremely useful; the training sessions were some of the best we have had. He listened to our needs and concerns and tailored his input to help us." Chris Haberecht Towers Perrin-Melbourne Donald K. Spies joined the Business Development Group at the end of 1996, following a very successful 32-year career with Towers Perrin where he advanced from Consultant to Managing Director of all of Towers Perrin's operations in the Western United States. His responsibilities included both consulting and new business development. He served on the firm's Board of Directors and U.S. Business Council. Prior to joining Towers Perrin, he was a group insurance and pension representative with Connecticut General and Bankers Life. Mr. Spies attended Columbia University and graduated from Case Western Reserve University in In 1986, he was his company's participant in the Stanford University Executive Program. Book 1 - Our Firm Page 5

6 Terence P. Boyle Mr. Boyle has approximately 20 years experience in the legal profession. Mr. Boyle was a partner in a national law firm practicing in its Washington, D.C., and Denver, Colorado, offices and had management and marketing responsibilities in both offices. In addition, Mr. Boyle has been the chief financial and chief operating officer of several significant manufacturing firms. In those capacities, his responsibilities have included not only financial and operating issues, but also sales and marketing responsibilities. Mr. Boyle graduated cum laude from Boston College with a Bachelor of Science Degree and obtained his Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center in "The Business Development Group has provided us with, in Vancouver and San Francisco, very good data that is well summarized and gives us a good leg up when we are next approaching these clients and/or prospects. My recommendation is that this market survey should be done once every two or three years." Ken Ransby Towers Perrin-San Francisco and Vancouver The Business Development Group, Inc. 18 Avon Road Bronxville, NY (914) info@thebizdevgroup.com Book 1 - Our Firm Page 6