Fire them. Hire me.

This is the extremely simplified version of what you are saying when trying to gain business from a client who is already using a competitor for the same services you provide. Some people do not like the first part because it seems crass, combative and a great deal like negative campaigning. Too bad. It is the decision that you are asking the client to make, so you need to take responsibility for putting them in this tough spot.

I have found that most pitches/beauty contests/dog and pony shows/etc. go something like this:

1. Thank you for giving us the opportunity


2. Since 1938, we have been dedicated to…


3. We have 4 locations and here are all the logos of our clients we stole off their web sites


4. Let us read you out loud all our capabilities of all our departments/practice areas


5. Biography parade


6. Conclusion: you should hire us because we are great and will offer some “value add” something or other

Change some of the details, and that is exactly what your competitors can say. You must differentiate yourself to a point where they don’t want to just hire you. They want to fire their current provider (in a nice way, I am sure).

When trying to unseat or take a share away from the incumbent, you have a few choices:

1. Say we are great and wait for the incumbent to fumble one day


2. Do the same work and charge discount prices (at little profit) to buy their business


3. Offer a new approach or new services that makes them think they are doing something NEW

Ideas? OK, here are a few:

• Cross sell in advance. Don’t sell Mergers & Acquisition services without employment, real estate and IP protection bundled in. When these issues are ignored in favor of “doing the deal”, mergers always seem to disappoint.


• Follow the client. Is the client going somewhere new? Expanding in China? New Jersey? Go there for the first time with them. By the way, you need to know this BEFORE their current firm does, so do your research and go ask them questions. Often.


• Alternative Fee Arrangements. What would happen if you walked in and proposed a flat fee for all their services? You would need to investigate and control your costs, but so does every business. Can you offer transparency and predictability in addition to your services?

It may very noble to perform the charge down the “we are great and will charge less” hill like a scene out of Braveheart and take the enemy head on. It is just not very smart.

Figure out a new approach that makes it easier for them to have that difficult conversation with their present provider instead of you.

Want to feel relaxed more often? Go for a run.

My favorite, most brilliant therapist I know, Renee Branson, wrote a great article on her attempt to relax over the weekend by running through barbed wire, fire and mud. This was not an audition for a Mad Max sequel. She was a contestant in the Warrior Dash: an arduous, 3.5 mile race through the woods with obstacles galore. I am sure she is still sore and cleaning mud out of her car. And, she is more relaxed.

Her article talked about the importance of managing the stress hormone, cortisol, that is part of everyone’s lives. It is a necessary, life preserving hormone. When a bear appears in your campground, it is what allows your fat little butt to run a five-minute mile. However, it takes a toll on the body. No free lunch, folks. You have heard that many times from me before.

Cortisol is a steroid. Like other steroids, it can produce a benefit from inhibiting certain body responses, but it comes with a cost. Increased cortisol levels are associated with lowered immune system efficiency, decreased libido and accumulation of belly fat. Lovely. By the way, you may have noticed that cortisone, as in cortisone injections, sounds very similar. And, it has similar effects.

Our daily lives are filled with stress. Unexpected stress that we are not used to handling makes our bodies start pumping cortisol into the bloodstream by the shovelful. However, after we become accustomed to stress that is part of our routine, cortisol production is decreased. That is why an military pilot can handle the stress of landing on an aircraft carrier at night (over and over and over again), which is something that would make most people paralyzed with fear.

Research has also shown the same to be true with exercise. I found a great article that addressed this on livestrong.com. Cortisol levels will be elevated in response to new stress on the body. The first time you attempt a 3 mile run, you can expect a hormone party. Once you can easily do 8 miles, the shorter run has almost no effect on producing cortisol.

Interestingly, the benefits from managing cortisol production through exercise seems to have an effect on keeping hormone levels lower during times of emotional upheaval.

Rest when your body needs it. However, your mind may need to go for a run.

Women Sometimes Don’t Ask for Directions, Either

Please hold the hate mail. It was just an attempt at a catchy headline.

This is a great article about how women, and men, try to take shortcuts and overthink what is the best way to lose weight. I have a great plan for you, so go get a pencil:

1. Stop eating crappy food. Stop eating so much.
2. For a period of time, you will need to eat less than you normally do.
3. Exercise 5-6 days a week. Just do something.
4. After you get to your target weight, don’t eat crappy food and don’t eat too much.

Read the article and ask yourself if you have fallen into these traps. Then go back to my diet “plan” and see if it makes more sense.

