---
title: Business development for professional services | Ricavi
url: https://www.ricavi.ai/industries/professional-services
updated: 2026-10-21
language: en-AU
---

# Business development coaching for professional services firms.

> Your experts are brilliant, but selling isn’t their day job. Ricavi coaches partner-led business development on client calls, without intruding.

This is the Markdown version of Ricavi’s professional services page, written for AI assistants. It follows the page section by section. The figures are the page’s approved figures. Times and scores come from one example call.

- Page: https://www.ricavi.ai/industries/professional-services
- Pricing: https://www.ricavi.ai/pricing
- Book a demo: the Book a demo button on https://www.ricavi.ai/industries/professional-services opens the demo form.

## The five things on this page

1. Ricavi coaches each expert on the call.
2. The expert was about to start the study. Ricavi’s nudge: ask who decides first.
3. The same slip sounds different in every profession.
4. You choose which calls are recorded. Some never are.
5. Ricavi drafts the email and the CRM update. They wait until the partner says yes.

## For firms that sell expertise

Your experts are brilliant, but selling isn’t their day job. Ricavi coaches them on video calls and drafts follow-ups to approve.

- SOC 2 Type I and II
- ISO 27001
- GDPR
- No external training on your data
- Client review · Brightwell

## What Ricavi does for your experts

1. **Ask first, live.** Ricavi nudges the expert while the client is still there.
2. **Find the moment.** Search the transcript of each recorded call.
3. **See the whole team.** The team dashboard shows each expert side by side.
4. **Approve each draft.** Nothing is written to your CRM until someone approves it.

## Where Ricavi sits: coaching on the client calls and CRM you already run

Client calls come in from Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom. Ricavi records them and reads the client’s record in your CRM. Drafted updates go back only once the expert approves them.

- 83%: less admin. Ricavi writes the notes and drafts the follow-ups. It updates the CRM once the expert approves.
- Ricavi sits above your CRM and guides the work at every stage.
- Account, deal, and contacts
- Drafted updates
- So the pre-call brief lands 30 minutes before each call.
- Connected at onboarding, with your calendar.
- Nothing is written to your CRM until the expert approves it.
- Not a DIY product. Installed and monitored by sales and technical leaders.

## The same slip sounds different in every profession

A client asks for one piece of work, and the expert gets on with it. Nobody asks what’s behind the request. Each row shows that moment in a different profession, with the question worth asking first.

- Illustrative examples
- **Law.** The client says: “Can you register our trademark?” Ask first: “Of course. Where do you plan to trade under this name in the next few years?” Law firm business development →
- **Accounting.** The client says: “Could you get our financials to the bank by June?” Ask first: “We can. What’s the funding for, and what changes once you have it?” Business development for accounting firms →
- **Consulting.** The client says: “Could you run a quick review of our pricing?” Ask first: “Happy to. What’s prompted the review now?” Consulting firm business development →
- **Engineering.** The client says: “We need the feasibility study by March.” Ask first: “March works. What decision will the study inform, and who makes it?”
- **Language services.** The client says: “Could you quote for translating our website?” Ask first: “Gladly. Who will read it, and what do you need them to do next?”
- Your firm’s own engagement process, written with you at onboarding, decides which questions Ricavi coaches on the call.
- Ricavi’s nudge, on the call
- Only the expert sees it.
- The live sidebar on a call. A nudge says: Surface the decision process. Below it is a line to say.

## On a recorded client call: experts answer before they ask. Here’s the record

When the call ends, the scorecard rates it on your firm’s process.

1. **Scored on your firm’s process.** Each recorded call gets a score. It checks your questions, your tone, how you handle objections, and your own steps.
2. **A private coaching chat.** The coaching chat already knows what was said, so you can ask it why discovery started so late. It stays private unless you share it.
3. **Your next move.** One press drafts the discovery questions you skipped, for your next call with this client.

- How the coaching works

> “We’ve significantly increased our pipeline and boosted our bottom line. I highly recommend Ricavi to any business owner looking to drive sales fast. The investment has paid for itself many times over.”
> Costa Vasili, CEO, Ethnolink

## Under the bonnet: built on how sales is taught, not bolted on

Behind Ricavi are 20 years of the founders’ sales coaching and 5,000+ built-in skills.

- The people behind it
- Built by builders.
- Dave builds companies. Regan builds sales teams. Luigi builds performance.
- **David Fastuca:** Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
- David is a serial entrepreneur who helped found Locomote and sold software businesses before Ricavi. Now he builds the product and the business, with a focus on making AI that sales teams use every day.
- **Regan Barker:** Co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer
- Regan builds sales teams, most recently for a professional services firm that sold for A$1 billion in 2026. Regan, a full-cycle revenue leader, manages Ricavi’s enterprise pipeline.
- **Luigi Prestinenzi:** Co-founder and Chief Customer Officer
- Luigi has generated $1.45 billion in pipeline across 20 years of selling and coaching. He built the coaching methodology behind Ricavi and co-hosts the Revenue Leaders podcast.
- **Revenue Leaders podcast:** Hosted by Luigi, Regan, and Dave
- **The B2B Sales Playbook:** By Luigi and Dave
- Built-in skills
- 5,000+: each one is a play for one moment in a deal, like handling a price objection or mapping the buying committee.
- They say it seems expensive.
- Handling a price objection
- Nobody said who else has to sign it.
- Mapping the buying committee
- The proposal has been with them for eleven weeks.
- Restarting a stalled deal

> “I have been working with the team at Ricavi for the last two months and already achieved higher conversion rates and a faster sales cycle.”
> Stuart Cook, MD, TWIYO

## Set by your admin: choose which client calls are recorded

Here’s an example day of six meetings. Change a rule and the recorded ones change with it.

