Welcome to eTips
eTips is despatched weekly by email. It's packed with important business development tips from the team at Julian Midwinter & Associates.
eTips 2012 
Sinking sponsorship |
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| Sponsorships can be a veritable ‘money pit’ for the unwary. They can also be an extremely valuable tactic as part of your marketing and business development arsenal. |
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Put lunch in its place |
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| Lunch has long been a business tradition - sharing hospitality and breaking bread together is a time honoured bonding experience. But, too often, lunch is used out of its rightful place. |
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Strongest allies and advocates |
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| Your client probably finds you’re likeable, good to deal with, and thinks you’re a pretty impressive expert. But do they see you as their strongest ally ?
Turn good clients and happy professional relationships into enduring alliances: success in making clients strong allies will reap a range of handsome rewards. |
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Ditch hollow clichés and worn-out scripts |
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| We live in a sea of hollow, scripted phrases and responses. “How are you?” opens telephone conversations. “Have a nice day” follows cash register transactions. “Thanks for your help” terminates totally unsatisfactory requests for service. “Thanks for calling” is the automatic end to a call with an irritating and intrusive telemarketer. “Good luck with it - it’s been a pleasure” is the last word in an ordinary project. |
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Blog vs newsletter |
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| Nearly every firm has a newsletter. So, why not a blog ? More often than not it’s because newsletters are a known quantity, systems are in place, and it’s a standard value added offering for clients. However, it’s more than likely your newsletter is one of twenty or more that your clients receive. How often do you think it really gets read ? |
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Selling drives revenue |
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| Marketing builds awareness, positions you and your firm, identifies targets, and supports larger term strategy. Selling drives revenue. In the professional services sphere, the sales process leverages the marketing platform (if it’s there) to generate leads, identify and develop opportunities, and turn prospects into clients. |
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Listen to achieve 40% better client retention |
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| When One Number You Need to Grow appeared in Harvard Business Review back in 2003, it generated lots of interest about the links between client satisfaction, client loyalty, and profitability. Recently the Miller Heiman 2012 Sales Best Practices Study indicated that companies who listen to their customers see 40% better growth in customer retention than those who don’t. |
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Bargaining forums |
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| Last week, eTips looked at when clients bargain. Once your business relationship is damaged by the wrong kind of bargaining, it may be a nightmare to repair. |
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When clients bargain |
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| Clients bargaining with their law firms comes in many forms: subtle, smart, friendly, productive through to nasty, bullying, and destructive. At their peril, lawyers treat with disdain clients who want to bargain. It is perfectly reasonable for clients to care about their money and it’s smart for you to show that you respect them and care to help them get best value for spend with you. |
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Business development is not a spare time activity |
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| For professionals who want a prosperous, thriving practice and more agile and profitable firm, business development is not a spare time activity. Maintaining flow of work from clients, developing revenue streams, and funding future clients rank as priorities alongside attending today’s matters. Business development shouldn’t wait for time to spare. It’s a core activity rather than an “add on extra” or something more to do when you get clear of “real work”. |
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It's not just about being heard and making your case |
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| It isn’t about getting yourself heard or making your case - it’s really about getting the prospective client to want to talk with you, to listen to you, to create a dialogue, and to want you to put your recommendations to them about how you’ll help. |
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How to sell your practice |
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| We’re often approached to help lawyers relocate, merge, sell, acquire, or integrate their practices with others. After a lot of years helping practitioners and firms to court interest, do their due diligence, and navigate the process, we have dozens of war stories and plenty of advice to share. This week, eTips offers general pointers on how to sell your practice. However, many of these rules apply irrespective of whether it’s a lateral relocation, merge, acquisition, or other changes to practice structure and business arrangements. |
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Badgering into buying doesn't build business |
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| Among lots of bad sales ideas peddled out there is a set of activities based on the idea that if you keep at certain prospects often and long enough, you’ll eventually succeed. Mostly, you can’t badger desirable clients into buying, and it’s definitely not the best way to build your business. |
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Fear paralyses professional business development |
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| I’ve met lawyers and other professionals paralysed by the possibility of an adverse outcome to any business development encounter. They can’t have any sales-oriented conversation without planning, examining, scrutinising, rehearsing, assessing, and second-guessing every possible outcome. There is only one 100% guaranteed way to avoid failure: you won’t fail if you don’t play. But not to play is to lose big time. |
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