Poison fat

Why does training with a weight vest, ankle weights or doing exercises like a farmer’s walk make your body build more muscle while being fatter does not? In all these examples, your body is carrying around extra weight all day. However, overweight and obese people do not seem to gain extra muscle to compensate for it. What is going on here?

In a study detailed in the NY Times, it was found that extra fat may be inhibiting muscle development. This was a great study that involved attaching lead weights to moths and making rats chubby. I would have loved to have been involved in this one.

Fat is not a passive tissue. It actually secrets hormones and affects how the body works. The initial findings suggest that the extra fat weight is not only an anchor you are dragging behind you. It is also a “anesthetic” for muscle development.

One of the best theories for why this is the case was found in the comments section of the article:

…in nature, there was no need to correct or compensate for this... If an animal was this obese, it would be easy prey for a carnivore since it could not move effectively. At the same time, nutrition is more scarce in the wild, and obese animals do not exist on the whole.

Therefore, nature never had to come up with a mechanism for dealing with "what happens when we get too fat for our muscles to compensate." It is simply a scenario that nature never encountered. As a result, there was no evolutionary pressure to develop a compensatory response.

Moral: stop working so hard at the gym or on the road if you are not going to address the extra junk that is holding you back. Check your cabinets and plates. That might be what is holding you back from your next personal performance record.

I Do Not Care If You Had a Bad Year

A good friend of mine who consults law firms on business development, David Freeman, asked a group of us for best practices in helping lawyers respond to rate pressures from clients.

Here was my answer:

A lack of transparency into why bills go up is the real problem. Are they going up 5% just to give everyone a raise? Did they have a bad year? That is not the client’s problem, so they do not want to pay for it. Here are a few ideas:

1. The Big TV philosophy: People will spend a little more each year for a big screen, but it better have new features (3D) and a bigger screen. Law firms need to find a way to couple higher prices with extra services (quarterly reviews, free seminars, etc). By the way, “being attentive to your needs” and “quick response” is not an extra. It is a given at your real damn high rates.

2. This or That: have a talk with them and show them different ways to staff projects and matters. If THEY choose to save money due to a different mix of associates and partners, it is their choice.

3. Open the books: why is there a price increase? Show them how your costs are going up and link it to the increase in rates. They are not expecting you to be a non-profit.

Give it a try.

Managing the top line

When I first started this blog SIX YEARS AGO (wow, that is a little shocking), it was meant to illustrate how the principles of successful business development and fitness were closely related. Hence, I gave it the name Rainmaker Fitness. The key to success is found in applying discipline and intensity to basic, commonsense practices to better yourself.

It has been a while since I wrote a true article on bettering your business development skills, so I plan to start alternating the two topics. Please let me know what you think.

I hope you will notice how closely related the subjects are—and how you get better at both of them by applying astonishingly similar methods.

Gym hares

Back in January, you made a commitment that THIS was the year you were going to be in the best shape of your life. How is it going so far? Did I just make you grown and roll your eyes at me (I saw that, young lady/man!)

I have been saving this article by a writer who talked about the concept of gym hares: people who furiously adopt a workout program only to burn out quickly. Notice that it was written back in January…

Here is an idea: get out a piece of paper and map out the next 90 days of workouts. Yes, right now.

It is not a contract. You can make changes when life gets a little crazy. However, it is a commitment, which is what you started with back in January.

Is cardio the path to a better day at the beach?

“Ugh. It is Summer in just a few weeks, and I have got to lose 15 pounds. Time to hit the elliptical.”

For those of you scoring at home, that is 52,500 calories (3500 calories times 15 pounds). That will take you about 70 hours on that lovely machine: two hours a day for over a month. Good luck with that.

Cardio is great if you are training for an event that requires cardiovascular endurance. It is also great as a supplemental exercise when you are trying to shed pounds. However, it is NOT a great tool for getting rid of weight. Why? I am glad you asked.

1. Anything you can do for an hour straight is, by definition, low intensity
2. Once you stop, calorie burning is over. All of that stuff you have read about the continuing burn after your workout has been debunked
3. An hour straight of repetitive motion of anything leads to overuse injuries
4. You do not build lean muscle tissue or “tone up” your legs from cardiovascular exercise. It is not high intensity enough to build muscle, which DOES burn more calories after you stop exercising

Read this article about some tips for using cardio properly as part of your program, not AS the program.