What are your rainmaking priorities?

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“All things being equal, people will do business with – and refer business to – those people they know, like and trust.” This quote, from Bob Burg’s excellent book Endless Referrals, sums up why it is that relationships serve as the basis for rainmaking. It also clarifies what your priorities should be for business development. Focus first on those who already know, like, and trust you, and then seek to expand those sources of business. That order of approach dictates, in turn, the priorities that you should set as you work to develop your book of business.
1.    Priority #1: Current clients. Your current clients are your “low hanging fruit.” Your top priority should be providing them excellent client service. Consider these aspects of client service:
  • Communicate with your clients and observe their preferences for amount and kind of communication that they want.
  • Be responsive. Manage your clients’ expectations and ensure that your clients always know how to contact you or someone in your office.
  • Share bad news appropriately. Deliver the news as soon as possible. Explain the news, what it means, and advise the client about next steps.
  • Be reliable with cost estimates and billing.
  • Facilitate your work with your clients. Anything you can do to make it easier for your clients to do business with you is likely to be well received by your clients.
  • Spend time with your clients. Consider spending time with clients in a social setting or (where appropriate) by visiting their place of business to develop a more full understanding of their business.
  • Deliver extra value to your clients. By providing some assistance, promotion, or service to your client that is over and above the legal services you’ve agreed to provide, you demonstrate the importance you place on your client relationships generally and on that client specifically.
  • Conduct client satisfaction interviews or surveys. Unless you ask, your clients are unlikely to volunteer their level of satisfaction unless they’re dissatisfied to the point of considering terminating the relationship or effusive in praise.
2.    Priority #2: Former Clients and Referral Sources. The second priority for business development efforts is former clients and referral sources. These contacts already know and, presumably, like and trust you.
 
3.    Priority #3: “Warm” Potential Clients and Referral Sources.If you have some connection to a potential client or a contact who might be in a likely position to refer business to you, consider these individuals to be “warm” contacts. They don’t yet know, like, or trust you, but if you’re introduced by someone in whom they have confidence, you’re more likely to be able to develop a relationship with greater speed than without such an introduction.
 
4.    Priority #4: Strangers. Converting complete strangers into clients is by far the most arduous form of business development. It’s necessary to determine the potential client’s needs and to match your abilities to those needs – assuming that those needs aren’t currently being met by another lawyer – and, raising the level of difficulty yet further, the process of getting to be known, liked, and trusted begins at ground zero. While strangers do become clients, the path is typically longer and less direct that the path from warm contact to client. Wooing strangers should be the lowest priority task in business development activity because it has the lowest potential of yielding new business at any given time.

When you apply these priorities to your business development efforts, something surprising will happen. You’ll begin to view your billable work as a rainmaking activity as well as the heart of your practice. You’ll also begin to see relationships as the “must do” meat of your business development plan, and you’ll understand why you shouldn’t expect to move a new contact quickly from stranger to client. As a result, you’ll be able to stage the rainmaking work you do so that you put time in where it’s most effective. And over time, you’ll find that your business development work yields much better results.

Book Review

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The 29% Solution:  52 Weekly Networking Success Strategies
by Ivan Misner by Greenleaf Book Group Press

I heard a lot of response to last week’s suggestion that networking is the most important thing a lawyer can do to grow a practice.  A few disagreed with my assessment, but most responded by asking how to network well.  Some introverts mentioned their discomfort in walking into a room of strangers.  Others said that they’d tried networking but didn’t see good results, and wondered what went wrong.  And a few said they worried about being obnoxious or being cornered by pushy or mercenary people.

Although legal rainmaking is different in many respects from other kinds of sales, good networking encompasses a universally applicable system of skills and strategies.  This week’s book review, The 29% Solution, presents those must-take approaches and ideas in a simple, easy-to-apply yearlong program in which you take on one new skill each week through the year.  Do so successfully, and at the end of the year, you’ll join the estimated 29% of people who are separated from the rest of the world by just six degrees.

