As I write eTips each week, it’s often the product of business development challenges and behaviours I’ve observed among our clients, or learned second hand. Now, I need your input on the eTips topics you find most relevant, how eTips can improve, and what you’d like more of.

This week, please take this brief, three to five minute survey, and tell me, and the whole JMA team, what you think.

As a thank you, you will be entered into a draw to win a bottle of fine wine.

Of course, if you have any queries or other comments, do get in touch.

Thanks for your support and important feedback.

Linda and the team at Julian Midwinter & Associates

Make sure you set yourself on a course for successful business development in the new financial year.

Listen - especially to unwelcome news. Listen to what your clients say. Listen to unpopular views, and listen extra carefully to what you don’t really want to hear.

Do the research - make sure you gets much input as possible on a subject. Disparate input will help you come to terms with the issues. You need a wide range of information from disparate sources to form a sound basis for the decisions you must make.

Make a business development plan write it down and stick to it. A written plan communicated to everyone is much more likely to succeed than any amount of talk. Review progress against your plan.

- take responsibility for tough decisions. Good decisions are often lonely, and sometimes unpopular. You can’t depend on consensus to make the right decisions in marketing. You will be constantly faced with new opportunities - you can’t pursue them all. So, be prepared to be tough enough to let an opportunity pass

Copyright Julian Midwinter & Associates

We all know that first impressions matter a whole lot. How well do you handle first encounters with new clients ?

Try this quick quiz. Answer “yes” or “no” - not “maybe”.

I am on time, focused, and feel “in control” I have scheduled sufficient time - unpressured, unhurried, no “time squeeze”

The venue is organised, orderly, and truly ready

Research is done: environmental scan, website, annual report, promotions, publications, ads, asking around …

I have thought through this prospective client’s likely legal needs I have worked out the direct value and benefit which I and my team can bring

Collateral is on hand: business card, newsletter, brochure, article, handouts …

I give my undivided attention, look genuinely interested, and quickly develop rapport.

If you can consistently answer “yes” to at least seven of these items, you’re off to a great start. If your score is less than seven use this quiz as a checklist for improvement.

Copyright Julian Midwinter & Associates

Some of the greatest professional success stories are based on sustained commitment to breaking with tradition and doing things differently.

Big rewards await professionals who find new and substantially better ways of doing things.

Search for opportunities to deliver your services differently by:

Significantly reducing your cost of production.

Radically changing elapsed time to produce.

Substantially reducing number of steps involved.

Standardising or “packaging” what have traditionally been one-off or bespoke services.

Removing or transferring the risks to your client which are attached to using your service.

Developing a truly novel service.

Spotting an industry trend which may render your service obsolete and beating the market to it.

Tracking social or political trends which impact your market and responding truly proactively.

Challenging accepted wisdom in an industry or market.

The best opportunities derive from doing things differently - and better - before you’re forced, before your competitors, and well before your services are obsolete or even “ho hum”.

Copyright Julian Midwinter & Associates

If you don’t want to squander great business development opportunities with new clients, do your homework before first encounters:

Their business, organisation, operations.

Their operating environment.

Their legal needs.

Personal needs/interests of your contact.

Issues you’d like to canvass.

What services of direct value can you and your firm offer ?

Outcomes you’d like from the meeting.

Even the most seasoned professional will do better if s/he’s done this groundwork rather than just “winging it”.

Copyright Julian Midwinter & Associates

Check the health of your business development efforts by assessing its vital signs:

Power - does each individual on your team feel that s/he can affect business development performance of the team ? Does s/he believe s/he can really make things happen ?

Identity - do team members focus narrowly on their own work, or identify with the entire team and firm ?

Problems and conflicts - are these recognised and dealt with, or just smoothed over ?

Learning - are you and your team constantly learning ? Are you encouraging new ideas ? Are you acting on them ?

This simple health check won’t yield a neat numeric measure, but it’s a strong predictive indicator of future business development success.

