Sure Way to Get Better at Client Development: Create a Group to Make Client Development a Habit
I recently posted about the on-line coaching program I am conducting this year. We started the program just last week. I would love to start another group, but if you are not able to participate, I will share with you how you might create your own client development program without a coach.
For most young lawyers I coach, client development is not a habit. They can rationalize reasons not to be actively doing what is needed to build a book of business or expand relationships with existing clients. The most common thing I hear is: “I have been so busy with billable work that I have not been able to…”Thus, I have to find ways to get those lawyers to do something they do not regularly do and create an environment that will most likely enable or facilitate the lawyers to keep up their client development efforts, even when they are not seeing immediate results.
When I coach a group of lawyers, we set a group goal and decide on 25 action items to achieve the goal. Each member of the coaching group sets individual goals and prepares a plan to achieve them. Members of the group share their plans with me and with the other members of their group. Each month, the members of the coaching group report on what they have done that month. Some firms put the reports on a coaching group portal page and other firms send an email with the photo of each person in the group and his or her report by the photo.
There is a psychological method in this madness. Studies show that when you set goals, write them down, establish a date to complete them and share them with another person, you are more likely to actually do what it takes to achieve the goals. You do so in part because you want your actions to be consistent with the commitments you have made. This principle is most powerful when you create the commitment yourself rather than having a senior lawyer dictate the commitment to you.
The lawyers I am coaching make commitments to themselves, to me and to other members of their group. That commitment helps each lawyer hold himself or herself accountable.. The principle is also more powerful because of the commitment to a team goal and team action items. The lawyers in the coaching group do not want to let the team down.
If you are not able to have an outside coach like me to create the team environment described above, as Nike would say: “Just Do It" with a group yourself. Begin by assessing where you are right now. Here is a coaching video with questions to help you do that.
