Most Lawyers Will Fail at Business Development in 2007 Except Those Who Attend January Marketing Conference in Chicago, Say Faculty Members at PBDI
CHICAGO– LAWFUEL – Legal Marketing + Law Jobs – Most of America’s 1+ million lawyers, who are viewed by the general public as smooth-talking wealthy individuals, will have mediocre financial results in 2007 compared with other professionals, because they do not know how to get new business, according to two marketing experts.
Larry Bodine and Michael Cummings, business development advisors who are sponsoring a conference “Developing Your Personal Marketing Plan for 2007” in Chicago on January 13, said that research and their own experience explodes the prosperous, persuasive lawyer myth.
“Lawyers, who can be very strategic about a case or business transaction, fail to apply this discipline to their own business,” said Bodine, a faculty member of the Professional Business Development Institute (www.PBDI.org), which is presenting the Chicago marketing conference.
The median lawyer income is $90,290 according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The public misperception about huge lawyer revenues is based on articles about a small number of business-getters who gross more than $1 million.
“In contrast, a minority of lawyers will draft a written business development plan for 2007,” said Cummings, also a PBDI faculty member. “These lawyers are known as ‘rainmakers.’”
Most lawyers are introverts who would prefer to work in their offices rather then generate new business, according to Bodine, a lawyer and marketer with 15 years’ experience. Several research studies have found that:
25% of lawyers cannot or will not sell
55% are willing to sell but don’t know how to sell
Only 20% are natural rainmakers.
The solution for the willing 55% is to get training, which is being offered at the “Developing Your Personal Marketing Plan for 2007” conference to be held at the Gleacher Center of the University of Chicago next month, said Bodine and Cummings, who will teach the day-long workshop. Each attendee will learn the secrets of generating new business and take home a personal business development plan.
“The program will transform a lawyer’s business development results,” said Cummings, who has 20+ years consulting experience in business development. Attorneys and law firm marketers who wish to attend can call (312) 217-3895 or register online instantly at www.PBDI.org.
