Rainmaker’s Book Review: Network Like A Fox

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Networking has a negative reputation among so many lawyers.  It’s often time-intensive and, if not done well, can be a waste of time.  Lots of us (especially us introverts) dread the thought of walking into a crowd of strangers, so we spend time with people we already know, hang out on the fringes of the room and escape as soon as it seems feasible, or find great and completely reasonable excuses not to go in the first place.

Even if you get over those bars and meet new contacts, the challenges continue.  How often have you come back to your office with a stack of business cards and good intentions that get buried under a pile of work?  Even after the initial follow-up, continuing contact can be difficult to maintain, so relationships fizzle before they get off the ground.

And yet, we all know that networking is critical to rainmaking.  Although you’re most likely to get business from or through people who already know you, you need to be sure that you’re growing your network by adding new people on a regular basis.  After all, personal contacts are the foundation of every successful business development plan.

What’s a reluctant networker to do?  Read Network Like A Fox.  Here’s why:

Network Like A Fox offers clear, step-by-step, outcome-driven suggestions for networking.  This isn’t the same old, same, old, as becomes apparent immediately from Fox’s opening five Tenets:

  1. All Networking Is Not Created Equal:  You must network with the right people and engage in effective follow-up activity, or networking will be a waste.
  2. Your Attitude Is Your Aptitude:  Networking is a process, and it won’t work for you without bringing curiosity, interest in others, and a willingness to discover ways you can help one another.
  3. Who You Are Is Who You Hang Around With:  Spend time with successful people, not those who are mediocre or negative.  Fox expands this tenet into the unusual but highly effective strategy of “networking up” with decision-makers and influential members of your target community.
  4. The Right Relationships = Real Business:  Build relationships with people with like-minded interest and connections and those who are of the same caliber of professionalism.
  5. Networking Does Not Equal New Business.  It Is Only the Plus Sign:  Networking substantially increases the possibilities for new business, but you can’t expect that new business automatically networking.

Fox begins by offering an appealing and nonthreatening definition of networking:  “Networking is just an extension of your interest and curiosity about people, what they are up to in business, and how you can help each other.”  This definition explains why those who go for conversation on topics of mutual interest often do well with networking, while those who are simply on the prowl for business and seek to talk primarily about themselves tend to fall flat.

Fox urges networkers to eschew comfortable and easy networking in favor of building relationships with decision makers and influential business people.  This recommendation illustrates Fox’s absolute dedication to effective networking and underlines what I find so valuable about Network Like A Fox.  The book doesn’t spend time on the warm, fuzzy, “rah-rah” inspiration that’s so common in networking books, though it is full of encouragement.  Instead, it’s focused on how to make networking pay off, with case studies and advice on what it takes to make that happen.

One of Fox’s central organizing approaches is to break down the ideal network into four Connection Archetypes:

  • Ideal Prospects
  • Ideal Introducers (Connectors)
  • Ideal Referrers
  • Ideal “sweet spot” Clients (end users)

According to Fox, the “sweet spot” network (which she calls your “Grow Zone”) exists when all four of these ideal archetypes are present.

Understanding the archetypes will help you to create a productive networking strategy, how to reach the kinds of people you need in your network, and to determine which contacts merit more time and attention.

While Network Like A Fox is inarguably results-focused, it’s important to note that Fox doesn’t support or promote quid pro quo networking.  For instance, she recommends introducing the right people to one another as a way to enhance your value as a networker, but she cautions that expecting anything in return is a recipe for disappointment and frustration.  Instead, Fox writes:

[T]he solution to this is completely letting go of expectations.  It is the way to set yourself free.  If people don’t return the favors you provide, don’t get mad or disappointed.  Get moving, meet more good people, sow more seeds.  You will meet the right people who will definitely introduce you to good people.  Your stress and frustration level will plummet.

Why should you read Network Like A Fox?  Simple:  networking is one of the few non-optional business development tasks.  There’s no way around networking, whether you choose face-to-face or online, and you must have networking skills if you’re going to build a book of business.  Fox offers realistic, simple, insightful methods to become a valued networker with a valuable circle of connections.

