Business Development is not a sprint. A real life example.

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Elizabeth

TelephoneThis was the start of a telephone call I had Friday afternoon.

“Hi Elizabeth.  I saw you at the women lawyers annual meeting today and I didn’t get a chance to speak to you.  I actually met you three years ago at the annual meeting.  I’ve been thinking for some months that I should get some help with business development. Seeing you today I had an epiphany and realized I want to hire you.  Can we meet next week?”

Wouldn’t we all like more unexpected new client calls like this one for our services?  The truth is when we consistently use a few key strategies to reach our market, and we accept that we are planting seeds, we do get more calls out of the blue.  Sometimes it does take three years or more for a seed to flower into business, but sometimes it is only a matter of days, weeks or months.

What couple of key strategies will you focus on to become known, liked and trusted by your target market?  How will you increase your visibility and enhance your credibility with your target market?  Choose just a few strategies and use them over and over.  Consistency and persistence are the keys.

Business development is a marathon, not a sprint.  Be smart about it, get focused and start now.  Your phone will ring more.

If you want to start making changes in your business development efforts for your law practice, please contact me.

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20 Disconnects Between Public Speakers & Audiences

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Elizabeth

Showing the audience the next speaker's step-stool.Does your audience relate to you?  Is it engaged by your presentation? As a frequent public speaker and audience member, I realize most of us can improve how we connect with our audience.   This is true regardless of whether we are speaking to a large group, a judge or a client.  Here is a helpful article from Toastmasters  listing twenty common ways that public speakers fail to connect with their audiences.  Believe me, lawyers are not immune from these pitfalls.

Here’s one technique for connecting.  When I give a presentation, I like to meet members of the audience before the program starts.  I ask their name and what they are hoping to learn.  Talking with them ahead of time warms them up and it warms me up.   I try to adapt my presentation to cover their  interests and I like to incorporate some of the people by name if I can.    This also helps start more relationships for them and for me.  What techniques might work for you?

If you have an upcoming pitch meeting with a potential corporate client, or you are giving a presentation on legal issues for a trade industry group or a lunch & learn on your specialty for your bar association, consider ways to connect with your audience.  Instead of guessing or assuming, find out ahead of time what they want to know and learn.  Construct your presentation around that information, or modify it on the spot if necessary, and connect on it with your audience.  You will be a much more effective speaker.  You will see better results from your efforts.

As a successful trial lawyer friend of mine said at lunch today, really great trial lawyers excel at connecting with jurors.  What if you could connect like that with whatever audience is the equivalent of a jury in your law practice?

If you would like help improving your public speaking ability and how you connect with your audience, please contact me.  This includes strategizing and preparing for pitch meetings with potential clients and presentations to other groups. 

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Interview Preparation

Posted on March 9, 2013 by Elizabeth

The 10 common basic interview questions covered in this article at Recruiter.com  are spot on for the interviewing preparation work I do with lawyers, law students and other professionals. The article also helpfully tells you why the interviewer is asking.  Remember, these are just the basics. 

Start with “tell us about yourself”, have a relevant answer to “what do you know about this organization”, nail ”what makes you different,” ”what are your long range goals,” “why are you leaving your current position” and the other five basic questions and you will have a foundation for a strong interview.

Get your answers together for these questions even if you are not yet at the interview stage. Your answers will help you customize your cover letter and your resume for each position.

Yes, preparation is hard work but if you really want the job, you will work hard for it.  If you don’t, the employer will know.      

After working on the basics, work on selecting five or six real life examples to choose from to illustrate your answers to these and various other questions like why should we hire you or how do you handle difficult clients or other challenges.  You will shine. 

Finally, have great questions for the interviewer that show you know a lot about the employer and what makes it different, and that you care where it is headed.  If you do this, you will be closer to golden.   Good luck!

If you would like coaching and practice in mock interviews to be your best when you interview, please contact me.

 

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Visualize Success

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Elizabeth

When going after Moby Dick, take along the tartar sauce.  In other words, visualize success.  That’s what I reminded a client in advance of her interview this week.  I do, and I believe it works.  Even if you’re skeptical, visualizing success doesn’t hurt.

Pro basketball players visualize success as they stand at the free throw line.  Professional golfers see the shape of their shot before they hit it.  NFL quarterbacks win games relying on muscle memory from hours of success with their receivers.  Why not let this strategy work for you?

When we visualize success, we block out the opposing team’s fans, the water hazards and sand traps, the low points in our GPA, the gap in our resume, and the inexperience in our area of true interest.  Instead we focus on our goal and on what sets us apart from other applicants or our competition, on what we know about our clients, our target market or potential employer and what we can bring to the table.  In essence, we focus on what we can control.

For that is all that we can do.  Control what we can control.  Prepare and do our best. 

Visualize yourself succeeding in what you set out to do.  Prepare for and focus on that and you can never say that you did less than what you could do.  You will have given your all.  You will not have failed yourself.

A client of mine said that about an interview he had last week.  He did and said exactly what he wanted to.  He wouldn’t change anything.  If they don’t hire him, he said, then they were looking for someone different than him.   

If you are ready for coaching to prepare for and focus on success in your practice and career, please contact me.

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“Get to Know Your Boss & Clients Better” & Other Tips for More Success

Posted on December 20, 2012 by Elizabeth

I’ve seen many of these 14 Ways to be Better at Your Job in 2013 work for my lawyer clients and friends in the last few years.  Read the full Forbes article, add a client focus to several and adapt them to your law practice or career.  These suggestions aren’t in any particular order and they may not sound new or be rocket science, but they work, especially when you do them appropriately and consistently.       

