Your Prospect List Is Already Out of Date 
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Your Prospect List Is Already Out of Date 

Part 2 of a 5-part series for engineering and technical services firm leaders. 

This series pulls from our B2B Prospecting Handbook for Engineering & Technical Services Firms, a working guide for civil, structural, MEP, environmental, industrial, and technical consultancy firm leaders who are running new business work on overtime and want a more predictable way to fill the pipeline. 

Brought to you by RSW/B2B. 

Here’s the first post in the series: Your Outreach Isn’t Working. It’s Probably a Positioning Problem.

Your Prospect List Isn’t a Project. It’s a Program

Most engineering firms hit a wall about six weeks in with their outbound prospecting because their list is already stale.

This happens because data in technical industries changes quickly, with engineering professionals changing jobs frequently and titles shifting.

A prospect database can’t be a project you finish and check off your list, but rather something that requires continuous maintenance to stay useful.

As Ellen Jung put it at our 2026 new business conference: 

Your prospect list is not a one-time project. It’s a long-term system. The firms that win at new business are not the ones with the fanciest tools — they’re the ones with the most consistent execution.

What a working list should look like 

If you’re handling internally, our handbook is specific about this (p. 9): a functioning prospect database should grow by roughly 40 new target companies every five to six weeks, although at RSW/B2B, we build out 100, and should get cleaned on that cycle.

Review the title targeting assumptions every six to twelve months, because what drove outsourcing decisions at an industrial manufacturer two years ago may not be the same role making that call today. 

That cadence sounds manageable until a project deadline hits, and then list maintenance is one of the first things to get pushed.

That’s how firms end up six months into an outbound program working from data that’s aged out. 

Who you’re trying to reach, and where they sit 

The right contact varies by vertical, which is one reason a generic list rarely converts.

The handbook maps this out by sector (p. 8)

At an industrial or heavy manufacturing company, your primary targets are the VP of Engineering, the Director of Manufacturing Engineering, and the COO.

At a medical device firm, you’re more likely working toward the VP of Engineering, a Director of R&D, or a Director of Product Development. 

Secondary contacts, the engineering managers and program managers, are worth including because they’re often more accessible and advocate internally for firms they trust.

The goal isn’t to single-thread an account through one contact, it’s to have a primary and a secondary mapped for every company on your list. 

Three tiers of list-building, depending on where you are 

Not every firm is ready to invest in enterprise data tools, and not every firm needs to be. The handbook lays out three investment levels (p. 9)

If you’re testing outbound for the first time, you can get started with Google, free LinkedIn, and a spreadsheet.

It takes ten to twenty hours a month, and you’ll have data gaps, but it forces disciplined ICP thinking and costs almost nothing. 

If you’re running a consistent program on a managed budget, a combination of LinkedIn Premium, Apollo or Wiza, and an entry-level CRM gets you faster output and better organization for around $160 to $250 a month at six to ten hours of effort. 

If you’re building something predictable at scale, you’re looking at ZoomInfo, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Wiza, a CRM, and website visitor tracking, which runs $700 to $900 a month but drops the time requirement to three to six hours once the system is set up. 

The right level depends on your bandwidth and how seriously you intend to run this over the next twelve months.

What doesn’t work is treating list-building as a one-time exercise at any of those tiers. 

The thing most firms skip 

The handbook flags two technical issues that tend to get overlooked (p. 18).

First, email domain reputation: too many bounced emails can push your domain into spam filters, which affects deliverability across your entire firm, not just your outbound sequence.

An inexpensive email validation tool catches dead addresses before they cause that kind of damage.

Second, moving from a spreadsheet to even a basic CRM makes a real difference once your outreach volume starts to grow.

Up next: once the list is right, the message still has to land. 

We’ll get into what outreach actually looks like when it breaks through, and why four channels work better than one. 

If building and maintaining a prospect database isn’t where you want to spend your time, that’s part of  the work we handle in our outsourced business development programs.

Reach out to Lee McKnight Jr. at lee@rswus.com or Mark Sneider at mark@rswus.com. 

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Your Outreach Isn't Working. It's Probably a Positioning Problem
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Your Outreach Isn’t Working. It’s Probably a Positioning Problem

Your Outreach Isn’t Working. It’s Probably a Positioning Problem.

Part 1 of a 5-part series for engineering and technical services firm leaders.

This series pulls from our B2B Prospecting Handbook for Engineering & Technical Services Firms, a working guide for civil, structural, MEP, environmental, industrial, and technical consultancy firm leaders who are running new business work on overtime and want a more predictable way to fill the pipeline.

You can grab the full handbook here.

Over the next five posts, we’ll dig into the sections we think carry the most weight.

Brought to you by RSW/B2B.

We’re an outsourced new business development firm for professional service firms, helping engineering and technical services firms move past referral pipelines and RFP portals to build something more predictable.

We handle the list-building, the multichannel outreach, and the follow-up, so principals can stay focused on delivery instead of trying to wedge BD work into their evenings.

