Something that I didn’t realize as a young lawyer is that if you want to have a successful private practice, then you are in sales and marketing (whether you like it or not).
The reason is because you have to either get work from a client directly or from a partner or a shareholder, and to do so, they need to know who you are and what you can do.
By the way, if you have the long game approach, you’re going to need to be able to bring in clients if you want to make partner one day or open up your own firm.
While that can appear like a daunting proposition to a new lawyer who is rightly focused on their “hard” skills: research, analysis, writing, prioritizing deadlines, etc…….
If you start early, create a scalable system, and make relationship-building a habit — business development is “not that deep, Boo.”
–a line from one of my favorite Peloton instructors, Cody Rigsby
Start Early
I can’t stress this enough.
Relationships are built on trust – and trust takes time.
Ask yourself – are you going to trust someone you’ve known for years or someone you just met?
That’s probably the same approach if you ever need a lawyer.
And if you want to be the someone that’s been known for years, well – you’ve gotta be out and about to be “known.” Staying late in the office and “keeping your head down” to be the top biller will only get you so far in your career trajectory.
Several ways to “start early:”
- Keep in touch with law school connections.
- Choose a handful that you really like and respect and calendar reminders now for when you’ll check in with them.
- This can be your study group, mock trial team and coaches, favorite professors or staff.
- If you already have a tight knit group, get “bang for your buck” by planning a get together (even virtually) once or twice a year and in one sitting, you will have had a “touch-point” with 5-10 at once.
- Choose a handful that you really like and respect and calendar reminders now for when you’ll check in with them.
- Join a committee in a bar association.
- Joining and attending a few events of an organization isn’t enough – you’re just one of a bunch of people.
- Rather, you need to sign up for a committee that you’re actually interested in and commit to do something and then execute.
- Start small so you can knock it out of the park.
- You want to start intentionally creating your brand – your reputation and credibility– so that everyone on that committee, especially those in leadership can speak of your ability to execute because it comes back to trust.
- My favorite type of committee?
- Either membership or social – where I can start learning people’s names and “man” registration at events—or a community service one – where I can strike up less awkward conversation because we are all busy doing something and have a shared experience to work from.
- Better yet – join a leadership class or some other cohort or group where you can get to know 10, 20, 40 people all at once.
- Once you’ve established yourself, show up every once in a while so you are not forgotten. This is maintenance.
- Maybe you can’t make every monthly happy hour, but be sure to make every other or third one. The name of the game is to stay top of mind.
- Joining and attending a few events of an organization isn’t enough – you’re just one of a bunch of people.
- Create a professional social media presence.
- Create a Linked In – even if you don’t post regularly, you want to be able to connect and engage others by liking, commenting and sharing their posts.
- By the way, if you download the app to your phone, it’s easy to do this while you are waiting for your floor in the elevator or in line at the grocery store.
Create a System
I’m a big believer in creating a system because if you don’t, it’s too easy for any non-billable item to fall way down on your list. This I know from experience. It’s too easy to have the best of intentions around the new year, only to look up from a busy quarter and not have done a single thing in this space (which is ok, nothing to beat yourself up for – just try to do better, which is where a system is handy).
Having a “system” may sound daunting, but it’s not necessarily a fancy algorithm or complex spreadsheet. It’s just creating a plan, then breaking it down into bite-sized, achievable pieces.
Some ideas to get you started:
- Start with a top 12 – clients, prospective clients, or someone in your network that is super-popular and is a natural connector. For each of your 12, assign them a month and reach out to them during that month. Maybe it’s an email or a lunch meeting or a happy hour or working out together. After your touch-point, you will follow-up that day or by the next day with a personal email or note, and then calendar another touch point within that quarter with an article of interest or other follow-up. Oh! Add them to your business holiday card list. This will mean in 1 year, you will have had at least 3 touch-points with at least 12 in your network.
- If you’re ambitious, my personal system was have lunch with someone at least once a week. This could be someone in my office or outside the office. This was pre-pandemic, of course, but I think it’s still doable virtually. Even if some fell through or I got too busy, the success came from creating a habit. In other words, maybe I didn’t lunch with 52 people in a year, but even if I only did half that – that’s at least 25. And anything is better than zero.
- Make it a habit to connect with contacts via Linked In after meeting them or if you’re in some group together. For example, if you’re in a leadership class or other cohort, make the time to add them all. Or if you’re speaking at a conference, add your fellow participants. Remember to always add a personal note.
Extra Credit
Just for fun – some things that worked for me in private practice or ideas I’ve had recently as in-house counsel:
- Help people in your network elevate their profile by nominating them for awards.
- Like, share, comment on your clients’ or prospective clients’ social media (those notifications are another touch point and they will all point to YOU)
- Create a referral list that you can go to, whenever a client needs. You want to appear to be the most helpful, most resourceful, most responsive resource in the world to help you stay top of mind. This can be legal (family, criminal, forming LLC, immigration) to non-legal (personal shopper, petsitter, babysitter/nannies, pediatrician, doctor, dentist, roofer, hair person, nail shop). The WHY behind the list – so you don’t have to send email to your contacts to find a referral when you get the ask. You already have a list you regularly update at your fingertips.
- Consider a fun “holiday” card replacement – I personally did Lunar (Chinese/Vietnamese) New Year to stand out instead of Christmas cards. Thanksgiving? New Year? A Fun day like National Donut day?
- Consider doing pro bono or community service with a client (if they’re into it) or writing an article together (if they’re into it) – gives you more time together
- Consider 30 minute CLE opportunities instead of the hour – especially now that we are all working from home.
I get that business development can be overwhelming and feel very transactional, but in my experience, if you approach it from the perspective of being intellectually curious, genuinely interested in others and wanting to be helpful with no expectation of something in return, the law of reciprocity usually works and the business will come.
Above all else, authenticity and credibility is key.
