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7/17/2014 Building and Sustaining a Business Development Culture | Law Practice Division
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Building and Sustaining a Business DevelopmentCulture
Volume 39 Number 6
By Tea Hoffmann
About the Author
Tea Hoffmann is the chief strategy officer at Parker Poe Adams
& Bernstein LLP as well as a professional coach. She is the
author of The Proactive Practice. Hoffmann is a major in the
Tennessee Army National Guard and serves as senior trial
defense counsel.
In the fall of 2012, the American Lawyer’s New
Partner Survey found that newly promoted
partners, while generally happy with
compensation and workload, were not satisfied
with the amount of business development
training they were receiving or had received
before partnership. Many stated that this lack of
training would hinder them in becoming
profitable in the future.
In an age when profitability reigns supreme, these concerns are
real for many, yet a number of firms still hesitate to build the
kind of culture that emphasizes business development. Instead,
they resort to productivity plans, compensation cuts, changes in
partnership expectations and even de-equitation of lawyers who
were before never expected to build a book of business on their
own.
In a January 6 article in the Wall Street Journal, Nashville law
firm Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis reported that it overhauled
its partnership structure, recalibrated pay and assigned specific
hours and revenue goals to partners. The result, as reported by
the firm’s managing partner John Tishler, was that the firm “went
from 85 equity partners to about 55. … Those who stayed became
much more engaged in developing new lines of business.”
In the same article, Edward Newberry, the managing partner at
Patton Boggs, stated that for firms to increase profits, “partner
productivity is one of the remaining key tools.” This statement
was made just six months before Patton Boggs saw 17 of its
partners leave the firm, and it announced the layoff of 110
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Home > Publications > Law Practice Magazine > 2013 Magazine Archives > Law Practice Magazine |
November/December 2013 | THE MARKETING ISSUE
7/17/2014 Building and Sustaining a Business Development Culture | Law Practice Division
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support staff and 60 associates.
But how do law firms, in the “new normal,” increase productivity
to improve overall profitability? The answer is easy: They must
maintain and grow existing business while continually adding
new profitable business to their portfolios. However,
understanding how to build the kind of culture that emphasizes
business development is not easy.
BUILDING A BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CULTURE
For years, law firms have stressed the importance of
“professional development,” understanding that law schools do
very little to prepare lawyers for the actual practice of law. Firms
have provided training on legal writing, trial preparation and how
to take depositions. These fundamental skills are still critically
important, but many firms have come to realize that preparing
their lawyers to drum up business and retain existing clients is
equally important. As a result, many firms have combined the
substantive “legal skills” training with “business development”
training under the umbrella of “professional development.”
Mandatory versus voluntary. I had the opportunity to gather
opinions of many noted law firm leaders in trying to discover
how firms are building a business development culture. Amy
Hancock, the director of professional development at Andrews
Kurth, stated that while most firms offer and “strongly
encourage” participation in business development training, many
are still hesitant to mandate it and have an even harder time
holding lawyers accountable for not participating. Andrews Kurth
does not mandate business development training but begins
talking about the basic concepts involved in obtaining and
retaining clients as early as the summer associate level.
I found this early discussion encouraging, as I strongly believe
that discussing a lawyer’s obligation to develop and retain clients
early in his or her career will give these young lawyers a more
realistic idea of what will be required to obtain success. However,
lawyers must be given the tools to become successful.
Learning the business. At Andrews Kurth, those tools include
topics outside of traditional business development, designed to
give lawyers the skills needed to better understand the firm’s
clients. Called a “mini-MBA,” these business skills programs offer
guidance that ranges from mastering financial statements to
training that will enable lawyers to better understand the industry
trends impacting their key clients. The firm even uses their
training programs as a recruiting tool.
