# Tom McMakin

Tom McMakin works with professional services firms on business development, client growth, and marketing. The posts discuss helping firms expand existing accounts, build relationships with clients, and create thought leadership.

- Profile: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/creators/tom-mcmakin/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-mcmakin
- LinkedIn followers: 2,213
- Topics: leadership, business-development
- Based on 11 dated posts, latest 2026-06-17

## Summary

Most useful for helping professional services firms expand existing clients through relationship-driven business development.

- Best for: Professional services consulting firms seeking keynotes or workshops on account growth and client relationships.
- Not for: Consumer lifestyle or mass-market software brands wanting high-reach sponsored posts and follower-scale guarantees.
- Check first: Confirm format, availability, fee, and audience data before contacting them.

### Takeaways

- Ask what the other person is trying to get done before pitching.
- Grow existing clients, not just new logos.
- Producing thought leadership is the bottleneck in demand generation.

## Main ideas

- **Ask what the other person is trying to get done before pitching**: Tom McMakin argues that a business development conversation should begin with the other person's priorities and obstacles, not with your proposal. The reasoning is practical: the real blocker surfaces on its own, and the next step becomes a response to the client's problem rather than a request for a decision on your pitch. They call the sequence "climbing up the relationship ladder" — an introduction, then a call, then a coffee — and write that the lesson is to ask what people are trying to get done and what keeps them from it.
- **Grow existing clients, not just new logos**: Tom McMakin draws a line between winning new logos — what the firm in the story called "making new friends" — and expanding the firm's remit inside current clients. The opportunity in existing accounts is to share the full inventory of services and extend work across the client's business units. Their proposed response was business development training for account leads, with a special emphasis on building key accounts.
- **Producing thought leadership is the bottleneck in demand generation**: In the same account, the client's hardest task is getting practice professionals to write. Tom McMakin treats that as a demand generation problem: a firm can have a marketing plan ready for each practice and still stall on producing the content the plan depends on. They offered examples of published work created for other clients.
- **Lead professional services sales with industry and function**: Tom McMakin's central positioning argument is that sales in professional services works best when a firm leads with the client's industry and function rather than its own service lines. That is a claim about how a firm shows up in a sales conversation, not just how it describes its capabilities. The post is field reporting: they spent a month walking the Avenues in New York, meeting clients and talking shop.
- **Benchmark business development against peers**: Tom McMakin presents a benchmarking questionnaire as a diagnostic for firms that want to know how their business development effort compares with others in professional services. The logic is comparative: see where the firm stands, then point the team toward BD excellence. Ask for the benchmark document to review what it measures and how it works.
- **Teach business development in the rooms where professional services leaders gather**: Tom McMakin speaks to professional services marketing and business development leaders about how firms drive business development. The Lex Mundi Americas Regional Marketing Meeting illustrates the audience and subject: legal marketing leaders from across the globe discussing how firms connect, grow and serve clients.
- **Guest view: Michael Zipursky's consulting workshop**: One post introduces another consultant's programme, not an offer from Tom McMakin. Michael Zipursky of Consulting Success runs a two-day Consulting Momentum Intensive; the body of the post is Zipursky's promotional copy. The guest argument is that consultants can grow through a structured programme covering pipeline building, niche selection, ideal-client definition, messaging, a discovery offer, a daily marketing plan, and value-based fees. McMakin's contribution is the framing line, "From a friend of mine, Michael Zipursky, in the consulting consultants world!"

## Work to read

- ["Stop talking about what I want to talk about" — a business development conversation, told step by step](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tom-mcmakin_we-teach-this-stuff-you-would-think-i-would-activity-7340728695151579137-yHFs)
- [Leading with industry and function in professional services sales](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tom-mcmakin_just-back-from-a-month-of-walking-the-avenues-activity-7330955606788399105-Hk6E)
- [Speaking to legal marketing leaders at the Lex Mundi Americas Regional Marketing Meeting](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tom-mcmakin_lexmundi-professionalservices-marketingleadership-activity-7378532178839805952-9jY6)
- [A benchmarking offer for firms that want to measure their business development](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tom-mcmakin_i-am-proud-of-the-team-for-writing-such-useful-activity-7346310583236902912-f90l)
- [Amplifying a peer's consulting workshop](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tom-mcmakin_from-a-friend-of-mine-michael-zipursky-activity-7180957422147051520-_Kg_)

## Brand relationships

- **Lex Mundi** (mention)
- **Consulting Success** (mention)

## Partnerships

Tom McMakin's posts do not describe a partnership or sponsorship program, rate card, or booking page. In September 2025, they posted about being invited to speak at the Lex Mundi Americas Regional Marketing Meeting on how professional-services firms drive business development. Other posts show the work they sell directly: business-development training and account-growth programs for consulting firms, and a benchmarking report on professional-services BD practices. For a keynote or workshop, confirm availability, format, and pricing directly with Tom McMakin before building a plan around the talk.

## Alternatives

- Rory Channer: Consider Rory if the firm wants a broader, research-led approach to changing how professionals build client relationships across the firm. In posts about *The Activator Advantage*, Rory describes research involving professional-services firms and an approach intended to build collaboration with clients, partners, and internal teams. That may suit a firm-wide business-development initiative better than a session centered on one account-expansion conversation.
- Susan Gold: Consider Susan if the firm’s main obstacle is unclear positioning or turning expertise into focused marketing. Her posts argue that firms need to clarify whom they serve, use client-history data to guide decisions, and give their network a concrete description of an ideal client. That’s a stronger fit when the session should focus on marketing clarity and referrals rather than account-lead behavior.
- Michael Kithcart Favor: Consider Michael if the buyer wants founders of professional-services firms to build a clearer sales system and concentrate on one reliable offer. His posts frame sales as a leadership responsibility and use the “42 Dive” idea to explain how a focused core offer can support growth. That makes him a more direct fit for a founder-focused session on sales identity, offer focus, and business growth.

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AI-assisted summary of public posts. Audience demographics are not available. Engagement appears only where we checked recent posts. Method: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/methodology/