Did you miss the first Rainmaker Series session? No worries, here is a link to the recording.

Two years ago I spent four weeks in Spanish Immersion in San Miguel de Allende. From 9-1 each day I sat in a class with five other students and teachers taught us grammar, conversation, and vocabulary. Most afternoons I spent one-on-one with a teacher/coach who focused on my individual needs.

Like my experience learning Spanish, there are differences between teaching and coaching lawyers on client development. Teaching is aimed at all members of the class. Coaching is focused on the individual. Teaching is about giving the right answers. Coaching is about asking the right questions and giving feedback to the lawyer.

At the beginning of the video, I suggested that participants write or type their takeaways from the first session and how they planned to implement them. That was because each participant is different.

To illustrate how coaching is different I want you to use your imagination. Suppose we are having a coaching session today and you have told me you want to raise your visibility and credibility to your target market and you want me to help you figure out how to best do that by writing and speaking. Here are some questions I might ask you.

 

Writing and Speaking for Business Development Skills

 

Writing Articles and Blogging

  1. Would you enjoy writing articles or blog posts to attract clients?
  2. What are 3 potential topics you think would help your potential clients?
  3. Who is your intended reader and what publications are best?
  4. Is your article for lawyers, or businessmen and women?
  5. If a potential client did a Google search what is the best title for them to find your article or blog post?
  6. If you shared with me an article or blog post, I would ask: Does your opening sentence/paragraph cause your targeted reader to want to read more?
  7. What are your takeaways for your reader?
  8. How can you get the greatest number of potential clients or referral sources to read your article?

Once the article or blog post was completed, I would go over it with you and share my insights on how I think you might make it better.

Presentations:

  1. Would giving a compelling presentation help you attract business?
  2. Topic: What are your listeners’ problems, opportunities and changes?
  3. How can you best get the opportunity to speak to the group?
  4. What homework do you plan to do before the presentation? (Who is the audience, how many will attend, what is the layout of the room?)
  5. What slides if any do you plan to use? If your slides are visual rather than bullet points, what do you plan to use as a teleprompter? Note: What the audience sees does not have to be the same as what you see on your computer.
  6. What is the most interesting opening you can give? Note: You should spend more time on your opening than any other part of the presentation. You have at most 90 seconds to capture your audience and answer their question: “What’s in this for me?
  7. Handout: What do you plan to include and when do you intend to provide it?
  8. How do you plan to engage the audience and handle questions they may ask?
  9. How will you follow up after the presentation?

I would then have the lawyer I am coaching deliver the presentation and we would go over posture, voice, gestures, eye contact, connecting with the audience.

Every world-class PGA golfer has a coach. Most have several coaches. See the Washington Post article: PGA golfers have come to depend on swing coaches.
If the greatest golfers in the world think there is value in having a coach watch their swing, it might be valuable for lawyers to have a coach read their article, watch them present and read their blog, and in each case offer feedback.  Are you getting any feedback or just shooting from the hip?