A new product to help lawyers increase business development results

When I started working with lawyers on developing new business, I was surprised by the lack of standardized reference and training materials. In the 20 years my company had been developing training and coaching materials for companies from American Express to Zurich Financial Services, I’d gotten used to the idea that large firms usually build training and support programs on a foundation of off-the-shelf products. But the lack of standard materials in legal marketing meant that each firm had to re-invent the wheel.

So we decided to fill this gap. At first, I thought we could develop standard materials for lawyers in a few months. But in fact we have spent over two years creating, testing, and improving them.

Finally, the day is here.  Today is the official release day of The LegalBizDev Success Kit™, an audio course and set of reference tools that will help lawyers win new business more quickly by applying best practices from other law firms and other professions. It includes:

• The LegalBizDev Desk Reference™ - a 192 page guide to best practices, organized alphabetically to help lawyers find exactly the information they need, just when they need it. Whether you need to create an elevator speech, improve networking, qualify a prospect, plan a meeting, increase client satisfaction, or begin another business development task, this book provides checklists, samples, reports, and quick references to help each lawyer quickly identify the tactics that best fit their practice and their personality.
• Legal Business Development: Basic Principles and Best Practices - a modular course that can be taken in short segments, on three audio CDs that can be played on a computer, CD player, or iPod. For a demo, see our web page.
• Legal Business Development: A Step by Step Guide - a book that is already being used at large firms from Boston to Dubai to help lawyers decide how much time to devote to business development, to identify the most productive activities that can be accomplished within that time, and to assure follow-up.
• Three items you can use every day and leave out on your desk to serve as marketing reminders: a notepad, a post-it pad, and a highlighter imprinted with the critical question, “What should I do today to increase new business?”
• A Quick Start card to help lawyers begin maximizing the benefits, as soon as they open the box.

In the twenty-two years we’ve been in the training business, tools like these have become a standard way to reduce training time and increase efficiency in other businesses. For example, in the 1980s when large organizations started using new software, they would often hire companies like ours to offer in-house workshops to get employees up and running. These days, they are much more likely to avoid classes and instead invest in sophisticated help systems and online training, so that employees can quickly look up just the information they need, exactly when they need it.

The LegalBizDev Success Kit will be most effective when it is combined with coaching or workshops, because people develop complex skills like business development most efficiently with personal attention. But the Kit has been designed to also be of benefit to lawyers who prefer to work independently. How can you predict which lawyers will be motivated enough to follow up and do the work on their own? Ask them if they have a Nordic Track at home, and whether they use it to exercise or to hang their clothes.

The Desk Reference includes a foreword written by lawyer and legal marketing consultant Tom Kane, author of the widely read www.LegalMarketingBlog.com. “In more than 20 years in legal marketing,” Tom wrote, “I have never seen anything as valuable as this Desk Reference and Success Kit…. You could say I’m biased, because about a year ago I founded the LegalBizDev Network with the author, Jim Hassett. But I look at it the other way around. I joined forces with Jim because I felt that LegalBizDev had something new to offer.”

A few weeks ago, I started giving demos of a partially completed preview edition of the Kit at East Coast firms. Several of the largest and most prestigious law firms in the world purchased the Kit before its release based on the demo. These were the fastest buying decisions I’ve seen since I started working with lawyers. These firms plan to use the Kit in a variety of ways with both lawyers and business development staff, including train the trainer programs, coaching programs, as a refresher course, and as part of a web-based resource of business development tools.

Some of them have already come up with new ways to use the Success Kit.  Yesterday, I met with Roger Glovsky, who is a fellow blogger and my lawyer.  I had given Roger a preview edition of the Success Kit a few weeks ago, and he told me that he and his partner had listened to the CDs over several lunches, then discussed the implications of each module for their practice.  Why didn't I think of that?

If you'd like to try the Kit, there is no risk.  If you are not satisfied for any reason, return The Success Kit by March 1, 2008 for a full refund, no questions asked.  For details on cost and ordering download legalbizdevsuccess_kit_summarym.pdf

"The Success Kit is an amazing tool:  simple, effective, usable, and smart.  Jim Hassett has put together tools and tips which any lawyer can easily apply to their business development efforts at any stage of their career."  - Katherine Daisley, Product & Business Development Manager, ALM Media, Inc.  Click here for the complete review