- Recording rules
- Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Zoom
- Only people from your firm
- Kept for the period you set
- Your admin’s choice for regulated conversations
- Ricavi supports your compliance process. It doesn’t replace your compliance review or your record-keeping obligations.
- No bot, no notice.

## Partner-led follow-up, without the wait

Ricavi drafts the email and the next step from what the client said. Nothing is written to your CRM until someone approves it.

- **To review:** The partner edits and approves each draft on its own.
- **Send email:** Follow-ups go from your own account, and only once approved.
- **Or dismiss it:** Dismiss a draft and nothing is sent or synced.
- **Up next:** Your admin sets which CRM fields Ricavi may update.
- Ricavi drafts the email and the CRM update.
- They wait until the partner says yes.
- until the partner says yes

## Business development training teaches the method. Client calls test it

A seller-doer wins client work and then delivers it, so they often join a client call straight from a deliverable. That’s when the method slips. Ricavi keeps four habits from training going around each call.

1. **Know the client before you join.** A ‘Prepare with Ricavi’ email links to a brief built from your CRM and past notes, with a suggested agenda. The expert can read it between two pieces of client work.
2. **Ask before you advise.** The sidebar ticks off your firm’s engagement process as the conversation covers it. When a critical item is still open after halfway, it nudges the expert with the question and the words to use.
3. **Review the call while it’s fresh.** The scorecard rates the call on core skills and on your firm’s process, with timestamped moments. The coaching chat starts with the call’s context, so the expert can ask what to try next time.
4. **Follow through before the day fills up.** A morning email lists the day’s meetings, the drafts still waiting for approval, and the opportunities that need attention. On a day with nothing in it, the email isn’t sent.

- Thirty minutes before
- On the call
- When the call ends
- The next morning

## What is professional services business development

- Professional services business development is how a firm wins and grows client work when the people who sell it are the people who deliver it. It happens inside client relationships rather than on a sales floor, and it’s usually led by partners and senior experts with little or no BD team behind them.
- Also called
- Client development or practice development.
- Where it’s won
- In client conversations, such as reviews, scoping calls, and pitches.
- What it costs
- Every hour spent winning work is an hour not billed.
- Last reviewed 10 Oct 2026
- Written by the Ricavi team

## Meet us before you buy. Watch, read, or join

- **The live weekly session:** Free, in Growth Forum

## FAQ: what managing partners ask first

### What is professional services business development?

It’s how a firm wins and grows client work when **the people who sell it are the people who deliver it**. It happens inside client relationships, not on a sales floor. Partners and senior experts usually lead it. Few have a business development team to help. They win the work in reviews, scoping calls, and pitches.

### Will our partners use it?

Ricavi works on **the video calls they’re already having**. It coaches against your firm’s own engagement process, in plain language. The notes and follow-up arrive as drafts to approve. So business development adds a review to the week, not more admin. Nothing is written to your CRM until someone approves it.

### Our firm does something else. Is Ricavi for us?

If your experts win the work and then deliver it, yes. That’s **the seller-doer model**. It works the same way well beyond law, accounting, and consulting. Engineering, architecture, and language services firms are like this too. Your engagement process is written with you at onboarding, in your firm’s own words.

### Can each practice work its own way?

Within one firm-wide process, yes. One engagement process is active for the whole firm. It drives the live checklist, the scorecard, and the coaching. Your admin can give **each practice its own playbook**. An expert can also switch playbook for a single meeting from the pre-call brief.

### Is Ricavi business development training?

It’s coaching that works **alongside business development training**. Workshops teach the method. Ricavi coaches each expert on real client calls, against your firm’s own engagement process. Your admin can also upload the firm’s training material as a playbook. Then the coaching chat draws on the same method.

### Is it OK to record client calls?

Consent law differs from place to place, so **your firm sets the terms**. By default no bot joins and no notification appears. Your admin sets the recording mode, retention, and which calls are recorded to match your consent requirements. Admins can exclude client domains. Or they can have a named bot join, so clients see the call is recorded.

### How is client data kept safe?

Recordings are kept for a retention period your admin sets. Then Ricavi deletes them. Data is **encrypted end to end** and isn’t used for external training. Ricavi is SOC 2 Type I and II, ISO 27001, and GDPR compliant. Its security is audited and tested, so client confidences stay with the firm.

### Which calls does Ricavi coach?

Video calls on **Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet**, through Ricavi’s Chrome extension. The expert gets the live checklist and nudges during the call. When it ends, the scorecard and the drafts are ready. For a meeting Ricavi didn’t record, an expert can still ask its chat to draft the recap email from their notes.

## Product facts

| Figure | Label |
|---|---|
| 83% | Less admin. Ricavi writes the notes and drafts the follow-ups. It updates the CRM once the expert approves. |
| 5,000+ | Each one is a play for one moment in a deal, like handling a price objection or mapping the buying committee. |
| 20 years | Of the founders’ sales coaching behind the product. |

- Security and data: SOC 2 Type I and II, ISO 27001, and GDPR.
- Meetings: Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom, through a Chrome extension. No bot joins by default.
- CRMs: HubSpot, Salesforce, and Microsoft Dynamics. Nothing is written to the CRM until the rep approves it.

## Links

- Professional services: https://www.ricavi.ai/industries/professional-services
- Pricing: https://www.ricavi.ai/pricing
- Book a demo: use the Book a demo button on https://www.ricavi.ai/industries/professional-services
- Legal: https://www.ricavi.ai/industries/legal
- Accounting: https://www.ricavi.ai/industries/accounting
- Consulting: https://www.ricavi.ai/industries/consulting