Every lawyer in private practice wants to develop a network of business contacts, referral sources, and influential business connections. People who can lead them to others and lead others to them.
Ready for some good news?
You don’t have to have a massive network to accomplish that. If they are the right people, you only need 5 or 10.
The right people are those who know have influence with people in your target market and are willing to work with you.
That means they like and trust you and want you to prosper, or believe you can be of value to their clients and contacts.
These people are worth their weight in gold, which is why you only need a few.
Where do you find these folks? Generally, not at formal networking events. The kinds of people you want to meet rarely attend these.
The best way to find influential people and connect with them is to deliberately target them.
That means identifying high quality prospective clients in your target market, or people who sell to or advise them, and creating a plan to meet them.
Sometimes, that can be as simple as contacting them and introducing yourself. But the most effective way to meet them is to talk to your existing network and find out who knows them and will introduce you, or let you use their name.
Where do you start? By identifying twenty or thirty key people in your target market. Make a list, study them, and create a plan to meet them.
What then? What do you do after you meet them? You find out what they need or want and help them get it.
That’s where the work begins.
It may sound daunting, but this is a lot easier than trying to build a network of hundreds of people who aren’t influential or won’t work with you.
Find out the top twenty or thirty people in your target market and focus on them. Because you only need a few.
How to find and meet lawyers and other referral sources in your target market
