Last week, I delivered a business development workshop for an Atlanta law firm, and gave my recommendations about how much time lawyers should spend on business development. Although the exact number depends on several factors, in general I recommend 1-5 hours a week, with more time suggested for more senior lawyers. Some participants bristled at […]
John Kotter, a noted expert on leadership and change management, fervently believes that attachment to the status quo is a silent but deadly killer. In A Sense of Urgency, Kotter demonstrates through numerous examples that organizations stall and atrophy as change fails. Kotter’s bottom line? If it ain’t broke, break it. A Sense of Urgency […]
You’ve no doubt heard the advice to track “low-hanging fruit” as a part of your business development efforts. That fruit is easy to identify if you have a hot prospect, someone who has a current unmet need that you can fill, who already knows you, and with whom you’ve already had a conversation about how […]
Periodically, I like to share resources that have made my life easier and more interesting. Here are my favorites for June: Good Measure Meals. I love to cook, but I have having to cook. Good Measure Meals is an Atlanta business the offers healthy meals for pick-up or delivery. It isn’t cheap, but when I […]
Pop quiz: Who are your best referral sources? List the top 10 right now. If you are a more junior lawyer in a law firm and don’t yet have your own clients, list the senior lawyers for whom you do the most work. How easy did you find it to make this list? This information […]
Occasionally, I’ll talk with a junior lawyer who just doesn’t understand that business development is critical to his success. (Just as a matter of interest, I find that these are typically younger lawyers as well as junior ones; second-career lawyers most often start thinking about rainmaking long before they finish law school.) The top objections […]
Like so many of my contemporaries, I’ve learned a lot from Oprah over the years. I’ve read books (fiction and otherwise) that she discussed, discovered one of my favorite songs because she showcased it, and internalized the safety tip never to allow a criminal to take you to another location. But that isn’t all… Oprah […]
Life has a way of throwing curveballs. Sometimes they come in the form of emergencies that demand attention, sometimes they’re staff departures (planned or otherwise), and sometimes they’re opportunities that you just can’t pass up, even though jumping in will eat every bit of time and energy you have. How do you cope with those […]
A potential client called to discuss how I might help her with her business development activities, and I asked what she’d tried. As I often discover in those conversations, she’d tried a number of approaches, all to no avail. On her list: writing articles, teaching seminars, advertising, attending networking events, posting her profile on various […]
What greeting do your clients receive when they contact your office? Do clients feel that they’re welcome? Or are they left with the impression that they’re interrupting something more important? How your staff handles client contact (or how you handle it, if your practice doesn’t include staff members) will have a significant, though probably unspoken, […]