Business Development

Here at the firm we have a Business Development Committee, which is so named, I suppose, because Marketing Committee sounds a tad too craven.

I'm all for it. Heck, I currently chair it. But there is a strange aspect to marketing and selling a lawyer's services:

The principal way a lawyer's business is developed: (a) do good legal work and (b) get referrals.

Way more than 90 percent of the time (he says from his gut, not from data), that's it.

Which means the best way to sell is, don't. Just do great work and let word of mouth do the rest. The problem is easy to state: once the work is done, the process is largely uncontrolled. True word of mouth is outside your control. Lawyers plan, practice, understand process, and always, always try to keep things under control. The answer is way too Zen.