Executive Coaching

Business. Development.  Perhaps the term evokes panic, confusion and fear.  Maybe it makes you cringe or even frustrates you.  After all, you expected others to drum up all the business, right?  Whatever your view, there’s no denying that these days, Business Development is necessary in the competitive “business” of law, finance and other professional services.  Enter Society 54.

At Society 54, the term “Business Development” evokes sheer excitement.  We are thrilled to help our clients uncover and create business opportunities that will have long-term benefits. We know there is a growing expectation for professionals to develop business, yet all too often this expectation is ambiguous, unsupported and unguided. Our business development program was designed to ensure greater confidence, understanding, and most importantly, success.  We provide clients with customized, calculated and proven coaching.

In addition to our multi-platform business development programs, Society 54 has developed exclusive technology to aid professional service individuals in the development of business building. INform, through various customized activities, creates habits for future success.  This software is complimented with a DiSC profile assessment and personalized one-on-one coaching.

Business development is not One Size Fits All, and it’s crucial to find the approaches that will work the best for each individual, within the confines of their firm culture, schedule, priorities and practice.  Throughout the years, we have partnered with hundreds of professionals to help them define, tailor and take ownership of their business development methods.

For some helpful and practical nuggets of advice from our coaches, click the “Clues From a Coach” button below.

JUMPSTART

Our Jumpstart program is ideal for smaller groups (4-20 participants) that want to collaborate around a specific issue, client or industry. This training and coaching hybrid is created to stand alone or to build the foundation for launching a larger BD effort. Firm participants will be given an initial assessment to understand their specific strengths, weaknesses, priorities and areas of focus. From there, we will host three virtual training sessions that are catered to the strategies most wanted by the participants. 

In addition to the targeted training, three one-on-one coaching sessions will be offered to key stakeholders in order to hone and develop their unique relationship selling matrix as well as the techniques that are authentic to their respective personalities.

This program takes place over the course of three months.


AVAILABLE TOPICS FOR THE TRAINING SESSIONS INCLUDE:

  • Anatomy of a Win

  • Asking for the Business

  • Art of the Introduction

  • Executive Presence

  • Building the “Franchise”

  • Client Service Interviews

  • Client Teams

  • Discussing Fees with Clients

  • Exceling at Orals

  • Getting the First Meeting

  • Handling BD Objections

  • How Relationships are Built

  • LinkedIn 101

  • LinkedIn 201

  • Marketing Ethics 101

  • Networking 101

  • Opening a Meeting

  • Personal Elevator Speech

  • Plan for Success Through Leadership Development

  • Prioritizing Targets and Opportunities

  • Proper Follow Up

  • Targeting 101

  • Tips for Working the Room

  • Writing Effective Bios

  • Zoomed: Virtual Training Accelerator

I have basically matched my entire balance of last year’s originated work in the first three billings of this year and am on track to grow them by 3x (or possibly 4x+) year over year. This doesn’t even count some very promising prospects that developed from my older existing work where Jill helped me recognize and challenge myself to take a chance and go after it. It’s still early in the year, but things feel like they’re growing at such a fast pace that I’m incredibly optimistic for how strong this year will actually turn out. I started last year frustrated and uncertain how I would ever develop my own client base. This year I feel immensely grateful for Jill’s help and I see opportunities cropping up every week.
— Dan Finegan, Associate, Hamilton Stephens Steele + Martin, PLLC
Society 54 has significantly improved my practice in tangible and intangible ways. Through their person-focused coaching, I increased my exposure which has expanded my outreach in the subject areas I
practice within and increased my network in healthy ways which has led to additional clients and a
better, more-focused and more-efficient legal practice. I highly recommend Society 54. Heather and her
crew are worth the investment.
— Shana Fulton, Partner, Brooks Pierce
My law practice has benefitted from Heather’s coaching for over a year now; she has helped me be more strategic and accountable about generating new referral sources, nourishing current ones, using my marketing time and dollars wisely, and saying NO to things and people who do not generate the right return on investment.
— Heather Culp, Partner, Essex Richards, 2017-2018 President, Mecklenburg County Bar
Jill coaches me as an individual with unique strengths, passions and interests. Rather than changing the person that I am, she has worked with me to identify those activities and relationships for which BD occurs naturally. My prior experience with BD coaching left me feeling overwhelmed and inadequate, but Jill’s approach offered me effectiveness to BD that I never imagined possible.
— Lynn Krisay Brehm, Partner, Cozen O’Connor
I’ve been working with Jill for the last few years and I’ve been thoroughly impressed with her counsel. She helps me to think about things from a different perspective and always has my best interests in mind. Jill has been influential in advising me how to focus my practice on long-term goals that have ultimately helped me to realize substantially increased revenue generation and career stability.
— Howard King, Counsel, Womble Bond Dickinson
I worked with Jill during parts of 2018 and 2019. Not only is Jill a lovely person with whom I always enjoyed speaking, I appreciated the opportunity to brainstorm with someone who has a broad perspective on the marketing industry. The coaching program provides accountability, and it encourages introspection on what marketing goals you’d like to achieve and helps define the concrete steps you can take to achieve those goals.
— Susan Bassford Wilson, Partner, Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP
Cecilia understands the ins and outs of legal marketing and business development for lawyers in this
day and age. Cecilia helped me craft my legal brand, target nationwide conferences, research, and pitch
creative sessions and presentation ideas, and perform effective follow-up to turn those opportunities
into business development leads and new clients. Plus, she is a pleasure to work with!
— Erin Fonté, Partner, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP (@PaymentsLawyer)

Not sure which of our training options is right for you? Visit our Compare Training Options page to see a side-by-side comparison of options.