Why Most Firms Blame the Wrong Thing

When you’re a principal at an engineering firm and your outreach keeps falling flat, your first instinct is almost always to blame the channel.

You start wondering if your subject lines need work, if you should be leaning into LinkedIn instead of email, or if it’s finally time to bring in a new BD hire to shake things up.

We’ve watched so many firms run themselves ragged in this exact loop.

They tweak the channel, rewrite the message, change up the timing, and when the conversion rates still don’t budge, they usually just throw their hands up and conclude that outbound marketing doesn’t work for technical services.

Sometimes it is the outbound, but it’s almost always the positioning underneath it.

Here’s how our CEO,  Mark Sneider put it at our 2026 conference:

If your firm is struggling to get traction, chances are you don’t have a capability problem. You have a positioning problem. No matter how strong your technical expertise, if your messaging doesn’t clearly communicate your value or connect with the priorities of the right clients, you’ll get overlooked.

Before you change a single subject line, you need to be able to answer three questions about the people you’re trying to reach and it starts with your ideal client profile (ICP).

The Three Questions Your ICP Needs to Answer

A clear ICP answers three things:

  1. what sector your best clients come from
  2. what the right-fit company looks like, and
  3. who at that company makes the call to bring in an outside engineering firm.

Start With Sector, and Go Narrower Than You Think

Start narrower than you think you should.

Firms that go after ten sectors at once will have a harder time, generally.

Instead, focus on one to three verticals where you have project history, know the language, and can point to actual results, in other words, where you have the right to win.

If you’re not sure where to start, pull up your last ten best-fit projects and look for patterns.

Which industries are most prevalent, which client sizes felt like a natural fit, and which problems did you solve well enough to solve again, that’s where you should be focused.

What the Right-Fit Company Actually Looks Like

Size shapes opportunity: too small and they can’t justify the engagement, too large and you’re buried in procurement processes that can  drag on for a year before you see a purchase order.

The sweet spot we see for engineering and technical services firms sits between 50 and 500 employees, or roughly $20 million to $300 million in annual revenue.

Big enough to have real project budgets and organized engineering functions, small enough that decisions happen at the executive level instead of through a procurement committee.

How Much Does Geography Matter for Your Firm?

It matters more for some service models than others.

If you send teams on-site, geography matters and your reach has limits, if you’re delivering embedded software, simulation work, or analysis, you can work nationally, so decide which one you are before you build your list.

Your Outreach Isn't Working. It's Probably a Positioning Problem

Who Actually Makes the Call to Hire an Outside Firm

Engineering work usually gets scoped at the project level, but the decision to engage an outside firm happens across multiple roles at once.

Knowing who holds which role tells you who to reach first.

At smaller firms, the economic buyer (the president, the COO, or the VP of Engineering) is usually your fastest path.

They’ve got the budget authority and they set the strategic direction.

At larger firms, the functional buyer (the Director of Engineering or the Chief Engineer) is the one who initiates the search and runs the evaluation.

Influencers like engineering managers and program managers are warmer points of entry, and they advocate internally for vendors they
trust.

The takeaway: don’t single-thread an account.

Map the primary decision-maker and a secondary influencer for every target.

Why “On Time and On Budget” Isn’t Differentiation

Once your ICP is clean, the next question is the one your prospects are already asking when your outreach lands: why would I call your firm back instead of the ones I already know?

That answer is your differentiation, and it has to be concrete.

“Collaborative approach” and “On time and on budget” doesn’t cut it.

Those phrases describe every engineering firm, which means they describe none of them.

Your firm stands out when you can point to three uniques backed by evidence:

• A track record of solving a specific, complex technical challenge.
• At least five years of documented project history in a niche sector.
• A specialized capability your competitors lack the team to support.

This is where the work gets harder.

You have to take a clear-eyed look at your project history, your margins, your delivery model, and your team’s actual depth, then translate that into a position competitors can’t easily claim.

A reminder from our positioning framework:

Your positioning must be provable. A firm that claims to specialize in industrial automation needs to show automation project outcomes, not just list automation as a service capability.

Your project history and case studies are your proof of positioning.

If you can’t show examples, the claim won’t hold. If everything is a core capability, nothing is.
~ RSW/B2B positioning framework, 2026

A Quick Test You Can Run This Week

If you want to know whether your current positioning is effective, try this.

Pull your last ten projects.

For each one, write down the sector, the company size, the buying title you sold into, and the technical challenge you solved.

Look at the list, does a pattern jump out? If yes, that pattern is your ICP, whether your website says so or not.

Write it down. Compare it to the way you talk about your firm publicly.

If the two don’t match, you’ve found the gap.

One Thing to Do Before You Send Another Email

The temptation is to keep running outbound while you “work on” positioning in parallel. (Understandable, the pipeline doesn’t fill itself.)

Sending more outreach into a fuzzy ICP doesn’t get you more meetings, though.

But, we’ve also seen firms go into analysis paralysis, and wait far too long.

Do the work now.

Pick the lane you’ve earned the right to win in, name the sector, company size, and title.

