Cognitive psychology teaches that our thoughts drive our emotions, and our emotions, in turn, drive our behavior. Accordingly, the way you think about business development will affect how you feel about it and, ultimately, how successful your business development efforts will be.
Most lawyers enter the profession with little or no training in business development skills and with thoughts and attitudes about it that are less than positive. Many think that they do not “have what it takes” to be successful rainmakers. Others think of business development as “unseemly,” or “sleazy,” or somehow “beneath them,” and therefore avoid performing the necessary tasks to bring in business. Some are resentful or even angry that it’s something they’re expected to do. I had one client who told me that when he pitches a potential client for business, he feels “like a used car salesman!” Another told me she feels as if she is “using people” when she invites them out to lunch with the intention of pitching them for business. If your thoughts about business development run along these lines, you will need to reprogram your thinking so you can develop positive feelings, and subsequent actions, that will grow your book of business.
Lawyers interested in becoming better rainmakers can begin by making two fundamental changes to the way they think about business development. Fortunately, making these changes does not require a visit to a cognitive psychologist! The first change is foundational and relates to how one thinks about business development from a big picture perspective. At Threshold, we teach our coaching clients that successful business development starts with building valuable relationships with people who are either ideal clients or connectors to ideal clients. How would you feel about business development if you thought of it not as selling or pitching, but, instead, as simply meeting, developing and sustaining relationships with the “right” people, those who may have a need for your services? Better, huh? You already know how to build a relationship and you probably like to help people, too. (How one goes about determining whom the “right” people are and how to build “valuable” relationships are topics for another day.) This basic mind shift, from “using” people to building helpful relationships with them, should go a long way toward helping lawyers to let go of the fear, resentment and anger, and the resulting self-defeating behaviors that are so often associated with business development.
The second fundamental change in thinking that is required is to recognize that business development is a long-term, rather than a short-term, game. If business development is truly about relationship building rather than selling, this should be reasonably obvious. It takes time to build meaningful relationships of trust—the kind that will cause someone to call you when they have a legal problem you can help them to solve. While this is true for every lawyer, it is especially true for younger lawyers who will likely need to invest years in building relationships with their peers in the business world before those peers will be in the position to send them business. This long-term perspective, and the patience and consistent outreach behaviors that need to go along with it, will help you to grow your business naturally over time.
There are many skills and behaviors that are associated with success in business development; but, these two fundamental changes in your thinking will help you to develop the confidence, patience and persistence necessary to succeed as a rainmaker over the course of your career.