Last year, I contacted a top executive at the Interlaw Law Firm Network to inquire who is the best business developer among the top women partners in the network. Without hesitation, she said Lisa Landy from Akerman Senterfitt, a 500 attorney firm with offices mostly in the Southeast US. Throughout the years, I have worked with top business generators at industry-leading firms across the professions of consulting, accounting, financial services and law. Attorney Lisa Landy displays the same engaging style, professional manner, solid business sense and pragmatic instincts that abound in these top producers. You can see why her clients -- senior executives of Global 1000 international companies -- seek her advice and counsel for their corporate transactions across diverse industries -- including commercial aircraft, radio wave location services, computer equipment, hotels, cellular telephones, and electronic suppliers. You can also see why she was recognized by Miami Metro magazine as a “101 Women to Watch,” is listed in "Who's Who" in International Business in Miami and South Florida and named as the 2006 Interlawyer of the Year.

by Michael Cummings
mcummings@sageprofessional.com

According to Lisa Landy, leveraging 1-2 premier industry and trade associations has been central to growing her practice by leaps and bounds. This is a lesson that all motivated attorneys should learn from her and build into in their own personal marketing plan. 

Why? Because by taking the lessons to heart and acting on them, you can avoid the mistakes that cause many attorneys to waste their time, energy, talent and enthusiasm. They join and participate in organizations that produce no tangible business development results at all. Following are six marketing mistakes that lawyers make when they join membership organizations, and how you can avoid them.

Mistake # 1: Joining the Wrong Organizations For Business Development Purposes (Like Bar Associations)

Best Practice: Focus on organizations that attract and appeal to your ideal clients.

Rule: Your goal is to land clients, not meet competitors or vendors. If clients and prospective clients are part of the organization, you know there is value for these people.  You want to become expert in the client's business, know their priorities, speak their language, make contact and build relationships. So, for business development purposes, avoid bar associations unless you can get referral business from these other attorneys. Also avoid generic groups such as chambers of commerce.

Lisa's example: “I was practicing for about five years, and met someone from the Boston chapter of a group called The Organization of Women in International Trade, which was looking to have an affiliate in Miami.  I looked at the organization, it looked interesting, and it looked like what I was trying to get into. Eventually, about five years later, I was the global President of that organization. It generated lots of clients for me, because I was in the newspaper a lot, I was interviewed on radio, I was interviewed on TV, and it got me a lot of credibility amongst my peers.”

Mistake #2: Being Passive and Failing to Commit

Best Practice: Select one or two organizations that you are passionate about and go "all in."

Rule: Pick the best organization that you can find and work it.  This will mean attending all meetings and seeking to meet people you don’t know. It also means meeting the board members and other active members to enlist them as allies. It means developing a plan to be active and prominent in about two or three, whatever your time allows you to do. 

Lisa's example: “If you’re going to work an organization or establish a chapter as I did, my advice is to find just a few of them because just showing up at a monthly lunch doesn’t do all that much.  When you’re picking the organization, try to pick an area that you are passionate and excited about, because it won’t feel like work.  You’ll be talking with people that you find interesting anyway, and you’ll be reading the periodicals so that you can shoot articles to whomever when they come up in the article.  These are all marketing ideas that you hear all of the time, but if you’re in an organization where you really care about it, it’s easy.  It’s not work, it doesn’t feel like work.  It doesn’t have to be legal oriented either, it doesn’t have to be a professional service organization, that’s kind of what I got into.  But, if you’re animal rights, let’s say – if you have a humane society in your area, look at their organization, look at their board of directors, or whatever floats your boat.  Do it in a targeted way so that if there are four different organizations that you could choose from, all of which would excite you, pick the one that has the best business generation opportunities in it, and then get active in it.”

Mistake #3: Being Invisible or One of the Herd
Best Practice: Become a visible leader and show case your capabilities

Rule: Your goal is to showcase your professional abilities. To do so, people need to see you perform a function and give them a preview of your skills as a top notch professional attorney. So, aim to be the program chair, membership development or president/chairperson.

