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Our contributors this month aren’t quite as obsessive as the “true love” who gives those numerate presents in the seasonal song.  But in this issue they offer a more valuable set of golden gifts so you can improve your business development for next year.

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Featured Articles

Prepare for better business development with the talking points from this month's featured articles – in brief.

This season you could do the same old kind of gift giving for your clients, allies, and others. Instead, Michael Cummings proposes that you try these eight business development ideas to offer true business value, deliver an appreciated personal touch or just get a great head start on a very merry next year for yourself.

Lower demand and growing client insistence on value have weakened profits for lawyers over the last few years, so firms have cut costs in response. However, to succeed in this new buyer-driven market, according to Kristin Stark of Hildebrandt, Inc., as reported by Janet Ellen Raasch, lawyers must greatly improve their core marketing elements and expertise.

Good relationships with clients lead to new business. Weak relationships lead to trouble. Larry Bodine, Esq. shows seven ways you can “zipper up” a relationship with an important client, from simple responsiveness to proactive involvement, and reap the rewards.

Many of you are already members of social networking sites and using social media such as blogs, etc. Darryl Cross offers ten productive actions now to turn these resources into actual new business for your practice. It’s all about using the new tools in proven and effective ways.

Before it’s too late to make the same mistake this December, Andy Havens tells a story of the nightmares that typically accompany your firm’s holiday (?) mailing. He suggests three ways to avoid the usual hassles and perhaps more truly deliver a message of caring and friendship.

Make business development a priority in the coming year, advises Thom Singer, by setting a small number of specific goals for yourself.  So don’t continue drifting through next year, and the year after, and…  Instead, start being proactive for your own career by following these six goal-setting steps.