Then write the outreach to that person, about that problem, with the proof that says you’ve done it before.

That’s what gets a Director of Engineering to pick up the phone.

Up next: why your prospect list is already out of date, and what to do about it.

If you’d rather spend the week delivering on current projects than reworking your positioning, that’s the work we do.

Reach out to me (Lee McKnight Jr.) at lee@rswus.com or Mark Sneider at mark@rswus.com and we’ll walk through it together.

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Six Months to Close: What Professional Services Firms Should Be Doing in the Meantime
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Six Months to Close: What Professional Services Firms Should Be Doing in the Meantime

You Finally Get the Meeting. Then… Nothing.

It goes well. And then… silence.

If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone.

According to our Professional Services New Business Survey, 78% of firms say it takes up to six months to close a deal after the first meeting.

That number is higher than it’s ever been.

Six months is a long window between “great meeting” and “let’s move forward.”

But it’s also a window of opportunity, a chance to reinforce your expertise and stay relevant while your competitors go quiet.

You’re Not Closing in That First Meeting

Many professional services firms assume a strong initial meeting will naturally carry momentum forward on its own.

It won’t, at least not right now.

Prospects are more cautious and dealing with more internal noise than ever.

Why Prospects Go Quiet

It’s not always about interest, sometimes it’s bandwidth or internal delays.

And sometimes it’s just this: you didn’t give them a reason to keep engaging.

What most firms do after a first meeting:

  • Send a proposal and wait
  • Follow up once with a “just checking in” email
  • Effectively disappear, either to avoid being a bother, or because they’re not sure what else to say

What prospects actually need:

  • Relevance

  • Reassurance

  • A signal that you’re thinking about their business

Six Months to Close: What Professional Services Firms Should Be Doing in the Meantime

Keeping the Momentum: How to Stay Top of Mind Without the Pressure

The period between your initial meeting and a signed contract is a critical window. To keep the relationship moving forward without sounding desperate, you need to focus on delivering continuous value.

Here are four practical ways to maintain contact and demonstrate what it is like to partner with your team:

  • Send relevant insights: You don’t need a formal corporate newsletter to stay in touch. Instead, pass along a industry trend, a sharp point of view, or a piece of news that directly impacts their business.

  • Expand on your last conversation: Review your notes from the initial meeting and find a point to build upon. Sending a quick note to say you have been thinking about their specific challenge, along with a potential solution, shows you are already invested in their success.

  • Provide proof of concept: Share a brief example or a case study detailing how you solved a similar problem for a different client. This reinforces your expertise and makes your capabilities tangible.

  • Vary your communication methods: Relying solely on email can quickly become repetitive. Consider changing your approach by connecting on LinkedIn, sending a brief video message, or mailing a traditional handwritten note.

Every interaction during this phase should serve as a preview of your working relationship. By focusing on helpfulness rather than pushing for a sale, you remind the prospect of your value before they ever sign a contract.

The Takeaway

A six-month sales cycle can feel incredibly long, but you must be equipped to handle that timeline, or sometimes an even longer one.

Winning the business requires more than just making a great first impression during your initial presentation.

The firms that succeed are the ones that consistently reappear with meaningful, concise insights.

When a promising conversation suddenly stalls, don’t panic. It simply means you need a structured plan to keep the dialogue alive.

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When a Prospect Goes Silent A Follow-Up Roadmap for Professional Services Firms
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When a Prospect Goes Silent: A Follow-Up Roadmap for Professional Services Firms

For professional services firms, few things in new business development are more maddening than a prospect who simply stops responding, especially after what felt like a productive conversation.

This isn’t a new phenomenon, but it does seem to be happening more frequently. And it’s particularly disorienting when you walked away from that meeting feeling like you’d built real rapport.

So here’s a practical roadmap, with suggested messaging at each stage, to help you navigate it.

Before We Get to the Schedule: One Thing to Do Before You Leave That Meeting

Set the next touchpoint before you walk out the door.

This sounds obvious, but it gets skipped constantly. At the end of a solid first meeting, when there’s genuine momentum in the room, ask directly for a follow-up date. Something simple works fine:

Really appreciate your time today. It sounds like the timing on this is fairly near-term for you. Would it make sense to put a date on the calendar now to reconnect, just so we stay on track?

You won’t always land a firm commitment, but asking puts a marker down and makes the first follow-up feel expected rather than intrusive.

Why They’ve Gone Quiet (It’s Probably Not What You Think)

Before you start questioning your pitch or your proposal, consider this: most of the time, a silent prospect isn’t a disinterested one.

Your contact is juggling internal approvals, shifting priorities, or something entirely personal that has nothing to do with your firm.

I’ve had situations where I was all but certain I was being ignored, and then the prospect called from a hospital waiting room. (Fortunately, everything turned out fine.)

The silence is frustrating but often temporary.

That said, you do need an answer eventually.

Here’s how to pursue one without burning the relationship or looking desperate.

The Follow-Up Schedule

This assumes no firm follow-up date was set after the meeting, and that the work discussed was described by the prospect as near-term.

