Thursday, July 17th, 2008

Many times lawyers tell me they want to hire a coach to be sure they are making the right investments of time and energy to build their practice.  Should they be writing articles?  Presenting?  Taking contacts out for lunch?  Attending networking events? 

It all comes down to the central question:  What activities are going to be the most effective?

The answer to that question is going to be different for every lawyer.  One of the first steps I do when begin when working with a new coaching client is to conduct a strength analysis. 

Why the focus on strengths?  Because by focusing on what we are good at we start ahead of the game.  We all come into this world with a unique set of talents, and over our lifetime with the addition of experience and learning we establish a foundation of knowledge, skill, and ability. The winning strategy is on maximising your strengths.  Tim Ferriss, author of The Four Hour Work Week puts it this way:

It is far more lucrative and fun to leverage your strengths instead of attempting to fix all the chinks in your armor. The choice is between multiplication of results using strengths or incremental improvement fixing weaknesses that will, at best, become mediocre.                       

If you have never done a strength analysis then think of it as a detailed answer to the question: “What am I good at and what have I got going for me?”   I have an article posted on the cooperative Canadian weblog Slaw.ca with a short list of questions that can guide you in conducting your own strength inventory.  Who do you know?  Do you enjoy writing or presenting?  The answers to these and other questions begin to form your inventory of strengths.

In addition you can try taking the free VIA Signature Strengths Questionnaire found on the Authentic Happiness Web site. You have to register (free) on the web site in order to access the test.  This test will indicate your top 5 strengths.  It was developed by Professor of Positive Psychology Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania.  Thanks to Alexander Kjerulf and his blog Chief Happiness Officer for passing on this tip!

Your goals provide the directions and your strengths (and values!) make up the foundation for your business development efforts.  The right moves so often take advantage of the resources you have at hand, the people and contacts you have in your life, and your natural abilities, drive, and motivation.

Posted in Strategy, Business Development, coaching | Permalink | No Comments »


Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

I sometimes share my morning commute with Tom, the senior executive of a local investment firm.  His company does a lot of financings and M&A deals and predominantly uses a local securities boutique to structure the deals.

Tom knows that my business is coaching lawyers so this morning he gave me his unedited review of his lawyers, law firm, and the legal business model.  The fee structure, the billable hour business model, and lawyers insistence at wordsmithing documents on his dollar all got a failing grade.

Here are some of his candid comments:

1. Why no flat fee structure for this work?  We keep getting told that each deal is unique and there is no way to accurately estimate the lawyer time it will take.  Yet, when you look at the total legal bills for each of our deals they always come in at about the same amount.  Why not just flat fee us, and leverage your own internal time saving innovations?
2. The only reason we don’t put out a request for a law firm who will work this way (see above comment) is that we have a long-standing relationship with our current firm.  They know us and our business.
3. I can’t stand it when lawyers insist on writing me a long and expensive memo when what I need is a quick answer.  I’m a business man; I need my lawyer’s best answer on the spot.
4. I recently did a deal where the lawyers on both sides disagreed about how the deal was written.  They started to argue, at a cost of 700/hr about wordsmithing.  I asked my lawyer, “look, does the deal work as it has been written?”  The lawyer responded “yes, it works but I don’t like how it is written.”  This is about getting deals done, not about writing an epic novel.

In my local legal marketplace we don’t get the biggest and best financings.  Tom’s company would count as a very good client and source of lots of good work.  Even though they have an existing law firm relationship (who doesn’t?) in my view they are ripe for the picking.  What would it take?

• A willingness to invest in developing a relationship with the company, quickly, at your own expense.
• A willingness to work on a flat fee or other alternative structure.
• A lead partner who is able to provide the kind of “shoot from the hip” legal advice Tom is asking for.

I would like to point out that Tom is an easy-going, even tempered guy.  You’d never know it this morning.  It just goes to show how the way our law firms conduct business can be so negatively received by the very clients we serve.

Tom’s rant also points out the value of relationships:  He and his company haven’t taken their work to another firm because of that relationship.  It would be too much work.  However, if another firm was willing to make it easy for them to make the change through investing time in learning their business, and offering a different fee structure, they would likely jump.

