Client Development Principles Part 2

Developing the Next Generation of Rainmakers Client Development Principles Part 2 Almost a year ago, after returning from a Sugar Shack celebration in Montreal, I wrote Traditions: Call Me Old Fashioned, about the importance of celebrating traditions and introducing new friends to them. Do you know what we celebrated on our block last night? Unless you are Polish American and from Buffalo, Milwaukee or Cleveland, I bet you are not aware that yesterday was Dyngus Day. If you are interested in traditions, take time to read the link above. Our neighbors who grew up in Buffalo, New York, unofficially the Dyngus Capital of America with the largest concentration of festival locations and live polka music. They sent out a text to the neighborhood last week. Nancy went out and got Tyskie Polish Beer.   Our neighbors catered the event from a great Polish restaurant in Plano: Taste of Poland. Among the many things, we ate  Pierogis,  Galabki â€" stuffed cabbage with tomato sauce, Polish Sausage with the best Sauerkraut ever. We were told to wear red. Here’s a photo of Rick, who along with his wife Kelly, hosted our neighborhood Dyngus Day celebration. There must have been at least 50 kids from about 4-8 at the celebration. They had a blast and Dyngus Day will  now will be an annual event in our neighborhood. Here is a photo of Rick our I’m doing a presentation at lunch today for a Dallas-Frisco based law firm. My subject will be Client Development: Old Tools and New Tools. You likely have read my story of what happened when I was asked in 2010 to go across the country and speak to a national law firm on the new tools. As you may recall, I believe I was asked because of the color of my hair (white). In one of the five cities, I met with the litigation practice group leaders. The youngest in the group asked: Cordell, suppose we tell you we don’t want to blog and we don’t want to use social media. In five years will we be behind of our competitors? I thought for a moment and replied: Suppose in the mid-90s you had told firm leaders you would not use email and didn’t want your group to be included on the firm web page. In five years do you think you would have been behind of your competitors? Someone in the firm must have listened because in 2010 the firm had no blogs. Now they have 16 blogs. I frequently see what the firm is doing from their posts on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. So, even though I will be talking about the changing client development tools today, in this post and short video I want to share  with you a second set of client development principles created by a group of lawyers I coached when we finished working together. Are you using some of these principles in your own client development efforts? One final thing: Do you need someone with white hair to come and persuade your senior lawyer leaders that your firm can become more valuable to clients by blogging and using the new tools? P.S. If any of your lawyers are Polish American, you might just consider celebrating Dyngus Day in your firm next year after Easter.   I practiced law for 37 years developing a national construction law practice representing some of the top highway and transportation construction contractors in the US.