When a Prospect Goes Silent A Follow-Up Roadmap for Professional Services Firms

5 Business Days Post-Meeting: Soft Re-Entry

Send an email, not asking about timing or next steps directly.

Instead, find a reason to be in touch that feels natural: something that came up in your conversation (a shared interest, a company announcement, a piece of content relevant to something they mentioned), or a resource from your firm that’s worth sharing.

The goal here is to stay visible without adding pressure.

Hi [Name], saw [relevant item tied to something you discussed]. Thought of our conversation.

Looking forward to staying in touch on potential next steps. I’ll plan to circle back mid-next week, but if there’s a better time, just let me know.

[Your name]

8-9 Business Days Post-Meeting: Phone Call or Voicemail

If there’s been no response, shift channels.

You said you’d follow up in that email, so a call is expected.

If it goes to voicemail, keep it brief and make it easy for them.

Reference something specific from your last conversation and show some flexibility on timing.

Hi [Name], [Your name] at [Firm]. I know you were looking to move forward on [project/initiative] in the near term, so I wanted to check in. If timelines have shifted, totally understand. Just let me know what makes sense. Look forward to talking.

13-14 Business Days Post-Meeting: Direct Email

At this point, light touch has run its course.

Time to be more direct, while still keeping the door open.

Hi [Name],

I want to make sure I stay on your radar without becoming a nuisance. If this project has been pushed back or put on hold, completely understood. An update whenever you get a chance would be helpful.

[Your name]

This is measured, not aggressive and signals you’re paying attention and that your time has value as well.

19-20 Business Days Post-Meeting: The Final Note

If you still haven’t heard anything, it’s time to redirect your energy.

Send a closing email with a gracious tone.

You’re leaving the door open for the future, but you’re moving on.

Hi [Name],

At this point, I’m guessing the project has shifted or circumstances have changed. That’s completely fine.

It was great getting to know you and the team at [Company]. If this comes back around, we’d love to reconnect.

Thanks again for your time.

[Your name]

In most cases, this note will get a response when nothing else did.

People tend to reply when they think the conversation is ending.

If you still hear nothing, accept it and move on.

Continued follow-up at this stage works against you.

Best Practices for Professional Follow-Up

The timing and messaging above will need to flex depending on the situation.

A longer sales cycle, a larger deal, or a more complex decision-making process may mean adjusting the cadence.

Use these as a starting framework, not a rigid script.

The underlying principle, though, stays constant: be persistent, be professional, and don’t let silence make you look desperate.

In professional services, your reputation in a sales process often outlasts the deal itself.

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The Panic Prospecting Trap
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The Panic Prospecting Trap: Why Your Pipeline is Empty

We see way too many professional services firms treat outbound outreach like a spare tire, only pulling it out when they’re already stuck on the side of the road with a flat pipeline.

By the time you realize things are getting “a bit slow,” you’re already three to six months too late.

In our experience, panicked outreach smells like desperation to a prospect, and it rarely results in high-value work.

Here’s the reality: if your business development is driven by financial panic, you don’t have a growth strategy. You have a series of happy accidents.

The High Cost of “Winging It”

Consistency is the hardest part of business development because client work has to come first.

It’s easy to let prospecting slide when you’re billable and the team is at capacity.

But when that major project ends, you’re left starting from zero.

You haven’t nurtured a list, you haven’t tested your messaging, and you have no momentum.

It’s not just luck that keeps the top 5% of firms growing during a downturn, they have built an engine that runs regardless of how busy the delivery team is.

Have an Outbound Game Plan

If you want to stop the feast-or-famine cycle, you need a repeatable process that doesn’t rely on “feeling like” prospecting.

Start with these three non-negotiables:

  • The Daily Minimum: Set a “floor” for outreach that happens every single day, even if it’s just five personalized LinkedIn messages or three follow-up emails.
  • The 90-Minute Block: Block out two 90-minute windows on your weekly calendar specifically for high-level prospecting. Treat this time as sacred as you would a client meeting.
  • A Single Source of Truth: Stop using spreadsheets and “mental notes.” If the activity isn’t logged in a CRM with a clear next step, the outreach didn’t happen.

The Panic Prospecting Trap Why Your Pipeline is Empty

Trust the Process

Take these three questions to your next leadership meeting and if the answers are vague, you have a process problem, not a talent problem.

Who is the single point of accountability for outbound volume each week? (If it’s “everyone,” it’s no one!)

Does our outreach list grow every week, or are we just calling the same twenty “warm” contacts over and over?

If our biggest client left tomorrow, how many qualified leads could we realistically move to a proposal within 30 days?

The Firms That Win Build Momentum Early

Outbound business development is an engine, not a faucet.

You can’t expect it to flow the moment you turn it on if you’ve let the pipes rust for six months.

Success requires leadership to value the process as much as the billable hour.

Consistency is the only thing that creates predictability in a professional services firm.

Remember: do the right things daily and results follow.

