Small Law Firms

Old Lady Lawyer: There’s No Business Like Business Development

I am not at all convinced that the more lawyers I know, the more business will come my way.

By  
on

old lady lawyer elderly woman grandmother grandma laptop computerIrving Berlin, one of our most prolific and beloved songwriters, who wrote, among other classics, White Christmas and God Bless America, also wrote a song called There’s No Business Like Show Business. Originally a song for the 1946 musical Annie Get Your Gun, it was also used as the title of a 1950s movie musical starring, among others, Ethel Merman, Dan Dailey, Donald O’Connor (Google them) and Marilyn Monroe, who needs no Googling.

What brings the song to mind? Business development, of course. Is there anything else that lawyers think about, worry about, lose sleep over, aside, of course, from not committing malpractice or losing a client? We are now told to eat, drink, sleep business development if we want to have any chance of making a living, assuming we don’t work for the government or are in house.

The endless talk about endless business development gives me headaches. Enough already! I think it may be time to declare war on the endless marketing, rainmaking, etc. etc. etc. that we must do to survive, let alone thrive. I may declare this my own personal war on excessive business development (undoubtedly pyrrhic, but makes me feel better). I am getting so turned off by what various and sundry marketing vendors think I need to do. A whole industry now feeds at the profession’s business development trough.

Sometimes I wonder if the vendors understand that practicing law is not a numbers game; it is a relationship “game.” Speakers at various events have told me so many different things that my brain feels like Linda Blair’s spinning head in The Exorcist. (Google that if you’re not familiar with it.)

The American Marketing Association defines “marketing” as “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”   

So far, so good. I get that, and every marketing person who I’ve heard speak or talked to emphasizes the concept of providing value, but not only value, superior value. I think that’s a lot easier said than done.

All of the suggestions that I’ve heard have been variations on the same themes:  get to know as many people who can steer business my way. One vendor said that we lawyers underestimate the number of people we need to meet. Great, just shoot me now. As an example, if I know 200 lawyers (and I know many more than that after 40 years), then I need to know 2000! Really? How much and what kind of connection can I make with 2000 lawyers? How likely is it that lawyer 1,999 on my list would refer any business to me? The theory seems to be somewhat like the movie Field of Dreams: e.g. if you build this army of potential referral sources, business will come.  

Sponsored

I disagree. It’s the age old question (everything old is new again) of quantity versus quality. I am not at all convinced that the more lawyers I know, the more business will come my way. 

Why do I think that? Experiences? Successes? Failures?  A combination of all three?  Perhaps. 

We’re not selling widgets or banking products (sorry I couldn’t resist).  We are selling (and I hate using that term in this context or, for that matter, in any context having to do with our profession) ourselves and how we can help individuals and businesses with their problems.  People can’t buy our services on Amazon (at least not yet), but people are going to Legal Zoom and other providers because they can’t afford most of us.

Yes, we sell our legal knowledge, but what we also “sell” is the relationship between attorney and client. You can call the legal profession a business if you want to, but what sets us apart is that fiduciary relationship between lawyer and client. It’s a relationship of trust and confidence. There’s no fiduciary relationship between Amazon and me.

What’s the purpose in knowing superficially a cast of thousands (and that’s all it can be at those numbers)? How is that going to engender the kind of personal knowledge that leads to referrals? 

Sponsored

One marketer said to ask people I know to introduce me to others. I’m uncomfortable with that (yes, I am definitely a dinosaur in that regard). Is the only reason A calls B is to get an introduction to C? How does B feel about that? What if A calls B and suggests that A and B put on a joint CLE program for the purposes of, dare I use the word these days, “cross-selling?”  B says no, thinking “never in my lifetime,” so how effective is A in generating possible business from B or even an introduction to C?

Another marketing type said that speaking is the most effective mechanism to meet people if you offer something of value, in other words, a take away, a checklist, something that the audience can put into play forthwith. Raise your hands if you’ve gotten business from speaking. I see a flurry of hands, but hardly a blizzard.

I’m told that it’s all about differentiation and superior value. But isn’t value subjective in many ways? Who determines what has value? Isn’t it the client? Everyone’s needs are different. How to differentiate one good lawyer from another? Isn’t it a matter of fit between lawyer and potential client?

Just as there is no one size fits all, business development aka marketing needs to be, I think, highly individualized and responsive to the needs of the particular lawyer and/or firm.  Even though we’re encouraged, indeed pushed, to venture outside our comfort zone when it comes to business development, a “try this, no, try that, no, go here, go there” scatter-shot approach doesn’t seem to work. Relationships take time, and most attorneys are unlikely to refer business to lawyers they don’t know; however, being a jerk does not result in prospective new business.

A thundering horde of possible referral sources does not automatically lead to business generation. The proverb “one swallow does not a summer make” seems to be apt here.

What has worked for you? What has bombed? Your thoughts?

Jill Switzer is closing in on 40 (not a typo) years as a active member of the State Bar of California. Yes, folks, California, that state west of the Sierra Nevada, which everyone likes to diss. She’s had a diverse legal career, including stints as a deputy district attorney, a solo practice, and several senior in-house gigs. She now mediates full-time, which gives her the opportunity to see old lawyers, young lawyers, and those in-between interact — it’s not always pretty. You can reach her by email at oldladylawyer@gmail.com.

Topics

, , , ,