Cutting the lunch budget would likely lead to more work being won, as fee earners would be forced to have regular valuable conversations with clients.

Having come from consumer marketing, it took me some time to understand professional services marketing budgets – and work out that whatever the budget area, the activity was almost entirely consumer-oriented, or actually consumption-oriented, or to be more accurate: lunch. There were some notable exceptions that could be labelled dinner or drinks.

Along with investment banks, service firms are generous benefactors of artistic and social organisations, but I suspect they are also largely responsible for supporting the top-end restaurant scene.

Paul Hugh-Jones

LUNCH IS THE DEFAULT BD ACTIVITY

The reason for this is very apparent when you discuss business development (BD) opportunities with fee earners. As soon as you identify the growth opportunity and the target audience, the first response is normally, “Great – I will call John tomorrow and arrange for a lunch”.

In other words, lunch is the default BD activity, based on a long tradition, which was common in most relationship-based sales organisations until a few decades ago.

What would happen if the lunch budgets were suddenly cut? Apart from some very good restaurants hitting the wall and millions of dollars falling to firms’ bottom lines, several interesting things would happen: more reputation building, greater marketing innovation and, I believe, better client relationships.

Result: more work won and yet more dollars on the bottom line.

If there were no money for lunch, the fee earner would need to come up with reasons to meet the client – ideas that started a conversation. Instead of “Isn’t it time we had lunch?”, it would be “I’ve been thinking about some of the issues coming out of the Copenhagen summit and the options for your business – how about catching up at your office for a quick chat? Is there anyone else you would like to invite?”

Client insight

Clients are very busy people. Common feedback is that they like working with partner x, but they would rather spend their time with their families. Lunch is enjoyable occasionally, for instance to get two new teams to know each other or celebrate the end of a major, successful deal.

What builds relationships is excellent client service, taking a real interest in their business and adding value with fresh ideas.

They also appreciate fee earners who keep in contact regularly, not just when there is money on the table.

They also say that the strongest relationships are built in the trenches during critical phases of major projects, when stakes and stress levels are high and they succeed together, with shared scars. Strong relationships are built on shared experience, mutual value and trust – not entertainment.

What to do?

The reality is that not even the boldest CEO will dare to tackle partners’ lunch allowances. So the key action is to make entertainment follow on from a valuable conversation in an office: take an idea to the client, have an engaging conversation, then follow up with entertainment.

The bonus is that the valuable conversation topic can spill over into the entertainment, providing something to talk about and getting you closer to winning
the work.

Ultimately, I believe that you can boil business development down to this basic framework of the three Rs: reputation + relationship = revenue.

In other words, to pursue and win a revenue opportunity, you need to build a high level of reputation and relationship with the target audience.

In my experience, the most effective BD approach is to focus on building reputation. The client won’t brief you unless they know you have expertise and experience that is relevant to their needs. This is about having regular valuable conversations with clients. It is  also the most effective way to build strong relationships.

Relationship building is very important, in what is after all a people business. But which adviser would you turn to when you are in a jam? The one who is a great entertainer or the one who offers shared experience, mutual value and trust?

Paul Hugh-Jones is the founding director of Insight Edge, which helps businesses grow their major client relationships through insight, strategy and coaching. His background is global business development and marketing roles at Mars, British Airways, Bacardi Martini, Southcorp and Mallesons.