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20 Years, 20 Lessons: How a Leap of Faith Built RSW/US
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20 Years, 20 Lessons: How a Leap of Faith Built a Professional Services Growth Firm

I started RSW/US in 2005 with no clients, three young children, and a love of marketing, and sales.

Today we are the #1 outsourced new business firm in the country.

I’ve learned a lot over the years…about running a business, about myself, and about the value of great employees and clients.

Here are 20 insights I’ve gleaned from the past 20 years that might prove of help/value to you.

Thanks to all our clients, our employees, and my family for making this one great ride!

20 Years, 20 Lessons: How a Leap of Faith Built a Professional Services Growth Firm

1. Sometimes you just have to go for it and hope for the best

I believed in this business when I started it 20 years ago.

I had three young kids and figured if it didn’t work out, I could always find my way into another job.

Here I am, 20 years later with a 32, 30, and 27 year “child”. If you believe in it, you have to go for it!

2. Thought leadership built this business before thought leadership was a thing.

I always was and still am a huge proponent of “giving it away”.

If you’re afraid to give away your ideas, no one will see you and you’ll go nowhere.

And if you don’t create valued content, you’ll just look like everyone else.

20 years ago, nobody was doing much of anything in the world of value-added content. We were trailblazers and we didn’t even know it!

3. Good guys may not finish first, but they don’t have to finish last.

I’m a big believer in treating people the same way you’d want to be treated.

And I am not interested in steamrolling my way to the top.

I think employees, clients, and prospects all recognize that. I may not be in first place, but I’m certainly not in last.

4. Sticking true to our values shields us from much of the noise.

We have a very solid set of Core Values that we live by every day at RSW/US.

There’s a lot of garbage out there in the marketplace, and a lot of people that run amuck with over-promises and false claims.

The high-road has always been the best road for us.

5. History repeats. First there was Flat Iron. Today it’s (name your AI platform).

When I first started RSW I felt like I was competing with a bunch of used car salespeople.

Flat Iron, a NY-based firm, hired ex-actors because they sounded good on the phone.

Today, it’s all the same. Still feels like the used car world I encountered in 2005…only difference is it’s not actors, it’s AI.

6. There are definable buckets. personality profile 101 for agency owners.

Over the years, I have seen that while every leadership team is different, personalities often fall into a few familiar categories:

  • High energy and sales engaged

  • Barely paying attention and needing constant reminders

  • Hard-nosed and always questioning

  • Passive and always needing a push

It keeps things interesting and challenging, that’s for sure.

7. Persistence, politeness, and potpourri are the keys to success.

Yelling, telling, and selling doesn’t work these days.

Our people have to be polite, persistent, and they need to use a wide range of platforms to succeed in breaking through to the prospects our clients want to meet with.

It isn’t easy anymore and one-trick ponies (e.g., email-only or LinkedIn-only) aren’t the way to go.

We have to hit prospects in as many places as we can.

8. When the walls go up, the team has to respond.

The world we operate in has changed a lot over the last 20 years.

Back then, you could pick up the phone or send an email and not worry much about filters, blocks, or crowded inboxes.

Investing in the business has been the best way to stay ahead of the curve.

Not being tied to one platform or one tool, and staying flexible, has proven to be the smartest approach.

9. Balance, calm, and a recognition that you can only control so much, brings peace.

Being a small business owner in a changing economy can feel like a constant roller coaster.

If I let everything worry me, I would not last very long.

I will admit that my faith grounds me and keeps me focused. It helps smooth out the bumps and keep things in perspective.

10. Business books can bring value. I wish I wasn’t so proud two decades ago.

I used to think I didn’t need peer groups or outside input.

Looking back, I wish I had opened myself up to more outside perspective earlier.

Today, our team is going through a structured operating system process, and getting out of my own head has been both liberating and energizing for the business.

20 Years, 20 Lessons: How a Leap of Faith Built RSW/US

11. Mentors come in many forms, but you need them

While I never had formal CEO groups early on, I did have business friends who acted as mentors.

Most people who start small businesses face similar challenges. Having someone to talk things through with matters, even if that someone is just one person.

Find that person and use that sounding board.

12. Surrounding yourself with great people makes all the difference

Finding great, loyal talent is not easy. But when you do, it changes everything.

Smart, dedicated, fun, and hardworking people make the workday better and the business stronger.

13. Move faster on tough people decisions

In the early days, I held on to underperformers for too long.

I believe in second chances. But I have learned that if the second chance does not work, the third or fourth probably will not either.

If a change is needed, make the change.

14. Proactive outreach still works, despite what the platforms say

Despite what many claim, proactive outreach still works.

The key is blending calls, emails, and some limited social outreach.

Another key is being polite and persistent, not aggressive.

15. Direct mail still works

We have used direct mail as part of our outreach mix for many years.

It’s still a very effective way to enter a prospect’s world in a less cluttered environment.

We continue to see real meetings come from it, and prospects often remember the piece when we connect with them later.

16. Email can work when it is done well

Email works when it is managed with intention and discipline.

