Cold Truth: Business Development is Relationship Development

I couldn't make my grandparents' 60th, so I made a sign and sent a photo. A small touch, and highly effective.

The average annual temperature at McMurdo Station is 0° Fahrenheit. At the extremes, the range swings from mid-40s above zero to mid-50s below. During my year in Antarctica, I saw t-shirt weather on a summer day and -112° windchill in deep winter.

Business development activities similarly span a vast range. At the extremes, BD can be as simple as liking a LinkedIn post (for real) or as complex as staging a major event for hundreds of clients. 

At each extreme, however, the goal remains the same: develop relationships. 

Keynote Principle 2: Business development is relationship development.

Lawyers who haven't done much BD assume it's complicated. That conclusion reveals a flaw in the system: lawyers are constantly told to do BD without being shown how. 

More critically, most lawyers are never encouraged to develop business in ways that are natural to them. Instead, they assume they should emulate other rainmakers' successes without ever being clear how those rainmakers succeeded in the first place. 

How it feels in too many firms.

Spoiler alert: Most rainmakers do many small things habitually to build trust and care with prospects and clients over time. 

• They call their clients without agenda just to ask how things are going. 

• They ask what clients and prospects do for fun, away from work. 

• They learn about families, vacations, and milestones.

Rainmakers also make small touchpoints count by going a step farther than most people would: 

• See a work anniversary on LinkedIn? Don't just post a "Congrats" and keep scrolling. Call the client and congratulate them personally. 

• Spot a press release from one branch of a client or prospect that could raise issues for in-house counsel later? Send a quick email and offer to chat. 

• Planning a blog post or article on a timely topic? Invite a client or prospect to co-author, then do the heavy lifting. After all, you're already going to do the work. Why not turn that thought leadership into direct BD while you are at it?

When you recast business development as relationship development, the range of options and opportunities becomes much easier to see. 

At every turn, effective business developers find ways to show clients and prospects they are thinking about them. And not in gross transactional ways, but in meaningful personal and professional ways. 

My grandparents celebrated their 60th anniversary while I was hunkered down in the darkness of Antarctic winter. It was disappointing to miss their milestone, but once I considered it critically and creatively, it didn't take long to find a way to show them I cared. 

It similarly doesn't take extremes to show people we care about that we are thinking of them. When you recast business development as relationship development, the range of options and opportunities becomes much easier to see. 

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Adapted from the keynote:

From Antarctica With Love: Five Principles to Go From Ice-Cold Novice to Red-Hot Rainmaker

Principle 2: Business Development is Relationship Development.

Email matt@axismatters.com or DM me to bring the keynote to your next retreat or annual meeting.