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Most industry professionals I talk to understand the value of being proactive, intentional and focused on business development. Some do it and others don鈥檛. Why is it that some firms continue being reactive, scattered and unfocused in chasing work? Why is it hard to change behavior when it鈥檚 easy to understand the rationale for change?

Changing behavior in business development practices is hard for the same reasons that changing anything is hard. Whether it鈥檚 regularly conducting job evaluations or personally sticking to an exercise regime, old habits keep us stuck.

Breaking bad habits is difficult for three reasons: we don鈥檛 experience enough discomfort to change; we still get something out of the current strategy; and change is often perceived as riskier than not changing.

Here are the most common bad business development habits, along with the old thinking that illustrates why substantive change takes time:

Chasing everything

Yes, we know the right way of doing business development is to focus on the best opportunities and develop key relationships, but there are three reasons why we鈥檙e not going to change.

Number one: 鈥淲e haven鈥檛 experienced enough lost revenue to change. I mean, everyone is hurting, so it鈥檚 mostly the market as opposed to what we鈥檙e doing. My colleagues agree.鈥� (Of course they do; that鈥檚 why you鈥檙e both hurting!)

Number two: 鈥淐hasing every RFP works for us about half of the time, so we get something out of our current strategy. We know how to write proposals and we鈥檙e pretty good at it.鈥�

Number three: 鈥淭here鈥檚 risk in change because we are not comfortable being 鈥榮chmoozers.鈥� We don鈥檛 know how to find opportunities early, it takes a lot of time, and comparing the effectiveness of networking to writing a proposal for a specific sales opportunity is difficult. So we鈥檒l continue to chase everything.鈥�

Not giving time

Because we鈥檙e so busy either working on a project or chasing RFPs, we don鈥檛 have time for anything proactive. It takes time to network and gather intelligence for opportunities that may or may not materialize. There are three reasons why we don鈥檛 have time.

Number one: 鈥淲e haven鈥檛 experienced the discomfort of not being busy. Our staff is already working longer hours to make up for lower fees, more demanding jobs and more RFPs to answer. Where鈥檚 the incentive to be busier if there鈥檚 already no time on my calendar?鈥�

Number two: 鈥淭he fact that we are busy is a sign we鈥檙e getting something out of our current strategy. Yes, we鈥檙e limping, but isn鈥檛 everyone?鈥�

Number three: 鈥淏illable time is billable time. We can鈥檛 pull people away to meet with colleagues for golf when they could be making money in the office (even if it鈥檚 not much money!) or writing proposals we could possibly win. We also don鈥檛 want to send the message that playing golf or having a beer with a client is more important than doing the work. It sets up inequalities and jealousies within our team. So we won鈥檛 give people time to invest in proactive business development.鈥�

Not mentoring

We know it鈥檚 all about relationships, and in order to evolve as a firm, we need younger staffers to have the same level of key relationships that we have. If our senior people are the only ones with the relationships, we鈥檙e limited in growing the business and transferring leadership. Here are three reasons why it鈥檚 hard to change to let go of relationships.

Number one: 鈥淔rankly, relationships these days haven鈥檛 helped us the way they used to. All the work we put into building relationships doesn鈥檛 seem as important as our fee. Even in negotiated work, we鈥檙e not handed work based on mutual trust anymore. Everything is shopped out. We haven鈥檛 experienced enough discomfort in not tending to relationships to even maintain the ones we have, much less transfer.鈥�

Number two: 鈥淥ur senior people are supposed to be the ones maintaining the key relationships. They like it and they鈥檙e good at it, so we are getting a lot out of the current strategy.鈥�

Number three: 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of risk in transferring relationships. The client may not like the junior person; the staff person may not maintain the relationship to the senior manager鈥檚 standards; and the client may feel dismissed by having a less senior person on the business. Lastly, we鈥檙e not very good at mentoring. It takes time and patience and a skill set many of us don鈥檛 have. So we鈥檒l hold onto the relationships.鈥�

To reverse all of this, firms need to experience the need for change. The cost of doing things the same way has to outweigh the cost of change outlined above. Acting differently 鈥� being proactive, giving people time, and mentoring staff 鈥� naturally follows once the key people grasp how their current strategies are not working for them.

Leo MacLeod is a new business coach and a strategic consultant. Contact him at [email protected].