Chapter 3 Avoid These Disasters

• Library: Building Rainmakers: The Definitive Guide to Business Development for Lawyers (ABA) (2016 Ed.)

Chapter 3 Avoid These Disasters

Did you hear the true story about two different practice groups from the same firm who, unbeknownst to each other, approached the same company, and gave the client two different messages on how to approach the client's legal issues? Disaster!

Obviously, to the client, the firm and the practice groups looked like horses' asses. The practice groups proved the firm couldn't even organize itself, so why deliver a complex client matter to them? How closely aligned are your practice groups? How well organized and user-friendly is your Avoid These Disasters CRM software? Does the left hand know what the right hand is doing?

Is it possible that an attorney or new lateral in an office of your firm in a different city and state to have already done work for a company that is on your potential client target list and you not know? Are you set up to avoid this revenue drain and potential embarrassment?

In the previous chapter you learned to master a number of strategies and skills to become a better rainmaker but you can undo all of these positive steps in the right direction—quickly and dramatically—by making some disastrous mistakes. The following comments point out some of the more critical mistakes that need to be avoided in order to be successful in business development.

I recommend that you take a minute right now and go to the Chapter 3 Index of Topic Titles at the end of this Chapter on page 320 for a complete listing of disasters to avoid.

Review the egregious errors below to make sure you're not putting your success or your career on the line. Any comment without attribution to a specific contributor are those of this author.

Assuming The Potential Client Knows You Want Their Business.

(David King Keller)

My friend's wife is a writing editor whom I have hired on past writing projects. But it had been over ten months and quite frankly, she had dropped off my radar as I had been using some other freelance editors to review some matters for me. In a conference call we both were on the phone and before signing off he casually reminded me that his wife was still available and had time for more editing work and I sent her two assignments within the next three weeks. So, when lawyers tell me, "Well, you know, people know me. They know I'm a lawyer, so, if they have business, I'm sure they'll give it to me." Human nature doesn't work that way today. People need to be told regularly that you would like their business or the business from someone they can refer you to because you have the capacity and want to fill up the unused hours of yourself or the other members of your firm. Let them know you always have room for more business.

Bad Timing When Introducing a Legal Service

(Mark Usellis)

Some people approach a potential client with the idea, "I'll tell them everything I can do and maybe they'll hear something that will trigger a purchase." That's just wrong and ineffective. Or some might approach the conversation as, absent any knowledge of need or interest, "Hey, I'd really like to introduce you to our real estate lawyers." But that's an imposition on the client, right? You're asking them to give up time and then it's going to be awkward if they don't want to use your real estate lawyers or don't have any need for real estate attorneys. Again, put yourself in the other person's shoes and think about what would be effective.

Let's say you talk to them about their company's priorities and challenges and they respond with,
"Oh, we've got these real estate problems."
"Oh, really? Well, how do you handle those?"
"We have this firm that's been doing it."
"Well, do you like those guys?"
"Well, yeah, I like them, but the problem is, they don't have enough depth."
"Oh, well if you have overflow work . . . Let me introduce you to someone and we don't need to displace this firm that you like, but if they have depth issues, we could be a second source."

You could say something like this second example, which is a whole different conversation from the first example. [See full discussion in Chapter 2, Rainmaker Traits: Build Trust Instead of Annoyance.]

Being De-Equitized

A number of attorneys made equity partner, only to be de-equitized later because they failed to achieve any new revenue through business development. So, I recommend CMOs, BDDs, and managing partners have a talk with future and current equity partners and make the distinction between de-equitization and equitization. Lawyers, like the rest of us, like to avoid unpleasant things, and moving away from something can be as big a strategy and motivator as moving toward something. Moving away from being a de-equitized partner is a great motivator.

Being Late With a Matter Can Cost You Business

(David King Keller)

It is worth repeating: the client is always, always, always watching your every move and deciding whether they trust you more or less. If you're a "little bit late", then they're going to think you do not have the bandwidth to take on more, so they're not going to give you more work. Every time a client thinks "where's that matter I assigned to XYZ?" you're losing points. If those points add up you can lose extra business from them, and worse, you could lose them to a law firm that always comes in on time or early. What do you want your reputation to be? Nail biting up to the wire, or sleep-peacefully-at-night-because-[fill in your name]-is-handling-it.

Billing Practices That Lose Clients

(Gerry Goldsholle)

When you make a mistake, admit it. Not too long ago a major law firm was doing some work for us. The firm made a mistake and to correct it required over 30 hours of senior lawyer time. Rather than say, "Hey, we're not going to charge you for those 30 hours we had to spend to correct it," the firm billed us for the time. Needless to say, shortly thereafter we switched counsel.

There's a lawyer that I deal with in San Francisco I'll call "Denny." He is one of the most outstanding corporate lawyers in America, and he charges over $1,000 an hour. I don't mind paying $1,000 an hour, because when he puts in an hour or two of his time, I receive tremendous value, and it's not the hourly rate itself that is significant but the hourly rate of each lawyer multiplied by the number of hours the firm's partners and associates spend. So while a few hours of Denny's time is well worth it, were Denny to bring in a junior partner and an associate who spend lots of time on my matter, even though their rates may be far lower, it would increase my costs several times and I'd likely feel ripped off. From what I've seen, too many firms are overstaffing matters and spend an excessive amount of time on the matter that don't justify the excess work. Yet that's how too many law firms behave.

If you are the attorney who brought in the new client, and want to have that client become a source of recurring business, make sure that your colleagues are not trying to maximize how good they look to the firm by putting in lots of essentially unnecessary hours on your client's matter. Monitor the help that you're getting from your colleagues because otherwise your colleagues can destroy your relationship with the client. They may not fully appreciate how much the client can afford, or is willing to pay. What's important to you is not today's billings but the real value of a long-term relationship with that client. That's me speaking as a client and as a former billing attorney.

Don't nickel-and-dime the clients. It's a big mistake. This is a long-haul relationship. If a client calls with a question that takes 20 seconds and your "Yes or No" answer takes 10 seconds, and you jot down one-tenth of an hour, you're going to get a client who is really ticked.

[For more see Chapter 2, Advice To An Associates: Going From Skilled Lawyer to Skilled Rainmaker: Part 2, Warning to Solos, Small Firms, and Small Practice Groups]

Billing: Don't Bite the Hand That Feeds You

(David King Keller)

When billing, a proper description of the time spent on their matter is key to getting paid. I was at a seminar with a panel of in-house counsel and one of the things that this associate general counsel said was, "I got a bill that says, 'seven and a half hours of strategizing.' And the associate counsel told me, "I just sent it back. Wouldn't pay it. Just marked it off. And I thought, if they were smart enough to look at their bill and review my comments . . . then we could discuss it." He found that bill to be infuriating and alienating because it was just so non-descriptive.

Cultural Malaise

(Jeff Berardi)

It really is a culture issue. Our lawyers are the ones on the ground engaging in these client development activities directly and we are trying to train them and give them the tools to do it. So, if we can engage them and if they really embrace the brand and the value proposition, that's a pretty powerful force out there. If you don't have that business development consciousness enmeshed in the firm's culture, if people don't really get it and don't really want to engage in any of that, it's going to be hard to make much of a difference. It's really important that our lawyers are doing the business development directly. Doesn't mean that sometimes my team doesn't accompany them on pitches or sometimes make the introductions. At the end of the day, the salespeople are the lawyers. They are the ones selling the talent that we have and the experience that we have.

Depression: Is Depression Sucking Revenue and Life Out of Your Firm?

(David King Keller)

A January 20, 2014 CNN online published report stated, "One by one, state by state, bar...