Section One sets out foundational steps such as setting goals for networking, blocking out time for networking, and creating a network relationship database to help you track the connections among your contacts.  By week seven, you begin to get into the meat of networking strategies with the “Top 10 Traits” of master networkers:

  1. Timely follow-up on referrals
  2. Positive attitude
  3. Enthusiasm/motivation
  4. Trustworthiness
  5. Good listening skills
  6. Commitment to networking 24/7
  7. Gratitude
  8. Helpfulness
  9. Sincerity
  10. Dedication to working one’s network

Section Two recommends ways to grow a network of contacts and points out in week 12 the danger that many lawyers face:  being a “cave dweller.”  Many reasons surely exist not to network:  discomfort, the press of business, desire to do other activities instead.  To succeed in networking, however, you will have to step out of your cave and into the wide world, where you can practice the steps presented in the previous subsequent chapters.

Section Three presents advanced strategies.  While not especially unusual, these tips are commonly practiced only by highly skilled networkers, and they tend to produce excellent results because most people don’t use them.  For instance, Week 19 recommends sending a handwritten thank-you card following a meeting, and Week 20 exhorts readers to follow up “TODAY.”

The “how to” tips of great networkers are the focus on Section Four.  Touching on topics such as event sponsorship and looking constantly for opportunities to develop relationships, these chapters reinforce helpful approaches that go above and beyond the typicaly networking tips.

Section Five focuses on how to communicate while networking and offers a golden tip:  ask others the questions you’d like to answer, because people will generally turn the question around to you after answering.  If you apply the chapters in Sections One through Five, you will become an effective networker.

If you want to become a masterful networker, continue on to Sections Six (which encourages you to become an expert, through writing and speaking), Seven (which offers some approaches for promoting yourself using client feedback and success stories), and Eight (which encourages the reader to do what others won’t do).

The 29% Solution offers the eminently practical (some might say obvious) reoommendation that you engage in smart networking, which is defined as focused, strategic, and delivering a high return on investment of time, money, and energy.  While this recommendation borders on being so obvious as to be a turn-off, it can be forgiven since it serves as a valid reminder not to strike out and flail about in a thoughtless flurry of networking activity.

If you’re uncomfortable in networking settings, pick up The 29% Solution and browse its ideas.  I would not recommend adhering to the weekly schedule, because you might delay or miss helpful ideas.  For instance, week 43 offers the helpful suggestion that you adopt the mindset of a host; this is one of the top tips I recommend to introverts, and I hate to think that someone might suffer through 42 weeks without finding the suggestion that, with a simple shift in attitude, can transform networking.

If you’re looking for information specific to networking in a legal setting, check out The Reluctant Rainmaker: A Guide for Lawyers Who Hate Selling.  You’ll find step-by-step recommendations on how to begin networking and how to become a master at growing connections with the right people to advance your law practice.  Visit TheReluctantRainmaker.com to learn more and to pick up your copy today.

The Reluctant Rainmaker video

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I’ve received terrific feedback about my new book The Reluctant Rainmaker: A Guide for Lawyers Who Hate Selling, and people have asked what made me decide to write this book now.  Here’s a short video with my personal story about why helping lawyers learn to excel in business development (especially helping the lawyers who think they don’t have the “magic touch” necessary to bring in new clients) is so important to me.

TRR LA June 25

What’s the best way to grow your practice?

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One of the keys to success is efficient and effective action.  We all know that’s true in billable work, and we study time management and time mastery to find ways to optimize daily activity.

Nowhere is this principle truer than in business development.  Most lawyers don’t get excited at the prospect of undertaking rainmaking activity, and thrashing about aimlessly (meaning, inconsistenly and without a solid strategy) is almost guaranteed to produce poor results.  And poor results tend to produce a heavy sigh and a, “See, I knew I’m not destined to be a rainmaker” attitude – which tends to doom future action.  It’s a nasty cycle, and avoiding that cycle entirely is much easier than breaking it once it’s started.

So, it follows that the best way to grow your practice is by taking consistent, strategically determined steps toward your goals for you practice.  Once you become aware of the importance of consistency and strategy in rainmaking, you’ve unlocked the first key to business development success.

However, you still have to know what to do, and that’s the source of the popular question, “What’s the best way to grow my practice?”  It isn’t possible to give a blanket answer for every lawyer and every practice.  Advertising, for example, is a good tactic for some practices, especially those that depend on immediate and urgent need and a high volume of matters.  It’s less likely to pay off for practices that center on more complex matters that are ilkely to generate high fees.

One rainmaking tactic, however, tends to perform well no matter the practice area:  making personal contacts.

As Bob Burg, author of Endless Referrals, wrote, “All things being equal, people will do business with and refer business to those people they know, like and trust.”  In other words, the more people who know you and think well of you, the more likely you are to receive business and referrals.

