Firms that use the powerful team role framework – Finders, Minders, Grinders and Binders – are set up for growth and success. These roles help firms meet growth targets, build team cohesion and tap into the full potential of individual strengths.
Principal Megan Braverman discussed how these roles fit into your firm’s marketing and business development efforts and where to start.
Read the webinar transcript below.
Good morning, everyone—or good afternoon, depending on where you are. I’m going to go ahead and get started. Thank you so much for joining.
Every firm is made up of different people, and I like to call it a unique cast of characters. Each person brings strengths to the table—maybe a few weaknesses—but they often fall into roles that the firm needs to truly thrive. These roles come with all kinds of names: the rainmakers who bring in new business, the client whisperers who know every detail about their clients, the perfectionists buried in their own work, and what I like to call the true unsung heroes—the back-office people who quietly keep the firm from descending into chaos.
The challenge is that even the most talented team members don’t always neatly fit into their roles. Today, we’re going to take a closer look at roles, why they matter, and how they shape firm success. And, of course, we’ll probably laugh a little about how we’ve all worn the wrong hat at times.
So, what are finders, minders, binders, and grinders? These may seem like silly terms, but for those who may not be familiar, they were originally coined by David Maister in his book Managing the Professional Service Firm. This book, which is at least a decade old, is a collection of articles Maister wrote over 10 years, filled with timeless truths about delivering great client work, recruiting, and retaining talent. He really teaches super smart people how to run their businesses.
There are three archetypal roles, though you’ll notice there are four here—I’ll explain that in a moment.
- Finders are the rainmakers. They have a successful business or practice and are always seeking out and generating new business. They’re usually owners, leaders of practice groups, or senior professionals. The success of the firm is directly tied to their personal financial success. Essentially, they’re in sales, spending the majority of their time on business development. Their job isn’t about project delivery—it’s about finding work for others to complete.
- Minders excel at managing teams. They oversee administrative tasks, and while their clients may technically belong to someone else, they are responsible for day-to-day contact. They focus on internal operations and keeping everything moving forward. They seek to please and, frankly, hold everything together.
- Grinders are the ones who churn out the work. They’re typically earlier in their careers, may not often interact with clients, and instead stay behind the scenes.
- Binders were not part of Maister’s original framework but were added fairly recently to account for evolving roles in professional service firms, particularly in law and consulting. As firms grew, the need for binders emerged—people who focus on firmwide organization, cohesion, and culture. They handle responsibilities like internal communication, creating processes that support collaboration, and improving retention. This term has become much more popular in the last decade, reflecting the increased focus on culture, employee engagement, and modernized firm structures.
Before we dive deeper, I want to take a quick poll. Remember, all four roles are essential, but they’re not mutually exclusive. Anyone can bring in business, and likewise, anyone can do the heavy lifting like the grinders. It’s not an exact science, but most people naturally fall into one of these categories.
I’m launching a poll now, and I’d love for everyone to answer the questions on the screen:
- Which role does your firm need the most right now?
- Which role do you think is the most challenging to develop within your firm?
Once you submit your answers, you’ll see the results live. We’ll give everyone a minute to respond. I see some responses coming in the chat—thank you! It looks like finders tend to be the role that most firms need and also struggle to develop.
I’ll give everyone one more minute to respond. So far, it looks like:
- 50% say their firm needs finders the most, and 50% say they need minders.
- When it comes to the most challenging role to develop, 50% say finders, 25% say minders, and 25% say grinders.
It seems like finders and minders are both the most needed and the hardest to develop, so let’s talk about that now.
Before we continue, let me quickly introduce myself. I hope you all know by now—I am not an HR professional. This does, however, delve into an HR topic. Berbay is a marketing and PR agency that specializes in working with professional service firms, but the people part affects everyone—whether you’re an owner, an employee, or have been on both sides. People are the fabric of a firm, and they directly impact its success. My name is Megan Braverman, and I’m very happy to be presenting again.
Now, as I mentioned, these roles are not mutually exclusive. We’ve seen it firsthand—someone may be excellent at managing a firm but have no talent for sales, or someone may be passionate about deliverables like a grinder but struggle with building relationships like a binder.
I want to reframe this discussion. Many people think of this as “filling seats”—as in, I need to hire a finder, I need a minder, etc. But that’s the wrong way to think about it. Instead, I encourage you to think about it in terms of filling gaps and leveraging opportunities.
