TRP 322: Top 10 BD Tips from The Rainmaking Podcast with Scott Love

[00:00:10] You're listening to The Rainmaking Podcast, hosted by high stakes headhunter, author, and professional speaker, Scott Love. Hey, this is Scott Love with The Rainmaking Podcast. Thanks for joining me on today's episode. Today's topic is 10 tips that I've learned from the leading business development thought leaders on the show. Having interviewed over 300 guests on The Rainmaking Podcast,

[00:00:39] I'm going to distill everything I've learned into the top 10 tips. By the way, the date we're releasing this show, June 4th, 2026, this is the second day of Rain Dance. You don't want to miss this particular conference. Rain Dance is sponsored or it's really put on by the legal sales and service organization called Lasso. If you're in business development or marketing with a law firm, you need to attend this event.

[00:01:06] If you're a partner with a law firm and you want to learn more about business development, consider going next year. I promise you this will be worth your time. I'm facilitating a few sessions at this particular conference. Our company, The Rainmaking Podcast, is a gold sponsor at the show. So I really appreciate their support and I think it's something that you should look at. So today I'm talking about the top 10 tips from business developers, those leading experts in their field that have been on the show with over 300 episodes.

[00:01:36] I'm going to distill it in my top 10 tips for you and I'm going to talk about each of those. And by the way, go to the show notes and I'll have these put in there. You can just copy and paste it and save that and refer to that and put together a mini business plan. Well, step number one is this. Have a written plan. As a legal recruiter, I've been in this industry for a long time. I've seen hundreds of business plans from law firm partners. And some partners I've met that have thought about moving to another firm,

[00:02:05] they don't have a written business plan on their own. And even the fact about thinking about where you are in your firm and those clients that you have and those that might port with you, that's a specific step in the process of moving. Just that step itself is good for you to do, even if you don't plan on moving to another firm. So write down a business plan. And here's kind of a quick way I'd recommend doing it. Number one, talk about what's unique about you, what is distinct and what's different. And I'll get into that in a little bit later.

[00:02:35] Talk about your uniqueness. Number two, define what your niche is. Number three, go deeper in terms of specialization. The way I recommend doing it, your ideal client is this. So think of all the different types of clients that you work with. But think of your ideal client. So for example, I was coaching years ago. I did a lot of coaching for people in the recruiting industry. And what do you do? Well, I work with manufacturing companies, recruiting directors and above.

[00:03:03] What is your ideal type of client? Well, it's privately held manufacturing companies with revenues between 50 to 100 million, where I'm doing C-level executives in the marketing, finance and accounting side. They got really clear on what their sweet spot was. Within my niche, I do partner recruiting. But what is my niche? Only corporate and finance people. What is my ideal type of client? Amlaw 100 and 200 firms have made a clear commitment to growing that space to have a good story.

[00:03:30] So when you write down and get granular on what your ideal client looks like, then when you see those opportunities, oh, your reticular antenna is up. Now you notice to pursue those. And it doesn't happen until you get real clarity. And sometimes it takes the exercise of writing it down. And the fourth part of a business plan is this. How are they going to hear about you? And those are the things that we're talking about today. So that's tip number one. Have a written business plan. Tip number two is this.

[00:04:00] Define what makes you different and also distinct. I've talked about this before on the podcast. But marketing always begins with what's different. But what really gets people's attention is what is distinct. The book, Pitch Anything, written by Oren Klaff, talks about this. People are guarded. They have their walls up. They're inundated with pitches over and over and over again. And our brain keeps us safe by blocking out all the noise.

[00:04:28] But how do you build trust? Well, it starts with dangling a shiny lure, something that goes across their vision. Oh, I've never seen that before. I've never heard of that before. And they're curious. And all of a sudden, it gives you a chance to earn trust. The wall starts coming down. And it begins with what is unique about you. Different. What's different about our law firm is this.

[00:04:52] But when you get really creative and you understand what is truly distinct about your organization, what can you say about your organization that no other firm can say about theirs?

