A Friday Coaching Session With Cordell If You Havent Seen Results From Your Client Development Efforts, Think About This

Developing the Next Generation of Rainmakers A Friday Coaching Session with Cordell: If You Haven’t Seen Results from Your Client Development Efforts, Think About This Some young lawyers I meet are very impatient. One associate I coached a couple of years ago sent me an email after one month of coaching. Here is what she said: Cordell, I have been doing everything we talked about when we had our first coaching session and everything you talked about to our coaching group and I haven’t gotten a new client yet. Am I being too hard on myself? I let her know that if she had actually gotten a new client in a month, she needed to take my place. I should also tell you that she stuck with it and is now a partner in her firm. I experienced frustration when I was a young lawyer. I had put my heart and soul into my business development and had not gotten results. Many times I wondered whether it was worth all the time I was putting in. A couple of senior lawyers in my firm routinely put my efforts down. I think they just wanted me to work on their clients. I also realized that some of my efforts were not fruitful. I kept on because I wanted to control my own destiny and not be dependent on senior lawyers. Whenever I got discouraged I pictured myself five years later with $500,000 in business. I also made client development a habit and tried to do something no matter how small each and every day.  There came a time about two years after I started to see results. Then I discovered that each of my client development efforts built on previous efforts I had made. Here is something to consider. I believe that less than 3% of young lawyers are making focused efforts at client development. If you are one of the 3% and you are frustrated that you are not seeing results yet, that is ok.  Think about why you are frustrated. It is because you are not content being average. The fact you are frustrated, just as I was many years ago, is the reason you will be successful. When I experienced the impatience you are experiencing, I did two things:   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.