Coach Your Lawyers On Client Development The Apple Way

Developing the Next Generation of Rainmakers Coach Your Lawyers on Client Development the Apple Way In 2007, I bought a Mac PowerBook for myself and for Joyce with the intention of converting  my entire office to Mac. But, I continued to use my PC. It was simply easier to use the PC because I did not have to think about how to use the various  programs. I had done it for years. Realizing that merely owning the Mac was not going to be enough, I bought a book titled  Switching to the Mac. But, simply reading the book was not enough. Several  times, I almost gave up on my Mac conversion. It was just too challenging and stressful  to learn something so different and change the way I was doing business. Then, I discovered  two things. First, for a very modest annual fee, I could get one-on-one lessons as often as once a week at my local Apple store. Second, I discovered that Apple produced a weekly one-minute video podcast on topics that were really helpful to me. These are both examples of how Apple coaches its customers. As a result of this coaching, in January of 2008, I went cold turkey and completely switched over to Mac. Each day using the programs on my Mac became more of a habit and far less stressful. Now, I tell people I will never buy another PC and, if I am asked to do anything on a PC I get stressed because I have forgotten how to use it. So, what does my Mac experience mean to your law firm lawyers? Among other things, this means that just having a speaker come in and teach how to develop business will likely not cause the lawyers in your firm to change what they are doing. I give many presentations at law firm retreats on client development. I motivate  and inspire young lawyers and give them practical tips they can implement to bring clients into the firm.  I realize that no matter how well my presentation goes, very few lawyers will retain the information and even fewer will actually make the changes necessary to apply what they have learned. To get your young lawyers more involved in client development, break down your training into smaller components and let them implement those components a piece at a time. After all, you are not teaching them how to do a client development crash diet. Instead you are teaching them how to make a life style change. I practiced law for 37 years developing a national construction law practice representing some of the top highway and transportation construction contractors in the US.