TRP 207: Five Pitfalls to Avoid in Rainmaking with Scott Love

[00:00:01] You're listening to the Rainmaking Podcast, hosted by high-stakes headhunter, author and professional speaker, Scott Love. You're listening to the Rainmaking Podcast, and my name is Scott Love. Thanks for joining me on the show today. Today, my guest is me.

[00:00:30] Again, I did this a couple of months ago where I did some, whether it were called solo cast where I'm talking about different concepts, things that I've learned that I wanted to share something with you today.

[00:00:41] Keep in mind I've had over 200 interviews with experts on client development and related topics. Now, as you know, this show is not limited to any one industry. It's industry agnostic. It kind of leans to legal because I recruit partners for law firms.

[00:00:58] So I have a lot of guests that focus on that area. But nearly all of the guests here talk about things are malleable and that fit pretty much any industry. If you're in the business or getting business in any sort of professional service,

[00:01:08] then this is definitely a show that you want to go back and listen to. Before I get to my topic, which is the five pitfalls of business developers, I want to invite you to just go to the website of the show,

[00:01:21] therainmakingpodcast.com, and scroll through the past guests that we've had. There's also a link there where you click on the link that tells you where to listen. You can find it on Spotify, Apple Podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts.

[00:01:34] I think Spotify has the best graphic where you can scroll through and see the notes pretty easily of what the topic is that we talk about. And I'd say, here's your curriculum. Find five topics out of the 200 that we have that seem the most interesting to

[00:01:50] you. It's absolutely free. Also, if you get a moment, please leave us a nice five-star review on Apple Podcasts, only known as iTunes. I'd certainly appreciate that. And as always, this show is sponsored by Leopard Solutions, Legal Intelligence, suite of products, FirmScape and Leopard BI.

[00:02:07] Push ahead of the pack with the power of Leopard. Now let me get into our topic for today. And my topic for today is five pitfalls of business developers. Now I've met a lot of people that do business development,

[00:02:22] and I've met a lot of people that are supposed to do it but really don't. But that's their job. They're doing a professional service. And I think some people might even look down on the sales and marketing aspect of that.

[00:02:34] And if you don't like those words, call it client development. They look down on that. Maybe it's kind of low-brow, but that is a necessary element of growing a thriving practice. Now most of us, myself included, we don't like to toot our own horns.

[00:02:50] But that is how you get business. But what's really the best way to do it is to do such a good job that other people talk highly of you and the business comes in. And you can channel it that way.

[00:03:01] I think that's the best way to do it. So let me share with you some ideas that I think can make a big difference for you in a short period of time in growing your practice. Number one, I think a big pitfall of most people

[00:03:14] in business development is they don't communicate their value proposition effectively, which means they haven't really gone through to identify what is unique about them. And I'd say it's even more than what's unique, what is distinct.

[00:03:31] If you can't be the largest or if you can't be first to market, well, be the largest, be first, be number one in a subcategory. Can you create uniqueness? Can you identify that just by being number one in a subcategory? So for example, the very first pilot

[00:03:49] to cross the Atlantic, obviously, was Charles Lindbergh, who was the second? Nobody cares. Nobody remembers. But who is the first female pilot to cross the Atlantic? Amelia Earhart, you get the picture. If you can't be the largest, be unique in some way. Be number one in a subcategory.

[00:04:07] This uniqueness, this distinction is also something that can be made. It can be made through adjustments of your strategy through how you market yourself, even your process. There was one recruiting firm. Back in the days when I was consulting and coaching to a lot of recruiting firms, there

[00:04:24] was one firm that went out and got ISO 9000 certified. They took the time to take their entire recruiting process and to have it certified. And guess what? That became their marketing hook. Some people, they've worked in an industry before, and now they're doing recruiting or let's say

[00:04:43] it was a doctor that became an attorney. That's unique. That story in itself is distinct. So that's the first pitfall. They don't know how to communicate their value proposition. And if you don't know what that is, you need to start thinking about that.

[00:04:57] I also think that the marketplace has become more crowded in business development in general. After 2020, things kind of slowed down. They picked up with a vengeance and in many industries, it's still going pretty hot and heavy. A lot of people, for example, got into the legal recruiting space.

[00:05:12] It's like the pool on the 4th of July, everybody's here. It's going to thin out over a while, but you always have to, at least what I do, is try to stay a little bit further ahead, come up with some sort of edge.

[00:05:23] And so I've made adjustments in my process that just in that, that in itself causes me to have some distinction. Number two, they're not paying attention to trends and they're not adapting. I think you always need to be reading publications within your industry and related industries,

[00:05:42] not just the industry in which you serve or if you're an accountant and you serve people in life sciences, not just studying the life science industry but also studying the accounting industry. What are those trends? What is the impact of artificial intelligence going to be

[00:06:00] on your particular service of professional services? You need to pay attention to that. One thing you can do, which I think is really interesting, is go to conference website pages for your niche industry and look at the breakout sections.

[00:06:15] That's how you can find out what the big issues are of the day. Number three, they're not taking consistent action on new business opportunities. Here's a new business opportunity and they're just kind of slow at pursuing it. They think I don't need another client.