Lisa's example: “One good entry level thing that I’ve volunteered for in the past is programming.  It gives you an excuse to call people without it being a cold call.  You’re not calling them because you want legal work from them, you’re calling them because you’re the programming chair of XYZ organization and you would love for them to speak at your luncheon. You can get to know people that way.  If you’re the chair of the committee, you can control who you talk to as long as it fits within the parameters of your organization.  But you can get in, then, and get to know people that you otherwise might not have gotten in to see.  Or you’ll get in a more subtle way than “Hi my name is Lisa and I’d really like to do your business.”   

Mistake #4: Just Showing Up

Best Practice: Go through the member directory and identify people you intend to look for at the meeting.

Rule: If you just show up meetings and see who you run into, don't bother going at all.

Lisa's example: “I have a game plan for the organization, which is another thing I would stress – have a plan and goals.  Aim to get 2-3 great clients. Keep attuned to urgent or emerging business issues and the associated opportunities that present themselves. Don’t promote yourself and your firm – simply schedule "get to know you" interviews with your target clients over lunch or coffee. Find a need or area of interest and fill it by organizing special interest groups that meet informally.”

Mistake #5: Being Predatory and Acting Like a Glad-Handing Salesperson

Best Practice: Start with a helpful and value added mindset, make contact and interview people.

Rule: Networks and relationships are the foundation of a successful professional career. So, your goal is to make contact and foster relationships with targeted members. Create a get to know target list to use. Ask friends in the organization to make an introduction for you.

Lisa's example: “The best way to meet people and make a good impression is to let the other person talk.  The idea is “80% they talk, 20% you talk.”  And interview them – you’re interviewing them and finding out what they need.  Hopefully, it’s something that you’re interested in too so that the questions come easily to you.  Just let your natural curiosity guide you.  If you’re a litigator, you could think of it as taking a deposition.  Just ask them a lot of questions, and something will come out of there.  Your listening should be sort of an “active listening.”  You take them the next step, whether it’s repeating back a key issue and asking them to elaborate, or something else.  You have to listen, but you have to “actively” listen.  You have to pay attention to what they say and get them to tell you more.  Be engaged in the conversation.  Otherwise, don’t even bother.  It probably puts them off more than it would help you if you’re just looking around the room.  Hopefully it’s somebody that you’re interested in, and if it’s not, then move on to the next person.  Enthusiasm is contagious; everybody likes to be around it.  And if it’s something you’re really interested in, then you’ll make a good impression on whoever it is you’re talking to.  By talking to the client and asking these open-ended questions, you need to take the next step at the end of it and ask for the business.  It doesn’t have to be a hard sale pitch.  It can be as simple as, “Hey, I really enjoyed talking to you.  I’m really interested in this, and I’d love to do that work for you.”

Mistake #6: Marketing ONLY Yourself

Best Practice: Co-market your colleagues.

Rule: You want to become a "go-to" business and legal advisor for your target clients -- even if you will not be directly delivering the solutions.

Lisa's example: “Recently, I saw a target client I knew who wasn't returning my phone calls. I just said, “Hey – you seem really stressed and distracted, what’s going on?”  He came back and confided in me about some labor issues that were really absorbing his time and driving him crazy.   Now, I’m not a labor lawyer, I could not help him, personally, with that issue.  But I have several partners that are excellent labor lawyers.  So, I introduced him to one of my partners that was able to help him.  Voila – new business!  That was not a lot of time and not a lot of effort, but it resulted in new business.  And basically what it did was take what could have been a pothole in our relationship, this problem that I was having with him, and turned it into new business.  The key is to keep your eye out for that kind of opportunity.”

Lisa's last Word Of Advice: Have fun!
 
Look for what you’re interested in, so that work is fun. Find something you are passionate about and where you want to make a difference. You’ll be doing this for, presumably, a long time, and you don’t want to dread coming to work every day.  So if you’re working in an area that you, personally, find interesting, it’s not going to seem like work.  We all work a long time – a lot of hours, a lot of days, and a lot of years.  So try to cater it to an area that you’re interested in.  And it’s easier to generate business that way, because you’re actually enthusiastic and knowledgeable.

© 2008 PBDI/SAGE PDI. This article comes from the January 2008 Issue of ORIGINATE!, a new online monthly newsletter (with ongoing support resources) dedicated to helping individual lawyers develop business successfully in order to build their careers. Our September 2007 issue is complimentary; otherwise articles are usually available to subscribers only. Find out more about subscribing at www.pbdi.org/originate.