Recently I walked away mentally exhausted from a conversation with a gentleman who I met for the first time. I will call him Bob for the sake of this discussion. Bob was a nice guy, but his biggest problem was that the conversation was all about Bob. Don't get me wrong, Bob asked me questions about me, but I never got the feeling that he wanted to hear my answers. Often he would look away or look over my shoulder while I answered. I kept thinking to myself, "is he THAT bored with me already, or is he just easily distracted like my labrador, Jax?"

​Most of you who are not dedicated business development professionals dread the business development part of your practice. The excuses I hear are endless as to why professionals conveniently avoid business development! "I have been buried in client work." "I tried but it didn't work." "I'll get to it next week." "I don't have the right personality for business development." The list goes on!

​There are two key components of business development that professionals often take too lightly.

1. Booking enough face-to-face meetings with existing and prospective clients to build fruitful business relationships, and
2. Focusing on the quality of the meetings to make sure your precious time is well invested.

I would like to touch on number 2.

“Being organized is not a one-time event, it is a state that requires a sustained effort. An effort that is not such when you have absorbed it as a habit.” – Francisco Saez

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​How many times in your life have you cleaned up your garage, closet, or any other part of your life and found things that you forgot you had? For me, countless times.

​Now think about your network of contacts. How many people do you know, with whom you have lost contact? For whatever reason, these are people who could be former clients, or prospective clients who have simply slipped through the cracks. Out of sight, out of mind. Many of them for years!

Have you ever been to the doctor where the doctor has prescribed a treatment for your ailment before asking the important questions to find out what your ailment is?

If you have, you might want to consider seeing another doctor!
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Any good doctor will go through the important list of diagnostic questions before he or she prescribes the appropriate treatment. So why can it be so difficult for professionals in other lines of work to do the same thing when it comes to prescribing the right “treatment” to prospective clients? 

For those of you who did not make it to this year’s LMA (Legal Marketing Association) Annual Conference in Atlanta, you missed a great conference. It was well attended, which made it good for networking, and there was plenty of good content to absorb. Here are some of the highlights from my perspective.

It’s time to reset and plan for a successful 2018! How many of you are looking to improve your business this year? Some people are looking for ways to work more, others are looking to work less. Suffice it to say that many are wanting to work smarter. Whatever your situation may be, here are some helpful business development tips and reminders to set you on course for a successful year.