Firms spend heavily on getting client insight right, identifying opportunities and giving partners the information they need to act. Then, too often, the last step doesn’t happen: nobody picks up the phone. For BD professionals, the challenge is not simply identifying the opportunity. It’s influencing the partner to act when you don’t have the authority to make that decision yourself.
At the ICON Conference, you’ll hear directly from clients about what they value and what they look for from their firms. Two weeks later, we’ll turn the lens inwards and look at the partners you need to influence to act on that insight.
Help shape the conversation by sharing your experience of turning client insight into partner action in this short, anonymous survey. Please note, the survey closes on Wednesday 7 October. After submitting, you can separately provide your email address to receive a summary of the findings after the webinar.
Drawing on original research using modelled partner profiles, this session will explore how partners think about business development, how they assess opportunities, the objections they raise and what may actually be holding them back. Members will hear the arguments they’re up against in the language partners use, understand what sits behind those objections, and learn practical ways to respond, influence decisions and turn good client insight into action.
Speaker:
Steven Lewis
Taleist Agency
Steven Lewis is the founder of Taleist, an intelligence agency for professional services firms. He researches how clients choose firms, and what stops firms from acting on what clients tell them.
He has seen the partner problem from both sides of the desk. After reading law at Oxford, he instructed international law firms as a client, edited legal journals for Sweet & Maxwell, wrote for the Financial Times and Esquire, and worked in business development inside a top-tier Australian law firm.
Event Details:
Date: Wednesday, 18 November 2026
Time: 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Price: Members: Free | Non‑members: $90.00