As you become more effective and successful at bringing in business, do yourself a favor and record your wins. Keep a ‘success diary’ of all your successful business development efforts. You can refer back to it from time to time to remind yourself what you did right. And, keeping track or measuring your success will serve you well if you are approaching partnership and also when it’s time to talk about compensation.

I am working with a client who is nearing the end of our six month program. For the past few calls we have been working on managing the growth of his practice. You have likely heard the expression, “Dress for where you want to be, not where you are.” The same can be said about your practice. Act where you want to be, not where you are.

This of course refers to changing the way you manage your practice as you grow. It involves changing your behavior. It means more delegating, becoming more selective in the files you take on, grooming the juniors to handle more of your work and building your team. This client gets it. He can see this is the only way forward to reach his goals.

On a call with a client yesterday and he is at the stage now where he must start to delegate more. He has become very successful at bringing in new clients and work. He finds himself at capacity. The first thing I recommended he do was to think about which files he could delegate to other lawyers. Now that he has created some momentum with his business development efforts, the worst thing he could do is stop. A lot of the smaller files are not supporting his goals. By dropping a couple of them and focusing on his business development, he is more likely to reach his goals sooner.

It’s time to put aside the ‘lawyer’ hat and put on the ‘business’ hat. At this stage you must become very strategic and selective of the work you take on. With growth come new challenges. And these are exactly the types of challenges you want.

The more you can say in the least amount of time, the better. Do you often feel the need to fill silence? Silence can be very powerful. Whether you are in a meeting or giving a presentation, silence allows the people you are communicating with to absorb what you are saying. 

The next time you are communicating, email, phone, in a meeting, networking, or giving a presentation, try being a brief as possible. Try using less words to say more. Keep your sentences short.  Pause more between sentences. Look for more powerful words to use. And if you have a certain amount of time allotted to you, don’t be afraid of using less.

Most if not all of my clients have a habit of procrastinating? Why is this so common with lawyers? What do you get from putting things off? How does this effect your productivity? Your peace of mind? Your stress level? And perhaps most importantly, your level of client service?

Habits are easy to get into and not as easy to break. But they can be broken. Ask yourself, ‘what potential upside comes from putting things off?’ Do you get a rush from doing things last minute? How does that serve you?

Moving forward try setting deadlines ahead of when you actually need them done. Some people intentionally set their watch ahead so they are not late for meetings or appointments. This tip follows that same logic. If you can ‘trick’ your mind into thinking something is due before it actually is, then you will be ahead of the game. Keep track of how this makes you feel? How does it effect your performance and peace of mind. When you start seeing positive results, you are more likely to keep this new habit and lessen your stress level.

After giving my standard advice on what and how to prepare for a networking opportunity, today, one of my clients taught me something. I think it’s brilliant, so I want to share it with you.

This particular event was a ‘meet and greet’ with another law firm.

This is what he did.

He went to the website of that firm and identified the lawyers he wanted to meet (as per my standard advice). Then he took my advice to the next level. He emailed the profiles and pictures of those lawyers to himself. During the event, he went to his blackberry to reference who he was to target. Then he met exactly who he was targeting. 

On the way home from the event, he sent follow-up emails to the people he met, (also as per my standard advice).

Result: A lunch meeting between the two firms to see how they can do business together.

Before, during and after, Blackberry and networking.

Whether it’s another law firm or not, this is a great way to set yourself up for success when meeting new contacts.

Thank you to a partner in Toronto for this.

Do you know who your true competitors are? If so, how much do you know about them? Do you know what they are doing to attract clients? Do you know what they are doing to raise their profile? Do you know what their reputation in the marketplace is? It makes sense to spend some time researching what your competitors are doing. If you find something they are doing wright, emulate it. If you find something they are missing, take the opportunity to fill that gap.

Things you should know about your competition:

Where are they speaking? What are they speaking about? What associations do they belong to? Which publications are they writing for? What topics are they writing about? What does their Linkedin profile say? Who is in their Linkedin network? Do they have any recommendations?

At the very least know the above. It will serve you well in deciding which steps you should be taking to raise your own profile and attract more clients. The more you know about them the better. And if you don’t have time to do the research yourself, delegate it to your assistant or the librarian. It’s as simple as using Google to search their name and or Linkedin.

Working with a client today he told me this week he has been on fire. For the past couple of months on almost every call, I kept saying, “keeping doing what you are doing, it’s only a matter of time now.” Well for this client, that time has come. He has opened tons of new files this week and even had to turn a couple of them away. Now his challenge will be to keep the momentum going forward now that he is busy with client work. That is for another post.

More advice

How many times in a coaching session have I heard, “I wish I knew this six months ago”. or “I can’t believe I never thought of this”, or “I can’t help but wonder why I wasn’t doing this before”. I have lost count. I tell my clients repeatedly, don’t look back, look at what you are doing right now, and just keep doing it. After-all, if you knew everything already, why would you work with a business development coach? They didn’t teach you this stuff in Law School. There was no training manual provided when you joined the firm. Stop beating yourself up for what you didn’t know. And focus on what you know now.