Partnership Track: Making Rain

One of the keys to opening the partnership door is rainmaking. Business brought to the firm is one of the most obvious indicators of an individual contributor's impact on the bottom line.

Unfortunately, there are not many classes on rainmaking in law school. While not everyone has a natural knack for selling their services, it is a skill that can be learned. RainToday.com provides a handy online resource with online articles, complimentary white papers, and complimentary podcasts.

For example, "6 Lead Generation Insights for 2007" (available for free download) provides an excellent primer on business development. It is a 21 page executive summary of the more complete What's Working in Lead Generation described as "a benchmark report on how to spend your time, energy, & money for the best ROI in B2B professional services." The excerpt below gives you a glimpse of what you can expect to find inside.

Caveat: Provide value in your marketing

Lead nurturing is not calling your targets every 2 weeks to ask them if they are ready to buy your services yet.

Lead nurturing is your opportunity to demonstrate the value you can provide and position yourself as a resource. Send 1-to-1 communications using the phone, email, and mail that include a value based offer such as an article that addresses your prospect’s challenge, an invitation to a networking event, seminar, or webinar that might be of interest to them (even better if you are the one speaking at the event), a white paper, etc.