Exclusive Webinars
Our Exclusive Webinars are specifically designed for a remote work environment. Select a single program, or compile an educational series customized to the needs of your firm.
Develop Business in a Virtual Landscape
Now, more than ever, it is critical to navigate interactions that explore clients’ business concerns and emerging needs. It is also essential to build relationships remotely via social media, email, phone and video conference.
In this program, you will discover:
- The business development imperative during times of change
- How to optimize retention among key clients when you cannot visit them
- Remote follow-up communications that maintain top-of-mind status
- How to maintain your business development momentum in the current climate
Present an Engaging Webinar that Generates New Client Opportunities
Most webinars consist of lectures that fail to grab the audience’s attention or capture new business opportunities. In this program, we will review presentation techniques that engage your audience and generate client interest.
You will discover how to:
- Craft a strong opening that grabs your audience’s attention
- Apply webcam techniques that improve your ability to engage with your audience
- Identify your audiences’ business needs during the presentation
- Convert your presentation into qualified leads
Improve the Performance of your Remote Team or Practice Group
One of the most significant leadership challenges in a remote work environment is maintaining the morale and productivity of your team. In this program, we will provide a framework that leaders can use to assure and inspire their direct reports from afar.
You will discover how to:
- Guide others through stressful situations
- Define protocols that minimize miscommunication and misunderstanding
- Bolster morale and reinforce peak performance
- Deliver effective critical and positive feedback remotely
Maintain and Grow your Network Remotely
Networking is no longer what it used to be. Power lunches, conferences, and happy hour mixers must be replaced through virtual means. Those who retreat during this time will miss an opportunity to maintain connections and foster loyalty with key contacts.
In this program, you will discover how to:
- Network meaningfully on LinkedIn and other social media platforms
- Prioritize key relationships during times when distraction and isolation are commonplace
- Reinforce existing relationships despite the breakdown of in-person networking
- Establish new contacts and opportunities for yourself and your firm
- Add meaningful value to the people in your professional network
Advance Business Opportunities with Friends Comfortably and Appropriately
Oftentimes the business potential in our personal relationships remains untapped because we do not know how to comfortably broach the topic of client development. The fact is, your closest contacts will be far more likely to help you if you can initiate business conversations with ease and efficacy. In this program, you will discover communication techniques that allow you to explore professional opportunities naturally without jeopardizing your reputation or damaging your relationships.
- Learn how to assess the referral potential of your friends and clients without directly asking them for business
- Discover five techniques that subtly introduce business development into an informal conversation without creating awkwardness
- Learn how to motivate passive referral sources
- Improve your ability to attract referrals from your best contacts
Navigate the Nuances of a Client Pitch
Clients appreciate a thoughtful, prepared, interactive pitch. It reflects well on the presenter and suggests that the services offered are of the highest caliber. But many presenters spend too much of their pitch talking about themselves and fail to identify and address all of the client’s concerns. Without a clear framework, and an understanding of the consultative model, an unsophisticated pitch leaves prospects unimpressed and competitors at an advantage.
In this interactive program, you will discover:
- How to best prepare yourself and your prospect for optimal success
- Presentation techniques that accentuate your confidence and expertise
- A step-by-step framework for a pitch meeting (virtual or in-person)
- How to identify all of the client’s concerns, voiced or implied
- How to improve your win rate
Strategies for Effective Relationship Targeting
Industry surveys show that over 40% of business developers have no formal system for managing their key relationships. Having rejected CRM, they are left with an abandoned list of names and a few random sticky notes. In this interactive program, we will present a series of strategies you can use to build simple, sustainable relationship pipelines that garner more business from your network and generate more revenue for your firm.
This program will show you how to:
- Identify and prioritize the most valuable relationships in your network
- Apply the “sales funnel” and “reverse funnel” concepts as you advance relationships
- Deepen relationships with prospective clients so as to increase the likelihood of engagement
- Implement a system that supports regular, predictable business development
- Apply a proactive, consistent follow-through routine to business pursuits
Maintain your Focus and Momentum in a Remote Environment
During this period of disruption and distraction, many people struggle to sustain productivity and motivation. In this program, we will examine techniques you can use to optimize your performance as you shelter at home.
This program will show you how to:
- Optimize your business functionality as you shelter at home
- Identify your key “productivity themes” during the COVID period
- Eliminate professional and personal distractions that deter your momentum
- Use the Hierarchy of Communication to maximize your communication with others
Negotiate Win-Win Arrangements with Fee-Sensitive Clients
This program helps you set clear expectations with your clientele, establish win-win alternative fee arrangements, and manage client relationships with confidence throughout the billing cycle. Discover the best practices and techniques that continuously improve realization at every stage of the engagement, from scoping to billing to collections.
- Sustain your rate integrity
- Improve realizations across your client base
- Improve your confidence in client negotiations
Use LinkedIn to Secure New Clients
In the current landscape, where in-person meetings are infrequent and industry events postponed, LinkedIn becomes critical for maintaining a presence and engaging with your professional network. While most people understand the basic best practices associated with LinkedIn, few use the tool to identify new business development opportunities, deepen existing ones, and expand their network with meaningful new relationships.
In this program, you will learn how to:
- Find the people with compatible interests and shared synergies
- Cut through the noise and stand apart from your competition
- Discover a system that converts LinkedIn connections into new clients
Outselling the Competition: Business Development Models for the Forward-Looking Firm
Most professional services firms take a traditional approach to business development, relying on long-term relationships and referral sources to source new opportunities, and measuring very few business development metrics save originations. But a new approach, borrowed from the sales divisions of successful corporations, is starting to emerge among forward-looking professional services firms. This new approach integrates a consultative model into business development conversations and tracks leading business development indicators for a clear advantage over the traditional model.
In this program, business development expert David Ackert will discuss:
- How sales management, targeting, and consultative selling can be translated effectively into a professional service culture
- Where to find efficiencies in your business development process
- How to establish and track leading indicators at your firm for a clearer picture on where your originations are trending
- How to enhance the business development culture at your firm
Testimonials
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Like many firms, the COVID-19 pandemic created real challenges for our business development efforts, in terms of both planning and execution. We selected four customized webinars and were pleased with the actionable tactics and practical approaches we received.
Peter WismathCMO
Cassels -
Ackert presented an exceptional business development webinar to our firm with insights that were thoughtful, sensitive to the current crisis, and immediately actionable.
Karina StermanPartner
Greenberg Glusker -
Ackert’s presentations are always engaging, thought-provoking and well-received.
Beth CollinsChief Operating Officer
Williams Parker