  1. Anticipate your department’s [&/or client's] needs.
  2. Get to know your boss [&/or client] better.
  3. Assume success. 
  4. Study your [client's] industry.
  5. Always come to the table with a solution.
  6. Find a mentor.
  7. Improve your communication skills.
  8. Work harder and smarter.
  9. Don’t overwork yourself.
  10. Volunteer to get involved with special projects, particularly those across business units.
  11. See the [client's] big picture.
  12. Invest in continuous learning to stay on top of your game.
  13. Ask [your client] the right questions.
  14. Follow through on all tasks and commitments.

Jacquelyn Smith’s Forbes article includes other tips your parents probably told you and that are still true today:  pay more attention to detail, stop complaining, become more of a team player and go above and beyond. 

If you would like lawyer coaching to customize these suggestions into your job,  please contact me.

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Career & Life Management: “Have Fun” & a Few Other “Rules”

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Elizabeth

Girls on a softball teamWhen I coached girls softball in a rec & ed league, I had a few favorite phrases.  At the end of the season I included them on a certificate for each player.  I called them Rules for Softball, Rules for Life. 

As we end one year and start another, we might all get a little closer to living the life we intend by following these simple rules in our legal careers and other parts of our lives.    

  1. Keep your eye on the ball.
  2. Swing like you mean it.
  3. Run hard through first base.
  4. Use two hands.
  5. Have fun.

Maybe these rules are second nature for you and what you really want to do is hit more curve balls or move from reliable utility player to a starting position, from income member to equity, from service partner to rainmaker.  One of my newer clients started working with me to hone her deposition skills and style.  The results are in the transcripts.  A legal all star status may be in her future.  What’s in yours?    

Please contact me if you are ready for coaching to take your game to the next level.

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Choose Something: Business Development Actions for the Last Week of December

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Elizabeth

December 2012 CalendarDoes your law practice calendar look low in billable hours the next two weeks?  If so, use that time to check at least one more business development action off your list for 2012.  Yes, I am talking about that long list of ideas you had for this year that were sure to help bring in more business sooner or later.  Take one action now and more business will come in sooner rather than later.  

If you lost your list, here are some very simple actions to take between December 26 and New Year’s Day:

1.  Complete your LinkedIn profile, including a “headline” and “current position” title that describe your law practice area(s), and a “summary” so that readers know what you do as a lawyer and the kinds of clients you serve.  Even as a non-techie type, you will have “search engine optimized” your profile a zillion percent more.

2.  If you didn’t send out holiday cards this month, review your contacts list and clean it up.  Or at least clean up 50 of your contacts!  

3.  Delegate #2 to your assistant while you identify 10 people from your contacts list with whom who you want to re-kindle or further a professional relationship starting in January.

These aren’t intellectually burdensome actions and they don’t take much time.  Maybe your more creative ideas from earlier this year didn’t either.  Choose one, choose something, and follow it through to completion.  There is still time.  

If you would like lawyer coaching to help you get more business in 2013, please contact me.

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Three Practical Law Practice Management Questions

Posted on September 6, 2012 by Elizabeth

This week at lunch a very experienced, successful lawyer friend and I talked about his law practice and my lawyer coaching practice.  He asked me three simple questions that law practice management articles frequently address.  These questions aren’t just fodder for articles and experts – - they are important questions that successful practicing lawyers think about as well.  

1.  Are you charging enough?  2.  Do you have room for more clients?  3.  Do you have a marketing plan?

Being a lawyer coach and a former litigator with 19 years of discovery experience, I ask these as open ended questions:  1.  How much more can you charge?  2.  How many more clients do you want?             3.  What is your marketing plan?

Write down your answers and start taking action on them.  Worrying or planning without taking action won’t get you anywhere or anything. 

If you would like coaching on these questions or others, please contact me.

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Dressing for the Part – a Law School Dean’s Take on Job Interview Attire

Posted on August 30, 2012 by Elizabeth

Ignore the pink ties in the photo at left and take a look at Michigan Law School Dean of Admissions Sarah Zearfoss’s blog post on what lawyers and law students should wear for a law job interview.  She unscientifically surveyed her contacts and adds her own comments as well. 

Dean Zearfoss’s overarching point is that at the end of the day you won’t be noticed for your clothes, you will be noticed for your brains.  

Or, as I like to point out to some people, you’ll be noticed for something else perhaps equally as compelling as brains to the interviewer – - like unique experience plus competence, competence plus an incredible work ethic or self starter attitude and confidence, entrepreneurial savy, etc. 

If you are a lawyer or law student and would like coaching on your job search, including crafting a strategic job search plan, improving your resume and cover letters, informational interviews, networking, preparing for interviews, etc., please contact me.

 

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Marketing Fundamentals – A Common Ah-Ha Moment for Lawyers

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Elizabeth

Man with an ideaAn ah-ha moment. These moments of clarity and wisdom produce action.   Several lawyers I know have actually had exactly the same ah-ha moment.  Because of some random, unsolicited comment, they suddenly realize that people they thought know what they do as a lawyer don’t actually know what they do as a lawyer.  Even some other lawyers they know don’t actually know what they do and the kinds of clients they serve.  It never occurred to them that these people don’t know.  In fact, they were counting on these people knowing.  

Although often disheartening, these moments of realization are also gifts.  They shed light  and produce purposeful action.  Lawyers change how they describe what they do and for whom.  They improve their marketing and their marketing results.     

You can wait for such a moment or you can benefit from other lawyers’ moments and test how you are doing.  You can start by asking questions of people you know, including other lawyers, to find out how effectively you are getting your message out there about what you do as a lawyer and the kinds of clients you serve.  What DO they think you do and for whom? 

If you would like coaching to make sure you are effectively communicating what you do and for whom, please contact me.       

 

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