Law Firm Marketing Consultant : Larry Bodine Law Marketing Blog : Law firm marketing, legal marketing, attorney marketing, business development, sales training, practice development, training, marketing consultant, legal consultant, individual lawyer coaching, business development, client team, practice development, business development, law firm coach

The associate Rainmaker of the Year is Elizabeth L. Gunn, a bankruptcy lawyer serving closely-held businesses, their owners and executives. She works DurretteBradshaw PLC, an 18 lawyer boutique firm based in Richmond, Virginia. In 2009 – just her third year at the firm – she could point to originations worth a third of her billings, and 10-15 new clients for the firm, including several substantial ongoing clients.

But she faced two big disadvantages when she moved to Richmond: “I was young, just 23, and looked it. And I knew no one in the law.”

She handled the first issue by distinguishing herself as capable and someone who could be valuable to a client. Especially in early meetings, she worked a bit harder to show clients and other lawyers she could take responsibility and work competently.

As for the second, she took action zealously. According to Elizabeth, “Knowing no one meant I had to make new contacts and connect with the right people in the bar. I couldn’t just wait; I was forced to get out and meet people.”

These two solutions – distinguishing herself through valuable contributions for clients and others, and zealous building of her network – formed the core of her marketing success, a “machine for bringing in new business” according to her peers in Richmond.

Or maybe it was...for the rest of the story, please click here.

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Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door, as 2010 Small Firm Rainmaker of the Year Christopher Marston knows well. He offers soup-to-nuts service to entrepreneurs and startup businesses. Originate! newsletter selected him because the revenues of his Boston law firm – Exemplar – saw its revenues shoot up 48% last year, when the rest of the legal profession stagnated in the Great Recession.

His business has succeeded by being different in a way that is highly desirable to clients. The 22-lawyer firm, led by four partners including Marston, who is still just in his early 30s, was founded in 2005 with the aim that it would “absolutely not bill by the hour.”  The firm was ahead of its time by offering value billing and a service guarantee from the start.  This approach plays very well in the current times of client rebellion, as exemplified by the Association of Corporate Counsel Value Challenge.

“We’re not a vendor, we’re a partner with a client,” Marston said. “And we call clients customers.”

In contrast, most large law firms charge by the hour and are built as legal silos.  Business advice and financing is something that is offered elsewhere.   “We practice at the intersection of law and business,” Marston said.  “We’re looking for clients like us.  We’re revolutionaries and we’re looking for revolutionaries.”

The target client of Exemplar law is...For the rest of the story please click here.

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The applause was enthusiastic when lawyer Mary Ann Dunham of Pittsburgh, PA, was named the 2009 Greater Pittsburgh Athena Award recipient.  An energetic community leader, she was acclaimed for creativity in the profession, serving the community and assisting other women to reach their leadership potential.

She is also a wife, mother of two and chair of the firm's Women's Business Development Committee at 450-lawyer Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC – and the Originate! Woman Rainmaker of 2010. (see http://www.pbdi.org/Originate)

“The techniques I use in business development are really just finding opportunities to get to know business owners and to do it in an informal setting where I can get to know them as individuals while learning about their business,” Dunham said. 

Hear Mary Ann Dunhan live in the March 23, 2010 webinar, “The Woman Rainmaker of the Year Offers Business Development Advice.” Lawyer Mary Ann Dunham of Pittsburgh, PA, is an active community leader, which has generated so much business for her firm that she was just named the 2010 Woman Rainmaker of the Year. She also heads up Buchanan Ingersoll's Mergers & Acquisitions Practice Group plus the Women's Business Development Committee. Interviewed by business development experts Larry Bodine, Esq. and Michael G. Cummings, she will describe in the live webinar how she keeps them supplied with new files and clients. Click here for more information.

“Sometimes that can be done by joining boards of organizations and getting involved in something that they do in the community.  I’ve been involved in nonprofit events, such as golf outings, charitable sponsorships and fundraisers. It's a win-win to make a difference in the community while building relationships with clients and business contacts.”