While you might argue about whether all things are ever equal, think about how you select any servicee professional you hire.  Whether you’re looking for a dentist, a house painter, a baby sitter, or a lawyer, chances are that you check with at least one or two or your contacts to get a referral, and a significant number of clients who seek your services will do the same.  Knowing more people increases the chance that someone in need of your services will find out about you.

Likewise, your current and former clients know and, one would hope, like and trust you.  They also have had the experience of working with you, so they know how you serve clients and may be able to evaluate, to some extent, your legal ability.  As a result, current and former clients may be even more likely to refer business to you and, where your practice is amenable, bring you additional work themselves.

So, the bottom line is that the more people you know, the more likely you are to bring in new business.  And it follows naturally that, without knowing any information about your specific practice or your strengths, my top recommendation for growing your law practice is to work on increasing your network of contacts, consistently and strategically.

Consider these questions to kick-start your networking:

  • Are most of your clients referrals, or do clients contact you directly?
  • Where do your ideal clients congregate?
  • Where do your ideal referral sources congregate?
  • What organizations offer a natural fit for your practice, by virtue of subject area or membership, and how can you get involved?

If you’d like to learn more about where and how to network, you may want to investigate The Reluctant Rainmaker: Business Development for Lawyers Who Hate Selling.  You’ll find step-by-step recommendations on how to begin networking and how to become a master at growing connections with the right people to advance your law practice.  Visit TheReluctantRainmaker.com to learn more and to pick up your copy today.

Leadership the Eleanor Roosevelt way

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Over a year ago when I was visiting my very favorite bookstore (the Upstart Crow, in San Diego’s Seaport Village), I saw a book titled Leadership the Eleanor Roosevelt Way.  Because I am a fan of Mrs. Roosevelt, I knew I had to grab it, but then something happened and distracted me, and I left the bookstore without the book in hand.  One thing led to another, and I never got around to ordering it.  So I was truly delighted when I visited again last month and the book was still there!

Part biography, part instruction on leadership in the business context, Leadership the Eleanor Roosevelt Way is an easy and interesting read.  The author gives a chronological review of Mrs. Roosevelt’s life and draws out the lessons in each stage, which makes for a reasonably effective presentation.  My only quibble with this approach is that Gerber occasionally shifts from the historical recounting to a present-day business example without much warning, calling for closer attention than the book requires otherwise.

The book’s focus, not surprisingly, is on women’s leadership, though many of the lessons transcend gender.  Its opening explains that leadership is particularly important to overcome the gender disparities that continue to exist, giving examples from business and politics.

In additional, the study found that male equity partners out-earn female by average of $87,000.  While these statistics are limited in scope, they indicate that at least in the firms studied, significant disparity remains.  As Gerber wrote,

Although these issues differ somewhat in kind or degree from the problems of Eleanor’s day, the solutions rest on the same foundation: leadership.  Why?  Leadership is about change.  It means intentionally achieving a helpful, ethical purpose, and doing so in a process of reciprocal motivation and support between leaders and those they hope to lead.

Gerber pulls leadership lessons from every stage of Mrs. Roosevelt’s life.  More extensive in number than in depth, the lessons are nonetheless instructive and likely to provoke readers’ reflection.  For example, the following lessons (learned “the hard way”) flow from the painful period in which Mrs. Roosevelt discovered FDR’s affair with Lucy Mercer:

  1. Respond.  Every leader experiences difficult circumstances that she cannot control.  The solution, then, is for the leader to learn to control her response.  Self-mastery is a key leadership competency because, as Mrs. Roosevelt wrote, “[t]he influence you exert is through your own life and what you become yourself.”  Leaders must master reactive tendencies and respond to problems instead.
  2. Reflect.  Upon suffering a blow, a leader must reflect upon the situation and his response.  A leader must understand himself thoroughly, including what a crisis means to his sense of self and the sources of strength upon which he can draw.
  3. Find Courage to Change.  When a crisis occurs, fear is a natural response.  Mrs. Roosevelt’s response is instructive: “Courage is more exhilarating than fear, and in the long run it is easier.  We do not have to become heroes overnight.  Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing that it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down.”
  4. Accept Change and Take Action.  Having reflected and gathered sufficient courage, a leader must act.  Mrs. Roosevelt wrote, “People can surmount what seems to be total defeat, difficulties too great to be borne, but it requires a capacity to readjust endlessly to the changing conditions of life.”  Leaders must learn to take considered action and move forward, despite setbacks that occur along the way.