(Read more about some of these ideas by sourcing the work of Richard Pascale in Harvard Business Review.)

Copyright Julian Midwinter & Associates

Every so often, take stock of your client base and work out whether it’s still right for you and your firm.

Evaluate clients against factors including:

Is this a good strategic fit for my practice ?

Is this a profitable relationship ?

Is this a client going somewhere - that is, on the ascendancy ?

Does this client help me and my firm to use and develop skills which will be appealing to other desirable clients ?

Is this a client which I can grow through further services ?

Is this client a good commercial proposition ?

Do they pay well, on time, and absorb only reasonable amounts of resource for the fee return ?

Does this client introduce me to new opportunities and refer work ?

Do I like working for this client ?

Am I doing a really good job for them, and getting good outcomes for them,and am I truly valuable to them ?

Is this a satisfied client ?

If you can say “yes” to several of these, then this is a client you want.

More than a couple of “no’s” and it is probably a client you don’t want.

Copyright Julian Midwinter & Associates

Here are some specific actions you can take to add weight to your brand.

Research your client constituencies. Understand exactly how you’re seen, where your clients

“Pigeonhole” you and your firm, and what differentiates you from the rest.

Understand your practice. Define your key capabilities. Set your goals and objectives based on a clear understanding of what you can deliver especially well. Communicate these goals and objectives clearly and compellingly throughout your firm.

Work out what reputation you want. Advance your vision for your practice and create the strategy to support the reputation you want.

Document your strategic position.

Use communication powerfully. Ensure that every communication between you and the rest of the world works to support your positioning and promote your reputation.

Implement a cohesive marketing and communications plan. Pay attention to the details. Ensure that the messages that you send to the market are consistent and cohesive.

Pay attention to internal communication. Everyone on the team must have a clear understanding of the goals and plans.

If you are to build reputation and brand power quickly and convincingly.

Monitor performance. Track progress against your plans. Use a mix of research techniques to check that your brand and reputation are moving in the direction you seek.

Whatever the ultimate objective for your professional practice, doing a good job is no longer enough. Building your brand and reputation will help you to achieve your professional and business goals faster.

Copyright Julian Midwinter & Associates

Lawyers and other professionals rarely benefit from the best disciplines of business or sales management.

It pays to jot down the answers to these questions, regularly. Better still, run through this checklist with your business development coach or a sales-aware colleague:

Who is the client/prospective client ?

What is the specific prospective matter or type of work ?

What is the size of the opportunity - quantify it

What is the expected timeframe to convert this to a real, live matter/project ?

What obstacles have to be overcome ?

What might delay it ?

What is the probability of success ?

What action do you need to take to wage an effective business development and conversion campaign ?

Be tough and honest. That way you’ll be able to make good decisions about what to pursue and how to resource it.

Copyright Julian Midwinter & Associates

Every year, we make resolutions, and most years we break them. Let’s not continue to set ourselves up for failure.

Rather than being swept away with January-style new year, new resolutions, resolutions for this new financial year will be a bright idea. Positive and achievable resolutions will help you make lasting changes in your behaviour. The key is to take a goal-setting approach.

A few tips:

Don’t set business development or practice goals where you are not fully committed and motivated to change - ambivalence will cause you to relapse into your old habits.

Willpower alone won’t achieve your goal - changing your behaviour involves changing attitudes and beliefs (cognitive change) and is a process of unlearning harmful, unhelpful or “bad habits” - your maladaptive behaviour needs to be replaced with an adaptive behaviour, or a useful one.

In formulating resolutions for this new financial year, work through this process:

Consider - “do I really want to change ?”

Make sure it’s positively driven - “am I motivated to change ?” and “what are the benefits for me to change ?”

Plan the change - “what steps are necessary to facilitate it ?”

Plan - “what steps must I take to change ?”

Maintain it - “how can I stop slipping back into old habits ?” and “how can I prevent a relapse into the ways of the past ?”

Copyright Julian Midwinter & Associates