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Articles & Resources

Can Clients Be Friends?
By: Sara Holtz
Recently, David Maister, a professional service-marketing guru, asserted that clients shouldn't be friends. Read on to see why I disagree.

Talking About Our Generations
By: Monica Goebel
You already know all about delegating to associates for billable work, but what about recruiting their support for business development?

From "Worker Bee" to Rainmaker
By: Monica Goebel
If you're ready to move from "worker bee" to rainmaker, read these three key strategies you need to put into practice.

How Are You Doing?
By: Sara Holtz
Most lawyers are reluctant to solicit feedback from their clients. Learn why it's important to pick up the phone and how to handle what you hear.

It's Just Dinner
By: Sharla J. Frost
How to Handle the Marketing Dilemma of the Decade.

How Will You Market to Your B-List This Year?
By: Sara Holtz
While you should spend the bulk of your marketing time on your A-list, don't neglect your B-list. Learn how to design an efficient system to market to your B-list to maximize your marketing results.

Do You Have a Holiday Business Development Strategy?
By: Sara Holtz
The time between Thanksgiving and the end of the year can be perfect for building client relationships. Read on for nine specific tips to make the most of your business development before the year ends.

The "Pebble in the Pond" Approach to Marketing
By: Sara Holtz
Clients often ask where they should start their marketing and, given the overwhelming number of people they could possibly market to, "Where should I start?" is a very good question. If you've ever asked yourself this question, read this article to learn how I found the answer while daydreaming at the lake.

Are You Making the Most of the Conferences You Attend?
By: Sara Holtz
If you'd like to get the most out of the conferences you attend, follow this simple strategy for marketing success before, during and after.

Are You Investing Your Marketing Time in All the Wrong Places?
By: Sara Holtz
Use this practical formula to determine whether investing your time in a specific marketing opportunity is the best use of your business development efforts.

What Could You Ask Your Network For?
By: Sara Holtz
Have you been letting your network languish while you try to blaze a trail all on your own? Today, learn how you can utilize your network as much more than just a pool of potential clients.

Are You Properly Preparing for Marketing Activities
By: Sara Holtz
Are you "winging" your way through business development meetings? You'll get much better results if you follow these four action steps.

Can You Really Afford to Avoid Business Development?
By: Sara Holtz
Are you prioritizing other tasks above business development? That's a sure sign you don't know the true value of a new client. Use this simple calculation to see if it doesn't move business development up on your priority list.

Do You Have A Marketing Habit?
By: Sara Holtz
If your marketing is not a habit, you're spending more time than you need to thinking about it. Learn how to create marketing habits that make business development a natural part of your schedule.

Treat Your Existing Clients Like Gold
By: Sara Holtz
When it comes to marketing your practice, are you focusing on the right people? In this article, explore how to devote your marketing time to the relationships that really matter when it comes to building your book of business.

Books to Prepare You for Business Success in 2007
By: Sara Holtz
Read about four of Sara Holtz's recent favorite business development titles and determine whether they belong on your reading list. Includes Business Development for Lawyers, Vital Friends, Book Yourself Solid, and Ending the Gauntlet.

Do You Have the Necessary Confidence for Business Development Success?
By: Sara Holtz
Women with business development confidence are more likely to do what's necessary to succeed at business development, whereas women who lack confidence often shy away from marketing opportunities. If you aren't as confident as you'd like to be, read on for seven tips on how to build business development confidence.

Do You Know How to Say No?
By: Sara Holtz
Psychologists say women have a tough time saying no which can be a problem when it comes to business development. This article presents five straightforward approaches to saying no without appearing to be "not a team player."

Are Your Marketing Efforts Focused on High-Potential Opportunities?
By: Sara Holtz
Landing a new client takes a lot of time and energy. Use these 11 questions to determine if you are focusing your efforts on "high-potential" opportunities before you start marketing to a particular prospect.

Do You Respond to RFPs Without All the Information You Need?
By: Sara Holtz
Before responding to an RFP, be sure you've gathered the information you need to make your response compelling. These ten questions will help your firm stand out from the rest of the competition.

Do You Have a Niche? Should You?
By: Sara Holtz
Just as no one trusts a general practitioner for brain surgery, clients are reluctant to trust a generalist with their important legal matters. Discover the five reasons to niche your practice and a strategic approach for determining what to specialize in.

Six Steps to Effective Cross-Selling
By: Sara Holtz
If you hoped your partners would cross-sell you and have been disappointed so far by the results, this article proposes a six-step process for getting them to take action in promoting you to their clients.

What Are Friends for Anyway?
By: Sara Holtz
Do you have friends you've avoided approaching about doing business together? Today we'll explore a rewarding approach to talking business with friends.

