Make your association memberships pay off

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By Tom Kane
Dolan Newswires

When it comes to association memberships, the first thing lawyers do is join the right organizations — those in which clients, referral sources and prospective clients hang out — and be active in them.

It’s that simple, right?

There is a caveat. Joining a business, trade, civic or charitable organization does nothing for generating business in and of itself. Some lawyers think if their bios list 20 organizations they belong to, clients will be impressed, which will lead to work. Well, forget it.

How should you go about taking advantage of your memberships? Here are a couple of ways:

Choose carefully

The best associations to get involved in are those that will lead to more business. In most cases, that does not mean charitable organizations (though, obviously, you can meet potentially great clients who are involved with those entities).

My point is that there are good civic, religious and honorable reasons for being active in such groups, but for business reasons, stick with those in which your clients and others like them are more likely to be found.

And don’t join too many. It’s better to join just a couple with which you will be actively involved and that actually are likely to lead to business.

Be active

Raise your profile within an association by volunteering to help the organization reach its goals. Offer to serve on committees and subcommittees that other lawyers may not be interested in.

Some roles are looked upon as grunt work by some attorneys and not worthy of a great legal mind’s involvement. That’s nonsense. If the organization is worthy of your participation and that of your desired clients, there are no unworthy efforts when it comes to assisting it in reaching its goals.

Also consider running for a leadership position, if possible. Of course, some trade groups only permit lawyers as affiliate or associate members. But the opportunity to head up projects or task groups may very well be there for the taking.

Again, the purpose is to be visible and raise your profile among the group’s members.

Taking advantage of your membership by benefiting from the organization’s networking meetings and conferences is another profile-raising maneuver. At such events, work the room effectively by not spending too much time conversing with the same person or group or with people you already know.

Remember, the purpose is to meet as many potential clients or referral sources as you can.

Apply the 20/20 rule: Get there 20 minutes early and stay 20 minutes after the event ends.

By being early, you can check out name tags for people you would like to speak with, and by being near the entrance, you will be able to meet and talk with key people as they arrive, when they are not yet engaged in other conversations.

And seeing people off by speaking with them at the conclusion of the event is another way to be remembered. Yours may be the last face they see before heading home.

Do your homework

If you can get a list of attendees in advance, that’s ideal. Review the list and identify people you would like to engage. If that’s not an option, do some in-depth research (if you haven’t already as a member) about the organization: officers, board of advisors, mission, goals, news events, etc. Check out the website and annual report.

The more you know about the association, the more intelligent you will appear at its networking events.

If you do it in the right way, your membership in the right organizations can pay big dividends.