Network Like A Fox is one of the best books I’ve ever read on networking, and I recommend it without reservation.  As I told Nancy when we last spoke, networking isn’t my favorite activity, but talking with her and reading her book always makes me eager to go out and build some new connections.  I hope you’ll feel the same.

Personal Contacts: The Foundation of Every Successful Legal Business Development Plan

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I clerked for a Federal judge in my first job after law school.  Among the many lessons Judge Forrester taught me was to look for the existence of a “Q case”, the source from which the rest of the precedents would flow.  In practice, I learned that some questions require the thorough search that would to the Q case, while other simply needed “quick and dirty” research to get to the right answer.

When it comes to business development, there’s one “Q” activity:  making personal contacts.  Although not every activity truly flows from making personal contacts, contacts make every other activity much more effective.

As Bob Burg, author of Endless Referrals, wrote, “All things being equal, people will do business with and refer business to those people they know, like, and trust.”  In other words, the more people who know you and think well of you, the more likely you are to receive business and referrals.

While you might argue about whether all things are ever equal, think about how you select any service professional you hire.  Whether you’re looking for a dentist, a house painter, a baby sitter, or a lawyer, chances are that you check with a least one or two of your contacts to get a referral, and a significant number of clients who seek your services will do the same.  Knowing more people increases the chance that someone in need of your services will find out about you.

Likewise, your current and former clients know and (let’s hope) like and trust you.  They also have had the experience of working with you, so they know how you serve clients and may be able to evaluate, to some extent, your legal ability.  As a result, current and former clients may be even more likely to refer business to you and, where your practice is amenable, bring you additional work themselves.

Even discounting the possibility of landing new business, knowing more people increases the chance that you’ll be invited to speak, to join a relevant Board of Directors, to attend events that your ideal clients might attend, and so on.  The more people you know, the more you’ll be in the flow of information that may benefit you–and the more you’ll be in contact with people whom you might be able to serve or help in some other way.

So, the bottom line is that the more people you know, the more likely you are to bring in new business.  And it follows naturally that, without knowing any information about your specific practice or your strengths, the “Q” activity for growing your law practice is to work on consistently and strategically increasing your network contacts.

Consider these questions to kick-start your networking:

  • Are most of your clients referrals, or do clients contact your directly?  (Should you look to increase your network of potential clients or potential referral sources–or, more likely, both?)
  • Where do your ideal clients congregate?
  • Where do your ideal referral sources congregate?
  • What organizations offer a natural fit for your practice, by virtue of subject area or membership, and how can you get involved?

No matter what your business development plan might be, personal contacts are a foundational activity for any rainmaker.

Make the Most of Your Summer with These Productivity and Efficiency Tips

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Over the years, I’ve put together a lot of tips about how to accomplish more, how to get energized, and how to make the most of time away from the office.  In honor of the unofficial start of summer in the U.S. (and vacations everywhere!), I’m sharing a potpourri of greatest hits here.  Click on each link to visit the full article.

  1. Increase your efficiency by cutting the time you spend in the office:  This post shares three tips about how you can shift your approach to work so you can get more done and get out the door.
  2. The Reset Button:  Two tips to help you feel less pressured, which in turn will increase your efficiency and effectiveness.
  3. Addressing Burnout:  Your Productivity Depends on It:  How can disconnecting from your work improve your productivity?
  4. Get Out of the Office:  Your best thoughts about work probably won’t happen at work.
  5. The Productive Value of Vacation:  How short bursts of recreation can refresh and reinvigorate you.

Legal Rainmaking: To Sell Is…

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This week, I met with a lawyer who’s been in practice for 50 years, who will be using The Reluctant Rainmaker to teach a law school class on business development.  We touched on how the practice has changed over the years and why he encouraged his sons to become lawyers, but the bulk of our conversation centered on how he has marketed his practice over the years.  Perhaps you’ll be interested in these three takeaways from our talk:

  1. Business development starts with personal development and must be grounded in integrity, authenticity, and truth.  Turns out that we’re both fans of Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and I recommended The Speed of Trust by Covey’s son, Stephen M. R. Covey.
  2. Small, consistent touches are memorable and build relationships.  For instance, this lawyer sends a book that meant a great deal to him when his mother died whenever he learns of a death in a client’s immediate family.  His firm also uses a client satisfaction form at the close of every representation, and he’s created cards to send whenever he sees a client mentioned in the news.
  3. Meeting new people is critical to the success of any practice.  This lawyer serves on several boards, speaks regularly to associations relevant to his practice, and is active in a wide variety of community activities.  As we discussed, the small, consistent touches won’t accomplish anything if you don’t have people to receive them.

