Category: Client Development

One day, quite a few years ago, I was out for lunch with a banker who I will call Neal. Neal was a commercial account manager at a large Canadian Bank. As I always did at such meetings, I asked Neal, “how can I help you?”  (For those of you who need a masterclass in networking, this is how you do it.  You don’t tell referral sources how great you are, how your firm provides better quality services at lower prices, and all of the usual boring stuff. You ask people, “how can I help you?”)

“According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.”                   Jerry Seinfeld

Early in my career I spoke to a group of lawyers about opinion letters. I was awful. I read the entire presentation, which was chock full of technical details, and bored the audience to tears. To this day, if I close my eyes, I can still hear them snoring and crying at the same time.