What are you willing to invest in retaining your current clients?  And growing your business?  Could you offer what Tom is looking for?

Posted in Business Development, Client relationships | Permalink | 3 Comments »


Saturday, March 29th, 2008

Part Two 

I first blogged on this topic in December. Today I will continue where I left off and provide my top ten list of steps for launching a successful associate marketing and business development training program:

1. Segment your training to target lawyers of a particular year of call, or practice area, so that the curriculum content is appropriate to their skill and knowledge level and can be put into immediate practice.
2. Conduct strength assessments with the associates taking part in the training program.  These assessments provide a measure of where they are starting from, help frame the business development process, and serve as a point of departure for developing their personal business plans.
3. Launch the training program with a Mindset component.  Mindset means aligning the business development approach to the strengths and values of the participants, framing business development in the context of career success, and clearing up any misconceptions about what business development is all about.
4. In keeping with the active learning emphasis, hold monthly meetings, with actionable homework and feedback components. 
5. Connect the content of the monthly training sessions to each associate’s goals and business plan. 
6. Use the training program and homework items to support associates in developing the habit of integrating regular business development activities into their weekly schedule.
7. Track results.
8. Small groups provide the opportunity for discussion.  Each training component is followed by an action item.  For example, after the networking session the associates each attend a networking event.  Following the event they prepare a brief memo on what worked, what didn’t, what contacts they made, how they will follow-up.  At the next training session the first minutes of the class are then spent reviewing the group members’ experience of the networking event.
9. Integrate partner experiences into the program through holding partner panels, or collecting business development stories from the partners for inclusion in the training sessions. 
10. Integrate client experiences into the program through holding client panels, sharing client survey results, or by creating opportunities for the participants to speak with clients of the firm. 

Just like learning to improve a golf stoke, lawyers can best develop business development skills through putting knowledge into practice and receiving feedback on performance.  Training programs require more than just the seminar component.  They require action assignments and the opportunity to debrief with colleagues and a coach or mentor after the event.

Developing a successful business development training program takes time and effort, but the rewards are substantial:

• A training program with measurable ROI
• A  team of lawyers who all business develop
• Increased retention of associates

Done right, programs that teach the participants new business development skills, encourage new behaviours and have measurable goals and results will have a fundamental impact on profitability and retention.

For further reading on this topic don’t miss the Hildebrant Article: Masterclass: Adopting A Business-Development Attitude: A Shared Responsibility

Posted in Business Development, Training and Retention, Marketing | Permalink | No Comments »


Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

When it comes to learning, teaching, training, and engaging in business development the best starting point is a series of guiding principles that will apply to all your client development activities:

1. Ask before telling
2. Listen before speaking
3. Discover how you can help

And I would add one caveat:

Don’t fumble the follow-up.

These principles form the foundation for all my business development coaching and training.

Applying these principles opens up an approach to business development that is equally accessible to introverted and extroverted personality types.  For example, at networking events the focus is not on talking about yourself, but on preparing ahead, asking great questions, learning important information about the people you are meeting, and following up after the event on what you have learned.  To learn more about how these principles apply in practice please visit my article Networking for Introverts on the Canadian legal weblog Slaw.ca.

 

 

Posted in Business Development, Networking | Permalink | No Comments »


Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

My article this week in The Lawyers Weekly has generated some attention and controversy. Nicole Black in her new blog New Lawyers Back on Track has raised some thought-provoking concerns. 

Thanks Nicole for picking up the article. Much appreciated! To clarify on a couple of issues you’ve raised,  please know that I am an executive coach.  As such my clients set their own goals and agendas.  If a woman lawyer has a goal of becoming a partner in a law firm then I would certainly encourage her to consider business development as one of the vehicles to support her advancement.

While it is vital to keep a long term perspective on possibilities for transforming our law firm workplaces, it is equally important to many women that they continue to strengthen their position within the current system. Developing and expanding one’s own loyal client base is vital to achieving power, authority, and financial equality.  As long as one depends on others to provide the work, one is by definition dependant.  This applies to both genders.

