Solving a Timeless Challenge: Gaining Genuine Client Insight Without Direct Access
BD professionals in professional services have long faced a common challenge: limited access to clients. With partners and senior practitioners often acting as gatekeepers, it’s tough to test messaging, validate service offerings, or understand pricing sensitivities - leaving BD teams to rely on assumptions or second-hand input.
But there’s a new solution on the table.
Enter: synthetic personas and synthetic data - an emerging AI capability already in use by leading organisations like EY, Spotify, Coca-Cola and Unilever. These AI-generated research participants are designed to mimic real human responses with astonishing accuracy -and they’re backed by rigorous academic validation.
A 2025 Journal of Marketing study found a 95% alignment between synthetic persona responses and real-world consumer data.
What You’ll Learn
This practical, insight-driven session introduces BD professionals to:
- What synthetic personas are — and how they’re built to represent real client segments
- How they solve the “client access” challenge when partner access is limited
- Strategic applications in professional services — including pricing, service design, and messaging
- The science behind the technology — and why it’s already in use by global firms
- Real-world examples specific to BD, including:
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- Running synthetic focus groups to test service ideas
- Testing pitch strategies to find the most compelling messages
- Using synthetic clients in partner retreats to spark client-centric thinking
We’ll also demonstrate how this technology works in live BD scenarios - showing how it can support and enrich your firm’s existing client efforts, not replace them.
Why It Matters
BD professionals who bring credible, data-backed insights to the table increase their strategic influence. This webinar is a chance to upskill in a new frontier of client understanding — and explore how you can apply it to real-world challenges in your firm.
Speakers:
Steven Lewis
Taleist Agency
Steven Lewis helps professional services firms crack the client insight code – even when direct client access is blocked. His synthetic persona approach transforms BD teams from "marketing support" into strategic advisors with data-backed recommendations that can't be ignored.
Using synthetic personas for client interviews, focus groups, and campaign testing, Steven's clients leap past guesswork and assumptions. BD professionals can test messages, validate service offerings, and pinpoint pricing sensitivities... all without needing client time.
While Harvard, Stanford and NYU researchers are just beginning to validate these methods, Steven's clients have been quietly using them for years – crafting pitches that connect, proposals that win, and marketing that actually delivers results.
The same approach being adopted by giants like EY, Unilever, and Coca-Cola works just as powerfully for any size of firm. It combines cutting-edge AI with the battle-tested direct response methods Steven has been applying for over 30 years.
Steven's clients no longer struggle to be heard. They've shifted from "here's what I think we should try" to "here's what our research definitively shows will work" – and partners are finally listening.
Event Details:
Date: 18 June 2025
Times:
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm: Adelaide
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm: New Zealand
11:00 am - 12:00 pm: Perth, Hong Kong, Singapore
Price: Members: Free, Non-Members: AUD90.00