Welcome to ILN-terviews, a series of profiles of ILN member firm attorneys, designed to give a unique insight into the lawyers who make up our Network. For our latest interview, we chose ILN member, Anders Lundberg of Hellström in Stockholm, Sweden.
In one sentence, how would you describe your practice?
It’s a business law practice
Today’s Ask Friday! question comes from legal client/business development coach and teacher, Cordell Parvin, who suggested today’s post focus on "How to ask for business."
To answer this, I went back into our archives to find LegalBizDev’sJim Hassett’s thoughts on this very subject. Since Jim’s an expert in this, I’ll give you his suggestions for how to ask for business from our 2009 webinar series with links to some resources on his site (we’ll start with some planning tips):
Meet the Right People: Jim suggests that the attorneys start with a plan, which should include defining their niche, defining their ideal clients, meeting the right people, and then qualifying the prospects into who will buy, who will buy soon, and who will buy from them.
Once you have your plan in place, you can start working on getting that new business.
This week’s Ask Friday! question comes to us from Jennifer Herendeen, the Marketing Manager for Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton. She asks "What are typical items included in a marketing/business development budget? I’m trying to create a first ever budget at my firm."
I think this is a question that a lot of
Today, we held our annual luncheon at the INTA conference for ILN members. I always enjoy this lunch because I get to meet and reconnect with attorneys who are not necessarily attendees of our Regional and Annual Meetings.
We had a wonderful lunch again today at One Market Restaurant here in San Francisco, with great
This week’s Ask Friday! answers the question of what blogs I read. I’ll break this down into three categories – ILN member blogs, the blogs I read for professional reasons and growth, and the blogs I read for fun – feel free to add your favorites to the list in the comments!
Professional Blogs:
With our Annual Meeting coming up in just a few short weeks, I wanted to dedicate this week’s "Ask Friday" to the question of "how can I make the most out of attending a conference?" You might think that just showing up and attending the events is enough, but with a little bit of strategy, your pre, during and post conference activities can really make a difference in your experience.
Pre-Conference
Before heading to the conference, take a few minutes to look over the agenda and the attendee list (if it’s available). The agenda can give you an idea of what topics will be discussed and where you can contribute – when you contribute to a discussion (especially in a conference like ours where the main purpose is to develop relationships), it can help people to identify you with a certain area of expertise, and make you a thought leader who is sought out for later conversations. It also makes you easier to remember.
Review the attendee list and identify who you’d like to build relationships with. This can seem a bit "icky," but you know where your clients are doing business, so it’s a good idea to connect with possible referral partners so that you start to build that level of trust necessary for referring work. You may even see someone on the list that seems to have a cool job, or a unique value proposition – meet these people just to expand your horizons if nothing else. When we stretch our comfort zones, that’s when we really learn and grow.