Perfection is impossible
Last week, we ran a training session for partners at a new look, challenger UK HQ’d law firm. Among the usual charts, chuckles and existential BD angst, we played a short clip of Roger Federer. Not because we fancied a Centre Court moment, but because he made a point that hits home in professional services sales:
“Perfection is impossible.” – Roger Federer
Yet so many of us still chase it. Often at the cost of momentum, connection, and yes, revenue.
So this week’s Three Things is an unflinching look at what not to do in your sales and BD strategy. If you’ve ever sat on a final draft too long, ghosted a warm lead, or buried a brilliant insight in a forgotten deck… this one’s for you. Enjoy.
#1. The perfection trap
There’s a quiet killer in your pipeline. It wears brogues, loves handwritten changes, and says things like “Let’s revisit this once we’ve added another quote from regulatory.”
We see it everywhere:
- Teams spending two weeks polishing an email no-one’s asked for.
- Lawyers wordsmithing the life out of a LinkedIn post.
- Two partners arguing about whether a client alert needs “however” or “but”.
Here’s the truth:
- Speed beats polish. Most customers value relevance and responsiveness over Shakespearean prose.
- You’re usually working with incomplete info. That’s fine. Deal with it. Move anyway.
- Momentum wins markets. You’re not always up against a better firm – sometimes, you’re up against someone who moved faster.
In a previous life, we saw the value of this during regulatory market shake-ups. A trainee would draft something, an associate would give it a once-over, and a partner would sign off. The result? We were often first to market with something timely – even if it wasn’t perfect. We called them Rapid Response Initiatives (RRIs). Thanks Andrew Williams.
💡 Imperfect content invites collaboration. It opens a door rather than shutting one.
#2. Fire and forget = failure guaranteed
Here’s how most BD efforts die: someone sends something smart… and then walks away.
You know the pattern:
- A great invite. Silence.
- A follow-up email. No reply.
- A pitch that took three days. Vanished into the ether.
Let’s be blunt – your email isn’t the most important thing your customer will receive today. They’re wading through 150+ emails a day, dodging meetings and putting out internal fires. If you don’t follow up, it’s game over.
According to Marketing Donut, 80% of sales require five or more follow-ups, but only 8% of professionals actually go that far.
Don’t be part of the 92%.
Try this instead of “just checking in”:
“I’ve been thinking about the conversation we had and I’ve got a couple of new ideas that might help. Would it be useful to jump on a call this week?”
It shows thought. It adds value. And it doesn’t sound like a default setting.
Remember: You’re not following up for you – you’re doing it for them. That’s what trusted advisers do.
#3. Single-use marketing is a budget black hole
You spent hours writing a briefing, designing a session or preparing a deck… and then it gets filed away in some dusty SharePoint corner, never to be seen again.
Here’s the fix: everything you create should have at least three lives.
Example:
- Webinar → blog summary → LinkedIn carousel
- Legal alert → customer training slide → one-pager for intermediaries
- Nice customer email → testimonial → social media quote card
And the good news? You don’t have to do all of that manually anymore.
Enter Generative AI – your tireless, non-unionised BD assistant.
Use it to:
- Rewrite technical updates for different audiences
- Turn transcripts into teaser posts
- Summarise customer roundtables into punchy, anonymised takeaways
- Repackage decks into email copy, articles, or thought leadership
Tools like SuperWhisper, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Fireflies.ai are genuinely useful here – not to replace your work, but to remix it.
🛠️ Top tip: Don’t treat the output as final. Think of it like a creative intern – full of energy, occasionally a bit weird, but very, very helpful.
#3. Final thought
✅ Get it 90% there and ship it
✅ Follow up like your bonus depends on it
✅ Reuse everything. Then reuse it again. Then ask Gen AI to remix it
Perfection is a fantasy. Progress is what wins.
Now go be a little less perfect and a lot more productive. Federer would approve.
