Small Business Development Acts for Heavy Work Times
- Matt Plavnick
- Aug 8
- 2 min read
What are 2-3 small things you can do (in 10 minutes or less) each week to keep prospective clients warm even while you are overwhelmed by billable activity?
Maybe you've already built a habit of tending to your prospects during intense periods of work. If not, please read on.
Small Touches: Think about small actions that would benefit the 5-15 most meaningful prospective clients and referral sources you are developing. For example:
Forward an article about state or federal law updates with your own brief points relevant to them/their clients.
Comment on their LinkedIn posts, or share someone else's post specifically with your contact and share why you think it could help.
Send a handwritten note, especially a thank you note or celebration of a milestone of theirs.
Reach out to someone ahead of an event that you'll both attend and make a plan to meet there.
Make an introduction that will benefit both parties.
Generosity, Not Need: These actions (and many more) show your contacts that you are thinking about them when they aren't thinking about you. More importantly, they show that you care about them even when you DON'T need anything from them.
Why Does Small BD Matter? Exercising these small habits helps to ensure that, when your current exploding matter or heavy period of work resolves, you won't need to restart BD efforts from zero—and in a position of need. Your clients and prospects can smell that need from miles off, and, news flash, they don't love it.
If contacts haven't seen or heard from you lately, they may well send that next matter to an equally qualified lawyer they have heard from, if only because that's who comes to mind.
Recency Often Wins: Even when work is raining down, step back and take a few minutes to think about who you want to keep in touch with and what they will appreciate hearing from you. It's easy to lose sight of BD when you are drowning in work, and yet that's often the most important time to keep steadily at it.
Why? Because clients send work based on recency as much as any other factor. If they haven't seen or heard from you lately, they may well send that next matter to an equally qualified lawyer they have heard from, if only because that's who comes to mind.
Remember, you're not trying to land the engagement in one action. You are building relationships and goodwill. Don't overthink it. Small acts add up and can make a big difference down the line, when you suddenly find yourself unsure where your next matter will come from.
