The Daily Practice of Business Development

Every piece of news I see from the world of law practice seems to be bad news-- no one needs to be reminded of this. It can be discouraging, and create a sense of hopelessness. There is no denying these natural human reactions to an avalanche of bad news. Despair can lead to paralysis, depression, and increased reliance on artificial methods of feeling good.

Lawyers are workhorses, and nothing satisfies them as much as a good day's work. A good day's work is a great defense against the fear that lays in wait for every professional service provider, self employed or working in a firm. But, face it, everyone is self-employed nowadays, no matter how big the firm.

So, what work is to be done when there seems to be none to do? Whoever guessed 'business development' gets the gold star. There can be no better time than the present to devote oneself to the job of increasing your business network. It still surprises me to see how few lawyers are regularly involved in practice development. It is crucial to remember that law practice depends entirely on relationships, and the time and attention you give to building them pays off directly in the amount of work you do.

In this period of slack, you can put in your day's work enhancing and building your business relationships, reviewing your existing clients needs, and studying how service delivery to those clients can be expanded. It's not nuclear physics- going from doing nothing to doing something will yield big rewards over time.

I feel that far too often, professionals in service industry think too big when considering how to get started with business development. Remember, we are talking BD, not marketing. Marketing has to do with creating an image, sending out a signal to the world that conveys that image, draws attention to the image and creates interest in that image. However, the image and the interest it creates is useless unless the marketplace (potential clients) is able to connect a person with that image- potential clients want a name and a face.

And that is where business development begins- putting your name and face with the 'brand'. It is not necessary to think in terms of making yourself a 'rainmaker' overnight, or ever. It is necessary, though, to understand who your clients are, and who referred them. It is necessary to pick up the phone and call those people, or email and follow up with a phone call. It is important that you inform those clients of your latest research in areas of importance to them. It is important that you ask those people to help you locate others whom you HAVE NOT MET so you can arrange meetings with them. It is important that you do this regularly, day in and day out, week in and week out, monthly, yearly.

When committed to as a daily practice, you will soon begin to see a direct connection between those activities and the amount and kind of business you are doing. The mere fact of making commitment, and setting your mind to the task itself seems to send a message out to the universe that you are now ready to work, and sure enough the work starts to show up.