Things Gemma has learned the hard way — so you don’t have to
I share a lot about BD for lawyers — the frameworks, the habits, the mindset shifts. What I share less often is what I’ve learned from running a business myself. The things that only become obvious after you’ve got them wrong a few times. This is some of that.
Marketing vs BD: they are not the same thing
I say this all the time, but marketing feels productive, and in some ways it is. You’re creating things, measuring things, getting a little dopamine hit when something performs well. BD is the bit where you have to actually sit with someone and let the conversation go where it goes. Less controllable. It’s also what actually moves the dial if revenue is your goal.
The pull towards marketing is real, and if you’re not paying attention to it, you can spend a whole quarter feeling busy while your pipeline quietly flatlines. I’ve done this. More times than I care to admit.
*This is not to knock marketing — it needs to be in your playbook without a doubt (and GFC uses it heavily), but it shouldn’t be the only tool in your toolkit.
On pricing: if you don’t believe it, they won’t either
I have watched myself (and watched clients) hedge around a price as if apologising for it in advance. A little qualifier here, a slight upward lilt at the end of the number there. The problem is that clients feel this. They don’t always know why they feel it, but something shifts.
Confidence in your pricing isn’t arrogance; it’s information. It tells the person in front of you that you know what this is worth. If you can’t say the number cleanly, that’s worth sitting with before you get on the call.
On overpreparing for conversations that should feel easy
I’ve had clients tell me they’re spending 45 minutes scripting a coffee catch-up with a contact they’ve known for years, because there’s a chance that person might one day be a client. And I get it — I’ve done the same. I went through a phase with discovery calls where I’d have a crib sheet, a structure, a sequence. The calls that followed that script? I didn’t close them. The ones where I trusted myself to follow the thread of the conversation? Those are the clients I have won and work with now.
Over-preparation is often anxiety with better PR. Sometimes the most useful thing you can do is put the notes down.
On giving away the answer
There’s a version of professional expertise where you hold everything back until the invoice is signed. I don’t think this works — and I want to be precise about why, because for lawyers this one needs a little nuance.
Giving away an answer is not the same as giving away the answer. If someone needs a steer, a bit of thinking, a framework for approaching their problem — give it to them. What you shouldn’t do is give away the substantive legal advice that is, itself, the goal. That’s a real distinction and it matters.
But outside of that line, generosity tends to sell better than scarcity. The reason someone will work with you isn’t usually the answer — it’s everything that comes after it. The applying. The embedding. The bit where something actually has to change and they need another person in their corner to make that happen. Don’t hold back so cautiously that you never let anyone see how you think.
On being in the room
I’m based in France. This is not an easy thing to build a UK consulting business from, and I originally spent a lot of time convincing myself that a well-structured video call is more or less the same as being there. It isn’t.
The conversations I’ve had face-to-face over the last year have moved faster, gone deeper, and closed more often. I don’t fully understand why, but it does. And I’m saying this as someone who has every incentive not to believe it.
On intermediaries — and the myth that you need work to give before you can ask
Most people do one of two things with potential referral sources: either they never ask for anything directly and end up in a permanent professional friendship that goes nowhere, or they tell themselves they can’t ask yet because they don’t have anything to give in return.
That second one is worth unpacking, because it’s particularly common for associates. You might not have a pipeline of work to pass across. But that is almost never the only thing of value you have to offer. You can make an introduction. You can nominate someone for an award. You can put their name forward for a panel, flag them to an organiser, give them a quick steer on something they’re navigating. These things matter to people — sometimes more than a referral would.
The point is that ‘I have nothing to give’ is rarely true, and letting that belief stop you from building the relationship and eventually asking for what you need is a mistake. Giving is the fastest way to become someone people want to send things to. You just have to be creative about what giving looks like.
More of these in future editions. Some of it obvious in hindsight. All of it learned the slow way!
