Among the hundreds of lawyers we coach on business development each year at LeadWise Group, one frustration comes up again and again:
“I spend all this time networking, but it rarely turns into business.”
Sound familiar?
The problem isn’t that you’re doing it wrong. It’s that you’re using the wrong success metric.
The Seller-Buyer Mismatch
Picture any networking event: nearly everyone is there to “sell” something – their services, their skills, their ideas. But how many people show up ready to buy something, including legal services?
Very few.
That’s the core disconnect: There are lots of “sellers” and very few “buyers.” When we expect to walk away from networking activities with concrete business opportunities, we’re setting ourselves up for disappointment.
Only 3-5% Are Ready to Buy
Research shows that only 3-5%of your contacts are in a “ready to buy now” stage at any given time.
So if you walk into an event and meet someone who just so happens to have an immediate need for legal services, that’s not your BD brilliance; it’s mostly luck.
And luck is hard to replicate or scale.
A Better Way to Measure Networking Success
Instead of asking, “Did I meet someone who needs my services?” ask:
- How many strategic contacts did I identify?
- How many meaningful connections did I make?
- What did I learn about their business or industry?
- What did I learn about them personally?
These are the building blocks of developing an effective Relationship Nurture System (which I’ll talk about in future articles). And the best part is that they’re fully within your control.
Don’t Chase. Nurture.
The truth is: 90% of networking happens after the event. It’s the follow-up, the relationship-building, the staying-in-touch that turns a handshake into an opportunity.
So instead of chasing new leads at every event, focus on nurturing your existing network. That’s where the real BD leverage lies.