[00:07:03] Or is it a specialist? Or is it a specialist just within the consulting firms? That's an example of that when you start specializing in those. Number four, build lists. Actually build lists. You can use a CRM. You can use an Excel spreadsheet. But you've got to do something. And sub point A under build lists is this. Make a list of the most impactful people in your network, up to 150 people. Now, a book I'd recommend reading is called The Shortlist, written by David Ackert.

[00:07:32] In fact, he was on this show. I'm going to put in the show notes a hyperlink to his episode. I recommend you go to the show notes here, listen to his episode, get his book. I'd highly recommend it. It talks about one thing, the short list. Those 150 people that you know that are the most impactful to you, you build the list. And when you do this, you're becoming more intentional about business development. The other list you want to write is your top 25 prospective clients.

[00:08:02] Who are those top 25 companies that you've always wanted to get business from? And you feel like you've got a good chance of getting it. Write it down. And when you've written it down, now you can look for ways to get in front of them. Number five, write down 10 methods to keep engaged. Relationships are built on frequency of contact. People talk with you, well, that's one connection. They meet you at a conference. That's another connection.

[00:08:29] They receive an email from you with a YouTube channel discussing a situation that they might be facing. That's another connection. They hear your voice in a podcast being interviewed about your expertise. That's another connection. So they feel like they get to know you over time. Remember that there's a rhythm and a cadence to staying connected with people, but you have to have ideas on how you can stay engaged with them. I gave you a few right now.

[00:08:58] I'd be willing to bet you can come up with your own creative ways to stay engaged with people. Number six, ask your closest clients for leads for speaking and recommendations. I'm curious about what organizations you're involved with where they have panel and speaking opportunities. I'd love to be considered for that. Maybe they can recommend you and get you to the front of the line for considerations. And remember, whenever you're sitting on the stage in front of prospective clients, you

[00:09:27] are seen as the expert. Everybody else in the room, they're attending your presentation. You're the expert. Number seven, engage directly with your clients' trade associations. Speak at them, like I mentioned. Write for them. Articles. White papers. Sit on committees. Attend events. See if you can get involved in a leadership role with those events. You know, people are always looking for an extra pair of hands that's willing to help out.

[00:09:56] For example, at Lasso, Legal Sales and Service Organization, I'm actually producing their podcast also, but I sent their executive director a note. I said, listen, I'll be there early. I'll stay late. Please ask me to help out. If you need somebody for crowd control, you need me to set up some extra chairs, I'm willing to help out. When you're involved in those organizations where your clients attend, you want to be a visible, helpful person. You want to offer to pitch in and help out. People see that. They remember that.

[00:10:26] Also get involved in board level involvement in those organizations as well. And this is why that's important. One of the things I've done, I recruit corporate and finance partners. A lot of the corporate partners I recruit, they're in the deal space. Private equity, M&A, that sort of thing. I joined the Association for Corporate Growth. I went to DealMax in Las Vegas. I'm getting involved in ACG. I want to be that helpful resource.

[00:10:51] And what's interesting is even if I don't meet someone that was at that event, in my reach outs to them, I tell them I was there. I was in the room. People do business with those they know, like and trust. You're trying to build some sort of familiarity with people, even if there was not a direct connection. You're in my circle. You're in my network. I can trust you. That's how it starts. See if you can get, quote unquote, in the room. Tip number eight. Publish white papers.

[00:11:21] And think of it like this. What is the client problem? And what is your solution? Ask yourself. And I'd be willing to bet you can use ChatGPT. What are the top ten challenges and problems my clients have? And get very specific. And if that doesn't help out, go to the most recent conferences for the last two or three years that your clients go to in terms of their trade associations. And what are all the presenters talking about in their breakout sessions? That's how you can find out what is topical.

[00:11:49] What is on people's minds right now? And write your content based on that. And at the end of every article, and here's a summary, three paragraphs with a bullet point on each of those and a story to back it up. Begin and end with a theme that begins and ties in with the end. People love that. Keep it short. Let's say 800 words maximum, depending on the publication. And you want to find out what's the usual length. Are there any restrictions? Is there anything else I need to know?

