As you probably know, the time to invest in future-proof and client-centric growth is now.
However, many professional services firms are stuck in the operational marketing & business development hamster wheel.
They want to invest in growth, but simply don’t get around to it.
“Why?” you ask me.
Well, there are a number of reasons professional services firms are stuck in operational MBD work. Leaving them with very limited time to think about longer-term strategy.
Incentives
Billable hours are the first and obvious reason.
In many professional services firms, time is money. Literally. Subject matter experts are encouraged to spend most of their time on revenue-generating work (utilization).
It’s also what they are rewarded for.
As a result, partners and (senior) employees hate spending non-billable hours on non-visible things, like strategic thinking.
Instead they prefer to work on tangible BD efforts. Like events, submissions, newsletters, or podcasts.
Investing in these operational efforts may make sense, but only when they are grounded in a solid strategy and supported with clear tactics.
Culture
Next, there’s the expert-centric culture that lives in many firms.
You could argue that law firms, accounting firms, and – to a certain extent – consulting firms are extensions of higher education.
Within these firms, excelling in your profession is what moves you up the ladder. Not business sense or savviness per se.
As a result – and this is going to sound strange to everyone who’s serious about marketing & business development – thinking strategically about markets, positioning, and value propositions feels awkward and even… non-professional.
Structure
Next up is governance & decision making.
Most professional services firms are not organized as top-down businesses. They are partner-driven partnerships. Or, many kingdoms (temporarily) operating under the guise of a shared brand.
There may be a central responsibility for branding. There’s definitely no central responsibility for bringing solutions to market or developing a business or service line.
As a result, there isn’t a person or group of people that is ultimately responsible for marketing & business development – other than in job title.
This prevents MBD teams from becoming strategic sparring partners and leaves them at the mercy of partners (i.e. the rulers of the many kingdoms) who show up at their desks and overwhelm them with operational requests.
Investment capacity
Then, investment appetite & resources are limited.
Accountants and lawyers are risk-averse by nature – or, by education. Advisers and consultants are a little different.
As a result, the appetite in professional services firms to invest in initiatives that don’t have a proven return on investment is limited.
Monetary resources are often equally limited. At the end of a financial year, all profit is distributed among the partners. Leaving the firm with limited investment resources.
Flawed focus
And finally, no or wrong data-driven decisions.
As many professional services firms struggle to set overarching marketing & business development goals, they end up measuring their efforts.
They measure the number of newsletters they send, the events they organize, or LinkedIn posts they publish. Output, not results or impact.
Focus shifts. Operational activities become the goal – and are no longer recognized as a means to an end.
In short, professional services firms are stuck in the operational MBD hamster wheel, because of their incentives, culture, structure, investment capacity, and flawed focus.
But that doesn’t mean, it can’t be fixed.
Do let me know what you think!
Thank you for reading MBD Spark #94, sent on October 30, 2025.
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