Winning the Business Development Battle Part 10: Air Cover

No matter how great an army of seasoned business development veterans you may have at your firm, they will always be more effective when they have reinforcements. In the law firm, the group that is tasked with backing up the business development troops is the Marketing Department. They provide the air cover to help ensure that the business development battles on the ground are successful.

These loyal and dedicated members of your business development army can help to provide whatever the troops need to be effective. They can start by helping to draw up business development battle plans. They can ensure that the troops’ expertise is widely distributed through publications and placements. They can assist in picking the right targets. They can do research or other leg work to help with movements in the field. They can provide ammunition to use during meetings. Then they can help with follow-up to keep things moving forward. Most importantly, they can help to lay out and execute an effective business development strategy, which is essential to success. Remember, no matter how fierce the battle, the Marketing Department should always have your back.

An Apple a Day Keeps CRM Failure Away Part 3 - The Apple of Our Eye

Sure, there are plenty of stories about CRM failures. But in reality, when rolled out successfully, CRM has tremendous potential. It can actually help a firm to improve communication, coordination and Client service. If you think long and hard about it, I bet you’ll have trouble coming up with too long a list of really important stuff we do in a law firm that don't involve at least one of those things. That’s because law firms are relationship businesses and relationships take a lot of all of the above.

Here are just a few of the things CRM can help us to do:

• We can de-duplicate our contact lists so we don’t send the same people multiple communications.
• We can generate lists that can be segmented by key categories to ensure that we can target information to the people who can benefit from it.
• We can alert potential Clients of important changes in laws or regulations that can affect them.
• We can coordinate Client team meetings and efforts.
• We can share information gathered from client surveys about Client service preferences.

All of these things can help CRM to become the apple of our firm’s collective eye. Then, there are even more important things that CRM can do…

What was your face before your mother was born?

Readers slightly familiar with Zen will recognize the question in the title of this post. It is a koan- the koan is a question the Zen student is asked by his teacher which has no logical answer. Almost everyone, I am sure has come across the classic "what is the sound of one hand clapping?"

The attempt to answer the question in the koan can take years or seconds- in the practice of Zen it matters not how long one must work with a koan because there is no absolute correct answer, and when finally answered, it is more of a by-product of the changed thinking produced in the attempt to find an answer. It is that changed thinking that is the real goal.

But I think of this particular question today because it is pointed directly at why it is that one takes up any spiritual discipline at all, which to me is to come in direct contact with one's true self. How does it do that?

It is our habit to define ourselves by what we do, the tasks at hand, whatever they might be, that become the organizing principle of our lives. Child-rearing, meal preparation, decorating a home, leading a Fortune 500 company, whatever it might be, we know ourselves by our labor at that task. But, what happens when that task is completed, the child grows up and leaves home, the home is decorated, etc?

What usually happens is a period of emptiness, depression, disorientation, restlessness, boredom. What to do, now? The great problem for we who possess a self-aware frontal cortex is that somehow, at some level, we are always working to solve the problem of our own existence. What is my purpose, my calling, to what am I directed?

But if asked, 'What was your face before your mother was born?", we are forced to consider ourselves in the absence of the self defining task. Before mother was born, there was no career, no home, no child to raise, no bank account to worry about; there is not even a 'self' to consider. There is only the emptiness of what is.

And if continued attention is given to this question, without trying to leap to a 'logical' answer, the mind begins to devote itself to the empty moment. What is there, now, at this very moment? A paradox emerges- the vastness of the present, which we would demolish with 'something to do', and the swiftness of the past and the mysterious path it has followed until finally becoming the here and now.

Why is this important? I think it is important because it brings us to a fuller attention to what is right now, not what we are anxious about, or regret, or hope for, or are angry about. And it also implies the possibility of a new understanding of the self as it is, and is becoming, not as what it does.

And so, I challenge the reader now to entertain this question, and to refrain from leaping to an answer- What was your face before your mother was born?

Winning the Business Development Battle Part 9: On Targets

To win the business development battle, you first have to make sure you are aiming at the right targets. Each one you miss wastes valuable, and limited, business development time and resources. As a result, the most effective targeting involves aiming at the targets that you have the best chance of hitting.

Start with your current Clients. Presumably they are already your allies, since they are currently writing you checks. To effectively develop more business with existing Clients, first prepare a plan of attack. Identify areas where they have needs that are not currently being served by your firm. Next, divide and conquer. Have your troops spread out and make new contacts within the Client’s company. Learn about their issues and approach them proactively with valuable ideas and information. 

Next you may want to join forces with referral sources who may already be on your side. This could include other professionals with complementary practices such as accounting firms, consultants or lenders. It’s likely that you both have a number of Clients who could benefit from each other’s services. Putting together joint events such as seminars or roundtables on areas of interest to joint Clients can be a good plan of attack.

Only then should you consider prospects, who may be hostile, or at least less receptive, to your advances. Because you don’t have working relationships, it can take a long time and a lot of ammunition to overcome their defenses, resulting in protracted business development battles. To improve your odds, start with prospects with whom some of your attorneys may have existing relationships. Additionally, Enterprise Relationship Management (ERM) software can help you hone in on these relationships and point your top guns in the right direction. 

An Apple a Day Keeps CRM Failure Away Part 2 - A Bad Apple

In the past, you may have heard stories about CRM failures and disasters. CRM has been branded as an over-hyped, overpriced technology with poor adoption and little or no ROI. It’s rotten to the core. In fact, some people have even proclaimed that CRM is dead.  

In reality, CRM success is more of an apple and tree issue. It’s way too easy to blame CRM failure on the technology. Usually when CRM fails to meet expectations, the problem is not about the technology at all. It’s about the expectations.

Firms install CRM systems and suddenly expect them to solve world hunger – or at least help to feed all the hungry associates and other attorneys who need more work but have been unable or unwilling to focus on business development. End users are mesmerized by the dog and pony show and plan to implement all the bells and whistles all at once. The data is bad because the firm was not willing to devote the resources to cleaning it up ormaintaining it. There is no plan or strategy for success – and, as a result no success (shocker!). But it doesn't have to be that way…

Winning the Business Development Battle Part 8: Marching Orders

To be relevant for business development, the skills learned in basic training must be put into action. This is why it is crucial that well trained troops be deployed to the field as soon as possible. In other words, they need to get out from behind their desks and go see the Clients. These are the marching orders for any successful business developer.

Let’s face it: we all know that we didn’t really learn to practice law in law school. So why would anyone expect to be a natural born business developer? Being good at business development takes practice. You have to get out and engage with the Clients.

Many times, new recruits ask how much hand-to-hand – or face-to-face – Client contact is enough. The answer is that there is never enough. But since time is limited, here are some metrics that have served other business developers well: if you can manage 2 in person meetings and 4 phone calls a week, you will soon find yourself winning frequent business development battles. You will also be gaining allies left and right. If this seems like too much time to balance with your other duties, at a minimum, do something. When it comes to business development, each little thing you do can help you, and your career, to advance. 

An Apple A Day Keeps CRM Failure Away

Everyone has heard the saying that an apple a day keeps the doctor away. OK, now I know some of you are wondering what the heck that has to do with CRM success.  

Well, sometimes it is the little things you do each day that really contribute to CRM success: taking a half hour to train new users at their desks, working with an assistant on formatting a letter, attending a practice group meeting to better understand how CRM could help the attorneys achieve their business development goals, communicating small wins to the entire firm. These little things really do add up.

So for the next few weeks, we are going to talk about the little things we can each do to make CRM more successful…  and about apples.