That means smart messaging, reasonable frequency, relevant content, and strong list hygiene.

When email is treated as a system and not a blast tool, it can be a very effective part of business development.

17. The phone is still incredibly powerful

The majority of the meetings we set still come from phone outreach.

When it is used correctly and combined with other channels, the phone remains one of the most direct and effective ways to start real conversations with decision makers.

18. This has been a roller coaster of love

Despite the ups and downs of running RSW/US, I genuinely love the work and the people we do it with.

Our team and our clients are what make all of this worth it.

19. I would not trade it for anything

As much of a risk as it was to start this business, the experience has been incredible.

The freedom, the friendships, the support of my family, and the opportunities along the way have made the last 20 years more rewarding than I ever expected.

20. It is not about reinventing. It is about evolving

Looking ahead, I know we have to keep evolving and staying a step ahead for our employees and our clients.

We do not need to reinvent everything.

We do need to pay close attention to changes in the market and the opportunities they create, and stay ahead of them.

Thanks for 20 great years. Here’s to the next 20.

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If 93% of Firms Struggle with Pipelines, What’s Your Next Move?
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If Most Firms Are Struggling with Their Pipelines, What’s Your Next Move?

Only 7% of professional services leaders report that their sales pipelines are strong and growing.

That data comes from our business development study, (2025 RSW/US Survey Report – Rolling Into 2026) and it’s a surprising snapshot.

Now the better news:

50% of firms feel like while their pipelines are weak, they are improving.

I understand that optimism does not automatically equal results. But a positive outlook is not just helpful. It is necessary.

This is not about telling everyone to sing Kumbaya together. It is about recognizing that believing growth is possible changes how you show up and how you operate.

And in this case, you need to believe you are going to win more new business before the year is out.

If 93% of Firms Struggle with Pipelines, What’s Your Next Move

Business Development Patterns

We saw similar patterns during the 2008 recession and again during the pandemic.

  • A major event occurs
  • Prospects pull back because of fear and uncertainty
  • Eventually, those same prospects have to turn activity back on to support their business
  • Things stabilize until the next major event shows up

The purpose of this report is for you to take each category and review it with your team.

Every area matters. Getting input from your team on what they’re seeing, and then building practical game plans, is a worthwhile and necessary exercise.

One thing is clear. Sales cycles and budgets are starting to move back toward more familiar territory.

Business development is still a process, and you cannot afford to ignore that. That is exactly why you have to keep the engine running.

With that in mind, the rest of this post focuses on the prospects and target companies you are going after.

Prospect List Building

Building prospect lists is one of the most time-consuming parts of business development.

Over the last several years, platforms and AI tools have made this work more efficient. But for many small and mid-sized professional services firms, those platforms come with two challenges.

They are expensive.

And you still need a human being to manage and guide the process.

This is a big part of what we do for our clients, and it gives us the ability to test different tools and approaches to build more targeted lists.

But if you’re not working with us, and the budget doesn’t allow for an ongoing platform investment, here are two practical options that fall into the low-hanging fruit category.

They typically get you in the door faster, and we know they work because we use both with every client program.

First-Degree LinkedIn Contacts

Some firms come to us having done a solid job using their LinkedIn connections. But in our experience, roughly 75% have not really tapped into this at all, even though it can be a very productive place to start.

If you have not already, downloading your connections and reaching out through LinkedIn can be an effective and relatively easy way to reopen doors with contacts who are warm, or at least warmer than a cold prospect.

The messaging should be more personal and more direct, but this is a list you should absolutely be using if you have been ignoring it.

You can find these instructions online, but here they are in one place for convenience.

How to download your first-degree LinkedIn contacts (CSV)

  1. Open LinkedIn on desktop and sign in.
    Go to linkedin.com and log into the account whose connections you want to export.

  2. Go to Settings & Privacy.
    Click your profile photo in the top right, then select Settings & Privacy.

  3. Open the Data Privacy area.
    In the left sidebar, click Data privacy. Under How LinkedIn uses your data, choose Get a copy of your data.

  4. Choose Connections.
    In the Export your data section, select Want something in particular? and check Connections. You can also request the full archive if you want everything.

  5. Request the file.
    Click Request archive. You may be asked to re-enter your password.

  6. Wait for the download email or refresh the page.
    LinkedIn will prepare your export and email you a link when it is ready. For connections only, this often takes just a few minutes, but it can take up to 24 hours.

  7. Download and open the CSV.
    You will receive either a ZIP file or a CSV named Connections.csv. Open it in Excel or Google Sheets.

Typically, this file will include First Name, Last Name, Email Address if available, Company, Position, LinkedIn Profile URL, and the date you connected.

If you plan to use direct mail or other channels, you will likely need access to an additional data platform.

But the real advantage here is simple. You can message these contacts directly on LinkedIn and start conversations with people who already know who you are.

Past Clients

Just like with LinkedIn contacts, some firms do a good job staying in touch with past clients. But in our experience, 40 to 50% do not.

The good news is that this group gives you several different ways to prospect.

