BY JODI SOKOLOWSKI
Buffalo Law Journal

There are rainmakers, mistmakers and laborers. No, we're not talking about weather inducers or farmers, but professionals who might also be described using the terms finders, minders and grinders.

"You need all of them to be a real success," said Donald Hahn, managing partner of Hahn Sales Training, who teaches a course called "Rainmaking Basics."

Rainmaking is the art of bringing new clients to a professional practice, particularly in the law, accounting, architecture and engineering fields.

In the legal arena, rainmakers are the "finders" who bring in clients so that the "minders" can nurture those newfound relationships while the "grinders" do the grunt work, explained David Brock, a Jaeckle Fleischmann & Mugel LLP partner.

While the goal for most professionals is to move up that ladder, not all have the innate personality traits and skills that make for a good rainmaker.

"Some have the ability to be successful minders, but not necessarily the motivation to go the next step," Brock said.

"It takes someone with strong interpersonal skills, the ability to build rapport with people, be gregarious and outgoing with a certain amount of assertiveness," Hahn said. "You have to be flexible and a risk-taker."

While most people can't change their self-concept or personality, Hahn said, they can adapt their behavior in order to act more like a salesperson.

"It's a myth that sales is (for) that manipulative person who abuses people's time," Hahn said. "It's top-of-mind awareness so you become their first call."

And because lawyers tend to be tactical, most have a hard time pushing away from their desks and looking outward to new potential connections.

"There's a balancing act of devoting time every day to practicing law and also doing what they're not comfortable doing - investing time to build" their practice, Hahn said. "Many firms are so focused on billable hours that they lose the growth."

He believe's that's because most educational institutions teach the theory but not the practical elements of a profession.

"When attorneys come out of school, they're extremely proficient in law. But then they hang a shingle and find out, ‘Oh my God, I have to build my business,' " Hahn said. "It's culture shock."

All about face time

Rainmaking is not as hard as it sounds, Brock said. It's as subtle as meeting someone for coffee at 7:30 a.m. before the workday starts, popping into a client's office to ask if they need anything or sending along an article about something you know a colleague has an interest in.

"It's a face-to-face process and small things that are nothing more than common sense," Brock said. "It's about keeping yourself out there without having to say to them, ‘Give me your work.' "

Brock said one of his biggest clients grew out of once-a-month coffee meetings.

"It took a couple of years, but after a few false starts they were off on a new business venture, and I was the lawyer" they immediately wanted to work with, he said.

Networking across industries, such as attorneys meeting with accountants or financial planners, takes the rainmaking concept a step further. The idea is not to find new clients among existing or prospective clients, but through their sources of referrals.

"These are people to develop and maintain ongoing relationships with," Brock said. "There's a big push to develop (relationships) with emerging businesses like life sciences."

The pressure is on for all lawyers to constantly work on business development. That's an evolution from the traditional model of senior partners, serving as the finders, bringing in all the work for the associates, or grinders.

"It's a succession plan to partnership," Hahn said, "so when partners retire, there's a viable revenue stream."

The area of law lawyers practice in may have lots to do with their rainmaking styles. Rainmaking involving civil litigation, such as personal-injury law, is more of a one-shot deal that requires strong closing skills, rather than in corporate litigation, which is more about building long-term relationships day in and day out, Hahn said.

"It's apples and oranges," he said. "There are different ways to go fishing. You can use a hook and try to snag something or you can choose a pond populated with the right fish, cast a net and choose the ones that are the keepers."