http://www.kohncommunications.com/get-your-biz-dev-dashboard/

…and we’re hard at work on v2!

One way to facilitate meeting new people is to pick the longest drink line. Usually you want to get a drink as soon as possible. However, when you’re working a room, a long drink line gives you the ability to talk with the people in front of and in back of you. The longer the line, the more time you have to get acquainted.

For more tips, check out our article “10 Counterintuitive Tips for Working a Room.”

One client volunteered for the PTA at his children’s school. Through his efforts, he developed a friendship with a qualified target. They were always friendly when they saw each other at PTA meetings. But our client didn’t know how to make the conversion to a business relationship. So we recommended that he call the contact and say, “All of these years that we have known each other, we have never discussed the possibility of our doing business. I’d like to talk with you about how we could do business together.” His contact said, “Absolutely.” They scheduled lunch and ultimately referred business to each other.

Ask for Permission to Bring up the Subject

With some people, you may be able to discuss the issue of doing business by asking for permission to raise a subject. One of our clients used this technique effectively by taking a friend to lunch and discussing their families and other personal interests. And then he would say, “I’d like your permission to change the subject. It occurs to me that you and I are in businesses that may be mutually beneficial. May I bring up a subject concerning business to see if it is worth pursuing?”

Reveal Your Feelings

Another technique involves revealing your feelings about the idea of doing business. In talking with a contact, you might say, “There is a subject that I have been meaning to bring up with you, but I have felt a little reluctant because I am concerned that you would feel as if I am imposing on you. If you don’t think that it is a good idea, don’t worry about it. You have a company that we could be providing services for. And I would like to explore how we might do that.”

By expressing your concern about imposing on your friends, you take away the risk of appearing manipulative or of being an imposition. Because this technique involves revealing your honest feelings, we call it the “full-disclosure technique.”

For more marketing tips, check out our book Selling in Your Comfort Zone.

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Engage your clients before and after you’ve been retained.

How to drive your clients nuts.

It’s okay to turn down clients.

Law Students

2Ls, the time to vie for a summer associate job is now.

Lawyers particularly are frequently writing about things that are important to people and needs that people don’t even know they need to know about. As those of us who search online know well, there’s a lot of garbage out there, but when you look at the big picture, law firms publish pretty good content. And the difference between good content and OK content is that good content gets forwarded and shared. We’ve actually entered a world that makes it much, much easier for law firms that write intelligently and provide useful information to meet people who need their services.

For example, Keith Paul Bishop, a partner at Allen Matkins, blogs every day on an exceedingly narrow topic: California securities law. But what’s amazing is that every major authority in the field either points to his blog or he points to theirs. Nearly 20 percent of traffic to www.allenmatkins.com is just to his blog—even though it’s on an exceedingly narrow topic. Establishing a niche can actually be an advantage because online, you can become an expert in that niche to the entire world.

You can transform blog readers into prospective clients and referral sources simply by posting your phone number and email address on your blog. The more personal your blog, the more effective it is. For example, when Bishop wrote about the death of one of his professors, he received an email from someone who wrote, “I feel like I know you from your blog.” The reader had had the same professor and had followed Bishop at Harvard and then at Allen Matkins. “By the way, I have these two pieces of work for you,” the email concluded.

Conversely, you can also reach out to readers of your blog. Obviously, if you use SEO effectively, people can find you through Google. But you can also put your content in front of readers using a syndicator like Lexology, which puts together the news for the Association of Corporate Counsel newsletter, and JD Supra, which distributes legal content online. Through these services you can get at least some information on who your audience is, including a list of companies that are looking at your content. It might not include the actual people who are reading your articles, but if there are companies on the list who aren’t among your current clients, they should go to the top of your target list. It gives you an idea of who is interested in what you have to say, even if you haven’t had a conversation with them yet.

If you’re spending precious time writing content, make sure to get it in front of as many eyeballs as possible in order to attract prospective clients and referral sources.

For more tips, check out our marketing seminar “Tech-Based Biz Dev Strategies.”

Pick Programs That Don’t Interest You

Programs that interest you may not be the programs that interest your targets. As you consider opportunities for working a room, pick programs that will be interesting to the people you want to meet. That will increase the likelihood that the room will be filled with quality targets.

For more tips, check out our article “10 Counterintuitive Tips for Working a Room.”

Becoming a specialist helps you market your services as a lawyer.

A properly constructed mentoring/development program can benefit both individual lawyers and their firms.

Clients look for lawyers close to them—make sure they can find you online.

Law Students

Looking for a bargain? Check out these best-value law schools.