When I practiced law, I was asked by our HR director, what attributes I looked for in associates. I think he assumed honesty and integrity and expected beyond that I would say hard-working, great attitude and all the normal things.
When I told him that curiosity was very high on my list he looked confused.
Over all these past 12 plus years that I have coached lawyers, the most familiar refrain I have heard has been:
I wish I had started my client development efforts earlier
Why have so many lawyers waited until they became partners, when the pressure was on them to bring in business?
I say there are
I want you to use your imagination for a moment. Picture a group of your clients meeting and discussing you. What are the 3-5 things you believe they would say about you?
Take a moment and write those things down. Now, think about what you would want them to say about you. Is there a
A senior lawyer asked me to boil client development down into a bullet point list of no more than 10 suggestions. I confess it’s hard to pick a Top 10, but here are the 10 that first came to my mind.
Several years ago, a lawyer I had coached came to advise other lawyers in her firm how to get the most out of our coaching program.
She told them to focus on the three Ps.
I know from experience that lawyers who focus on the three Ps are more concerned with
Seth Godin posted a blog recently titled: On being discovered. In it he said something that describes my strategy and approach to developing business.
Instead of hoping that people will find you, the alternative is to become the sort of person these people will go looking for.
I was meeting with a group of
Does your firm have anyone helping to develop the next generation of rainmakers?
Our firm didn’t have anyone, so I started coaching our new partners. I loved that work so much that I gave up my big partnership draw, left my law firm and started coaching lawyers full-time.
Over more than 12 years, I’ve figured
On Tuesday I gave you the five questions to ask yourself if you are blogging and it hasn’t led to business. After you have answered the first five, you will be ready to answer these:
How should you write your post? Your headline is the starting point. Each time you draft one assume that is
Client development is all about being found when a client needs a lawyer and all about building trust based relationships.
If you want to start building a reputation and building relationships with clients focus on five important points. I know, I’ve made all of these points many times over the last 11 years. But, maybe
I hate to be sold anything and I know clients do not want to be sold. Many marketing consultants treat client development and marketing as if it were selling a product or service.
Perhaps that approach is based on their experiences outside of the legal field. When lawyers hear that approach they cringe each thinking