Take a look at this pros and cons list. Instead of saying, I need to hire a business development person, look at the people you already have and determine what roles they naturally fall into. What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses?
For example, finders are great at generating business and positioning the firm in the market, but they might struggle with client handoff or focus too much on acquisition instead of retention. Understanding these strengths and weaknesses helps you address gaps without necessarily making new hires.
Determining the roles you need right now is often the hardest part. It requires assessing your current business goals, workload, and gaps in capabilities. Let’s walk through a few ways to figure out what your firm needs to do next.
Do I really need right now? You might know instinctively that you need more finders to bring in more business, or you might realize that you need someone on the minder side. From the poll, you can see that many people are split between finders and minders, but I want you to first take a step back and define your goal.
If your goal is growth, that’s your primary objective—think entering new markets, increasing business, or improving the quality of your clients. In this case, you’ll need more finders to drive business development efforts. If your focus is on client retention, strengthening existing client relationships, reducing churn, or upselling, then you should focus on minders. If you want to streamline internal processes, improve client delivery, or enhance the team’s performance, you might want to look into expanding or empowering binders. If there is a high volume of work or increased complexity with client demands, consider adding grinders to maintain the quality of work and keep up with the workload.
This is one way to assess what you need right now: define your goal. The second factor is evaluating your pain points and team gaps. Identify where the team or the firm is struggling. If you’re missing out on business opportunities or struggling to reach the right prospects, you need more finders. If your existing clients aren’t receiving enough attention or you’re seeing a drop in client satisfaction, then minders are the answer. If projects and timelines are slipping, or if the quality is inconsistent due to a very high workload, then you need grinders. If there are issues with employee engagement, high turnover, collaboration problems, or operational inefficiencies affecting client service or morale, then you need binders.
Next, consider the current market conditions and your firm’s positioning. If you’re in a highly competitive market or navigating rapid changes, you may need more finders to drive brand awareness and pursue client acquisition more aggressively. If your firm is experiencing high client turnover, minders could help improve client loyalty and satisfaction. In challenging market conditions, or if your firm is struggling with profitability, grinders might be the solution.
The final piece is soliciting feedback, both from your team and your clients. Engage with your team to understand their workload, bottlenecks, and where they feel additional support is needed. Client feedback can also indicate where you’re falling short. For instance, you might need more minders to better manage relationships or grinders for faster and higher-quality work. By aligning some of your immediate role needs with your business priorities and the gaps in resources, you can gain clarity on which roles to address.
Now, role mismatch is a prevalent issue. But we need to ask: Is it a role mismatch, or is it an expectation mismatch? This is where you need to develop your people plan. When creating your people plan, keep in mind the roles of finders, minders, grinders, and binders.
First, you need to define clear roles and expectations. A people plan outlines what is expected of each role and helps employees understand their specific responsibilities in supporting growth, client relationships, or operational stability. It also prevents overlap and gaps in service, especially between business development and client care. Training programs are essential as well; these should align with each role so that people can build the necessary skills to thrive. A well-structured training program can help reduce turnover and enhance talent development.
A good people plan also builds a collaborative environment. Make sure all roles work seamlessly together and foster a culture of collaboration, rather than having business development people here and client relationship people there. Collaboration is key to ensuring a consistent client experience and high-quality work. This alignment supports your firm’s strategy, ensuring each team member contributes to the firm’s success. For example, if you have too many finders and no grinders, you risk having lots of work coming through the door but not being able to deliver on it, which sets you up for failure.
Regardless of which role someone falls into, if your firm requires marketing and business development participation, you need to set clear expectations based on their level and experience. For example, for a grinder in a law firm who’s expected to bill 40+ hours a week, is it realistic to expect them to attend networking events or author blog posts? Probably not. Setting realistic expectations and building upon them allows your people to grow.
Now, let’s look at how these roles impact marketing and business development.
For finders, their goal is to generate leads and attract new clients. Finders are central to marketing and BD, since their main role is bringing in new business. They benefit from marketing efforts that position the firm as a leader, build brand visibility, and communicate the firm’s value proposition effectively. This can be done through targeted messaging, thought leadership, networking events, and client entertainment. Key performance indicators for finders include the number of leads generated, client conversion rates, and revenue growth.
