Identify People To Contact
Cultivating relationships is central to business development. After all, whether you represent individuals or the largest corporations, it’s people who will retain you, and it’s people who will decide how effective your work is. Have you ever felt like you need to bring new people into your network but not known where to turn? Consider […]
Design Meaningful Follow-Ups
You know that one-off meetings are likely to do little, so you always plan your follow-up strategy, right? It doesn’t matter whether you meet someone face-to-face or virtually, through formal networking, at a CLE seminar, or while you’re waiting for hours at the DMV… The best connections mean nothing if you can’t cultivate a relationship. (Unless, […]
Why Billable Work Outweighs Biz Dev Work (But Shouldn’t)
You are likely aware of the distinction between urgent and important tasks in the context of time management. Assuming you have enough work to keep you reasonably occupied and compensated (even if that means doing work for someone else’s clients rather than your own), business development tends to be an important task, but not an […]
Your Values and Empathy Matter For Client Service and Business Development
First up: I’ve just released the third edition of my best-selling book The Reluctant Rainmaker: A Guide for Lawyers Who Hate Selling. It’s updated with insights that flow from changing circumstances due to the pandemic, fresh tips on marketing activities such as podcasting, and an expanded section on asking for business and dealing with objections. […]
Innovation For The Sake Of What?
An article I read a few years ago in Forbes magazine has stuck with me. It discusses lawyers’ duty to society in upholding the rule of law, specifically in the context of the 2017 executive order on immigration, and the degree to which lawyers’ roles may decrease thanks to technology. While that order and following […]
There’s Gold In The Follow-Up
Studies show that a prospective client must be exposed to you 7-9 times before they’re ready to hire you. (Those statistics are not specific to law, granted, but I have no reason to believe they’re off the mark for lawyers.) The reasons are simple: most potential clients don’t have a current legal need, are already […]
Not Seeing Desired BD Results? Check These.
Business development can sound so easy: make a plan, execute the plan, land the business, rinse and repeat. And sometimes it might even work that way, or you discover that plans need to be tweaked to account for unanticipated opportunities. That’s what a dear friend calls a nice problem to have. Other times, though, it […]