Sales- July 30th, 2008

By Beth O. Seabright, Director of Marketing at Tucker Arensberg, PC in Pittsburgh, PA.  If you have questions about 99 Days or other business development programs, feel free to contact her directly at 412.594.5541 or bseabright@tuckerlaw.com.

When I joined my first law firm, I was surprised to learn that the majority of our associates -- some of whom were brand new, others had been with the firm for some time -- wanted to be rainmakers.  My professional background was in business development for accounting and architecture firms where the young professionals preferred to sit behind their desks, rather than see the light of day through marketing.    

I was inspired by these young, bright, outgoing individuals who were eager to build their own book of business, even right out of law school. The problem was that they didn't know where to begin.  When presented with opportunities to be published or present at a seminar, our group would hide in their offices behind closed doors.  At client events, associates would stick close with other associates, rather than branch off and introduce themselves to new contacts.  At lunch time, I would find groups of associates eating together, instead of picking up the phone and inviting a law school classmate who is now in-house counsel for a corporation or a potential referral source to get together. 

I realized that if these individuals were actually going to achieve their goal of becoming rainmakers, they needed some education and business development guidance.

With this in mind, I developed a program targeted to help associates understand business development concepts and begin to develop effective business development habits early in their legal career: The 99 Days Business Development Challenge.

The premise

Under the program, associates were given a list of various business development activities, all of which had a corresponding point value. Associates were challenged to accumulate 99 points based on their business development activities over the next 99 business days.  All associates that achieved their goal were rewarded with a $99 gift card to the restaurant or store of their choice.

Some of the point values included:

• 4 points for a prospect meeting
• 5 points for attending firm-sponsored events
• 6 points for speaking engagements
• 7 points for new matters
• 10 points for new clients. 

Other activities included meetings with referral sources, attending industry networking events and board meetings, publishing articles and strategy meetings with me.  Our goal was for the associates to pursue business development activities; any new business developed would be an added value of the program. 

99 Days was developed in conjunction with a monthly Associate Business Development lunch in which in a shareholder would join me in leading the discussion of a business development topic.  

Launching 99 Days

99 Days was introduced at our first Associate Business Development lunch.  The educational topic of the day was "Building Your Legal Practice." My co-presenter was one of our top rainmakers who described his personal story including the tactics that he used to target friends, law school classmates and other colleagues to bring in business.  He described how he built his national practice through publishing articles in trade journals and speaking at national conferences. 

After his talk, I launched the 99 Days program with the associates.  Fears that the associates would see this program as “hokey” or “a joke” faded when I could see the wheels in their heads turning as I described the program.  Inspired by the Shareholder's speech, they listened intently, asked questions and committed to the program. 

The initial requirements of the program were for the associates to develop a contact list of current clients, referral sources and prospects and then meet with me to develop a plan.  During our meeting, associates were given a 99 Day calendar adding the intended marketing activities by day. 

Built into the calendar were 9 checkpoints held every 11 days.  The associates were required to email me the business development activities that they had completed in that time frame.  I would take those activities, assign point totals and send out the point tallies to the entire associate group as well as to our Managing Shareholder.  Making the point tallies available for the entire group fostered healthy competition and inspired those who may not have participated, to participate.

To keep the momentum for the program going, we required all 99 Days participants to attend the associate Business Development lunches.  Topics covered throughout the program included “Successful Networking,” “What to Say and What Not to Say With a Prospect” and “Closing Deals.” 

Program Success

Though the associates were enthusiastic about the program throughout the entire 99 days, the last month of the program sparked a flurry of activity as the associates strived to achieve their goals.  My office became a revolving door of associates who planned meetings with me to review their contacts and discuss their strategy for calling individuals on their list.  Associates were volunteering to attend firm events and industry events so that they would have the opportunity to meet more contacts.  Also, associates were asking me to help them publish articles in various journals.  This was a complete turnaround from the group that I had seen when I joined the firm.  This group of bright, outgoing individuals that wanted to be rainmakers was doing the right things to pave the way rather than just talking about it.  

Ultimately over half of our associates racked up 99 points and the others were very close to the 99 point mark.  When I looked back at the point tallies with our management team, we were pleased with the business development activity that took place in just four months: 

• Nearly every associate completed a contact list and a business development plan
• Numerous meetings with clients/prospects/referral sources took place
• Several networking events were attended
• 5 articles were published
• 9 presentations were made
• 22 new matters were opened
• 19 new clients were brought into the firm.   

When we started the program, our goal was to help the associates build effective business development habits.  Though we expected some actual business development, we were impressed with the number of solid new, clients that came from this program. 

The feedback that I received from the associates was that the $99 gift card was a great incentive to get the ball rolling on their business development activities.  But ultimately, they enjoyed breaking out of their comfort zone enough to continue these activities even without an incentive dangling in front of them. This continuation of enthusiasm and business development activities exemplified the true success of the 99 Days Business Development Challenge program.