We also agreed that too many lawyers have bought into the myth that sales is inapplicable to professionals.  Every lawyer must understand how to sell, and that’s why I’ve reviewed Daniel Pink’s recent book To Sell Is Human recently.  Read about that here.

Out of curiosity, how would you complete the sentence stem, To sell is…?

 

Legal Marketing: To Sell Is Human

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The subtitle of Daniel Pink’s recent book To Sell Is Human is The Surprising Truth About Moving Others.  I’m not entirely sure that the truths shared in the book are altogether surprising, but the book puts a human, approachable face on a necessary skill that suffers from a bad reputation.

Pink starts by proving that we’re all in sales now.  He defines sales as the business of persuading, convincing, and influencing, which he calls “moving” others.  With a definition that broad, it’s almost impossible to find someone who isn’t in what Pink calls “non-sales selling.”  Pitching an idea (to a boss, a team, or a jury), convincing a hyped-up kid to go to bed, or teaching resistent students all qualify as sales activity.

Nonetheless, the majority of people view selling with distaste, largely because of the deceptive tactics that salespeople are known to pull.  Pink cites record-breaking car salesman Joe Girard, known for establishing relationships with buyers by fabricating connections.  (“You’re from Yonkers?  Me too!  Your aunt has a beach house on Long Island?  Me too!  Your middle name is Thaddeus The Great?  Me too!”  UGH, right?)  Although Girard was quite successful in the past, Pink suggests that he wouldn’t do as well in today’s world.  Why?

We have shifted, writes Pink, from caveat emptor to caveat venditor.  Today’s purchasers come into sales conversations armed with information, reviews, and ratings of products and services.  As a result, sales now consists of curating information to assist the purchaser, finding answers together, and making sales both personal and purposeful.

In contrast to the old “ABC” = “Always Be Closing” model of sales, Pink defines the ABCs as Attunement, Buoyancy, and Clarity.

  • Attunement refers to approaching the sales exchange from the buyer’s perspective.  Pink notes that in contrast to the stereotype that extroverts are the best personality type for sales, ambiverts (meaning those in the middle of the extrovert/introvert range) are actually more successful because of superior skill in attunement.
  • Buoyancy is the combination of “a gritty spirit and a sunny outlook.”  Pink urges sellers to be optimistic and reason-focused (asking, for instance, “Can I succeed?” before a sales encounter, to prompt reasons to expect success rather than just ungrounded motivation), with just enough negativity to stay pragmatic.
  • Clarity calls on a successful seller’s ability to define the problem to be solved through the sale and why the purchaser might not want to buy your solution.  Pink offers several tactics to use her, including emphasizing experience over material objects and including a small negative attribute to the solution being sold to make the positives more believable.

When it comes to the “how to” of selling, To Sell Is Human is not comprehensive, and if you’re looking to become an expert in sales, you’ll want to add other resources.  However, he offers three points that provide significant insight into the process of selling.  One of the most useful is Pink’s list of six new ways to pitch a solution:  the one-word pitch, the question pitch, the rhyming pitch, the 140-character Twitter-style pitch, the subject line pitch, and the Pixar pitch.  These won’t translate directly to selling legal services, but the exercise is helpful in crystallizing what a buyer needs to know and what will pique her interest.

Pink also recommends the use of improvisation techniques, which allow the seller to accept whatever a buyer says and to add a suggestion that supports the sale.  I couldn’t agree more about the value of improv for sales and any other business discussion.  See my review of Improv Wisdom for additional suggestions.

Pink finally urges sellers to come from service, focusing on the value that the solution will bring to the buyer.  This point feels like the most “human” of the suite:  instead of just looking from the buyer’s perspective, service requires an independent determination that the buyer will benefit.  Sales, in other words, is not done to someone, it’s done for them.

What’s in it for lawyers?