Addressing professional development, Andrew Kurth’s website
notes, “Our new lawyers receive meaningful client contact,
backed up by practical training and mentoring from the moment
they join our ranks. It’s just one way we demonstrate our belief
in careers, and yours in particular.” Hancock explained that one
of the firm’s strategic goals is to recruit, hire and retain the best
talent at all levels, and this type of training helps achieve that
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7/17/2014 Building and Sustaining a Business Development Culture | Law Practice Division
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goal. According to her, the result is lawyers who are “retained,
appreciated, thought of as excellent firm citizens and promoted to
partnership.”
Like Andrews Kurth, many firms proclaim that training is
important and a core strategic initiative, but very few firms treat
business development training as mandatory. Even fewer allow
lawyers billable “credit” for spending time developing the “soft”
skills that are actually critical for lawyers and firms to succeed.
Sustaining business in the real world. Mary Kaczmarek,
founder of Skillful Means Marketing and a former practicing
lawyer, believes business development training should be
mandatory for all lawyers, and that soft skills programs such as
developing rapport, understanding client expectations and the
like—all of which focus more on sustaining business—should be
balanced with programs that discuss getting new business. Both
types of programs are important and should be mandatory for
every lawyer in a firm.
To build productivity, Kaczmarek stated, the sales funnel must be
continually filled while the existing clients are sustained and work
with those clients is expanded. “Using senior attorneys that have
achieved success in business development is a great way to help
further build a business development culture,” Kaczmarek noted.
Successful lawyers have, in most cases, real stories of how they
developed new business and have kept that business. The stories
are seen, in many cases, as more relevant and perhaps more
reliable by the attorneys in their own firms. These real-life stories
from within the firm, combined with bringing in outside experts
who can infuse new ideas and practical steps to get and retain
business, when done repeatedly, can help to build the kind of
culture that keeps lawyers thinking about business development
on a more regular basis. Kaczmarek recommends that firms use
individual coaches for their “stars,” believing that these lawyers
who have a passion for developing and retaining business can be
the catalyst for younger lawyers looking for mentors.
Concentrating on the client’s business. Kaczmarek also says
that getting clients involved in helping lawyers understand key
business issues is an element of building a culture that puts
“business” into better focus, in contrast to the “development”
aspect. Having clients talk to lawyers about how their business
operates, having lawyers tour client facilities, and having lawyers
spend time with key client operations personnel—as opposed to
just the in-house counsel—is a great way to teach lawyers about
the business aspect of business development. According to
Kaczmarek, this type of training leads to loyalty. As the lawyers
who are the beneficiaries of the training see the firm grow and
prosper, they realize that their efforts are contributing to the
firm’s success.
Providing education. Other firms, like Kelley Drye, offer their
associates “just-in-time” learning on a wide variety of topics,
including Making Sure Your Bio Gets Read and Remembered and
7/17/2014 Building and Sustaining a Business Development Culture | Law Practice Division
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Five Things You Need to Know Before Contacting a Prospective
Client. These programs, offered in 10-minute webinars and
podcasts, are only one way that Kelley Drye is working to sustain
a business development culture.
David Woods, Kelley Drye’s director of client services, said that,
in addition to in-person training and coaching, the firm also
offers checklists and other business development tools that its
lawyers can access on the firm’s intranet. Firms must be
committed to training their lawyers in the skills that the firm will
actually help them use, Woods said. As an example, he said that
the training offered to associates in presentation and networking
skills is reinforced by holding associate CLEs and other events,
and by encouraging partners to involve associates in client
and/or prospect calls and other business development initiatives.
This type of interaction between associates and partners does
much to solidify the training that the lawyers receive, Woods
explained.
A PLAN TO PROMOTE DEVELOPMENT
Peter Johnson of Law Practice Consultants LLC worked as both a
practicing lawyer and as his firm’s managing partner before he
became a law firm consultant. He created a set plan for
establishing a culture that promotes business development. His
outline sets out a defined path and includes the following steps.
1. Plan a one- to two-hour meeting with all personnel to
kick off a new cultural revolution.
Include discussions about the strategic direction of the firm.
Delineate the role of associates and staff in client service, client development and the overall
client experience.
Discuss the importance of teamwork.
