Scoring Clients: Master Your Rainmaking Messages
By Melissa Janis
North Fork Bank
Your mission at a networking event, should you choose to accept it, is to make business contacts and, ideally, score clients. Your mission is to be an effective networker.
Effective networkers send messages through words and deeds that encourage relationships with new people. Consider, though, how you introduce yourself at networking events. Do you send the same messages regardless of who you are meeting? Beware: The introductions and underlying messages that open up conversation with other lawyers can backfire with non-lawyers and cloud your ability to make rain with potential clients.
The Lawyers’ Shorthand: It’s Greek to Other Folks
Over many years of interviewing and networking with lawyers and non-lawyers alike, I’ve observed that lawyers value, seek and use status messages in networking conversations. The prestige of your firm, your position within the firm, your law school and your roles in professional organizations all convey meaningful information about your status in the legal profession to others in the legal profession. It’s a shorthand way to determine the potential of the networking connection and the direction your conversation will take. You can quickly assess if another lawyer is a potential and desirable referral source.
In contrast, non-lawyers are unlikely to appreciate the significance of these status messages. I’ve seen countless introductions hang awkwardly in the air when lawyers announced their position with a prestigious law firm and did not receive the expected response. Non-lawyers perceive that the status message is supposed to be laden with meaning (and perhaps pretentiousness, too), but they don’t know what the meaning is. Moreover, they’re unlikely to risk appearing uninformed by responding to a message they don’t grasp. In this way, status messages actually disconnect the conversation between lawyer and non-lawyer.
What gets the connection up and running instead? Consider that non-lawyers use a different barometer to evaluate the potential of networking connections. Non-lawyers attend networking events in pursuit of new business. Many consider lawyers to be in a position to help them toward that goal. As a result, you want to frame your message in terms of problem solving and convey how you can help others meet potential customers and referral sources. Your message will then stand out from the crowd—and so will you.
The bottom line is that your message should build up others’ feelings of status rather than elicit a validation of your status. In essence, the key to success in networking is to keep your ego out of it. The tactics that work well do so because they are oriented toward the other person. You become memorable by making others feel important. Once you segment your market and manage your message according to your listeners, you can easily think of the right tactics.
Messages for Non-Lawyers
To help you hone your game talk, here are key points to use in networking with non-lawyers.
Message No. 1: I care more about learning about you and your needs than telling you about mine.
At the point of introduction, the effective networker focuses on the other person. That means asking questions during conversations to find out what’s important and unique about other people and the kinds of people who can help them. While you are busy focusing on their challenges, you are giving them respect and making them feel special, which will leave them feeling good about you. You are also gleaning valuable information in preparation for message number 2.
Message No. 2: I want to help you find solutions to your problems.
Be a resource right away, regardless of whether the person has legal needs. From the moment of introduction and on through the rest of the relationship, an effective networker tries to connect his or her contacts for their mutual gain. Understanding their challenges and their referral needs, you can look around the room and see if you can connect them with people you’ve just met. You can also make an agreement to call them with some contacts or ideas after the event. Now, in addition to making them feel respected and special, your problem-solving approach will leave non-lawyers feeling as though you can really help them. They will welcome your follow-up call and efforts to further the relationship.
Message No. 3: This is what I want you to know about me.
Now you are ready to broadcast your “elevator speech”—your 30-second answer to “What do you do?” In fact, if you have successfully managed the first two messages, the other person will ask about you, your area of expertise and your needs—and be significantly more attentive than if you had offered the information in the first place. If you have been very giving, other people will look to reciprocate with their ideas, contacts and maybe even their business.
Passion Put Succinctly
So what is your marketing message? Does it convey competence with minimal status cues? Does it indicate that you, or your firm, are unique in some way? Does it provide information that enables the listener to refer clients to you?
One of the most effective lawyer elevator speeches I’ve heard was given by Nina Kaufman, founding partner of Paltrowitz & Kaufman LLP in New York City: “My law practice is dedicated to helping small businesses grow.” This jargon-free message established Kaufman as a problem-solver with a specific target client market that I could understand. The result was powerful. It prompted me to learn more about her, and I’ve gone on to refer potential clients and excellent referral sources to her. Where she went to school or her prior employment history is irrelevant in light of what she can do for my colleagues and me.
How can you achieve the same effect? Any lawyer can create an elevator speech that engages prospects. The key is to succinctly state your passion or your ideal type of client. Avoid the “we do everything” pitfall. “We do everything” sends two signals, neither of which is positive:
- Your practice lacks focus.
- You’ll take whatever comes along to make a buck.
It also makes prospective contacts work too hard to see if they would really fit with your practice. Just give the non-lawyers a one- or two-sentence tidbit that they can easily remember. That way, you’re much more likely to come to mind when they, or their contacts, need your services.
You never know who someone knows. Every interaction, whether with a lawyer or a non-lawyer, is an opportunity to spread your message. Make sure it is a message that is well received and you’ll be in for a wet forecast indeed.
Melissa Janis creates and delivers programs that improve North Fork Bank's ability to connect with clients in order to help them to achieve their financial goals.
“Scoring Clients: Master Your Rainmaking Messages” by Melissa Janis, published in Law Practice Management, Volume 30, No. 2, March 2004. © 2004 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced by permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.
