Setting Metrics - Maraia and Associates

Volume 12, Issue 7

I’m finding many more clients who want to get serious about their rainmaking and relationship building. In many cases, their firms are repeatedly urging them to “build relationships.” However, most firms aren’t giving their partners and associates training and coaching on HOW to do that! That’s pretty sad, if you ask me. It’s also highly discouraging. If people aren’t building better relationships, there are usually two reasons why they’re not: Either they don’t know how or they don’t want to. We find it’s almost always the first reason – they simply don’t know how. For some very practical ideas on how to go about doing so, please consult either of my books: Rainmaking Made Simple or Relationships Are Everything!

In addition to not knowing how to build relationships, very few people have figured out a practical way to measure their progress. One way to measure your progress in relationship building is through developing metrics. Give some thought to metrics you might set to measure your progress each day, week, month or year. If you don’t have some daily or weekly metrics, it’s easy to let the important activity of relationship building slide to the bottom on your list of priorities. If you always make relationship building your lowest priority, you’re not going to build a healthy practice, particularly in this market.

You can set metrics for just about any activity, whether it’s parenting, exercising, job hunting, networking or business development. It requires a little reflection and thought, but everyone can do it. I would contend that your metrics should be unique to you and your practice or situation. The value of having personalized metrics is that they are more likely to keep you consistent and focused on achieving your goals. Metrics established thoughtfully are as unique to you as your fingerprints. You’re limited only by your imagination. The best coaches will be able to help you establish some crystal clear personalized metrics that can really propel your practice forward. They should have you looking at things from the ground level not from the 10,000 foot level.

Do you operate with a clear set of metrics? Does every person on your team or practice group also operate with a clear set of metrics? If you’re like most people, the answer to both questions is an emphatic, “No!” Here are some questions to consider in helping you identify personal metrics:

How many finance executives are in your contacts list?
How often do you meet with the finance executives you know?
How purposeful are you during your meetings with finance executives?
How many in house lawyers are in your contacts list?
How often do you meet with the in house lawyers you know?
How purposeful are you during your meetings with in house lawyers?
How many CFO’s are in your contacts list?
How often do you meet with the CFO’s you know?
How purposeful are you during your meetings with these CFO’s?
How many CEO’s are in your contacts list?
How often do you meet with the CEO’s you know?
How purposeful are you during your meetings with these CEO’s?

Once you’ve considered each question you can establish a metric related to it. The actual metric you establish might read like this: “Call or meet with two C Level executives per week.” A C Level executive will include, CEO, COO, CFO, CMO, CTO and so on. Hopefully, you get the idea. If you’re a real estate lawyer or consultant to the real estate industry, you might create a metric such as: “Call or meet with two C level executives at REITs per week,” or “Call four commercial leasing brokers per month.” Having established metrics makes you far more likely to gain meaningful progress in your relationship building. It is absolutely true that you measure the things that matter.

I’ve developed an additional list of more than twenty questions to consider when you want to get serious about setting personalized metrics. If you’d like to receive this list, please contact me, and I’ll forward it to you. There is almost nothing more effective in helping you to get focused than setting personal metrics. You used to have the excuse of not having a way to keep score. You no longer have that excuse, so get going!!