So many lawyers have told me that they can’t possibly excel in rainmaking because they aren’t extroverts.  This interview in which Pink explained why ambiverts (which includes most of us) perform the best in sales is what prompted me to pick up the book.  If you’ve ever worried that your introversion will block your ability to land business, read the book.  That section alone makes it worthwhile.

More generally, the book’s premise and examples will help to mitigate distaste for selling and the idea is something you do to someone, not for them.  That shift in perspective alone can transform the way you approach business development.

Finally, the examples and exercises will focus your attention and will help you to improve in sales.  As I said, learning sales techniques will require additional training (I recommend Mastering the Complex Sale:  How to Compete and Win When the Stakes are High!  By Jeff Thull), but To Sell Is Human will help to erase discomfort around sales and provide an authentic way of approaching a necessary task.

Why You MUST Track Your Rainmaking Results

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How do you track the results you get from your business development efforts?  I recently spoke with a potential client and asked that question.  Her response?  “I don’t need to track my results.  I know what’s working.”  She had a $25,000 book of business, and based on our conversation, I suspect she could triple that relatively quickly just by getting clear on what was and wasn’t working in her rainmaking.

When you’re working on legal business development, having some sense of which activities are profitable is extremely important as you determine whether to discontinue or to increase your involvement with that activity.  Unfortunately, an informal, memory-based, qualitative system for tracking results is not sufficient.  Memories fade and may be inaccurate.  Just as mental tracking is unreliable for balancing a checkbook, it is insufficient for making decisions about business development activity.

Every lawyer should have a client intake routine that includes determining how that client became aware of you and your practice.  Consider incorporating into your client intake form a question that asks, “How did you find out about me/this firm?”

If you work in a larger firm that does not use intake forms, consider creating your own form that requests the information and gathers information about how and when a client wants to be contacted, who else should be kept apprised of the matter’s progress, and other information that will help you deliver better client service.  And if you’d prefer to avoid forms altogether, create an intake checklist so you make certain to ask these questions.

This insight from business performance improvement expert Dr. H. James Harrington applies directly to business development for lawyers:

Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement.  If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it.  If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it.  If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.

How important is it to track your results?  According to one consultant, two out of The Ten Most Effective Law Marketing Techniques deal with tracking (numbers 3 and 10).  While I might word my top 10 list differently, there’s no doubt that knowing what is and is not working is critical if you want to grow your practice.

Extra tip for law firm marketing:  if you’re hoping to increase your firm’s or team’s business development results, one of the first steps you should put into place is tracking what each team member is doing and what results those activities are generating.  Not only will you have better information about which activities work, but you’ll also get much-needed information about which team members are putting in the appropriate effort, where their strengths lie, and how you can help them to be more successful.

How do you track your results?  If you’d like to get a baseline of your business development effectiveness plus tips for your next steps, take the 20-question Law Practice Profitability Audit.  There’s no charge, and you’ll get insight into what you’re doing well plus where you can improve and how to do so.  Completing the assessment will take about 5 minutes, and you’ll get a personalized report delivered by email as soon as you submit your responses.  Visit this page to get started.

Tips to Simplify Legal Newsletters

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Newsletters offer a way to stay in contact with a large number of contacts easily, consistently, and productively.  Newsletters focus on substantive information, and assuming you’ve defined your areas of practice carefully enough, your content will be valuable to recipients and therefore welcome.  Better yet, if your topics are timely and if you include an appropriate call to action, you may even receive requests for assistance on matters related to your writing.

Most firms have multiple newsletters tailored to their various areas of practice, often with multiple contributors.  Whether you’re responsible for coordinating the content for your firm’s (or team’s) newsletter or you’re a sole practitioner with soup-to-nuts responsibility for the newsletter, you’ve probably had more than a few hair-raising moments wondering how you can possibly get it all done.  (And if your firm doesn’t have a newsletter, I can virtually guarantee that fear is the top reason why not.)

So, let’s make newsletters simple.  These five tips and resources will reduce the time and angst required to produce a newsletter that delivers results.

Repurpose presentations and articles you have written for publication elsewhere into newsletter content.  Shorter articles tend to be more useful, especially in electronic newsletters, so you can often get several issues of content from a single article.