What’s in it for lawyers?  As the foregoing example indicates, the leadership lessons Gerber offers are often drawn from Mrs. Roosevelt’s writings or speeches. Leadership the Eleanor Roosevelt Way offers many leadership lessons, generally at a somewhat superficial level that introduces a general principle without fleshing it out in depth.  As a result, those who are seeking deep discussion of leadership or its practical application may be disappointed.  If you enjoy the Roosevelt history, though, and don’t mind a good but topical discussion of its leadership lessons, you’ll likely find benefit from reading Leadership the Eleanor Roosevelt Way.

Don’t underplay yourself

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When a law firm hires me to work with a junior associate, very often one part of the engagement centers of the associate’s leadership presence and self-confidence – how he or she presents to others.  (Of course, that focus is not by any means unique to junior associates.)  Although reviewers may use a variety of words such as proactive, poised, assertive, or self-assured, they’re usually looking to see to what extent the lawyer is able to present as a leader, as someone who is sufficiently self-confident to inspire others’ confidence.  Such a person typically contributes to conversations, asks insightful questions, and is willing to express an opinion or espouse a position.

Interactions with someone who lacks this level of confidence tends to leave others (supervising lawyers and client alike) uncertain of the message being conveyed.  Does a lack of contribution indicate lack of comprehension?  Boredom?  Something else entirely?  It may be difficult to interpret what what’s happening, but the result is a lack of clarity and an unwillingness to rely on the lawyer whose self-presentation is found to be lacking.  The consequences can be significant, including unduly slow career progression (or even being fired) and difficulty in building client relationships.

For instance, I was working with one client (let’s call him Tom) who was hoping to make partner and entered coaching to strengthen his performance so he’ll be a strong candidate.  He’d picked up on some comments that made him question whether he was viewed as partner material.  I found Tom to be intelligent, personable, and funny.  I also noticed that when I’d ask him a question about his work, he downplayed the role he’d played.  It puzzled me, because I could tell from the kind of work he was describing that he was a heavy lifter on the cases, but to hear him talk he was simply supporting work done by others.  One day, Tom said that a particular concern he held about making partner was that it didn’t seem like anyone regarded his work as being important or notable.  He explained the evidence for his feeling, and then I asked his permission to share an observation.

I told him that when he described his own work, he minimized and understated his contribution.  To hear him tell the story, he contributed little more than hours – and certainly nothing critical in terms of strategy or deep analysis.  But when I asked specifically and pressed, he’d tell me about tasks he’d done and decisions he’d made that were quite high-level.  My assessment was that because he was so careful not to overstate his contribution – and perhaps so uncomfortable being in the spotlight – he didn’t give a fair opportunity for someone to understand the kind and level of work that he was doing.

We devised a plan for Tom to share more about his work, and he discovered that when he changed his communication style and became more open about what he was doing, people began to appreciate the scope of his work and to understand what he was capable of doing.  He got more and better work, and he felt that others’ perception of him was more accurate.

Michelle, another client, was upset to receive a review that indicated that some clients didn’t want to talk with her because they felt that she didn’t have a sufficient grasp of the right legal strategy to accomplish their aims.  When pressed for details, a reluctant partner admitted that although he knew Michelle understood exactly what was at stake and how to advance the clients’ interests, her comments were so often peppered with words like maybe and possibly and her inflection was so often questioning that she just didn’t seem to be sure of what she was saying,.  The result was that her communications undermined his confidence in her even though he knew she was almost invariably right about what she was saying.  After making a concerted effort to notice the habits that the partner identified, Michelle started speaking with more authority and more clarity, which over time (and along with other changes that Michelle implemented) increased the confidence that others put in what Michelle said.

 How do you know if your presence isn’t as strong as it should be?  Here are three common signs:

  1.  You create “wiggle room” with your word choice or with your vocal inflection.
  2. You feel the urge to speak up or to ask a question but you stop short – and then someone says what you’ve been thinking, and you feel frustrated.  (Or you do speak up but your comments aren’t much noted, and then someone says effectively the same thing and gets more attention.)
  3. You find that you generally speak much less often than others in a meeting.  (But this can be a sign of strong presence if, when you speak, others give significant weight to your comments.)

