"Turn the key on maybe tens or hundreds of thousands or more in business..." Praise for ORIGINATE!

What does it take to get new clients and generate more work? Put the best ideas and advice to work for you with ORIGINATE! – the online business development newsletter for lawyers. Click "Learn More"!

§ Try Our FREE Sept. 2008 Anniversary Issue and September 2007 Issue
under "Archives" above.
NEW: Complete listing of all 116 Articles from Our First Year! - CLICK HERE

This month you can read a lot about answers, how successful lawyers discovered and executed business development programs that gave them revenue and career control. And a lot about questions: how to stay curious and listen your way to a successful meeting - whether it's network building, client service related, or selling a new matter. These articles respond to the questions we're always asked, and detail the answers we've seen work the best.

Subcribers can now receive each month's issue as a PDF document. To download this issue, just click the NEW! line above.

Sure, the news is grim. But you can join the lawyers who reap more revenue in 2009 than last year, regardless of the recession. Larry Bodine, Esq. offers 10 detailed New Year’s Resolutions that will strengthen your position with clients, add business opportunities and files, save you wasted effort and bring you more work than before. Now that's a happy new year!

Getting referrals from other lawyers can be a mainstay of many practices, even a personal injury one, and a whole lot better than other means. Here’s why Ronald V. Miller, Jr., Esq. shifted to referrals as the cornerstone of his business development and how he did it. His conclusions offer good advice and suggest an effective business development approach for any lawyer.

Litigators face many obstacles in building a sustained practice, including the "one-shot" nature of their work, dependency on other partners, big active peaks such as the wave expected this year, and the perception as narrow specialists by their clients. Juan Morillo, Esq. explains how even a young litigator can become a strong business developer by heeding the five key lessons he learned, lessons valuable to most attorneys as well as litigators.

Most lawyers assume that selling is convincing somebody to hire them, so they feel they need to get better at “promoting” themselves. Sadly, they’re wrong, laments Michael G. Cummings. For it’s effective questioning and curiosity that let you focus on what the prospect or contact cares about in order to discover how you can valuably help them. Here are the kinds of questions you should be asking during your next meeting.

So a prospect walks into the office…no, it’s not the start of a joke, except for those lawyers who haven’t figured out how listening can be their best way to making the sale. Larry Bodine, Esq. examines how to handle common selling situations and how to make listening a cornerstone of your practice.

Many marketing professionals will tell you that tough times are the best for grabbing a bigger piece of the market or advancing your service credentials. One overlooked and inexpensive method that can prove very powerful, according to Andy Havens, is to do some market research. Just asking clients and connections some questions can get you smarter…and bring you closer.

Despite clear evidence of rising expectations from both clients and firm management, too many attorneys fail to nurture their networks at an acceptably high enough level of importance.  This year, says Thom Singer, the surest way to avoid falling behind more alert competition is to stay focused on the power of building and nurturing relationships.

When things change, smart professionals change too. Darryl Cross presents a parable of how you need to change...or risk getting behind in the competition for the best work with the best clients. Don’t expect to keep your place in line without improving your savvy.