What’s your agenda?
One of my favorite questions is, “What’s your agenda?” I’ve noticed, however, that we tend not to ask that question of ourselves often enough. Setting an agenda is a classic time management strategy. If you’re looking to make meetings shorter and more productive, circulate an agenda in advance and expect everyone to come prepared. If […]
Share your best ideas with your best clients.
When do you share your best ideas? BTI Consulting, a group known for its deep research in client satisfaction and preferences, reports that: “[j]ust over 2/3 of clients tell us the best new ideas they see coming from law firms happen during an RFP process. Somewhere among the sea of bland boilerplate submissions lies one […]
Business Development Trades in Promises
Sales. Selling. Sales pitch. How do those words come across to you? Positive, negative, or no charge at all? Studies show that a significant number of people have some bad impression about selling, though most people have no negative association with buying. (See Daniel Pink’s To Sell Is Human for more on this.) But if […]
Plans are useless, but…
I see two huge mistakes among lawyers eager to build a book of business: the urge to jump into action without designing a plan, and the tendency to plan and revise and plan some more without ever moving to action. Today I’ll offer another perspective on planning, from Dwight Eisenhower: In preparing for battle I […]
Progress or excuses?
One simple question for you today: are you making progress toward your business development goals… Or are you making excuses? Here’s the tricky part: progress doesn’t necessarily require massive action, and action doesn’t necessarily equate to progress. Take a minute and get honest with yourself. If you don’t like what you discover, do something different […]
Are you reactionary or responsible?
After I finished writing last week’s article on the relationship between the generative power of language and your business development activity, I remembered several other articles discussing a similar topic. I highly recommend you check Michael Hyatt’s 3 Ways You’re Giving Up Power with Your Words: How the Way You Speak Can Sabotage Your Success. […]
View your practice as an entrepreneur.
One of the keys to building a successful law practice is adopting an entrepreneurial approach, regardless of your practice setting. In other words, whether you’re a sole practitioner or the newest hire in a gigantic firm (or anywhere in between), you must recognize that you “own” your practice, and you must act accordingly. That means: […]