What's Your Answer to "What's New?"
By: Sara Holtz
When asked, "What's new?" you're being given a marketing opportunity--don't squander it! Read this article to find out how to answer this question.

Is it Time for a New Marketing Strategy?
By: Sara Holtz
Over the course of building a career, many lawyers discover they've developed a list of comfortable marketing activities that served them very well when they were developing a reputation and beginning to build their book of business. But, over time, a different set of marketing activities may be called for.

The Questions to Ask Before Asking for Business
By: Sara Holtz
Thirty-two questions to consider asking the next time you're sitting across the table from a potential client.

Ask, Don't Tell
By: Sara Holtz
Read about the importance of asking questions before making a pitch.

Are You Mistaking Activity for Effectiveness?
By: Sara Holtz
Answer these five questions to discover your most effective marketing activities.

What's Your Marketing Motivation?
By: Sara Holtz
Renew your marketing enthusiasm by creating your own compelling reason of why business development success is important to you.

What Should You Do When You Lose a Marketing Pitch?
By: Sara Holtz
Take these specific actions to turn your marketing "losses" into marketing "wins".

Are You Making the Most of Networking Events?
By: Sara Holtz
Use these nine suggestions to capitalize on opportunities at the next networking event you attend.

How Do You Plan to Grow Your Business in the Upcoming Year?
By: Sara Holtz
Use these five questions to help you create a marketing plan to make this year your best year ever.

Do You Need to Focus on Building Your Reputation with Your Partners?
By: Sara Holtz
Use these tactics to enhance your visibility and reputation within your firm.

Do You Know How to Ask for a Referral?
By: Sara Holtz
Ask for referrals in the right way and be rewarded with new business and better client relationships.

How Many People Should You Bring with You to Your Next Marketing Pitch?
By: Sara Holtz
The answer may surprise you, but will in most situations please your clients.

Focus on Rainmaking

The following is a sample issue of my monthly newsletter.

Are You Taking Advantage of Those “ Magic Marketing Moments”? Three situations you may not have considered that present a powerful opportunity to build your practice.

Recommended Books



Focusing Your Efforts

	Focus: The Future of Your Company Depends on It by Al Ries ClientFocus advocates that focus is a key ingredient in making your marketing effective and your practice successful. This book supports that point of view by making a strong argument that in order to stand for something in your clients' or prospects' minds, you must narrow the focus on your services and marketing. Without such focus, the book argues, you confuse your clients, squander marketing resources and ultimately produce poorer results. Although the examples all come from the business world, the point is equally applicable to the legal market.

	Niche and Grow Rich by Jennifer Basye Sander and Peter Sander While this book is not specifically written for the legal market (and much of it will of little interest to lawyers), Chapter Six: "Six Steps to Evaluating a Niche" is an excellent resource for helping you define and evaluate a potential niche for your practice.

Identifying Your Strengths

	Soar With Your Strengths by Donald O. Clifton and Paula Nelson. This "little" book articulates clearly one of the central themes of ClientFocus' work - focus on your strengths and manage around your weaknesses. Rather than trying to "fix" your weaknesses, Clifton and Nelson argue that you should be focusing instead on utilizing your strengths more. The book suggests steps to help you identify your strengths and provides strategies for managing your weaknesses.

	Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham & Donald O. Clifton. If you find that the premise of Soar with Your Strengths resonates with you (that high achievement stems from exercising your strengths, not trying to improve your weaknesses), then you will be interested in reading this book, which is based on extensive research which provides a much more detailed examination of how to identify and build on your strengths. It includes an on-line assessment tool which will help you identify your top five strengths.

Creating a business development plan

	Info Guru Marketing by Robert Middleton A practical guide to marketing that avoids theory and does a good job of explaining how to leverage what you already know to attract "all the clients you can handle." Written like a course which should be followed chapter by chapter, this manual includes plenty of "how-tos", stories, and action plans. It is designed to help any professional services provider through the steps necessary to enjoy improved marketing effectiveness.

	Creating Your Future: Personal Strategic Planning for Professionals by George Morrisey With great exercises to help develop a personal and professional vision, this book also guides the reader to identify and focus on the specific steps needed to achieve that vision. Specifically written for professional service providers, the language and examples will resonate with lawyers' experience.

	The Magic Lamp: Goal Setting for People Who Hate Setting Goals by Keith Ellis Despite the title, readers who really hate setting goals may want to look elsewhere. However, readers who are interested in a book that walks them through the process of setting and achieving goals will find this book provides solid techniques and motivation.

