Making Rain in a Changing Marketplace
What does it take to generate business in today’s client-centric marketplace?
The ongoing conversations clients want to have with their lawyers are changing. They expect more than excellent legal work. They want lawyers who understand their businesses, anticipate what is coming, stay relevant, and continually bring value.
At the same time, I hear something again and again from lawyers:
“However I go out there, I need to feel authentic.”
Daunting to More DOable: You CAN Make It Rain, D2D, my nickname for the book, brings those two conversations together. It offers a practical way to generate revenue by aligning what the changing legal marketplace demands with who you are and how you naturally build relationships.
D2D organizes business development around a simple, strategic sequence so you can make the most of whatever time you have to dedicate to making rain.
WHY → WHAT → WHO → HOW
WHY | Your motivator
Knowing why bringing in business is important to you gives you the nudge you need on the days when BD is “a no.” It reminds you what building your book can make possible.
WHAT | Your target
WHAT crystallizes your direction, from what you do today to where you want your practice to be years from now. The more specific your WHAT, the easier it becomes to see the people and actions that can move you toward it.
WHO | Your strategy
“Who do I know?” is where many lawyers start, but the more strategic question is: “Who needs or wants what I have to offer?” Look across four “buckets”: inside the firm, past and current clients, personal and professional relationships, and a focused niche, then continually prioritize based on strength of relationship and awareness of need.
HOW | Your way
Build your own authentic way of cultivating relationships by choosing from a wide range of approaches that fit your style, comfort zone, and life circumstances. Bring knowledge of your clients’ businesses, industries, critical legal issues, and current events into valuable conversations that leave them thinking, “Every time we talk, I learn something new.”
The person who builds and sustains value-based relationships makes rain.
I invite you to read, react, find new possibilities, and fly.