Prospecting Among Nonprofit Boards: A Case Study

You've heard the story before and it goes like this. A hardworking associate has served the firm well and is made partner, but he has no practice development experience and no business. Now, he is advised that his world has changed and he must get out from behind his desk and generate business. Notwithstanding his status as a top-performing attorney, he now faces the painful task of prospecting for new clients. Does this sound familiar?

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.”

The MD arranges for the partner to interview with the executive director of a tony yacht club in one of the “potential client rich” Long Island communities, and preps him on a stance to take during the meeting. The result was that this partner was invited to join the Yacht Club Board. There were no attorneys on the Board. He represents exactly the new breed of Board member the Club was looking for.

Six weeks after attending his first Board meeting, the partner receives a call from the President of the Board inviting him to review a $6 million transaction. The bottom line: he got his first new client, and was well poised to get more business from this same client.

The moral of the story is that Boards of Directors of nonprofit organizations represent a terrific starting point for an attorney looking to prospect for new business. Through intensive research and interviewing, an MD can make a match between an attorney and a nonprofit Board, whether it is a trade group or industry association, a cause-related health group, a cultural organization, a large, well-established social service, a civic agency or a religious institution.

When the question is: “How do I meet prospective new clients?” One very commendable response might be, “Prospect among the Boards of nonprofit organizations.”

You've heard the story before and it goes like this. A hardworking associate has served the firm well and is made partner, but he has no practice development experience and no business. Now, he is advised that his world has changed and he must get out from behind his desk and generate business. Notwithstanding his status as a top-performing attorney, he now faces the painful task of prospecting for new clients. Does this sound familiar?

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.”

The MD arranges for the partner to interview with the executive director of a tony yacht club in one of the “potential client rich” Long Island communities, and preps him on a stance to take during the meeting. The result was that this partner was invited to join the Yacht Club Board. There were no attorneys on the Board. He represents exactly the new breed of Board member the Club was looking for.

Six weeks after attending his first Board meeting, the partner receives a call from the President of the Board inviting him to review a $6 million transaction. The bottom line: he got his first new client, and was well poised to get more business from this same client.

The moral of the story is that Boards of Directors of nonprofit organizations represent a terrific starting point for an attorney looking to prospect for new business. Through intensive research and interviewing, an MD can make a match between an attorney and a nonprofit Board, whether it is a trade group or industry association, a cause-related health group, a cultural organization, a large, well-established social service, a civic agency or a religious institution.

When the question is: “How do I meet prospective new clients?” One very commendable response might be, “Prospect among the Boards of nonprofit organizations.”