<b>Practice Building Skills</b>: If You Fail to Plan, Then You Plan to Fail

Achieving success in your business development efforts takes a great deal of goal setting and planning. Would you begin working on a matter without planning for the outcome you would like to achieve? When you think about the successes in your life, did they mostly occur by accident, or did you plan and work hard toward a goal? Our guess would be that most of the successes in your life came to you through your hard work and planning, and sometimes even with some sacrifices. Successful business development occurs in much the same way.

How to Plan

In the course of your busy work schedule, it is sometimes hard to get everything done. It is easy to get overwhelmed with daily activities and lose track of time. Unless you specifically plan time to include business development activities in your daily, weekly and monthly schedule they will fall by the wayside. You must make the time for business development if you want to advance in your career. It is imperative that you spend two to three hours per week implementing your business development action plan. The first step in creating this plan is to focus on a goal. Think about what type of work you would like to do and what a good potential client might look like. How much business would you like to develop? What are your personal strengths and weaknesses? In what types of prospecting activities do you believe you would excel? Do you have many personal and business contacts, or do you enjoy meeting new people and attending networking events? Perhaps you enjoy getting involved in charities, or writing articles. Before you develop your action plan, decide which activities would best fit in with your situation and personality style.

Four Elements

In developing your action plan it is important to consider four elements. The first element to consider is what activities will be in your plan. Will you choose to get involved in marketing and advertising, or instead, learn how to ask for and get referrals from current clients and contacts? You might decide to attend networking events, write a white paper, or develop a web site or newsletter. The second element to consider is your budget. Track the dollars you spend on business development and decide which activities are the most cost effective for you. The third element is to track your time. As professionals, you do not have extra time to waste on activities that are not working for you. Track how much time each of your business development activities is costing you. The last element to consider is your return on investment (ROI). It is important that you spend time on productive activities that are leading to business generation. Create your plan and measure the results.

Conclusion

It is important to understand, that for most of us, business development skills do not come naturally. It is helpful to have a coach or mentor who will help us to development and implement these skills, and to hold us accountable.

Consider what will happen if you don't plan for and succeed in business development. You will most likely lose control over your career and may even become a part of someone else's plan. On the other hand, consider what could happen if you really become an expert in business development. If you set goals, focus on those goals and make a plan to achieve those goals, you can insure your success.

Chuck Polin and Evan Polin are Partners at The Training Resource Group (http://www.trainingresourcegroup.com/). They provide professional coaching and training to law firms and attorneys (both associates and partners) who are looking to build their practice. Chuck and Evan can be reached at 215-320-4650.

Achieving success in your business development efforts takes a great deal of goal setting and planning. Would you begin working on a matter without planning for the outcome you would like to achieve? When you think about the successes in your life, did they mostly occur by accident, or did you plan and work hard toward a goal? Our guess would be that most of the successes in your life came to you through your hard work and planning, and sometimes even with some sacrifices. Successful business development occurs in much the same way.

How to Plan

In the course of your busy work schedule, it is sometimes hard to get everything done. It is easy to get overwhelmed with daily activities and lose track of time. Unless you specifically plan time to include business development activities in your daily, weekly and monthly schedule they will fall by the wayside. You must make the time for business development if you want to advance in your career. It is imperative that you spend two to three hours per week implementing your business development action plan. The first step in creating this plan is to focus on a goal. Think about what type of work you would like to do and what a good potential client might look like. How much business would you like to develop? What are your personal strengths and weaknesses? In what types of prospecting activities do you believe you would excel? Do you have many personal and business contacts, or do you enjoy meeting new people and attending networking events? Perhaps you enjoy getting involved in charities, or writing articles. Before you develop your action plan, decide which activities would best fit in with your situation and personality style.

Four Elements

In developing your action plan it is important to consider four elements. The first element to consider is what activities will be in your plan. Will you choose to get involved in marketing and advertising, or instead, learn how to ask for and get referrals from current clients and contacts? You might decide to attend networking events, write a white paper, or develop a web site or newsletter. The second element to consider is your budget. Track the dollars you spend on business development and decide which activities are the most cost effective for you. The third element is to track your time. As professionals, you do not have extra time to waste on activities that are not working for you. Track how much time each of your business development activities is costing you. The last element to consider is your return on investment (ROI). It is important that you spend time on productive activities that are leading to business generation. Create your plan and measure the results.

Conclusion

It is important to understand, that for most of us, business development skills do not come naturally. It is helpful to have a coach or mentor who will help us to development and implement these skills, and to hold us accountable.

Consider what will happen if you don't plan for and succeed in business development. You will most likely lose control over your career and may even become a part of someone else's plan. On the other hand, consider what could happen if you really become an expert in business development. If you set goals, focus on those goals and make a plan to achieve those goals, you can insure your success.

Chuck Polin and Evan Polin are Partners at The Training Resource Group (http://www.trainingresourcegroup.com/). They provide professional coaching and training to law firms and attorneys (both associates and partners) who are looking to build their practice. Chuck and Evan can be reached at 215-320-4650.