How to Build Your Business Development Habit

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If you’ve read this newsletter for a while, you know that I’m a fan of looking outside the legal industry for good ideas. Hearing the same old, same old tends to numb us to the wisdom that’s there, but looking to other industries and figuring out how to apply their good ideas to your Business Development process will get your brain working in a whole new way. Check out these two articles.

    1. This article about how to get your writing done, and substitute “Business Development work” for writing. You’ll find some fresh takes on how to advance your BD, starting with how to set and track your goals and how to find harness your working tendencies to make progress on those goals each month. You’ll see immediately how to use this for the writing parts of your Business Development efforts, but it’s more broadly applicable as well.
    2. Since we’re talking about writing, let’s dive into creativity in Business Development activities. What role does creativity play in your business development efforts? Many lawyers I speak with respond to this question with an awkward laugh and the words, ummm, none really. It’s as if creativity has no place in law, but we know that isn’t true. Creativity comes into play in litigation and in transactional work as we work to build persuasive arguments and well-structured deals. Boundaries that reign in legal creativity do exist, but lawyers who aren’t even trying to design an ingenious approach to a vexing issue arguably aren’t doing their job as well as they should.Why should Business Development be any different? Establishing your value proposition usually requires a creative approach (what makes you different from the other lawyers in your practice area?), as does identifying prospective clients and referral sources and how you might reach them and finding the right ways to stay in touch and build a relationship with a high-priority contact—among other times.So, how can you unleash your creativity rather than looking at your BD efforts as just more items on your to-do list? This article from the Harvard Business School blog does a nice job of making the case for creativity in the workplace, offering seven tips to encourage it. While those tips are intended for a team setting, they’re equally applicable to support your individual BD creativity. My two favorite tips are Don’t Try to Measure Results Too Quickly and Foster Collaboration. Last month’s newsletter discussed how to find one or more Business Development partners, so if you’d like to increase collaboration, take another look at those ideas, and consider other ways you might collaborate with colleagues at your firm.

I’d love to hear what thought or outcomes these articles spur for you.