Target Markets
Prioritizing where to focus time and energy for the greatest return.
Business development training for lawyers
Business development has plenty of “you shoulds.”
It needs more “here’s how.”
- You should network more.
- You should be more visible.
- You should stay in touch.
- You should understand your clients.
- You should ask for the business.
None of that advice is bad. But few actually show how.
That’s the work: turning familiar advice into something a lawyer can actually do—at the right stage of their career, and in a way that fits their practice, market and style.
Five disciplines. Developed over a career. Built around the lawyer.
To develop business effectively, lawyers need command of five core disciplines.
Visibility
Becoming known by the right people for the right things.
Relationships
Building, maintaining and advancing the relationships that matter.
Opportunity Generation
Staying abreast of what is happening in a business and connecting it to potential legal need.
Winning Work
Knowing how to pursue an opportunity beyond simply pitching and move it toward “Yes.”
What command looks like changes over a lawyer’s career. So does the “how.”
The five disciplines remain the same. But what deserves emphasis—and what lawyers need to be able to do—shifts as they advance.
Relationships
Junior Associate
Start with relationships.
At this stage, business development is less about generating business and more about beginning to build the relationships and comfort that will matter later.
Priorities
- Build relationships inside the firm
- Learn how to network comfortably
- Stay in touch with people already in their world
Visibility · Relationships
Mid-Level Associate
Start building the pieces of a future business development practice.
This is where lawyers begin to become more intentional about how they are known, where they spend their time and how they build and maintain professional relationships.
Priorities
- Notice where their work, interests and relationships are starting to cluster
- Begin to shape how they are known professionally
- Talk effectively about their practice
- Get involved somewhere and practice networking
- Build and grow new professional relationships
- Be more intentional about internal relationships
- Proactively keep in touch with existing client and professional contacts
Business Development, Foundations
A 60–90 minute program built around the business development priorities of mid-level associates.
Target Markets · Visibility · Relationships · Opportunity Generation
Senior Associate
Start putting the pieces together.
Experience, relationships and reputation are already developing. Now the work becomes more intentional: choosing where to focus, increasing visibility, advancing important relationships and beginning to recognize where business opportunity may exist.
Priorities
- Identify target markets that make sense for their practice
- Become more strategic about where they get involved and visible
- Build visibility through writing, speaking and firm opportunities
- Advance and deepen important professional relationships
- Bridge personal relationships into professional opportunity
- Translate business activity into potential legal opportunity
Business Development, Activated
A 60–90 minute program that helps senior associates bring these pieces together and start using them more intentionally to develop business.
Target Markets · Visibility · Relationships · Opportunity Generation
New Partner
Turn business development into a deliberate part of building your practice.
The expectation changes. New partners need to focus their effort, strengthen their market presence and begin creating opportunities rather than simply preparing for them.
Priorities
- Prioritize the target markets where they will focus their BD effort
- Get actively involved in the right places and build a stronger market presence
- Use writing, speaking and other visibility opportunities more consistently
- Focus on and actively develop the relationships most important to their practice
- Initiate opportunity conversations naturally
- Look for additional opportunities within existing clients
Business Development, Accelerated
A 60–90 minute program that helps new partners focus their business development effort and begin creating opportunity more intentionally.
Opportunity Generation · Winning Work
Partner
Know how to turn opportunity into work.
Generating opportunity still matters. But once real business is on the table, partners also need to know how to sell it—from the first discovery conversation through agreement on the work.
Priorities
- Continue generating opportunities within existing clients
- Expand client relationships by bringing in other firm capabilities
- Conduct discovery conversations
- Lead solution conversations
- Choreograph the meeting experience
- Navigate objections and concerns
- Gain agreement on budget and value
- Advance opportunities to “Yes”
Business Development, Won
A 60–90 minute program focused on what happens once real opportunity is on the table, and how partners turn it into work.
Built around the lawyer.
The goal isn’t to turn every lawyer into the same kind of business developer.
Two lawyers at the same career stage may develop business very differently. Their practices are different. Their markets are different. So are their strengths, interests, relationships and styles.
One lawyer may build visibility by speaking. Another may be better suited to writing or becoming deeply involved in an industry organization. One may have a natural market emerging from existing relationships. Another may need to choose where to focus much more deliberately.
The five disciplines provide the structure. The lawyer determines how they come to life.
That’s why the work isn’t about handing lawyers someone else’s rainmaking playbook. It’s about helping them make smart choices, build the capabilities they need, and develop business in a way that makes sense for who they are and the practice they want to build.
Twenty-plus years later, the “how” is still the hard part.
I’ve spent more than two decades helping lawyers become better business developers.
Today, lawyers are far more aware that business development is part of the job. They know the familiar advice. Build relationships. Stay visible. Understand the client. Create opportunity.
What hasn’t changed enough is the gap between knowing what to do and knowing how to do it well.
That gap is where I do my best work.
Over the years, my work has reached 40% of the Am Law 200, thousands of lawyers in training programs, and hundreds more through individual coaching.
What matters most to me, though, is what lawyers say happens on the other side of that work: business development feels clearer. The next step feels doable. They feel more confident trying things that once felt awkward or intimidating. And, in many cases, they build relationships, win work and change the way they approach their practices for good.
What do you want your lawyers to be able to do?
Whether you’re focused on senior associates, new partners, experienced partners—or development across career stages—let’s talk about the business development capabilities you want to build and which program makes sense.