Litera's Objective Manager nails the foundation of successful business development for a busy professional in What makes a Rainmaker? Five tips to mastering business development in law firms. But the statement "should be added to your goals" begs questions such as...

• Do your professionals set specific goals during annual planning?
• Are the goals in a format that can be easy translated into a "to do" and time-boxed to improve the likelihood of execution?    
• Are they captured in a way that your talented BD team can proactively offer assistance to ensure execution and maximize value?  
• Are they captured in a way that the professional can see their past priorities and results so the process can be coherent and sustainable and not "one offs?" 

Firms with a process orientation to business development are in a better position to help every professional be more successful as well as develop and maintain a more effective and inclusive business development culture.