Firm Survival
By Adam Radzik
Consultant to Professional Firms

Everybody knows that professional firms have to achieve a certain minimal revenue in order to survive. Everybody is also cognizant that there are specific individuals who have historically displayed the ability to bring in the business that has allowed the firm to pay its bills. Everybody would also agree that it takes a certain amount of time to cultivate those important marketing relationships. Additionally, we would hope everyone would realize in order to spend the considerable amount of time that marketing requires, that the annual billings expected of other attorneys, should not apply to the significant business-getters. Their billings expectations should be reduced by 25%, 35% or even 50%. For example, if the expected goal was 1,800 billable hours per attorney, the business-getters should be expected to bill no more than 1,400; 1,200; or even 1,000 hours. The newly available hours would be devoted exclusively to marketing. It should also be remembered that there would still be the expectation that hundreds of additional hours would be devoted to administration, supervision, receivable collections, committee work, staff education, mentoring and other non-billable but required activities. The impact of freeing up seasoned and skilled marketers is that they will have substantially more time to market and, predictably, will bring in more business. This will help to ensure that everyone else in the firm is kept consistently busy.

Oddly enough, this described scenario is NOT how it often and actually turns out. What occurs at many firms is that the talented rainmakers bill many hours along with everybody else and devote additional hours to bringing in the business that allows the firm to survive.

The positive impact of this on the firm is that it does yield the additional billed hours that the business-getter produces. However, the negative impact is that it loses the value of the business that he or she would have brought in had the time been devoted to marketing. It is simply not a good business decision. The amount of money billed by the business-getter would in all likelihood be dwarfed dramatically by the business that the same person would have brought in to the firm had the same hours been devoted to marketing.

“Our budget requires, that every partner bill the expected number of hours in order to make it.” I have heard this rationale dozens of times, but the logic is a misdiagnosis. What is true is that the firm will not survive if the business-getters do not have the requisite time to bring in enough business.

Let’s examine the fallout that inevitably occurs in situations where the firm subtly or overtly expects the business-getters to be big billers as well as substantial marketers. The business-getters end up working crazy hours; become resentful, irritable, and angry. They then become unreasonable and eventually burn out. Their spouses are unhappy, their children and friends are unhappy and they become profoundly unhappy. Frustrated and disgusted, many of them leave their firms for more sane pastures. Firms, who don’t give their business-getters reasonable expectations, pay a hefty price.

My advice to professional firms is to revise your billing expectations for your top business-getters. Tell them you do not want them to bill more than a minimal amount of hours. Tell them you want them to spend their time in the most valuable way —marketing all of your firm’s services!

Remember, you are not taking much of a risk. Your business-getters have already proven that they can get the job done. All you will be doing is giving them the opportunity to do it!

If you would like to learn more about motivating your
marketing stars to outperform themselves , contact SIC today!

New Book on Conflict Coming Soon!

Many years ago Adam Radzik formed a publishing company called Life Improvement Press. Its purpose is to publish books that help people deal with the daunting challenges of relationships. The first book, Quick Guide on™ Conflict Resolution — How to act before, during and after the argument, authored by Adam Radzik, is nearing completion. These are excerpts from the book: “Remember, he who always has to have everything his way, will be hated...Arguing is worth the effort if you continue to be invested in the relationship...Do not assign every issue grave importance and heavy drama...Shouting is nothing less than an oral form of violence...” The final touches for this volume, which include jacket design and interior design, are being completed as of the writing of this newsletter. It is estimated that Quick Guide on™ Conflict Resolution will sell for $14.95 and will be available on the SIC Web site, www.salesimprovement.com, winter 2006. Upcoming books include Loving Yourself, Identifying and Escaping Abuse and Relationship Recovery.