Business development means investing in relationships. The purpose of strategy in this context is to ensure that a lawyer’s investments in time are right on target and offer maximum benefit.

In my experience I have seen large numbers of lawyers both young and old turned off by the stereotypical image of the rainmaker.  In fact, there is a different and effective approach which is very much in alignment with these women lawyers own values and integrity.  I want to encourage both women and men who don’t identity with the extroverted model of rainmaker to develop their own equally successful approach based on developing strong legal credentials and developing an ever-expanding base of trusting relationships with clients, referral sources and others.  No grandstanding, polished speeches, or tickets to the NBA (or in the Canadian context NHL) required.

When it comes to innovation and new approaches to rainmaking you truly stand out as the author of not one but three blogs!  That is precisely what I meant when I wrote “assess your strengths and develop your own personal approach grounded in your values, your professional goals” and I would add your interests. 

Thanks Nicole for encouraging the discussion on this very important topic!

Posted in Business Development, Women lawyers | Permalink | 3 Comments »


Friday, February 8th, 2008

Why are business development skills more important then ever for women lawyers?

Because in my opinion as female professionals we have reached an impasse.

In the words of Alice Eagly and Linda Carli in the September 2007 issue of Harvard Buisness Review (HBR) the glass ceiling is a misnomer.   There is not artificial barrier beyond which we cannot ascend but rather a labyrinth of challenges and obstacles that must be overcome throughout our careers.

The statistics tell the story:

“According to the National Association for Law Placement, a trade group that provides career counselling to lawyers and law students, only about 17 percent of the partners at major law firms nationwide [US] were women in 2005, a figure that has risen only slightly since 1995, when about 13 percent of partners were women.”  New York Times, March 19, 2006

“Gender inequality continues to exist in management functions, and the increase in the number of female university graduates will not itself be sufficient to close the gap.”  Women Matter, McKinsey & Company, 2007

“The latest findings from Grant Thornton’s International Business Report (IBR), released today to coincide with International Women’s Day, reveal that 38% of businesses do not have any women in senior management roles, a figure that has remained unchanged since 2004.  The survey, which covers  the opinions of 7,200 privately held businesses in 32 countries, represents 81% of global GDP.”   Press Release, Grant Thornton, 2007.

“Consider the most highly paid executives of Fortune 500 companies – those with titles such as chairman, president, president, chief executive officer, and chief operating officer.  Of this group, only 6% are women.  Most notably, only 2% of the CEOs are women, and only 15% of the seats on the boards of directors are held by women.” From HBR Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership

The rising number of women graduating from law school and entering the legal profession is not enough to shift the balance.  The same applies to women entering the business world with MBA’s and other professional degrees.  More women entering the labyrinth doesn’t result in a corresponding rise in the number of women making it through. 

Business development in this context becomes a means for advancing.  It’s about taking leadership of one’s practice.  It’s about determining what you want and how to get there. 

Keep in mind that your female clients are experiencing the same challenges.  How can you assist them?  What can you do to help them get ahead?

Now it is up to each and every one of us to take this in our own hands. 

“The lessening of activism on behalf of all women puts the pressure on each woman to find her own way.”  From HBR Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership

In January I presented on this topic for the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) Vancouver Chapter and then again in February to the TAGLaw legal network.  Watch for my upcoming article in The Lawyers Weekly.

I also recommend reading Larry Bodine’s list of ten recommendations “that law firms should adopt to reduce turnover among women lawyers, geneate more business and thus boost firm revenue”  with one caveat:

Women lawyers are busier than ever.  Business development activities must be implemented as a vital and strategic component of the lawyer’s own career plan.  Not as yet another hoop jumping exercise. 

Posted in Leadership, Business Development, Women lawyers | Permalink | 3 Comments »


Wednesday, December 19th, 2007

I have two questions for my readers:  How many training seminars have you attended that were fundamentally a waste of time?  How often have you attended a business development or marketing training session where you actually learned something that you then put into practice?

