This is the third in a series of 5 blog articles on building professional relationships. If you caught the first one….and/or the second one...skip ahead to the list of five more simple ways in which my partners, coaching clients and I have, at various points in our careers, added measurable value to our networks–the very best to grow authentic relationships and grow your law practice.
In case you missed it, here’s why this matters:
Any rainmaker will tell you: Giving and helping are everything. The ideal way to build and deepen your rapport with your clients, prospects, colleagues, referral sources and other important contacts is to learn as much as you can about each person and identify what he or she needs to be successful and fulfilled. Once you’ve done that, things get very simple. You just need to help meet those needs.
Jim Durham and Adam Grant said it best:
There should be a note on every lawyer’s desk that says “What have I done today to make the people I am dealing with more successful and more comfortable?”
James A. Durham, “The Essential Little Book of Great Lawyering”
If we create networks with the sole intention of getting something, we won’t succeed. We can’t pursue the benefits of networks; the benefits ensue from investments in meaningful activities and relationships.
Adam M. Grant, “Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success”
So if your marketing plan consists mainly of “random acts of lunch” then you’ll want to make some changes. If you take a prospect to a baseball game, then never call her again because she doesn’t send you any work, you’ll want to push the reset button.
To Help You Help Your Network, I’ll be posting here each week a list of 5 (out of a total of 25) simple ways in which my partners, coaching clients and I have, at various points in our careers, added measurable value to our networks.
To be clear, none of the personal efforts my partners and I made on behalf of others were coldly strategic. Rather, our approach to building business relationships yielded many lasting friendships, and our willingness to help, in times of crisis and otherwise, and whether or not asked, was — or became — second nature. (This is an enormously satisfying way to live. It just so happens that it is good business as well.)
In the process, we built and nurtured important professional relationships and established reputations as skilled lawyers, savvy business people, reliable advisors and loyal and decent human beings. Our profitable law practices are tangible testimony to our commitment to this approach to our careers.
But it is the intangibles that resonate most deeply for me, eight-plus years after leaving the practice of law. I loved my work and I cherish the friendships made over the years. I miss it and I miss them.
Who is on your list of core contacts? Your so-called “B-List” of people you don’t know as well or see as frequently? Ask yourself now how you can help the people you know professionally–in the same spirit in which you reach out to support and encourage your other friends. Be creative and be real. I hope this list inspires you!
5 [MORE] EASY WAYS WE HELPED OUR NETWORK
- Helped a distressed client sort out a pressing personal conflict at work, during a late night call she took at home.
- Located reasonably priced lawyers for a prospect’s teenage son arrested on a DUI charge, and for a friend’s client who was much in need of a divorce lawyer.
- Following the closing of a long and difficult transaction, sent a hand-written note thanking the client for the business, and including a gift prompted by one of the funnier developments in the deal.
- Wrote a letter of support for a contact’s child at the school my child attended.
- Sent a prospect a subscription to a nutrition newsletter, after discovering, to mutual amusement, common anxieties about pesticides and other food pollutants.
Go forth. Make some rain! And some good friends along the way.
You may also like:
- Part 2: 5 Easy Ways to Help Your Network…and Grow…
Giving and helping are everything. The ideal way to build and deepen your rapport with your clients, prospects, colleagues, referral sources and other important contacts is to learn as much as you can about each person and identify what he or she needs to be successful and fulfilled. Once you’ve done that, things get very simple. You just need to help meet those needs. Here are five more simple ways to do that–drawn from my own practice and that of my partners and clients.
- 5 Easy Ways to Help Your Network…and Grow your Law…
Giving and helping are everything. The ideal way to build and deepen your rapport with your clients, prospects, colleagues, referral sources and other important contacts is to learn as much as you can about each person and identify what he or she needs to be successful and fulfilled. Once you’ve done that, things get very simple. You just need to help meet those needs. Here are 5 (out of 25) simple ways to do that–drawn from my own practice and that of my partners and clients. More to come in Parts 2 through 5….
- Lawyers: It’s Official… “The Time for LinkedIn Has Come. Really.”
BTI Consulting’s recent report on LinkedIn usage offers even more persuasive statistical support for advice that I and so many of my colleagues have offered for years: If you wish to access your clients, including the high percentage of general counsel actively using LinkedIn to find new ideas and new counsel, you must be present–and engaged–on this crucial professional platform.
- Women Lawyers: Does Expressing Anger Hold you Back?
The best negotiators manage their anger strategically, deploying it to the best effect and carefully monitoring the reactions of those around them. Unfortunately, as research and our own experience tells us, women can lose ground fast when they show strong emotion. How does this affect women in the legal profession?