it's true, all of the results above were achieved by associates. These Associate Rainmakers are already producing results. If you follow their lead, take the same actions and build similar habits and mindsets - then you can start to produce similar results in 2010.
Letting Go Of Limitations And Learning From The Winners
If you ask a top business generator what was most important to their success, they will point to the business relationships they’ve built over the years – with clients, colleagues, professional allies and influential business leaders.
Therefore, to make progress you have to recognize and embrace three core principles:
Lesson #1: You are in the relationship business, not the legal business
Again, you have to be a highly professional and proficient attorney to be a success, but this is just the starting point. It is the people you know that will make you successful. That is why you need to start cultivating a strong base of mutually beneficial and highly valued business relationships.
Lesson #2: Business development is not based on selfish self-promotion and glad-handing
Many attorneys avoid business development because they see it as salesmanship – glad-handing, passing out box-loads of business cards, persuasive bragging and convincing people that you and your firm are superior. Think about it. How do you react when you encounter somebody like that?
Guess what. Business development is not promoting yourself, but rather about uncovering clients in need. Sorry to tell you. But clients and prospective clients don’t care about you. Instead, they care about themselves, their aspirations or personal priorities, and making their business successful.
Your real job in business development is finding people that need your help.
Lesson #3: Business development is a skill that you can learn
Here is a quick question: how many of you were born attorneys? A silly question of course. You had to learn.
The good news is that you can learn how to develop business. And, if you do it right, all you have to do is leverage the existing professional skills you already have.
Learn from the associate rainmakers. Adopt an entrepreneurial mindset, apply relationship-building savvy and take personal initiative. The good news is that you can start to produce similar results if you follow their example.
Developing Your Personal Network Of Business Relationships
It is undeniable. Your future success will be based on the quality of your business relationships. And the ability to cultivate and transform these “contacts” into a practice-building set of allies. That’s what separates the top producers from the rest of the profession.
And the way to get going is to review the list of common mistakes associates make that prevent them from making progress. If you think properly about business development, it makes it easier to do more of it, feel comfortable about doing it and get the results that fuel your continued pursuit of these best practices.
But get going now!
Avoiding Network Building Mistakes
Mistake #1 - Random networking: Wasting time networking in the wrong places and in the wrong way
Problem: Most attorneys think of networking as meeting as many new contacts (i.e. strangers) as possible and trading business cards. All the time, their mindset is on “what can this person do for me” – and this attitude permeates their interaction with potential referral sources. They also do not “qualify” contacts on their ability and willingness to help them.
Solution: Start by networking with people you already know. Consider colleagues, school friends, other professionals serving the same clients you work with, the head of an association that you belong to. Be VERY selective beyond this group. Only invest time and energy in networking with people or groups who can get you the “ideal” clients you desire, and are willing to act together for mutual benefit.
Mistake # 2 - Networking myopia: A self-limiting view of networking
Problem: Doing “networking” is seen as an activity. For example, I am going to an association meeting or luncheon to “network”.
Solution: The right way to think about networking is as follows: Networking is building relationships with ANYONE who can help you to grow your practice. Using this definition, you are already networking all the time. When you are working with clients, meeting with your colleagues or mentors at your own firm, or attending an alumni event. The key is to recognize that you are constantly network building: inventory & prioritize these business contacts and develop an express action plan to cultivate the most promising relationships.
Mistake #3 Practicing selfish self-promotion
Problem: Associates can often act like salespeople when building a network – talking about themselves their work, their firm and their credentials
Solution: Do the opposite of this. Your job is to determine how you can help other people to succeed. And by interviewing, being empathetic and actively listening, you simply let the other person to most of the selling work. As one successful rainmaker, Abraham Lincoln said, “People don’t care about how much you know, until they know how much you care.”
Mistake #4 Being unprepared and tongue-tied
Problem: Associates often wing it when networking building opportunities arise. And many don’t know how to engage people in a dialog and effortlessly transition into a business discussion.
Solution: Be prepared and pre-meditated. If you are going to an association meeting, go with the intention of meeting 1-2 people. If possible, target specific people in advance and ask to be introduced to them. Have questions in mind as if you were an interviewer like Larry King. Focus first on the person and their story. Then, move toward questions about their company and function. Don’t ever sell. If asked about yourself, be ready to say how you do help people – and keep it brief.
Mistake #5 “Solo” networking: Marketing yourself by yourself:
Problem: Attorneys to build their network on their own and fail to leverage the contact base of others.
Solution: Instead, team up with a few like-minded professionals and build your combined relationships. Look to trade and inter-connect your web of relationships together. Add collective value by introducing people to one another – even if there is no direct business benefit to you. Find people with “power networks” like the head of an association and go to see them as a team.
Mistake #6 No allies: Settling for “shallow” networking relationships
Problem: Attorneys look to network with MORE and MORE people.
Solution: Instead, the best business generators look to forge highly committed alliances with FEWER & BETTER referral sources. Build a small, elite team of professionals “business partners”. Continually market together on a cooperative basis. See your business contacts as “de-facto” partners in growing each other’s business.
Mistake #7 Joining the wrong organizations or being a passive participant
Problem: Being a visible leader of the right kind of business organization can be the cornerstone of an associate’s network building efforts. But too often associates join organization with few ideal clients as members (such as bar associations) or simply attend meetings passively, remaining a face in the crowd.
Solution: Join associations replete with clients and potential clients such as an industry association. Then become involved and visible. Your goal is to showcase your professional capabilities by becoming an office-holder or program speaker.
Our Vision For You In 2010
You will only go as far in your career as your network and alliances take you. Treat your network as an asset, plan to cultivate it daily and learn the skills you need to master network building
Start by making time to do it. Don't let chargeability pressures be an excuse. Develop a weekly list if contacts to make and results desired. Carve out a separate section on your daily to do list to do 2-3 network building actions. Treat these to do's just like billable work. Set give up goals to make room for business development. We know it is hard, but do it anyway. Because this is exactly what rainmakers do. And they face a lot more demands on their time than you do.
Our aim is to help associates realize that business development is now an essential part of being a successful attorney. It is true. Being promoted to partner and becoming an asset to your firm will be determined by your book of business as well as by growing your personal marketing, networking, selling and relationship management capabilities.
Start now. But it is up to you (not the firm or your practice group).
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