Learning is achieved most often through our mistakes.  As a young legal marketer working in-house I organized countless lunch and learn seminars for lawyers on topics ranging from networking, to business development, to how to give an effective presentation.  Most often these seminars resulted only in an “in one ear, out the other” experience for the attendees.  I learned.  It takes more than an hour long presentation over lunch to teach new skills and behaviours.

What does it take to get training that works?  Listening, learning, putting learning into action, and feedback.  Training programs require more than just the seminar component.  They require action assignments and the opportunity to debrief with colleagues and a coach or mentor after the event. 

The LMA International recently hosted a Webinar on business development for associates with the US legal marketing group Ingenuity Marketing.  They concluded that training programs should involve small groups of associates who work together for a minimum period of 12 months.  Here’s their recommendation for the best set-up for a training program:

• Monthly meetings for at least 12 months
• Reporting on results each month
• StrengthsFinder Assessments
• Fairly well-organized curriculum but open to
group needs
• Group bonding time
• Track results

I would add that is important to frame the meetings around a monthly seminar/reading component, followed by individual or group assignments and reporting. 

The difficulty is that these kinds of programs take time and effort to set up, but the rewards are substantial:

• A training program with measurable ROI
• Generation of a team of lawyers who all business develop
• Associates appreciate genuine training opportunities

There is in fact some urgency now to getting training right.  In the Hildebrandt report Why Associates Leave one of the number one reasons associates leave law firms is because of the lack of training and mentorship programs:

Too many associates cite the lack of formal and informal training, mentoring, and development programs available within law firms. Over the last 10 years this has been the single most common factor cited by departing associates, yet few law firms respond with meaningful programs. Many increase their budgets for outside CLE or offer additional seminars, but continue to hear ongoing complaints about insufficient training and development. The absence of effective training, mentoring, and development not only limits an associate’s substantive and professional growth, but also inhibits the associate from forming a longer-term relationship with the firm.

This report is a real call to action to law firms to take the time and make the investment in training programs that succeed.  Programs that teach the participants new skills, encourage new behaviours and have measurable goals and results.

Posted in Business Development, Training and Retention | Permalink | 2 Comments »


Thursday, October 25th, 2007

Building a successful legal practice takes time and effort.  You can make all the right moves, build the right relationships, and develop your expertise and profile but it may take a number of years for the results to appear.  This is a test of your patience and resolve.  Sometimes the best things are worth waiting for. 

I was just speaking to a lawyer friend I worked with a few years back. I asked him the usual “how are you doing?” and he replied with a great “happily ever after” success story.

He works in a particular niche area of litigation and because of the seeds he planted over several years he is now the recognized expert in the niche and getting the biggest and best files. He absolutely loves his legal practice.

Here’s what made it happen: 

We met when he was a senior associate who had just joined the firm as a lateral hire. He had a goal to build up his practice in a particular niche litigation area. He’d been junior counsel on a number of important cases and it was time for him to take the lead.

At that time there were not many files in the area. But the prospects for the future were good. We developed his personal marketing plan. The emphasis of the plan was on building relationships with referral sources and potential clients and raising his profile.

He invested a great deal of time and effort in developing and expanding his network of contacts. He used his lunch hours for meeting people and developing existing relationships. He wrote articles and presented at conferences.  Always with a focus on the niche area of law.

Then he took the initiative and pitched the idea of a book on the subject to a legal publisher who agreed.  Of course not everyone at the firm supported the project.  Some wondered if the time might be better spent on further relationship building.  It was a gamble. Nonetheless he persisted and the first edition was published, followed by a second edition the following year.

Still the files were not coming in.  Had all that effort been for nothing?

All this marketing and business development and still only a small trickle of files. What was crucial is that he did not give up. Nor did his firm.

He began speaking at the law school. Kept writing. Kept presenting. Kept relationship building. And he stayed the course.

The word spread and finally after four years the files began to flow in. My friend is now the lawyer “who wrote the book” on this area of law. He has a completely full plate of his favorite type of legal work and is having the time of his life.

It’s a real success story.

And the firm?  The firm supported his investments of non-billable time, partners gave him work to keep his plate full and he was made partner even before the tides had turned in his favor.