For minders, their goal is to maintain and grow client relationships. They need marketing strategies that reinforce trust and loyalty. Effective marketing tactics for minders include client-centric content, CRM tools, and automated communications. The metrics to measure minders’ success include client retention rates, satisfaction scores, and cross-selling success.
Grinders typically don’t engage in direct marketing or business development, but their work is often the foundation for case studies, success stories, and client testimonials. Marketing strategies beneficial for grinders include showcasing expertise, educational content, and collaboration with marketing teams. Success metrics for grinders include project quality, case study success, and innovative solutions.
Binders play a critical role in creating an environment where marketing and BD can flourish. They support internal culture that aligns with the firm’s brand and values. Marketing tactics for binders may include internal branding, employee engagement initiatives, and client experience programs. KPIs for binders include employee satisfaction scores and alignment between internal culture and branding goals.
Each role is crucial for the overall success of the firm. Some people may remain in their roles for the duration of their careers, while others may evolve. For instance, a grinder might eventually transition into a finder role with some additional training and experience. Bindors with leadership or operational expertise may naturally move into higher-level roles.
I want to emphasize that you should not view these roles as neatly filling specific seats. Instead, think about the broader picture of what each role brings to the table. Yes, people can transition between roles with the right support and training, but too often, people expect a grinder to inherently have a finder’s mentality. This mismatch can lead to frustration. It’s essential to sit down with individuals and determine what role suits them best.
While determining ways that individuals can contribute to the firm’s marketing endeavors without negatively impacting their work, it’s important to invest in training. Role-specific training and mentorship programs accelerate the learning process. Creating these training and mentorship programs is key, allowing people to practice or shadow others in their roles. I don’t see much shadowing like I used to, and I’m not sure why. But 10-20 years ago, if a minder or grinder wanted to become a finder, they would attend networking functions with finders, sit in on client meetings with the minders, and watch those roles in action, learning from them.
Additionally, it’s crucial to study market trends. In this competitive landscape, understanding how things are changing and how your roles can best support those changes is important. Hybrid roles do exist—if you find that a person is a “unicorn” and can fill two roles, do whatever you can to make them happy. Unicorns are rare, so it’s important to make the most of these opportunities.
Employees should also see that switching roles can broaden their skill set, help them see the business from multiple perspectives, and make them more versatile and valuable team members. There was a comment that it costs too much to let people grow and develop these days, and I must respectfully disagree. When people think about training and mentorship programs, they often think of huge costs—like $20,000 per month for a program or an expensive workshop. However, shadowing doesn’t cost much—it may only cost time and resources. There are various ways to upskill people cost-effectively. Larger firms may have robust training programs, but sometimes it’s about the mentality of mentorship. Everyone wants a mentor, but do mentees have the right mentality? A mentor isn’t going to come down from the heavens and shadow you through your whole career. That’s not how it works. Maybe it’s about helping people develop the “mentee mentality” to make the most of the opportunity.
So, there are cost-effective ways to do this, but it takes more thought into where the gaps are and where people want to be. For those who are looking for finders, are there people within your group who could take on that role? If yes, what do they need to learn to get to that place? If not, the focus may shift to recruiting, which is a separate discussion about attracting the right talent. Finding the right finders can be a challenging process. I’d be happy to talk more offline with anyone who has questions about developing cost-effective training programs.
As we wrap up today’s conversation, I hope you walk away with a clearer view of the roles that make up every firm. The big takeaway is this: no matter what role you play, success comes down to one thing: how well we align our talent, strategy, and focus to drive growth. Marketing and business development are what make this alignment possible. They bring in opportunities, strengthen client relationships, and ensure the firm doesn’t just survive, but thrives.
It’s about finding the right business mind, maintaining the relationships we’ve built, and grinding to deliver exceptional results. It’s important to recognize that every single role matters. At the end of the day, growth isn’t a one-person job; it’s a team effort. Identify the opportunities you feel you’re missing, and seize them. We’ve seen a lot of success by doing this.
Thank you so much for joining me. I know this was a quick webinar, and I hope you gained a few pearls of wisdom. Here’s to building a smarter, stronger, and more successful firm. I am here to answer any questions offline, and a recording will be available shortly if you have other team members who would like to listen. Thank you again!