A shareholder, she is chair of the firm’s Mergers & Acquisitions Practice Group and advises clients in the advanced manufacturing, technology and service industries on a variety of transactions, including acquisitions, divestitures, mergers, financings and joint ventures. She also focuses on advising foreign clients on their U.S. investments.

Being a mentor

The Athena award — named after the Greek goddess of strength and wisdom — is unique among other regional honors for women in business because of its focus on mentorship.  It is Dunham’s willingness to be helpful to others that plays a key role in her business development efforts.  In addition to the Athena award, she has been:

• Selected to the Pennsylvania Super Lawyers® list in 2007.
• Selected as a 2005 Fast Tracker by the Pittsburgh Business Times. The program recognizes 50 talented individuals under the age of 45 who are having a significant impact on the business and social climate of the region.
• Named a Pennsylvania Rising Star by Philadelphia Magazine, based on the recognition of her peers, in 2005.
• Named one of the 40 Under 40 by Pittsburgh Magazine and PUMP, the Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Project, in 2004. The "40 Under 40" are young leaders honored for their ceaseless work to make Western Pennsylvania a better place.

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From Justin Rebello of Lawyer's Weekly:

Some lawyers are even acting contrary to the old credo that the client shouldn’t pick the lawyer; the lawyer should pick the client, and taking clients that simply walk in the door.

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The Web seminar "Business Development for Litigators" will be broadcast at Noon Central Time tomorrow, Thursday February 25, 2010.  Today is your last chance to register at www.PBDI.org,

Join us to learn how to overcome the bane of litigators: the one-shot case. Michael G. Cummings and I will show you how to grow your litigation client base, by continuing the relationship after the case is over, focusing on dispute-rich industries, picking the "hot" practice areas for trials, and prioritizing your business development efforts.

Learn the 10 Keys to Developing Litigation Business 1. Pursue specific industries where you have clients already. 2. Get referrals from small-firm lawyers who are overwhelmed. 3. Focus on the "hot" areas of practice, as identified by market research. 4. Methods to create a good reputation that will attract files and cases. 5. Building long-lasting relationships with clients. 6. Avoiding mistakes -- where most lawyers fail at business development. 7. Penetrating organizations of potential clients. 8. Becoming the industry expert that every business client wants. 9. The two kinds of companies to look out for. 10. Ways to get in front of a prospective client.

Invest in The Skills You Need to Succeed in the Legal Profession...

Register today at: www.pbdi.org or call 630-572-4798

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Developing Your Personal Marketing Plan - for Associates Last chance to register for the Webinar on this Wednesay - don't miss out! Click here to learn more about this Webinar. How does an associate build the business development skills needed to succeed? Independent experts Michael G. Cummings and I will teach you the key elements of business development and show you how to create your own personal marketing plan to ensure long term success.   You will learn the essential components of effective business development. The program provides real life case studies of how younger attorneys have successfully executed each step. Participants will apply these best practices and start to develop their own personal plan, adapting these proven methods to their own personal style, culture and areas of practice.   The seminar covers the steps that an associate should take, steps that lead to success, together with illustrative case studies: Step 1: Find Your Niche Marketing Case Study 1: Targeting Human Resource Directors at Mid-Sized Firms  Step 2: Recruit Allies and Co-Market Marketing Case Study 2: Building a Practice Focused on Women Entrepreneurs Step 3: Team with Partners and Sell Work Marketing Case Study 3: Landing a Large New Client as a Team Step 4: Build Your Personal Reputation Marketing Case Study 4: Becoming a Local Celebrity Step 5: Be a Marketing Innovator Marketing Case Study 5: Using Technology to Grow a Nationwide Reputation Step 6: Putting Your Own Plan in Place Exercise: Develop Your Personal Marketing Plan     Developing Your Personal Marketing Plan - for Associates Presented by: Apollo Business Development Speakers: Michael G. Cummings and Larry Bodine, Esq. Date: Wednesday, February 10, 2010; 1 PM - 2:30 PM Eastern Location: Over the Web, on your computer Contact: Michael Cummings, (Tel) (630) 572-4798 or  mcummings@sageprofessional.com         Building your practice will be your responsibility...not the firm's or its partners. Put your success under your own control by building the right skills now — so that you start bringing in business while an associate and position yourself to be a rainmaker for long term success.   Click here to learn more about this Webinar. Don't delay. The Webinar takes place this Wednesday, February 10, so register now.   Cost: $300. Any number can attend in the room where you connect to the site and the call. One connection per registration.

