Studies show that happy clients tell very few of their friends about great client care experiences, while unhappy clients tell (on average) seven other people about problems they experienced. I’d like to share three client stories that I’ve labeled the good, the bad, and the just plain ugly, each with lessons you can learn about […]
Every professional has some skill, opportunity, or attribute that few (if any) others can access. You may have heard the marketing acronym USP, which typically stands for Unique Selling Proposition. A USP refers to those distinguishing factors. Identifying your USP is key not only to letting your potential clients know what makes you different and why […]
How do you track the results you get from your business development efforts? I recently spoke with a potential client and asked that question. Her response? “I don’t need to track my results. I know what’s working.” She had a $25,000 book of business, and based on our conversation, I suspect she could triple that […]
I’ve been doing a tremendous amount of business development coaching recently, and I often tell my clients that rainmaking is all about relationships. I also tell clients that good relationships, personal or professional, should be nurtured – even that low-level employee of a corporate client may prove to be a valuable contact one day. This past […]
It’s obvious that action is required to bring in new business, right? Sometimes, though, you have a great justification for not acting… When everyone is out of town or busy, when you’d like to get started with networking but no available group feels like a good fit, when you just don’t know where or how […]
New behaviors, especially those that play out in public for others to see, can be difficult. We lawyers especially, who tend to fall toward the perfectionist side of things, perceived a high risk in trying something new. What if we fail? What if we look stupid? What if we really mess up? Recently, I took on […]
There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys, how’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What […]
Sports is a great teaching forum for lessons about business development. For a few examples, check these articles about sports lessons on my blog. In a Super Bowl XLVIII, the Denver Broncos’ fate was sealed by the beginning of the fourth quarter. There’s always some possibility that a team can make a comeback, but 28 […]
When you write and speak in your area of practice, you create objective evidence that you know the subject on which you were writing or speaking, and you demonstrate that others want to learn from you. Is that valuable? Absolutely. When a potential client or referral source compares two biographical sketches, one with a long list […]
A few days ago, a colleague and I were swapping stories about our business missteps: the things that just didn’t work, and the things that were colossal, flaming failures. To listen to us, you might think that neither of us had a viable business, much less a successful one—but fortunately, that isn’t at all the […]