Include “the voice of the client” in the meeting.
2. Conduct monthly marketing breakfasts with set
agendas and strongly encourage attendance by attorneys
and staff.
3. Provide individual coaching and training for designated
attorneys.
4. Improve internal marketing communications.
Circulate descriptions of business development efforts—successful and unsuccessful—made
each month (along with or in lieu of the hours billed reports that are typically circulated).
Offer internal informational sessions on the firm’s niche litigation practice areas.
5. Invite clients to address the firm over lunch on a
monthly, or at least quarterly, basis to describe their
ideas of effective lawyering, marketing and client service.
6. Create something like an “outstanding team marketing
effort of the month” award.
Ask people to nominate others for this award based on their assistance in procuring business.
Make the award a modest cash outlay (e.g., $100 bill) and/or a restaurant gift certificate for
each team member.
7/17/2014 Building and Sustaining a Business Development Culture | Law Practice Division
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7. Create a suggestion box for marketing ideas for all
lawyers and staff.
Encourage and capture staff input for improving client service and value.
Award a monthly prize (or perhaps several) for the best ideas, and offer an additional (lottery-
like) opportunity so everyone who submits an idea has a chance to win something.
These steps are meant to be done over the course of a year and
then repeated, enhanced and redefined to reflect the firm’s
growth and the changes that have resulted from the efforts. I
love the emphasis on including staff in this outline and see these
steps as realistic for most firms.
ONE SIZE DOESN’T FIT ALL
Because variety is the spice of life, firms should be willing to
engage in nontraditional training to keep a business development
culture flourishing. Consultant and lawyer David Freeman has
developed the Culture X-Ray, a tool that allows firms to analyze
their existing culture in different areas of the firm, so a firm can
do an analysis of one location, one practice group or by tenure.
This diagnostic tool, in the form of an online survey, is easy to
use and yet another vehicle that firms can use to drive firm
culture.
Other inventive tools include Mike O’Horo’s RainmakerVT, which
provides interactive Web-based training for lawyers at their desks
or anywhere they have an Internet connection. The content is
smart, focused and allows your attorneys to learn when they
want to learn, such as at night, while they are traveling or on the
weekend. It’s an excellent tool for lawyers who may not have
bought into traditional techniques or who want to keep their
skills honed.
Finally, Julie Savarino of Business Development Inc., provides a
Rainmaker Coach app for iPads and iPhones. Launched in March,
the app provides checklists for what to do when attending a
conference, how to prepare for a client pitch, and how to have a
productive business development lunch or dinner and more. This
tool is definitely targeted for tech-savvy lawyers who want last-
minute confidence-building tips, but I found it very useful and a
great way to reinforce more-traditional training.
Don’t forget the power of circulating short articles, blog posts or
videos about business development. While you don’t want to
overload inboxes with “junk,” if you find an article that you
believe is particularly applicable to the firm as a whole, a
particular group within the firm or to staff, send it out. If you find
and send consistently good materials, firm citizens will read the
content. And I have found that even if they don’t read the article,
just seeing the topic in the subject line will remind them that
business development is an important ingredient to a successful
firm.
SHARING THE MESSAGE
Firms that desire to build or sustain a business development
culture must clearly communicate to everyone in the organization
7/17/2014 Building and Sustaining a Business Development Culture | Law Practice Division
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why a cultural change is important and necessary, and be willing
to tell the members what’s in it for them. They must also create a
variety of tools (training by both inside experts as well as
outsiders, coaching, mentoring, in-time training, webinars,
checklists, etc.) to be successful. Again, one size does not fit all.
The message that business development is important must be
reinforced throughout the organization often, and individuals
within the organization must be held accountable for doing their
part in creating the cultural shift desired.
Finally, leadership at all levels must support and emulate the
cultural shift. As Frances Hesselbein of the Frances Hesselbein
Leadership Institute said, “Culture does not change because we
desire to change it. Culture changes when the organization is
transformed; the culture reflects the realities of people working
together every day.”