[00:06:35] This goes back to a concept, whenever I speak at conferences I talk about more better and all. You want to get more business because you need to be able to pick and choose who you want to work with in terms of your client base

[00:06:49] and you can't do that if you have limited client prospects in front of you or business. Now here's another concept. The organizations with which you hit the home run might not be the ones you started with in your professional journey.

[00:07:04] They might not be the ones you had two years ago. The organizations I'm doing a lot with, it's totally different landscape because I didn't give up on wanting to get more business. More business, better business. That means higher margins, people that appreciate you,

[00:07:19] people that reach out to you and ask for your advice, people that give referrals to you. Yes, clients actively seeking out to give you business and to give you referrals. Better business, more, better, oh. And what all means is being the type of professional service provider

[00:07:37] that is getting all the business of your client. And if it's a large institution, you can't obviously get all the business. You want to be the first one that they think of when they bring you in and have the meeting

[00:07:47] and talk about how you can help them reach their goals. More business, better business, all the business. Don't get complacent. And now here's the thing. You want to start getting enough calls for your services that you might have to unfortunately turn the business away.

[00:08:05] You need to get really good at saying no. How do you get good at saying no by developing a lane by getting very narrow in your specialization? When you do that, there will be opportunities that are presented to you that you need to share

[00:08:18] with other professional services providers because they just don't fit your particular lane and there's nothing wrong with that. When you develop a name, you're going to start getting the call on opportunities. And if you're not turning opportunities away, it means you're not doing enough marketing.

[00:08:37] So you need to take consistent action on new business opportunity development. Pitfall number four, they're not developing thought leadership. I don't want to say this is the easiest thing in the world to develop thought leadership but there are little barriers to entry.

[00:08:55] People are always looking for that next good idea. All the ideas haven't been written about yet. And even if you have ideas that are similar to what your competitors have, maybe you have a different perspective on this. Whenever I've spoken at sales meetings in the past,

[00:09:13] I would always talk about sales as a game. I tell stories about my former card counting exploits when I was a professional card counting blackjack player mentored by alumni of the MIT blackjack team. That would be my perspective,

[00:09:26] my lens of how I teach people how to get better sales and more client development. What if you have an interesting background that can make a really good story to communicate how these two or three important concepts can make a difference in the lives

[00:09:42] of your clients and your client prospects and you can tell the story from your own unique perspective. That's what thought leadership is all about. It's not just showcasing your expertise and showing people that you know things. It's helping them to get to know you

[00:09:57] and to understand your unique perspective and hopefully inviting you in to have an idea to talk about how you can solve their problems. But they just aren't developing thought leadership. There is different ways you can do this. I'd even recommend getting a book.

[00:10:13] It's not gonna break the bank. It's 20 bucks. It's 20 bucks, secrets of the universe for $20. A book that I co-authored with two friends of mine, two other authors, Mark LeBlanc and Henry DeVries. They invited me to co-author a book on rainmaking. It's called Rainmaker Confidential.

[00:10:29] And in that whole book, we outlined the entire playbook of all the successful people that we've met that are successful in business development. Keep in mind with my perspective of recruiting rainmakers, I've read a lot of business plans. And so I share some ideas

[00:10:43] at how you can pursue thought leadership in that book. And in fact, just go to rainmakerconfidential.com and you can order it there. And I'll put that link in the show notes for today. Pardon the commercial on that, but I really think it's gonna help you.

[00:10:58] And then finally, number five, they're not asking for referrals. That's the fifth pitfall. There are books out there that you can buy on how to get referrals and how to do it in a way that's professional and classy, and it doesn't push people away from you.

[00:11:15] Again, this is an area where some people, they just feel really awkward. I do as well, but I found that under the right circumstances, I can actually grow closer to people when I ask them to help me with referrals. Now, you also wanna get good enough

[00:11:33] and have a name through your thought leadership that you start getting referrals. If you are not getting inbound referrals each month, you're not doing enough. I think you need to reevaluate. I think that would be an indication that you need to make some changes

[00:11:47] in how you do business development. So those are the five pitfalls of business developers. Number one, they're not communicating their value proposition effectively. Number two, they're not paying attention to trends and adapting. And three, they're not taking consistent actions on new business opportunities.

[00:12:03] Number four, they're not developing thought leadership. And number five, they're not asking for referrals. I hope this makes a difference for you. Keep listening to the podcast. I appreciate your support. And by the way, if you do have time to make a nice five-star review on Apple Podcasts,

[00:12:18] like I mentioned earlier, that there's a guest that really just made a difference for you. I'd appreciate it and I know my guest would, if you could mention that guest by name on the review. I really appreciate that. Thank you for listening.

[00:12:33] We'll catch you on the next episode. And I hope this one makes a difference for you. Thank you for listening to the Rain Making Podcast. For more information about our recruiting services for international law firms, visit our website at attorneyssearchgroup.com To inquire about having Scott speak

[00:12:54] at your next convention, conference, sales meeting or executive retreat, visit therainmakingpodcast.com.