Marketing Expert Larry Bodine recounts practical business development techniques for lawyers in this interview with Itzik Amiel, at the International Bar Association Legal Business Development Global Summit.
It's time for lawyers to shift to online business development, now that the pandemic has hampered business development techniques like face-to-face meetings, giving a speech, attending conferences, making contacts at cocktail parties, and teaching classes.
Now is the time for lawyers to call on their clients, and use the three best selling tools:
- Showing empathy
- Active listening
- Asking open-ended questions.
The most effective business development technique is asking questions to get the other person talking. When they are talking, you are selling.
The typical lawyer personality interferes with business development, because many lawyers are analytical, skeptical, introverted, and low on sociability. In contrast, marketers are enthusiastic, interactive, extroverted, and have high resilience.
Attorneys should shift their business development techniques to online marketing. Most clients search for attorneys using a search engine. This is why attorneys should:
- Record videos. It's how people will get to know, trust, and like you.
- Become masters of Zoom meetings to record a solo meeting, an interview, or a panel discussion.
- Write blog posts. Long and short both work. Tell a story with a protagonist, antagonist, and solution.
- A good website lawyer bio beats a directory listing. Be sure to include whom you serve and industries you're familiar with, problems you solve, and how clients expect to be treated.
- Pick one social media platform and go deep. To reach consumers, use Facebook. To reach businesses, use LinkedIn.
- Take a leadership role. Be the organization's newsletter editor, program director, event speaker, or the president or board member -- to enjoy the magic of being a leader.
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