[00:12:19] And then also have a very short byline. Mention your name, what you do, your organization, and a hyperlink for them to be able to reach you directly. Always give people a way to reach back out to you. But don't be overly promotional in your byline or even in the article itself. A lot of people don't even do this. Number nine, spend at least 15 minutes a day daily on business development. Pencil it in your calendar every day.

[00:12:47] It could be the 15 minutes before you break for lunch. Have it as a recurring event every day on your calendar. You can find 15 minutes. You can find that easily. Every day on business development. Even if it's just sending an email to a prospective client. I met you at the conference last month. I read this article. I thought this might be helpful. That's it. People appreciate that. Give, give, give, and then ask. Number 10, ask your closest clients why they choose you.

[00:13:15] I'm doing some research to expand my own business development skills. I'm curious. What are the top three reasons that you've chosen me, that you choose to work with me compared to my competitors? Now, these are the kind of clients where you can really have that kind of conversation. Ask why they choose you. And then you want to reverse engineer your outbound strategy based on this. And here's your bonus tip. And this is from all the people I've interviewed, over 300 experts, thought leaders in business development.

[00:13:43] The bonus one is to build active referral networks and build strategic alliances. What is a strategic alliance? What's a referral network? What's a referral network? Referral network are those people that are within the circles of those people you want to get to know. Who are the people that know people that you want to get to know? And you let them know, I'm always happy to receive referrals that look like this. Sometimes just telling them, I have an active opportunity for this and I'm looking for referrals for people that fit this criteria.

[00:14:13] They want to be helpful, especially if you're someone that you give, give, give, and then ask. But tell them what you're looking for. Strategic alliances are a little bit different, a little bit more formalized. I've done several solid strategic alliances. Look for organizational development consultants, coaches, management consultants, those people that are involved on the periphery of your clients. They probably know your clients. Tech companies, media companies.

[00:14:38] Who are those organizations that know the kind of people that you want to get to know? And perhaps you can do a webinar for them. Maybe you can do some sort of presentation that's going to give an asset in terms of knowledge to their clients and prospective clients as well. That's something you can actively do. And by the way, you have to get really good at delivering webinars. And that's a whole other thing. Maybe I'll do a show on that here later on in the future. Thank you for listening.

[00:15:07] I really appreciate your support with the podcast. As always, this podcast is sponsored by SurePoint Legal Insights, formerly known as Leopard Solutions, which turns legal intelligence into opportunity. And the show is also sponsored by The Rainmaking Magazine. And let me tell you about that a little bit. We launched that probably nine months ago because we've got a lot of authors and writers, and I wanted to have a sister publication in written form that would help those people that really want to learn about business development.

[00:15:33] If you are not where you want to be in terms of your book of business, you need to get serious about that and perhaps spending time reading. So I've curated the content. I charge $1.99 a year for the whole annual subscription. And the way you use it is turn little minutes into prime knowledge time where you're learning. You're standing in line somewhere. Pull out your phone. Read an article. You're on the subway. You're on the metro. You're on a flight.

[00:16:00] Turn your little minutes into prime learning time. And if you're in an organization where you want to get a subscription for your whole team, just reach out to me directly. I do have some enterprise-level discounts available. But this publication, the problem it solves is that it keeps business development top of mind. You can find it by going to therainmakingmagazine.com. And thank you for listening. I appreciate your support.

[00:16:23] If you've got some time, if you could write a nice five-star review on the show, subscribe to it, share it with other people, visit the YouTube channel. I really do appreciate your help. Thank you for your support. And I hope I've given you some value today. Thanks so much and we'll catch up with you next time. Thank you for listening to The Rainmaking Podcast.

[00:16:45] For more information about our recruiting services for international law firms, visit our website at attorneysearchgroup.com. To inquire about having Scott speak at your next convention, conference, sales meeting, or executive retreat, visit therainmakingpodcast.com.