1. Your main point of contact is still there, but you stopped working with the company

This is usually the toughest situation.

If things ended poorly, and your main contact is still in place, this is probably not the right place to start.

Timing matters here, and there is no universal rule for how long you should wait. In many cases, it makes sense to set an internal reminder a few months out and revisit it later, assuming you parted on good terms.

2. Your main point of contact moved to another company

This is the ideal scenario, especially if you had a strong relationship with that person.

Many firms win new work this way. And yet, just as many fail to keep track of where those contacts go.

If you have not been doing this, build that list now. These are some of the warmest opportunities you will find.

3. Your main point of contact is gone, but you still have the company history

This is less warm, but it is still valuable.

You did work for that organization. There is often someone still there who remembers it. And even if not, you should identify who is in that role now and build your outreach around the work you did and the results you delivered.

That history gives you credibility you do not have with a completely cold prospect.

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Hiring a Rainmaker? Bring an Umbrella.
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Why New Business Hires Don’t Last and What to Do About It

We hear this from professional services leaders all the time: “We thought we found the right person, but a year later, we were right back where we started.”

According to our survey reports:

nearly 60% of internal new business hires don’t make it past two years.

And a bit more concerning?

35% don’t even last a full year.

One firm leader told us that finding the right new business person felt like “getting lucky once in a while.”

But it’s not just luck. There are clear patterns behind why so many of these hires fail, and even clearer ways to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

Why Most Internal New Business Hires Fall Short

There’s rarely a single reason a new business hire does not work out, but several warning signs showed up again and again in our research:

  • Many candidates have experience selling products or services, and each require different skills.

  • Firms often set unrealistic expectations without providing real support or structure.

  • Some hires are expected to build lists, develop messaging, and run outreach entirely on their own.

  • Outreach is inconsistent or poorly targeted, which leads to missed opportunities and frustration.

  • And in some cases, the role is simply set up to fail from the start.

One respondent put it bluntly: “We basically set it and forgot it.”

Hiring a Rainmaker? Bring an Umbrella.

If You’re Hiring for New Business, Be Ruthlessly Specific

This is not a role you can afford to fill halfway.

If you plan to bring someone in-house to drive new business, here are four critical things to look for.

1) Services and Product Experience Are Separate Skills

To be fair, there are those that can of course do both, but selling services is very different from selling a product.

Neither are easy, but with a services sell, you’re not offering something someone can test or try first. You’re selling ideas, outcomes, and trust.

Candidates without real experience in services often underestimate how consultative and nuanced the process needs to be.

2) Job Hopping Can Raise Questions

It is true that business development and sales professionals tend to move around more than most roles, especially today.

Still, a consistent pattern of short tenures should be looked at carefully.

Building a healthy pipeline takes time.

If someone hasn’t shown staying power, you risk hitting reset before they ever have a chance to make a real impact.

3) They Should Know How to Write Compelling Outreach

Ask them to write a short email to a hypothetical prospect without using AI, to start.

Can they make it specific, relevant, and persuasive?

Outreach is the front line of your new business effort.

If they can’t clearly communicate your value in writing, they may not be ready to represent your firm.

Even at this early stage, they should be able to articulate what makes you different and why it matters.

4) They Should Ask Smart Questions and Plenty of Them

Strong new business professionals are naturally curious.

They should want to understand your positioning, your challenges, and your goals.

If a candidate shows up without thoughtful questions, or doesn’t dig deeper as the conversation unfolds, that can be a sign of weak preparation or low engagement.

Hiring the Right Person Is Only the First Step

Even the best hire will struggle without structure, support, and active leadership involvement.

Do not set it and forget it.

Build regular check-ins into your process.

Start weekly, then move to biweekly or monthly as things take shape.

Stay accessible and make it clear you’re available for collaboration and guidance, not just for reviewing numbers at the end of the quarter.

Ultimately, treat it like a partnership.

When leadership stays involved, new business efforts tend to be more focused, more consistent, and more successful.

Final Thought

If hiring an internal new business leader is the path you’re choosing, be intentional at every step.

From vetting and interviewing to onboarding and ongoing support, success depends on much more than finding a strong resume.

New business is hard, but it doesn’t have to be a coin toss.

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Why Relying on Referrals Is Risky and What to Do Instead

Virtually every professional services firm we speak with tells us the same story. Their business was built on a strong foundation of referrals.

In our most recent professional service new business survey, we found that 73% of firms rely on referrals for new business.

Most of the firms that come to us looking to learn more about our outsourced new business programs do so because they are experiencing slow-downs in what historically was their #1 source for growth.

Why Referrals Are Becoming Less Reliable

Increased competition and digital noise
Prospects now have access to more providers than ever.

They are being called, emailed, and targeted online constantly. They are less dependent on personal recommendations and more likely to do their own research before engaging anyone.

Changes in buyer behavior
Buyers of professional services, especially in B2B, are increasingly influenced by direct outreach, digital channels, reviews, and thought leadership, not just word of mouth.

