PROBLEM: Our firm has no business development pipeline!

RESPONSE: Manage your speakers, greeters, authors, communicators, trainers, marketers, etc.

RESULT: Properly assigned, with concretely defined roles, the firm’s staff will become a kind of conveyor belt, with all their designated tasks funneling toward the actual sales moment. The pipeline thereby remains engineered to support the one final moment - the closing - that justifies its existence in the first place.

SO YOU WANT TO MAKE RAIN is the title of our new, 50 minute pro bono seminar offered to law firms, LMA chapters, professional associations, etc. It’s focus on business development is that rainmaking is both an art and a science. Not everyone who succeeds as a rainmaker has the innate qualities to do so. Not everyone who develops business even necessarily enjoys the process, at least not at first.

But there are systematic steps that can be taken to build and close more business. Let’s begin by taking a look at some of the basics, and then, over the next several weeks, move on to other skills and techniques. Some strategies and tactics seem obvious to anyone who’s already building a book of business. For others, these approaches need to be enumerated.

If , for example, you are not tracking and stayng in touch with law school colleagues or past classmates at your law firm, start doing so now.

Knowing what your competitors are doing is essential.

Looking for possible new areas of action in your professional specialty areas should be a regular part of your workload. Every time a legislature sneezes, you’ve got an excuse to contact clients.

Are you asking in-house counsel to introduce you to their colleagues? Are you offering to host a lunch where you can pick their brains to identify their future needs? In-house counsel like it when you do.

Join foundations and local boards of directors as a way to contribute to your community. But do give decisive preference to those with which in-house counsel or senior executives are already involved.

Following our theme of asking questions of in-house counsel, our recent article in MARKETING THE LAW FIRM is worth repeating here. “You know Susan, it’s funny. I’ve been reading these damn surveys about what’s most important to in-house counsel and I see two very different results. One of them says that understanding your business needs is the most important thing. The other says that cost-efficiency is the overriding priority. What do you think?”

Whatever answer you get will at least be helpful and may be decisive. A thoughtful buyer might even tell you how and why the two contrasting priorities are not in opposition. One response heard is that all of our business lines include cost-efficiently; so you will need to consider that.

Another answer presents an either/or situation. “If you can scare plaintiffs’ lawyers off, we don’t mind a little budget creep.” A third might be “We’re under enormous pressure to keep fees down. We need to settle these cases and settle them fast.”

In all cases, you have your answer - and perhaps a cue for further action. If, for example, you’re apprised of that “enormous pressure ” from the C-Suite or the board to hold or cut costs, offer a solution. Volunteer to meet with the CEO (off the clock) to provide long-term assessments of what a less pound-foolish approach can achieve as well as the dangers of being overly penny-wise.