Last week I attended a great program at the LMA (Legal Marketing Association) The Virginias chapter in Richmond. The speaker was Craig Brown of the David Freeman Consulting Group. His presentation, "Make Rain by Being You," knocks down the assumption that you have to be a glad handler to develop business.
Attorneys with a different personality type react to business development in one of two ways. Because they think that they need to be outgoing and social, these attorneys either ignore business development or get easily discouraged when they can’t model themselves on the star rainmakers at the firm.
Craig pointed out that anyone can be a rainmaker, but each person should draw from their strengths and passions to figure out what approaches to business development would work best. To cultivate the inner rainmaker in their attorneys, legal marketers need to help the attorney figure out what they enjoy doing and play to their strength. Craig used the example of an attorney who was painfully shy, which meant networking at business events were out of the question. However, this attorney did enjoy writing articles, so he asked her to contact prospects who would be good sources for the article and develop contacts that way. He cited an informal survey which found that professionals enjoyed a scant 30% of their work. By cultivating clients through activities you enjoy, you’re more likely to get clients you actually like and work you’re excited about.
