Insight · Business Development

Most business development advice was written for a software company.

A partnership does not launch. It wins work through people who already trust it, in a city where buyers compare notes and the PDPA reads your outbound. Five stages in the order that compounds, and the eight ways the imported playbook fails a firm.

Gary McRae, management consultant based in Singapore, PMC accredited and CAIG certified

By Gary McRae

Management consultant · Singapore · PMC accredited · CAIG certified

Last reviewed 11 September 2026 · 9 min read

The playbooks come from US software companies. The channel benchmarks come from European buyers. The advice assumes a marketing team, a paid budget and a product. A firm of 6 to 60 fee earners has partners, a coordinator, and a reputation.

Singapore adds its own physics. The market is small enough that general counsel and CFOs compare notes. The PDPA constrains who the firm may contact and how. Grant money changes the price of doing this properly, until 29 September. The sequence below is built for that.

Eight ways the imported playbook fails a firm

Recognise these before committing budget.

Treating Southeast Asia as one market. Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have different buyers, different regulators and different fee tolerance. A regional plan that treats them as one segment loses on every dimension.
The founding partners’ network plateau. A firm runs on its founding partners’ contacts. When those partners slow down, or their contacts retire, nothing takes over. In a new practice area the same plateau arrives in 60 to 90 days.
Leaving the grants on the table. Roughly 2 to 3 percent of Singapore SMEs claimed EDG for marketing advisory. Most assumed the paperwork outweighed the rebate. With the schemes closing on 29 September, the question is now dated as well as expensive.
Volume outbound in a small market. Singapore buyers know each other. Untargeted LinkedIn or email damages a firm’s name faster than no outbound at all. The Konsyg and Callbox guidance is direct: this market punishes volume.
The wrong people in the room. Marketing fills the seminar from a persona template. The partners do not follow up because nobody in the room can buy. In B2B research, sales rejects roughly 70 percent of marketing’s leads for this reason. Without a shared map of who actually buys, the budget goes on the wrong names.
Fees imported from elsewhere. Singapore clients at SGD 5 to 50 million revenue run on tighter margins than the enterprise comparables in the imported playbook. The wrong fee kills the conversation even when the offer is right.
Client alerts that rank and do not persuade. Six hundred words restating the regulation with five obvious points. Senior readers recognise generic content on the first paragraph. Content that ranks without authority converts at single-digit rates.
PDPA breaches in the list. Bought contact lists, scraped LinkedIn data, consent “transferred” from a third party. Penalties scale to the higher of SGD 1 million or 10 percent of annual Singapore turnover. Compliance is a constraint on the plan, not a note at the end of it.

What the PDPA allows, in plain English

A plain reading of the PDPC Advisory Guidelines: deemed consent applies to business contact information, a corporate email or office phone, for communication related to the recipient’s business role. A partner writing to a general counsel at her work address about a matter in her remit is generally permissible.

What is not: personal addresses, even for business purposes; purchased or rented lists where the consent was never for your firm; communication unrelated to the recipient’s role; and a slow unsubscribe. Ten working days is the line.

The PDPA does not block outbound. It blocks lazy outbound. Build lists from public business directories, Sales Navigator within its terms, the firm’s own event attendees and its opted-in subscribers. Skip purchased lists. For a law practice there is a second check: the Legal Profession (Publicity) Rules prohibit touting and unverifiable claims, and they apply before any outbound goes out. The full eight-step checklist is in the PDPA essay.

The Singapore B2B Sequence

Five stages, in the order that compounds. Each one depends on the one before it.

01
Map who actually buys, not a persona
Singapore B2B buying committees average five to seven people on a mid-market decision. For a firm that is the general counsel who shortlists, the CFO who approves the fees, the board member who recommends, and the procurement team that runs the panel. Map them by name for each target client: who decides, who blocks, who recommends. Refresh it quarterly. A persona is too thin a tool for this.
02
Three channels, ranked. Decline the rest.
For a Singapore firm in 2026 the credible three are: partner visibility on LinkedIn (organic, plus a small paid budget), events in the sectors your clients work in, and referral from adjacent professionals who do not compete with you. Below the line: email to opted-in lists, search content with a four-to-six-month ramp, and trade media. Skip Meta, TikTok and programmatic display unless there is a specific consumer reason.
03
PDPA-clean outbound, or none
Lists from public business sources only. Personalised, business-relevant outreach to corporate addresses. One follow-up. No sequence longer than four touches. Unsubscribes honoured inside ten days. The compliance overhead is real; the alternative is a penalty of up to the higher of SGD 1 million or 10 percent of annual Singapore turnover, plus a named enforcement decision in a small market. The full checklist is at /insights/pdpa-singapore-marketing. If the firm cannot run outbound cleanly, it should run none.
04
Credibility before volume
In Singapore B2B, trust compounds faster than spend. Build the surfaces that carry it before scaling anything: bylined essays under a partner’s name, speaking in the sectors that buy from you, anonymised patterns from the work, professional accreditations. Single-byline essays on LinkedIn outperform paid lead generation for senior B2B buyers in this market. Volume is downstream of authority.
05
The grant calendar
Until 29 September 2026: EDG covers up to 50 percent of eligible management consultancy costs for an SME, MRA covers up to 70 percent of approved overseas expansion costs, PSG covers pre-approved software. All three close to new applications on 29 September and EDGE replaces them on 30 September, with its activity list published that day. Above SGD 30,000 of scope the arithmetic favours applying. Put the grant in the plan on day one, and decide about the plan on its merits either way.

