Many lawyers—and professionals in general—don’t like business development. They think of it as “unseemly” or unprofessional, judge it as “beneath” them, or just don’t like the idea of it. It’s not what we learned in law school. It doesn’t seem enjoyable (“who would want to do that when there’s real work to be done?”). A client of mine recently said he didn’t like business development because he doesn’t like being “pushy”. If that’s how we perceive business development, is it any wonder we would resist it?
Many lawyers think of “business development” as bringing more billable hours and more clients to your firm. Developing a book of business. While this is true, there’s another—and a better—definition. In actuality, business development is about providing solutions to your clients’ problems. If we were to define BD in that way we probably wouldn’t object to it nearly as much; in fact, most lawyers like solving their clients’ problems.
So what’s the issue? One issue is that even if business development were defined in a more positive and digestible way, many lawyers would still not know how to approach it. They still might see it as the purview of “salespeople” or “extroverts” or “people who like public speaking”, etc. However, the bigger problem is that many of us have been trying to “do” business development in a way that does not fit our individual personalities, values, or strengths. For example, developing business can often be equated with doing things like working cocktail receptions or public speaking. That would be great for people who enjoy establishing rapport quickly or have strong platform speaking skills. But what if your style is much better suited to one-on-one conversations, or talking with people you know (or at least know something about)?
In order to consistently succeed at developing business it has to be done YOUR wayTM (phrase coined by KM Advisors and used with permission). That means using your strengths, your communication style, and your values—not those of some imagined salesman, or even those of the biggest rainmaker in your firm. Each of us needs to apply our personal strengths to our individual business development goals. Strengths such as community service volunteering, listening skills, resourcefulness (for example, connecting potential clients with resources in your firm that would be helpful to them), and strategic thinking.
This begs the question: how does each of us clearly identify our strengths in terms of what assets we bring to developing business? There are many tools and resources for this, including strategic business development coaching. The how is not as important as the doing—identifying the strengths we can best leverage to develop business and reach our goals.
If you are a lawyer in a firm then it’s part of your job to develop business. But remember to do it YOUR way. Because it’s when our business development goals are aligned with our individual strengths that it becomes much easier, and actually enjoyable. That’s when developing a book of business becomes a natural part of our work.