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Anita Campbell, the Founder of Small Business Trends, an online community of small business owners, polled some of her business owner contacts to see how they would answer the following question: 

“What is the number one thing you can do to be more profitable in 2010?” Ten business owners gave their answers:

Meet the Client’s Pain Points – says Jonathan Fields, Author of “Career Renegade”

“The pain points for a lot of markets have moved in a substantial way in 2009. Problems have changed, needs have evolved. Look back, ask how the points of maximum pain have moved for the market you serve. Then adapt your solutions to better serve those new points in 2010.”

Hire a Cost Containment Firm – says Gene Marks, Author of the “Streetwise Small Business Book of Lists”

“Consider hiring a cost containment firm. My clients have used Alliance Cost before but just use Google to search "cost containment solutions" and you'll find plenty of others. These firms will analyze what your spending and suggest ways to reduce your overhead. They'll renegotiate supplier contracts or (with your permission) replace your suppliers with their lower cost suppliers. Most of these firms take a cut, sometimes up to 50%, of the first year's savings and then leave the rest of the future savings to you. I've seen companies cut their overhead by as much as 10-20% using these companies. Be careful though - they'll turn your place upside down looking at invoices and talking (with your permission) to your suppliers."

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To read what the other 9 business owners recommended, visit the LawMarketing Portal at http://bit.ly/caQb6a

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This is the lead article in the January 2010 issue of Originate! -- the business development newsletter.   Check out the additional articles including: The Creative Brief: 5 Easy Steps towards More Effective Marketing Tactics Advertising and PR agencies often try to distinguish themselves by how they guide you to successful marketing activities. Their fancy versions of what Andy Havens calls the “creative brief” will work, and they will cost you. Or you can apply the basic version he gives here and get 80% of the results for about 5% of the expense. Measure for Measure: Getting More Bang for Your Marketing Buck Larry Bodine, Esq. underscores three key ways to get more out of your marketing, especially with your client base, building on important lessons learned from his survey of marketing leaders: the power of measuring success and what to measure; the least and most effective marketing methods; and the most critical roles for both marketing leaders and individual lawyers. It’s Time for an Awkward Conversation with Your Client A recent LexisNexis poll found a huge gap in thinking between private-practice and in-house counsel about billing rates and perceived value. In response to client pressures, you could punt, says Darryl Cross, and just cut rates. Or you could seize the opportunity to better the relationship through a simple awkward conversation addressing these seven key questions. Rainmakers Are Not Born, They Are Trained What makes the difference between those lawyers who can bring in business and those who don’t? In a recent survey, Larry Bodine, Esq. found that lawyers feel poorly prepared for the personal marketing they must do. But the ones who make the effort to build their skills prove much more successful...and here are some of the tactics they like most. Getting Down to Basics: Three Simple Relationship Skills for Better Business Development There is a lot of fear and confusion among lawyers about marketing because learning what to do comes late in most careers. While you’re assessing where your business building stands in this new year, you can boost your success by adopting the three basic skills of relationship building underscored by Thom Singer.

By Michael G. Cummings, a founder of Apollo Business Development, a firm that trains and coaches attorneys to market, sell, network and manage relationships. He is the co-author of Best Practices in Legal Marketing and Best Practices in Building Your Personal Network - for Attorneys. He can be reached at mcummings@sageprofessional.com or 630-572-4798. For more information, see www.ApolloBusinessDevelopment.com.