How it varies by firm

Law practices

The buyer is a general counsel or an owner-manager, and the Publicity Rules shape what the firm may say about itself. Referral from accountants, bankers and other lawyers who do not compete is the cheapest new work. Events belong in the clients’ sectors, not the profession’s own calendar, which is full of other lawyers.

Accounting firms

Busy season removes business development for a third of the year, so the pipeline in May is whatever walked in. The buyers are owner-managers and CFOs who already trust the firm with their accounts and have never been asked what else they need. The cross-sell inside the client base comes before any new-client channel.

Independent advisory

The principal is the brand, and the firm’s name has to outlast them. Essays and speaking under the principal’s name carry the pipeline; the design problem is moving some of that weight onto the next two partners before it is needed. Referral from the other two professions is the main channel.

When this sequence does not apply

The firm serves consumers. Conveyancing for individuals, personal tax, family law. Paid search and reviews carry more weight than referral from professionals. The B2B sequence is the wrong tool.
The firm is below 6 fee earners. There is nothing to design. The partners’ network is the plan, and the useful outside help is a half-day on positioning.
Singapore is one market of many. If the priority is regional expansion, a Singapore sequence is a sub-optimisation. Build the regional plan first, then adapt it here.

Frequently asked questions

Can the firm rely on PDPA deemed consent for cold email?

Yes, for business contact information used for purposes related to the recipient's role. A corporate email address, for communication about the recipient's business, generally qualifies. Personal addresses, purchased lists, and marketing unrelated to the role do not. Honour unsubscribes within ten days. The PDPC Advisory Guidelines are the document to cite if the practice is ever challenged.

Can EDG fund business development advice?

Until 29 September 2026, engagements with a PMC-accredited consultant can qualify under EDG's business strategy and marketing development categories, at up to 50 percent of eligible costs for an SME, and Enterprise Singapore decides. Applications close on 29 September. EDGE replaces EDG on 30 September and its terms for consultancy are not published. No consultant can guarantee the outcome under either scheme.

How long before business development produces repeatable new work?

From a settled position to the first repeatable signal: four to six months. From that signal to a function that runs without a partner pushing it: another six to nine. Most firms underestimate the second half. Plan on a year before the pipeline is predictable, and measure it quarterly from month one.

LinkedIn or events?

Both, in that order. LinkedIn first, as the always-on channel: essays under the names of two or three partners, not the firm's logo. Events second, quarterly: two conferences in the sectors your clients work in, one in your own profession's calendar. The combination compounds. Events start conversations that LinkedIn keeps warm for months.

How does a firm get past the founding partners’ network?

Build the engine before the network runs out, not after. Three parts: a content rhythm (bylined essays plus trade media), a small, disciplined outbound motion against PDPA-clean lists, and a referral programme with explicit asks of existing clients and adjacent professionals. Without these, the pipeline is whatever the founding partners' contacts happen to send.

What does a minimum commercial function look like for a firm of 6 to 60 fee earners?

One capable manager in-house, or a strong contractor, with senior direction above them; and restrained tooling: a CRM, an email tool, basic analytics, SGD 1,000 to 3,000 a month in total. The manager runs the work; the senior sets the direction and reviews it. Agencies on projects, not retainers. Annual operating cost in the order of SGD 200,000 to 350,000, against SGD 600,000-plus for a full-time senior hire with a small team.

Sources

About the author

Gary McRae is a management consultant in Singapore. MCR.AE is management consultancy for how a professional services partnership wins work: business development, marketing, and who runs both, for firms of 6 to 60 fee earners. He ran digital and marketing technology inside a global law firm, as Associate Director of Marketing: the website, the CRM, the systems the firm paid for, under partner governance, with fee earners as internal clients. 12+ years in Singapore. PMC accredited (SBACC), CAIG certified (NTU).

Find him on LinkedIn.

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