How to Achieve Sales-Service Balance

Subject matter experts, even those with dedicated in-house business development teams, must engage with buyers to secure new revenues for the firm. It is challenging to find the proper balance between client service activity and client development activity. Your reputation for client service should be among your top three lead generation tools, on par with organic word of mouth and referrals. As one of the top three ways you generate leads and revenue, client service is super important. Still, you have to keep your pipeline full and that requires active, current business development activity. 

Like a funambulist, SMEs must develop balance. Perfect equilibrium is the ideal. For a senior partner, perfect equilibrium would be a fifty-fifty split between generating revenue and ensuring that your team and you deliver your existing engagements. That’s the aspiration. In practice, however, sales-service balance is like work-life balance, a target to be maintained on average, not strictly. 

Every so often, you must be fully present in one place or the other, not multi-tasking to move both agendas forward but focused on achieving a singular outcome. What happens when, despite the goal of perfect equilibrium, you cannot achieve balance?

Some business development work can be automated with proper planning. Have marketing material in the can that you can use when you’re consumed with delivering work product. This will help you avoid marketing lulls. Still, real sales activity, meetings and calls, cannot be canned. You must keep your existing sales appointments even when you’re facing client deadlines—just don’t schedule any new ones during that block of time. 

Here’s another tip. Don’t beat yourself up if you sometimes miss your business development targets. Balance rarely is achieved every week. Even at home, you don’t spend the same amount of time with your family each week even though that may be your goal. Consider choosing a different measuring interval. If your intention is to spend half your time on business and client development, marketing, and growth activities, maybe you should measure your performance monthly instead of weekly. If you have sales and marketing activities that are due each week, plan for the ones that can be canned and then catch up on the ones that can’t be done in advance. That’s what tightrope walkers do. They move toward their destination (or long-term goal) inch-by-inch, one step at a time. So, become a funambulist.