Prospecting Among Nonprofit Boards: A Case Study

A case study: After years of doing a fantastic job serving firm clients, a young associate makes partner, and soon after is encouraged by his mentor, the head of the corporate department, to bring in business. He's advised to meet with the Marketing Director, develop a plan for growing his practice and begin building a book of his own business. What makes this situation even more challenging is that when he arrives at the Marketing Director's office, he says he didn't go to law school to become a salesman. The MD has the tough assignment of stroking his ego and getting him enthused about business development. The MD learns the service partner is starting at point zero: no contact nurturing, no contact database, hates networking and going to cocktail parties. Hopeless? Not so.

The MD then proceeds to ask lots of questions such as where he went to law school, what friends from law school he has, what positions they now hold, and in the course of servicing clients, whom has he met, what hobbies does he have, where does he worship, where does he live, etc. The MD learns that this attorney has an avid interest in yachting, and was, and still is, a competitor on the water. So the MD asks the partner if he belongs to a yacht club. The answer was not surprising. “No, thought about it and wanted to, but never got around to it.”