A Coaching Session With Cordell What Was The Most Important Thing You Did To Build Your Practice

Developing the Next Generation of Rainmakers A Coaching Session with Cordell: What Was the Most Important Thing You Did to Build Your Practice? Seth Godin posted a blog recently titled:  On being discovered. In it he said something that describes my strategy and approach to developing business. Instead of hoping that people will find you, the alternative is to become the sort of person these people will go looking for. I was meeting with a group of lawyers I coach over dinner when one of them asked me what was the most important client development step I took. I  narrowed my focus. Why? One reason was my healthy paranoia. I was far more comfortable knowing a lot about a little than a little about a lot. But, I also narrowed my focus to attract clients. To borrow Seth Godin’s line, to become the sort of person construction contractors will go looking for when they need a lawyer. I discovered early in my career that marketing yourself as a commercial litigator or as a corporate lawyer is a challenge. If you are marketing to everyone, you are marketing to no one. How do you distinguish yourself from the hundreds of other commercial litigators or corporate lawyers in your city? When I narrowed from commercial litigation, to government contracts, to construction government contracts, to transportation construction government contracts, I better understood my potential clients needs and I received many more speaking and writing opportunities. In a few years, I was well known throughout the United States. How can you narrow your focus? You can either have a niche practice which is based on your specialty or you can have a targeted industry practice which is based on what your clients do. Even if you are a connector and networker, you can narrow the focus of the events you attend and become more focused on your best contacts. If you are interested in learning more, take a look at my slides from a program: Developing a Niche Portable Practice. I practiced law for 37 years developing a national construction law practice representing some of the top highway and transportation construction contractors in the US.