When focus led me astray
I hadn’t taken the time to pull back from the work I’ve been doing to check on how effectively I was navigating toward my goals in the last few months. Life has been very busy, both professionally and personally. I’d put my head down, my nose to the grindstone, and I focused on the client […]
Fatal mistakes that doom rainmaking efforts.
Several potential client consultations over the last few weeks have put me in mind of the old story about the tortoise and the hare. We all know the lesson, that slow and steady wins the race, and the same is true in business development – though consistent is a more accurate word here than slow. […]
Grab the fruit!
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 […]
Plug the holes in your practice
I didn’t think I’d be the type to scream if I ever saw a mouse in my kitchen. Turns out I was wrong. You see, I lived in an old house (built in the late 20s) and we had mice coming in for a few months. One time, I was standing in my kitchen and […]
Keep your friends close
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 […]
When life throws you a curveball…
Life has a way of throwing curve-balls. 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. Curve-ball or baseball photo here, please […]
Why isn’t it working?!
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 […]