Generational shifts
Younger decision makers tend to put less weight on referrals and more weight on independent validation. That means your website, case studies, proof points, and social credibility matter more than ever. Having these ready when you reach out to a prospect is critical to building trust with a newer generation of buyers.

Niche specialization
As more firms specialize, broad referrals become less useful. A contact may think of you for one type of work but not realize you also solve a different, more specific problem.

Making current and past clients aware of the full range of what you do can help generate referrals that are actually a better fit.

Longer sales cycles
Referrals can still open doors, but decision timelines are getting longer.

That makes it feel like referrals are not producing results, even when conversations are happening.

Risk aversion and procurement controls
Larger organizations are increasingly using formal procurement processes, which weakens the impact of informal referrals.

If you can avoid procurement, you should. But more often than not, it is becoming part of the reality of selling into bigger organizations.

So what should you do?

Three Priorities for Growth in a Post-Referral World

1. Invest more in thought leadership, content, and SEO
Keeping your firm visible and positioning your team as experts helps separate you from competitors.

While this work can drive inbound interest, it is rarely automatic. Using your content to support outbound efforts is one of the most effective ways to put your message and value in front of the right prospects.

2. Build stronger client success programs to retain and expand existing relationships
Growing from within is just as important as winning net new clients.

Your current clients already trust you. The question is whether you are being intentional about uncovering new opportunities inside those relationships and making it easy for them to see the full value you can provide.

3. Create strategic partnerships and alliances instead of relying only on client referrals
Partnerships can take many forms. That might be working with a firm like ours to support your new business efforts.

Or it might be building relationships with associations or industry groups that create opportunities for speaking, content, and connection.

The right partnerships make growth more predictable and less dependent on chance.

What Do the Next Three to Five Years Look Like?

The referral-only model isn’t going to get easier.

Companies are operating leaner and consolidation is happening faster.

Technology is changing how buyers research and evaluate providers and the traditional referral is starting to feel a lot like the old Rolodex.

That doesn’t mean referrals stop mattering, but it does mean you can’t rely on them alone.

You need to be proactive in how you manage relationships with the companies you want to work with.

Don’t wait for them to make the first move.

Take control of the conversation and help prospects understand the value you bring.

Just make sure you do it in a way that is relevant, thoughtful, and genuinely helpful.

Need Help?

If you are looking for perspective or support with your new business efforts, we’re always happy to talk and help you think through next steps.

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The Professional Services Dilemma

We have been working with professional services firms since 2005 to help them win more new business

Started with a heavy focus on marketing service firms and have since branched out into other professional services sectors.

When I first started helping marketing agencies, I quickly realized how much alike they all were. I also quickly discovered that what the principal of the firm thought was unique (relative to how they positioned themselves and talked about their benefits and value), wasn’t unique at all.

“Hard working”, “senior talent”, “highly strategic” were among the many things firms felt differentiated them.  But reality was, it didn’t.

Being “hard working”, offering “senior talent”, and selling how “strategic” your firm is are all things that a client would recognize and see value in after they bring a new professional services firm on board.

It’s not something that is a differentiating selling proposition for a firm when making first contact with a prospect. Any firm can make the claim.

Not every firm can deliver – but that never stops firms from making the claim.

As we talked with accounting firms, and law firms, and IT and software development firms, we quickly discovered that the challenges facing the marketing service space was no different than that in the broader universe of professional services firms.

The differentiators versus the “non”

We have identified 5 central tenant questions that can help a professional services brand differentiate itself in a sea of sameness.

We can help you work your way through this exercise or you can do it yourself

Answering these five questions can quickly identify the critically meaningful components that can help distinguish your business from those you compete with.

  1. Why would someone want to sit down and talk with you in a first meeting or call?
  2. What technical or categorical expertise do you possess?
  3. What are the unique or different ways you can talk about what you do, beyond the standard/typical descriptor?
  4. When in competitive reviews, why do you most often win new business?
  5. What are the top 3 business challenges your firm solves for their clients?

The key is objectivity and diversity

Share these questions with your team members, gather up their responses and you’ll be amazed at the differences you’ll encounter!

And don’t just look to get your marketing team or strategy team (or point being, any one single team in the company) to be the only ones answering the questions. Look to some outlier teams to get a broader, more diversified scope of perspective.

And we also recommend sharing the questions with your clients/customers and see how they respond. Again the differences will likely be stunning.

Bring the team together and open up a meaningful and passionate dialogue about the responses.  Have respondents stand up and present and support their responses.

And the last thing you want is for your group to feel like they can’t objectively share their opinions and can’t openly challenge others’ opinions.

Creating an environment of trust and openness is the key to successfully landing on a better way to talk about your brand or your firm.

If looking for some help, we can support the initiative.

We can certainly help you carry this exercise all the way through to the end – helping you define the right way to talk about your firm, what you do, and what you do that really sets you apart from other firms in your space.’

I’ve been doing work like this for the past 20 years and plan on doing it for another 20 more!

Happy to talk if there’s interest (mark@rswus.com).

 

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