Give us your tired, your poor, your weary…
One of the ongoing challenges I have in law firm business development is effectively side-stepping the equity partners and non-equity partners who have few, if any, business development skills and/or simply lack interest in it (“It’s unseemly for a lawyer to have to ASK a client for business.”). However, managing partners rarely let you forget about these lost souls. In both firms where I have hung my hat, I felt management washed their hands of these attorneys by assigning their biz dev efforts to me. In both situations, I have been able to work around these folks by enrolling them in a few business development classes, completing a barebones marketing and biz dev plan, etc. But the time and attention they eat up means I have less time to support the real rainmakers. Plus their performance tends to weigh on my annual review. I have discussed the situation with managing partners at both of the firms and while they nod their heads in understanding, I still feel like I get dinged during the performance review. I don’t like to spend too much money on training this group because I don’t anticipate much ROI coming out of it.
Any readers have similar situations? What did you do to make the situation work?
Yeah, I’ve been there. I feel your pain.At the end of the day, clear marching orders from the management committee is of the utmost importance. It sounds like they are looking for the results (the closing of the sale), when the attorney is not capable of taking the steps to get there … thereby becoming YOUR problem. What I have done is (TRY) to rework the expectation and marching orders with the MP or ED. I remember sitting with the managing partner when he asked me to turn a service partner into a rainmaker. I layed out all of my ideas of what I could do to help. MP asked “what if it doesn’t work,” and I responded: “either find another rainmaker to service the practice, or get rid of him.” I don’t think he liked the answer, but it was the truth. When the guy couldn’t turn himself into a rainmaker, it became their problem … I had done everything that I could.I do not hold myself out to be a Pied Piper for new business. I am VERY clear in the interview that it is their job to go out and close the sale. I’ll help them ID and get there, I’ll coach ‘em and prep ‘em, but they will have to do the leg work.I think, sometimes, that in these “partnerships” it is easier for the lawyer/manager to make it OUR problem, rather than crack the whip on a “friend” they have known and worked with for 20 years. We get to be the bad guy, the scapegoat and punching bag. And, if all goes well, the attorney gets all the glory. I play the game enough to keep my sanity, and my job reviews clean. Might be a bit dysfunctional, but I do work in a law firm, lol.
The fastest way to fix this is to let non-attorney sales people into the fold.