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At this time of year, most attorneys set ambitious goals and identify new marketing thrusts to realize these goals.

Fast forward to the end of the year, and what typically happens? In most of these cases, attorneys end up producing pretty much more of the same results.

Now, I contrast these traditional results with a group of 6 attorneys that I just worked with at a law firm for the past year. Each of the attorneys generated an increase of $400,000-600,000 in fees.

What makes this even more remarkable is that all of these attorneys were young and certainly not accomplished business developers. And the firm was located in Michigan – a state facing some dire economic times in the past few years.

What I have found in this work is that individual attorneys almost always have a wealth of business development opportunities. The obstacle to realizing this potential is the attorney, not the practice area, market or marketing programs.

Attorneys are either not recognizing their opportunities, lack the skills to convert them or are not putting in the work to get the business.

For those 6 Michigan attorneys, there were a lot of improvements and actions they took that led to these results. But the foundation for their success really came done to their mindset.  In each case, they were:

• Entrepreneurial: this means that they wanted to put their success under their own control.
• Humble: they knew that they didn’t know how to do business development – so they were teachable and open.
• Action-oriented: change requires that you take different actions on a consistent, systematic basis.
• Willing to take a risk: typically, this requires that attorneys have direct and clear business development discussions with clients, prospects and referral sources – and ask them for their business or introductions.
• Disciplined: they executed their plan on a week to week (and day to day) basis.

To see the rest of this article , please  visit Originate! or click http://bit.ly/5XLzh9

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WEB SEMINAR PRESENTED BY: Apollo Business Development 
SPEAKERS: Michael Cummings and Larry Bodine, Esq. 
DATE: January 14, 2010; 1 PM - 2:15 PM Eastern time
LOCATION: Over the Web, on your computer
MORE INFO: CONTACT: Michael Cummings; (Tel) 630.572.4798 or  mcummings@sageprofessional.com
WEBSITE: http://www.sagelawmarketing.com/webseminar53
REGISTER: http://www.sagelawmarketing.com/webseminar53.htm#register

In this session, you will begin to Think and Act like other Rainmakers. The key is to develop a personal marketing program, a blueprint for getting new business on a systematic and disciplined basis. If you think like a rainmaker, take the same actions each day and build your skills over time – then you will start to produce the same results.

It is natural at this time of year for us to think about setting goals for ourselves for the upcoming year. Recognize that that it is especially vital for you to increase your business development proficiency in 2010. Marketing and selling are professional skills that attorneys must master now in order to thrive.

Can't attend the seminar...or want more guidance, coaching and personalized support? Consider our firm-wide Apollo Business Development Programs.

Taught by marketing experts Larry Bodine and Michael G. Cummings, attendees of this LIVE Web conference will learn what the rainmakers know about getting new business, and the make-or-break steps that the Best take, the steps that can also generate a record-breaking year for you in 2010.

Register Now for this key skill-building seminar, just in time for advancing your career right now in 2010. Any number can attend in one room. Just Click Here.

Who should attend:

• New partners or associates looking to advance a career
• Attorney aiming to become a top producer
• Aspiring entrepreneurs who need to build or re-vamp their practice
• Firm leaders, practice groups and office members whose success is dependent on the business development productivity results of their team

Topics Include:

• Eliminating the mystery, wasted time and effort of marketing by doing what really works to successfully market yourself
• 12 simple rules of success
• Leveraging your existing strengths as a professional and applying them to business development for results
• Defining your ideal clients and catching them with all-star marketing ideas
• How to unleash your current contacts into a fertile source of INTRODUCTIONS, not referrals
• The proven methods to turn your clients into your sales force
• Selecting and cultivating a committed Set of Allies and Business Partners who market your services for You
• Network building with a purpose
• Building your reputation through organizations
• Generating a steady stream of "pre-sold" prospective clients

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To register: Click Here to register online by credit card; or call us at 1-630-572-4798.

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From the Wisconsin Law Journal:

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