What did he do right? He knew what he wanted. He completely focused his marketing and business development efforts on the goal. He invested a lot of time and effort. He took the initiative and created opportunities for raising his profile. He was not dissuaded by the naysayers.

And he just didn’t give up.

Posted in Business Development, Goals, Planning | Permalink | No Comments »


Saturday, September 1st, 2007

As a business coach working with lawyers one of the most common concerns that arises for my clients is the fear of coming across as insincere and in the words of some associates I know: “salesy” or “oily”.

They have a point.

When business development is badly done that is exactly how it can come across.  We have all met sales people and other professionals who have made us feel like some commodity they are trying to get off the shelf.

David Maister has drawn the analogy between our relationships with clients and our relationships with our romantic partners.  In those terms, asking for business right away is like asking someone to get into bed with you on the first date.

I have even heard some business coaches tell their clients to “just get over” their reluctance to ask for business.  I don’t agree.  That reluctance likely stems from your own deeply held values.  It comes from wanting to do the right thing.  The right thing is always to focus on building a trusting relationship first.  The right time to ask for the business will present itself, or in many cases the client will ask you for help.  By starting with a focus on the trusting relationship you will not risk coming across as insincere or salesy. 

How do you start building trust?

Start with listening. 

We naturally trust those people who genuinely listen to us and take the time to understand us.

In David Maister’s post on “Earning trust when there is too little time” he writes:

“The first point I’d make is to ensure that, in the limited few interactions you can afford the time for, you succeed as coming across as sympathetic and understanding. I don’t necessarily want a lot more of my doctor’s time when I see him or her, I just want to be treated a certain way when we are together.”

Listening is the key to coming across as sympathetic and understanding.  As Stephen Covey points out in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, use empathetic listening to first seek to understand, then be understood.

To get ready to do your best listening, prepare for meetings with potential clients by thinking about what challenges they might be facing.  Develop a few truly thoughtful and open ended questions that you can ask them during the meeting.  These are questions that will open up the conversation and help you learn more about their interests, background, work, company, and any challenges they are currently facing. 

Engage your curiosity. 

When the person responds, listen attentively, watch their body language, try to keep the analysis in your own head to a dull roar and instead really focus your attention on the other person.  Let them know they have been heard by repeating back a little of what they have told you and then follow with another insightful question.

Insightful questions highlight your intelligence far more than a soliloquy on your experience ever could. 

Posted in Leadership, Business Development | Permalink | No Comments »


Sunday, July 29th, 2007

I was speaking with my colleague Joan Paul in Calgary last week. Like me, she is a Royal Roads University trained business coach who works with lawyers. She and I like to share ideas, and collaborate on articles and projects. This week we were talking about the optimum investment of lawyers’ non-billable time in business development.

How much time do lawyers really need to invest each week in business development activities?

Joan quoted Sally Schmidt’s book “Business Development for Lawyers, Strategies for Getting and Keeping Clients”, which suggests that if you are new to the practice of law you should spend 50 to 100 hours a year or 1 to 2 hours a week. If you are a senior associate then you are advised to spend somewhere between 100 to 200 hours annually. And if you a partner rainmaker you are likely spending in the range of 250 to 500 hours a year.

Joan and I both find that the challenge for many professionals is about how then to invest this business development time for best results. Joan told me she always begins by asking her clients:

• What are the results you want to achieve and by when?
• Who is your target audience for best results?
• What is the best way to reach that audience?
• What are the skills you can capitalize on to reach out to that audience? Are you a great writer? Speaker? Networker?
• How do you hold yourself accountable for your business development activities?
• How do you market yourself inside your firm or organization?
• What’s stopping you from developing and implementing a business development plan?

These questions can serve as a guide to making the best choices. In addition I like to consider the lawyer’s network of relationships. How developed is it? For newly-called lawyers it is important to be building relationships, and raising their profile both within and without the law firm. For senior lawyers with a well established network the question is how are you keeping actively in touch with the people you know?

And always it is vital to start with current client relationships. Existing clients are the best source of new and repeat business. Communicating with clients about their level of satisfaction, their needs and concerns, is always the first place to invest.

 

 

Posted in Leadership, Business Development | Permalink | No Comments »

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