  1. Keep a list of generic questions your clients ask and turn the responses into newsletter articles.  You must make certain that no one interprets your article as legal advice for them (check your local ethics rules to be sure you’re in compliance) but with appropriate language, you can easily create useful information based on frequently asked questions.
  2. Use social media to “listen” for topics you should cover.  You may find news or op-ed pieces you’d like to address, and by catching hot topics, you’re increasing the chance that your readers will be interested.
  3. Include the “so what” for news.  It’s hard to offer unique breaking news that isn’t being covered by journalists, bloggers, and other newsletters, but you can one-up many other reports by including some analysis and commentary of the news.  In other words, let others handle the details of who, what, when, where, and how.  You focus on the why and so what.
  4. Source your content from a good outside vendor.  In the past, I would not have recommended using pre-written articles because they’re generally easy to identify a mile away.  Generic and often not written for the audience to whom they’re sent, bad pre-written articles that are simply dropped into a template will not help your marketing efforts and may indeed inflict terminal damage.

But I recently learned about a content provider that offers well-written articles that can (and really should) be edited so that they offer good information with your unique voice and perspective.

Insight in Motion, an offering from Amicus Media, offers articles written by lawyers on topics currently including estate planning, family law, bankruptcy, immigration, and personal injury.  (I’ve urged them to include intellectual property soon–we’ll see!)  I’ve reviewed the articles and I’m impressed with the information presented and the way the content is presented.

Offering two levels of subscriptions based on the number of legal articles you need each month and number of practice areas, Insight in Motion provides a “keep it simple” approach at a reasonable price.  Even better, the company will create a customized newsletter template and send your newsletters if you’d like.  The content can even be published on your firm’s website or blog.

I took a thorough tour of the system and asked the same questions you likely would, and I’m impressed.  If your practice falls within the areas that Insight in Motion covers and you’ve been holding off on creating a newsletter, this may be your golden opportunity.

For more information on Insight in Motion, visit this page.

And in case you’re wondering:  no, I will not receive any affiliate fees or other incentive if you enroll in Insight in Motion.

Which of these tips can you use to make your newsletter strategy simpler?

Networking Secret: We tend to like people who like us.

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This month, I’ve selected quotes from some terrific blog posts about relationship.  Read the quotes, and then go check out these posts.  They’re too good to miss.

We all like people who like us.  If I show you I’m genuinely happy to meet you, you’ll instantly start to like me.  (And you’ll show that you do, which will help calm my nerves and let me be myself.)
~Jeff Haden, 6 Habits of Remarkably Likable People

A few might dispute the notion, but most will agree — relationship trumps everything.

Whether in the business or personal arena, relationship provides the context in which almost everything is interpreted.  It influences judgment and defines value.
~Eric Fletcher, Deliver the Experience or Lose the Relationship

Social media is the perfect medium for someone like me — someone who’s an introvert, a bit on the shy side, and prefers to have the safety of being behind a computer screen rather than face-to-face.
~Lindsay Griffiths, Taking it Offline 

Business Development: Sales and Service

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One of the primary objections lawyers have to business development is that business development equals sales, and “sales” is a four-letter word.  (Sometimes the stereotype of math-challenged lawyers does stick!)  The word may conjure the stereotypical used car salesman, ready to unload a lemon just to make a quick buck.  And, of course, no one wants to be a part of that kind of sale–to sell or to buy.

A sale, however, only refers to the exchange of money for a good or service.  There’s nothing unprofessional or sleazy about that.  The distaste we feel for sales comes from how the sale is made, not from the fact of the sale itself.

If ethically questionable business development tactics are repellent to you, you will likely take great care to avoid engaging in them.  Be certain by reading your jurisdiction’s ethics rules, and make a note to reread them at least annually since rules and commentary may change.  In most cases, you will find the rules broad enough to encompass any type of activity you might choose to do.  If you have any question, you’ll need to find answers before you proceed, since this is not the place to hope or assume something is acceptable.  Most of the time, within a few well-understood rules, you won’t even wonder.

The bigger concern, then, is not about ethics but rather about appearance.  Does your business development activity look (or feel) pushy?  Desperate?  Obnoxious?  Would someone view the fact or the substance of your business development activity or materials as an indication that your practice is not doing well?  Is there anything unprofessional about business development or marketing?  These are the real questions.