Business Development Strategies and Tactics

	Strategies for Getting and Keeping Clients by Sally Schmidt Written specifically for lawyers, Schmidt's book addresses many ways to develop business including writing, speaking, networking, involvement in professional organizations, responding to RFPs, seeking referrals and cross-selling. The variety Schmidt offers in no way means the book is a generic compilation of marketing tactics; rather, it is appropriately discriminating about the relative efficacy of various tactics. And it is realistic: As any good marketing book should, it encourages "client- focus" and emphasizes developing strong personal relationships. It highlights the importance of preparation and follow-up in all situations--from attendance at a conference to lunch with a client. Worth reading cover to cover (if you have the time and inclination) or having on your bookshelf as a reference tool to consult when you are engaged in a specific marketing activity.

	Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port This book provides practical advice about the seven strategies that service professionals (yes--that includes lawyers) can use to grow their businesses. The strategies are networking, direct outreach, referrals, website presence, speaking, writing and keeping in touch. Port advises selecting strategies that draw on your strengths and not overwhelming yourself by trying to use all the strategies at once. Sage advice! While the book may be a bit "new agey" for some, its central themes of identifying your ideal clients, discovering their needs and selling to those needs are solid advice for even the most conservative lawyer. The exercises throughout the book will help you identify effective, comfortable ways to promote yourself.

	Managing the Professional Service Firm by David Maister David Maister has worked with major law, accounting and consulting firms. A former Harvard Business School professor, he offers intelligent, clear, and practical advice. While the book focuses on law firm management issues, gems abound for the individual as well. Of particular interest are the chapters on "The Business Development Package,” “Marketing to Existing Clients,” and “The Under Delegation Problem.”

	Get Clients NOW! by C.J. Hayden The 30-day system outlined in this book for to getting more clients may not be a realistic timeframe for the complex marketing and sales process of a typical legal matter. However, Hayden's book offers an intelligent and strategic approach for getting on with the process of marketing.

Creating balance in your life

	Take the Busy OUT of Business by Joan Friedlander This easy to follow, 50-page workbook has everything you need to assess your highest payoff activities, develop a schedule that fits your natural rhythms and your client needs, and to develop your own Master Calendar of Your Ideal Week.

	Work Less, Make More by Jennifer White This book outlines ten steps to enable readers to work less and make more money and more of their lives. “Do What You Do Best” and “The Power of Focus” are particularly relevant and important chapters.

	Coming Up for Air by Beth Sawi Written by a former Executive Vice President from Schwab, this book is a great “how to” for leading a balanced life while having a demanding career. Sawi encourages readers to identify “Personal Priorities,” examine motivations for working so hard, and recognize “the relative value” of an extra hour of work vs. an hour devoted to priorities. Practical approaches for a priority-based life--including managing technology, using your commute productively, strategies, for especially busy times and saying no--abound.

	Turn it Off by Gil Gordon Technology--e-mail, BlackBerry, voicemail--has made it possible to work seamlessly away from the office. This accessibility has blurred the lines between work and personal time. This book offers informative exercises to help readers gauge the impact that this accessibility is having on their lives and encourages readers to realize they have choices in deciding when to “shut the office door.” While the book focuses on the impact that “mobile technology” is having on blurring the lines between home and work life, many of its observations are equally applicable to creating boundaries between work and personal time in general.

Overcoming Your Fear of Self-Promotion

	Brag! The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It by Peggy Klaus Klaus makes the case for overcoming your fear of self-promotion through a series of anecdotes. She encourages readers to talk about themselves and their accomplishments with “authenticity, pride and enthusiasm.” With “sample conversations,” self-evaluation surveys, advice on avoiding common bragging pitfalls, and other concrete tips, Klaus guides readers in the fine art of bragging. Chapter Two poses ten questions, the answers to which will help you develop your “bragologue.” Chapter Six, though titled “Performance Reviews” can help you put your best self forward in your compensation process.

relationship-building

	Nonstop Networking by Andrea Nierenberg Most books about networking are, as one of my clients said, "goofy," providing advice on such things as where to wear your nametag. This short book is an exception. Providing a systematic approach to networking that focuses on building long-term relationships, the author offers advice on followup and creating a system to keep track of contacts. The chapter on "Networking for Introverts" provides tactics for those who find networking events uncomfortable.

	She Wins, You Win by Gail Evans Evan's frankly feminist book argues women need to create and support women’s networks. Her premise is “any time any woman succeeds in business, your chances of succeeding in business increase and any time any woman fails in business, your chances of failing increase.” While readers may not agree with all of her recommendations (“Always try to send business to a woman,” “never speak ill of other women”), the book encourages creative thinking about how to build a business by building and using a women’s network. Each chapter ends with specific action steps that serve as good (albeit sometimes basic) reminders of how to make the most of a network.

Selling

	The Woman Lawyer's Rainmaking Game by Silvia Coulter Not for women lawyers only, this book is a good primer on how to sell legal services. The book emphasizes the importance of listening and discovering client needs, the need for following up and staying in touch, and building strong relationships with clients.