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Beat the Recession by Creating Your Personal Business Development Plan

By Larry Bodine, Esq.

Get More Clients. Make More Money. Visit http://tinyurl.com/6xvudu

Does business development at your firm look like a Warner Brothers’ cartoon with lawyers dressing up as hunters, going out into the business forest and shooting at anything that moves? If your business development seems more about “wascally wabbits” than verified business leads, you aren’t alone.

However, if you practice premeditated business development, this year can be the very best in your career no matter what the economy is doing. 

Even in difficult economic times, there are opportunities galore. A recent survey showed that 60 percent of corporate clients were unhappy with their primary law firms. That's a chance for you to put their businesses into play.

 

There are also threats out there. Your firm's top 50 clients are on the target list for every other law firm, so make sure you have a very close relationship with your clients and that they are satisfied with your work.

 

Your individual sales plan

 

If you really want to boost the revenue you bring in to your firm by $75,000 to $100,000, you must have a written plan to devote 100 to 200 hours per year to business development. One hundred hours a year is only two hours a week, and any lawyer can find the time to meet referral sources for coffee, take clients for lunch, or attend a trade association meeting after work.

 

Your aim is to develop or deepen relationships with clients because new business comes in person. Your plan should be filled with face-to-face meetings with clients and targets. The firm's Web site, brochure, articles, newsletters, public relations, direct mail marketing, announcements and press releases will generate leads for your sales effort, but you have to go out and make the sale.

 

Elements of your plan

 

Page One

 

Page one of your individual sales plan should be a list of your top ten clients. Set a date when you will visit clients at their premises and make plans to get to know as many people there as possible. This is the low hanging fruit: clients already trust you, send you work and mail you checks.

 

Before you schedule that first on-site visit, carefully consider the following points:

• A sales call is not a pitch. No one wants to hear about your credentials. A sales call is an interview where you ask questions to learn about the client's business.
• Don't make any cold calls because they rarely succeed. Focus on people you already know.
• Build on your strengths. If you like to speak in front of a crowd, find a meeting of clients and do so. If instead you are more comfortable one-on-one, then plan dinner parties and private get-togethers where you can talk. Mix business development into your outside activities, hobbies, club memberships and events you enjoy.
• By making the effort, you have already succeeded. The key is to change your behavior, not get instant results. Closing a sale takes months of time spent in advance. The more people you know and the more activities you undertake, the better you'll do over the long run.

Page Two

Page two of your plan should be a list of your top ten referral sources. You need to meet with them in person, too. You want to be clear on two things:  that they know what kind of work you are looking for and that you understand what sort of referrals they want in return.

 

Page Three

These two pages are generally enough to fill up a year's worth of sales effort. But you should also write a page three, which is a list of targets, executives and general counsel whom you already know but who are not clients of the firm yet. Your goal is to meet them, strike up a business conversation and discover how your firm can serve them.

 

And while you are meeting with clients and referral sources, don’t forget the top five deadly sins of closing business and avoid them:

 

1. Talk, rather than listen.

If you hear the sound of your own voice at a sales call, you are making a mistake. Your goal is to ask intelligent questions and get the other person talking. Clients will tell you about their business issues. All you need to do is listen for an opportunity to help.

 

2. Selling your capabilities and expertise.

Sure, you are smart, went to a great law school, got some honors, belong to many bar associations and have a great track record. So what? So do most other lawyers. Clients presume you have good enough credentials or you wouldn't be at the meeting. But getting the sale comes not from pitching clients about how great you are, but from asking questions about their legal needs, so that you can help them.

 

3. Presume instead of asking questions.

Simply because you've done a client's work for ten years doesn't mean you'll keep it. There could be a new CEO or GC who will bid out all the legal work, including yours. Or a major cost-cutting effort could have started at the client corporation, and it could be aimed at legal costs. Always inquire about "what's new" at the company and follow up with questions such as "tell me more about that" and "what makes you say that?"

 

4. Failure to get all the information to win the business.

Your revenues from the client could be increasing, but your "share of the wallet" could be going down. Ask clients what their total legal budget is and determine your percentage of it. Ask clients what other law firms they work with and why. Ask clients how the decision is made to hire a law firm.

 

5. Missing out on having the client "write the proposal."

If you ask the right questions, clients will spell out for you exactly what they want. Back at the office, you can have your notes transcribed into a proposal. The trick is to ask the right questions: ask why the legal matter is coming to a head right now. Ask what difference this matter makes to the firm's bottom line. Inquire, "if everything worked out perfectly, what would that look like?" Ask, "What have you tried before? Why didn't that work?" Probe, "If the decision were up to you, what would you do?" Ask, "Who's in charge of the project, and tell me about your role in it?" Finally, inquire what other law firms the company is talking to and what the deadline is for choosing a law firm.

 

If you actually take the time, write the plan and carry it out, this year can be the best financial year financially in your career. You just have to get out there and do it. No Elmer Fudds allowed.  Inquire today about the Apollo Business Development Program at http://tinyurl.com/6xvudu

Full post as published by Larry Bodine's LawMarketing Blog on October 29, 2008 (boomark / email).