Business development done well is never pushy, desperate, obnoxious, unprofessional, or anything remotely similar.

Consider this:  when you approach your business development activity from the perspective of service, you will almost certainly come across in a positive way.  Service calls on you to explore the potential client’s situation and objectives, to share your skill and experience in the area, perhaps to make some initial suggestions on approach, and to determine whether a good match exists between the potential client’s needs and what you have to offer.

Business development, at its most successful, is an exploratory conversation.  Both sides bring information to the table, and both seek information and a sense of comfort from the other.  If there’s a match, business results.  If not, you have formed a connection that may lead to a referral, or work in the future.

If you approach business development from need (as in, I’ve gotta have this business to make payroll or to make partner), the lines become blurred.  An unspoken self-interest may cloud your ability to explore the potential client’s needs or to give a fair evaluation of the matter’s merits or your ability to meet the need.  The same self-interest may blind you to warning signs about the client:  hints of an inappropriately demanding or unrealistic outlook, signs of inability or unwillingness to pay your fee, or a fundamental philosophical mismatch.

The risk of appearing pushy, obnoxious, or desperate comes into play when self-interest controls the conversation.  It’s up to you whether your business development and marketing activity will seem unprofessional.

When you come first from an attitude of service (even when you also really want the fee or the client relationship), you’ll put the relationship before the retention.  In doing so, you will avoid the risk of feeling like you are being aggressive (as opposed to assertive), too eager (as opposed to deliberate), or rash.

What’s your primary motivation today:  service or self-interest?

Track Your Results, Grow Your Practice

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My clients often tell me that they don’t need to track rainmaking results, that they just know what’s working and what isn’t.  Keeping records may seem inconvenient and unnecessary.  In reality, though, simple tracking will help you to get better results in business development.

If you’re getting new business, you know something is working, but you may not know what.  If you don’t track your rainmaking activity and results, you risk three problems:

  • You may find it difficult to make a rational decision about whether to continue an activity.  Without data on whether a particular effort is paying off, how can you know whether your investment is worthwhile?
  • You may overlook a valuable source of new business.  For example, one of my clients reported that an acquaintance sent him three potential clients in a ten-month period, yielding income of close to $30,000.  If he hadn’t tracked where that business came from, he might not have been able to express his appreciation and further develop the relationship, which in turn led to even more business.
  • You may mistake luck for skill.  Beginner’s luck isn’t limited to card games, nor is it limited to beginners.  Sometimes new business comes flooding in for coincidental reasons.  Without tracking the source of the business, there’s a risk of overlooking the coincidence, focusing on the results, and reducing activity.  The consequence?  A drop in business when luck dries up and skill has not taken its place.

Many lawyers believe that having a sense of how new business comes to them is good enough.  And for a handful of lawyers, that may be true.  In most cases, though, an informal, memory-based, qualitative system for tracking results is not dependable.

Memories fade and may be inaccurate.  Just as mental tracking is unreliable for balancing a checkbook, it is insufficient for making decisions about business development activity.  Every lawyer must have a client intake routine that includes determining how that client became aware of you and your practice.

Remember this insight from business performance improvement expert Dr. H. James Harrington:

Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement.  If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it.  If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it.  If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.

If you aren’t tracking the sources of your business, start today.  Here’s how:

  • When a potential client contacts you, make sure you or your staff asks how she found you.  When getting this information becomes habit, you’ll start to build useful data.
  • Incorporate questions about how the client came to contact you or your firm into your client intake form.  You may find that you get clearer results if you offer check boxes for the activities you’re engaged in (speaking, a blog, or referral, for example) rather than leaving a blank for the client to complete.
  • If you are working in a larger firm that does not use intake forms, consider creating your own form.  Request sourcing information as well as information about how and when a client wants to be contacted, who else should be kept apprised of the matter’s progress, and other information that will help you to deliver better client service.
Recognize too that your data probably will not be 100% accurate.  Depending on your practice area, some clients may not know how they found you, and some may be unwilling to tell you.  Nevertheless, any information you get will be more useful than a baseless guess.
What records will you keep to track the sources of your new business?