Business development plan template for 2027, with a worked example
Updated By the SalesOne research team8 min read
The short answer
A business development plan turns a growth target into the specific clients, relationships and early signals a firm will pursue, and the partner hours it will spend on them. Copy the eight-part template below into Word, Excel or a slide, fill it before January, and review it monthly.
What is a business development plan?
A business development plan is a short, written commitment to where a firm’s new work will come from next year: which existing clients to grow, which new clients to win, which events signal a project before it is advertised, and how much partner time goes into each. It sits between the strategy, which decides where the firm competes, and the weekly business development routine.
It matters most for professional-services firms, because the experts who deliver the work also win it, and their time is the scarce resource. Forrester (blog, Feb 24, 2026, from its 2025 Buyers’ Journey Survey) found that 68% of B2B buyers already have a front-runner vendor in mind at the start of their purchase, and that the front-runner wins 80% of the time. A good plan is how a firm becomes the front-runner before a request for proposal exists. For the wider topic, see what business development means.
Business development plan template
Copy this table into Word, Excel or a slide. Fill the middle column for your firm, and treat the right-hand column as the test each entry must pass.
| Part | What to write | Check |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Growth target | Fees for the year, split into existing clients, past clients and new clients | New-client fees are converted into a number of new clients at your real average first-year fee |
| 2. Client focus | The two or three sectors and problems where the firm wins most profitably | Each focus area names a problem a client would recognise, not only a sector |
| 3. Existing and past clients | The clients to grow and the past clients to re-engage, each with an owner | Every top-20 client has a named partner and a next step |
| 4. Named new accounts | 30 to 50 organisations you want as clients, each with an owner | The list is small enough that each partner can name why every account is on it |
| 5. Pre-RFP signals | The dated events that come before projects: expansions, permits, leadership changes, funding, new regulation | Each signal has a source and a window, such as the last 90 days |
| 6. Relationships and point of view | Referrers and introducers to ask, and the two or three ideas the firm will publish or present | Each idea is tied to a focus problem from part 2 |
| 7. Partner time | Hours a week each partner or senior expert gives to business development | The hours add up after billable targets, and are booked in calendars |
| 8. Measures and reviews | The monthly numbers and the dates of each review | Leading measures (qualified accounts, conversations, invited proposals) as well as fees won |
Parts 4 and 5 are where most plans stay vague. The ICP template helps sharpen part 2, and our guide to a target account list shows how to build part 4.
How do you write a business development plan, step by step?
- Start from fees: how much must come from new clients, and how many new clients that means at your average first-year fee.
- Look back at the last 20 clients you won. Write down the sector, the problem and the event that started each project. That is your client focus and your first list of signals.
- Rank existing and past clients by the room to grow, and give each top client a named partner.
- Build the named new-account list from the focus areas, then cut it until every account has a reason to be on it.
- Decide how you will watch for the signals each month, and who checks them.
- Agree the partner hours in writing, then book them before January fills the calendars.
- Set the measures and put the monthly reviews in the calendar.
What does a completed business development plan look like?
Here is a filled-in plan for a fictional 40-person industrial engineering firm. Every number is invented to show the method; Halvorsen Castings is a fictional manufacturer used across our examples.
| Part | Entry |
|---|---|
| Growth target | $6.0M in fees: $4.2M from existing clients, $0.6M from past clients, $1.2M from new clients. At about $150K in first-year fees, that is 8 new clients |
| Client focus | Manufacturers adding or moving production capacity in the Midwest, who need plant layout, structural and permitting work fast |
| Existing and past clients | Top 12 clients each assigned to one of three partners; 9 past clients with no project in two years to re-engage by March |
| Named new accounts | 40 manufacturers, among them Halvorsen Castings, each with a partner owner and a one-line reason |
| Pre-RFP signals | A county permit or zoning filing for an expansion, a new COO or head of operations, a reshoring announcement, each dated within 90 days |
| Relationships and point of view | Quarterly lunches with two equipment dealers and one commercial lender; one short guide a quarter on what goes wrong in the first 90 days of an expansion |
| Partner time | Each of three partners: 6 hours a week; one coordinator: 1 day a week on research and signals |
| Measures and reviews | Monthly: accounts with a dated signal, conversations held, proposals invited before an RFP, fees won. Review on the first Tuesday of each month |
The plan works back from eight new clients to the accounts, signals and hours behind them. If the March review shows few invited proposals, the firm can widen the signals or the list while there is still time.
How does a business development plan differ by firm type?
The template is the same everywhere; the signals and the people who decide change by industry. Our industry guides go deeper on each.
| Firm type | Events that often come before work | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Engineering | Expansions, permits, new plants, leadership changes in operations | Engineering firm business development |
| Architecture | Land purchases, capital plans, campus and facility announcements | Architecture firm business development |
| Law | Funding rounds, acquisitions, new regulation, new general counsel | Law firm business development |
| Accounting | Growth past an audit or reporting threshold, new finance leadership, a sale process | Accounting firm business development |
| Construction | Permits, project financing, owner capital plans | Construction business development |
| Consulting | New executives, restructuring, transformation programmes announced | How to get consulting clients |
| Staffing and recruitment | Hiring surges, new locations, contract wins | Staffing agency business development |
How do you get your 2027 plan ready before January?
- November: pull the last two years of wins and losses, and write down the event that started each won project.
- Early December: agree the fee target and the client focus with the partners; draft the named account list.
- Mid December: assign owners to every top client and named account; book the partner hours for January to March.
- First week of January: start the monthly signal check and hold the first review at the end of the month.
Plan for more than one person per account. Forrester’s State of Business Buying 2026 (Jan 21, 2026) says the typical buying decision now includes 13 internal stakeholders and nine external influencers; see the buying committee for how to map them.
What mistakes make a business development plan fail?
- A target with no partner hours behind it. If nobody’s calendar changes, nothing else will.
- A list of hundreds of companies. Partners can only build relationships with a few dozen at a time.
- Waiting for RFPs. By the time a request is public, a front-runner usually exists.
- Measuring only fees won. Fees lag by months; qualified accounts and conversations tell you in weeks whether the plan is working.
- Forgetting past clients. A client who has not heard from you in two years is often the easiest new work.
How does SalesOne help with a business development plan?
SalesOne fills parts 4 and 5 of the plan with evidence. S1 agents research your market, keep or turn down each company against your client profile with the reason and a dated source, and map who decides at each kept account. A person on your team approves every message before it is sent, so partners keep the relationships while the research is done for them.