Rainmaking – In The Monsoon Of Our Time

In traditional parlance, a rainmaker has been a
term used to allude to the Native American practice of dancing to encourage
deities to bring forth the rain necessary for crops. In summertime during a
drought, for instance, the rainmaker would dance and sing songs on the plains,
and this activity was believed by others in the tribe to magically cause clouds
to come and bring the life-giving rain.

In today’s environment, a rainmaker is someone
with a Midas touch who ‘magically’ brings new business and clients to a firm or
generates more revenue from existing customers and donors, and rain is a
metaphor for money.

Having a rainmaker on your team can be a huge
asset, as well as a liability. As assets, there is the obvious: rainmakers can
bring in unprecedented amounts of revenue into your practice, making money flow
through your firm like actual rain in a Mumbai monsoon. Typically, they are
confident individuals whose optimism is infectious, making sure your firm is
constantly high on positivity. Because they are very good at positioning you in
front of clients, rainmakers can raise the image of your firm, and make sure
that they close deals.

Unfortunately, rainmakers have a downside as well:
they are typical good at doing the job, not so much as explaining how they got
it done, which makes them poor mentors and teachers. They can be high
maintenance and arrogant, and find it difficult to work with people in
authority. The biggest disadvantage of rainmakers however, is that they are
well aware of their own importance to the firm, and can hold it hostage, making
outrageous demands and throwing huge tantrums. 

Rainmakers are outgoing, social and well-connected
individuals, always looking to make connections and open new avenues for fresh
business opportunities. While all of us may not be Harvey Specter (the
rainmaker on the popular Netflix show ‘Suits’), over 20 years in the profession
have taught me that we all need to ignite the rainmaker within us in order to
survive and stay relevant in today’s hyper-competitive market.

With the exponential growth of the Indian economy
in the past 20 years, there has been a corresponding increase in demand for
legal, accounting, trusteeship secretarial and administrative services. The
impact of this has been two-fold: on one hand, there has been a further
expansion of the Big 4 firms and their service offerings. Conversely, there has
been a break-away of the old guard and a mass migration of rainmaker
professionals who take with them, highly experienced leadership teams and go on
to set up boutique Indian firms (with a pan-India presence), and in some cases,
Indian tax advisory firms with global offices. This surge in entrepreneurship
has caused a huge disruption in the way in which larger, more established firms
attract new business and retain existing client relationships.

In the legal services market there has been
consolidation of some of the national legal firms with footprints across India.

Parallelly, the emergence of young entrepreneurial
firms, many of which are break-aways from old firms who start their independent
practices which offer a one-stop solution to their clients, has caused a
fragmentation in the market.

The traditional approach in business development
of professional services firms has had an unwritten rule: a strong aversion to any form of promotion, marketing or any other form of
solicitation of new clients or work.

In fact, the term ‘business’ was seldom used by
seasoned tax and legal professionals in the course of describing the nature of their work. Most professionals have held on to an image of being ‘service
providers’ who are sought after and approached by clients for their expertise
and advise.

The evolution of the legal and regulatory
landscape, along with increased transparency in procedures and initiatives by
the government resulting in “ease of doing business in India”, has impacted the
traditional sources of (bread and butter) work and revenue for
professionals.The professional services industry has also witnessed rapid
changes and development in the regulatory landscape with the introduction of a
new Companies Act and Good & Services Tax. New areas of practice such as
forensic accounting, competition law and trade law have developed, creating
additional opportunities for super-specialisation and novel service offerings
such as pre-emptive and strategic advice to clients. Artificial Intelligence
and technology have mechanised and caused the commoditisation of several
service offerings, forcing firms to cut fees and costs charged to clients.
There is innovate software available in the market that has automated the work
that was previously achieved by human effort. To further compound the
situation, the number of chartered accountants, lawyers and company secretaries
that have entered the profession over the past decade is also rising
exponentially, and all this while the pie of work has not grown proportionally.

The costs of doing business by professionals
(office rent and overheads, salaries, etc.) have also increased substantially.
The escalation in costs have well exceeded the growth of businesses and there
is a huge gap between the two. All these factors have resulted in a
hyper-competitive environment with price wars between firms and significant
undercutting of fees to capture market share and clients. There is no longer
any rationality between the fees that can be charged for a piece of work and the effort taken by the professional to perform the work.

Given the compounded effect of business disruption
by technology and automation, increase in competition and price wars amongst
professionals, it is imperative for professionals to adopt marketing strategies
to develop their practice, remain relevant and stay ahead of the curve.

This can be achieved in relatively simple ways and
with proper planning does not necessarily require significant time and effort.

Contribution of Articles: There is nothing as ego-boosting as a
by-line! The law and all legal matters have moved beyond the realm of purely
legal journals and sections dedicated to law and all things legal, and into the
regular broadsheets of almost all publications. Contributing articles and
opinion pieces to mainstream newspapers and magazines helps members of our
reticent community get into the public eye. The challenge is to make sure that
you avoid legalese and technical jargon, and write your pieces in a way that
appeal not just to your legal brethren but also to the public at large.

Quotes: A great way to make yourself visible is to
establish yourself as an ‘expert’ or ‘go-to’ person for journalists on legal
and tax issues and topics. All this would involve is the journalist calling or
emailing you for your comments on any issues that form the subject of your
article. It is a much simpler and more effective way of making yourself known,
with very little effort on your side. You would need to cultivate a few
journalists however, and make sure that you are available to them whenever they
need a quote.

Conducting Workshop for Clients: Clients look to you as experts who know
of the latest developments in the field. While the nitty-gritty of the legal
and tax world does not have to concern them, it is always useful to share basic
knowledge with your clients on these matters. When the Goods & Services Tax
was introduced across India in 2017, a number of professional services firms
organised workshops and seminars for their clients to explain the workings and
impact of this new tax regime to them. Most firms use these workshops as an
opportunity to network and touch base with clients, and hence they are invitee
events. A quicker, more cost-effective way to conduct such workshops is to host
webinars. All you need is a stable Internet connection, a webinar platform and
prior intimation to potential attendees.

Speaking at Conferences and Seminars: Speaking as opposed to attending
conferences and seminars, adds a lot more value to the brand equity of a
professional. This is one of the most effective, yet under-rated ways of
marketing oneself and ones’ services. Professionals who excel at this have got
their name on the speaker circuit and are often invited to prestigious events
as a keynote speaker or part of a panel, or even as moderator for a panel
discussion. Whichever role you get invited for, conferences and seminars are a
great way to get in the limelight and network with a large audience who could
translate into clients. The best way to organise this is to liase with event
organisers specialising in legal and tax conferences and seminars, and become
an indispensable part of their list of speakers.

Newsletter: Sending out a newsletter to clients is a great
way to be in regular touch with them. The newsletter needs to be attractively
presented, contain short snippets and articles and need not be more than 1-2
pages long. Alternatively, the newsletter could be a shorter update on recent
developments in the field or event alerts.

Change is the only constant in life, and as legal
and tax professionals, it is imperative that we let go of the old guard and
embrace new ways to networking and creating business for ourselves. ‘Those who
snooze, lose’, as the saying goes, so it is time we woke up, smell the coffee
and jumped on the marketing bandwagon so that we continue to stay relevant in
this dynamic and rapidly changing world.