If you recognize yourself in these signs or if you’ve received feedback that you need to be more proactive, perhaps we should talk.  While learning to project more confidence and a stronger leadership presence requires stepping outside a comfort zone, the impact can be dramatic.  Especially in this difficult market, your job and your client relationships may depend on your ability to inspire confidence.  Ready to take the first steps?  Email jessica (at) lifeatthebar(dot)com to set up a time for us to get acquainted.

The large firm crisis

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I was in Boston last week for the ABA midyear meeting, and the mood was grim. Conversation was centered on the economy, especially in light of the announcement that nearly 800 large firm employees were laid off on Thursday, a toll that climbed to over 1000 by the end of the day Friday, according to The National Law Journal.  Anecdotal reports suggest that some smaller firms are making similar layoffs, though they’re not getting the same press.

And what if you’re a laid-off lawyer?  I’ll write more about that in the next few days.  And I’d like to extend an invitation that I made to the readers of my newsletter Leadership Matters for Lawyers: I’m considering how I might add value specifically for you, perhaps through a monthly free teleclass or report with strategies that you can implement now to help you make your next move.

I’d like your feedback: what can I offer to help you find the next job, to make sense of what’s happening in the legal economy now, or otherwise?  I can’t promise anything, but I’ll read through every response and do my best to implement some of the best suggestions.  Please leave a comment below (anonymous, if you’d like) or send me an email to Julie@FlemingStrategic.com.  I will hold all email responses confidential.

Weekly Rainmaker Activity

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This week’s task: Set up Google Alerts for your top 5 clients.

Why is this a good activity?  Google Alerts deliver news results about whatever topic you select direct to your mailbox on the schedule you select.  They function as a free clipping service.  In this instance, receiving alerts about your clients will let you know what’s happening with their business or industry, what others are saying about them, etc., and put you in an opprtunity to be proactive in providing advice or offering assistance.

How to undertake this activity?   Go to http://www.google.com/alerts and complete the form.  It’s simple of self-explanatory.  Use your clients’ names as the search terms.  If you choose to expand this week’s task, you might also add other terms relevant to your clients — perhaps their industries, their products or service, or their competitors.  Two tips to avoid an avalanche of results:

  1. Be selective in the terms you use.  For example, if you represent Boeing, you would not want to use “Boeing” as a search term because you’d get millions of alerts in a few days’ time.  Instead, you might use “+Boeing +airplane +manufacturer” or ” +Boeing +air +defense +contractor.”
  2. Set up email filters so alerts go to a specific email folder.  You’ll need to make checking that folder a part of your routine, but that’s far preferable to missing a critical email because your in-box is overly full with alerts.

How long will it take?  Just a few minutes to set up the searches, and probably 5-10 minutes daily to review the results and/or edit your searches.

Weekly Rainmaker Activity

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This week’s task:  Review your biographical sketch and update it if appropriate.

Why is this a good activity?  Your bio sketch is likely to be your first introduction for potential clients who are referred to you, for potential clients who find you on the Internet or otherwise, for other lawyers, etc.   Your sketch may also be returned based on a Google or other keyword search online.  It’s important that your sketch be accurate, persuasive, and up-to-date.

How to undertake this activity?   Review your sketch and ask these questions:

  • Is your important accomplishments and memberships listed?
  • Is everything accurate and up-to-date?
  • Have you minimized or (better yet) eliminated legal jargon, so potential clients and referral sources will understand exactly what you do?
  • Is your your photo attractive and does it accurately represent you?  (Flattering shots are fine, but if someone would be unlikely to recognize you based on your photo, get a new one.  Typically, you’ll want a new photo every 3-5 years.)
  • Does your sketch list any community activities or other leadership involvement?
  • Does your sketch include a simple, searchable way of identifying your practice area?
  • Does your sketch include the keywords that someone trying to find a lawyer like you might enter in a Google search?

Look at your sketch online.  Is the most important information “above the fold,” meaning that it shows on the screen without requiring you to scroll down to it?  If not, reorganize.

How long will it take?  If it’s been a few years since you’ve revised your sketch, this could take as long as 1.5 to 2 hours.  If it’s reasonably up-to-date, 30 minutes will probably suffice nicely.

What will it do for me?  Completing this task will ensure that you don’t lose out on opportunities because of inaccurate or missing information.  You’ll know that you’ve put your best foot forward online.

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