I was thrilled to share insights from the marketing and business development perspective at the October 20, 2015 CALL program “Forecasting Opportunities for Rainmakers.” Here are a few take-aways that emerged from our conversation:

Collaboration NOT Competition. Our professional lives are already hectic enough with responding to or preparing for the various requests we receive from our attorneys—the last thing we should devote our attention and energy to is competing with each other.

Let’s face it, we’re not mind readers (although our attorneys often think that we are!). Any time you have the opportunity to share information across administrative departments—do it. Open communication and sharing of information ultimately creates greater efficiency for all of us and reduces time spent tracking down information that only resides in certain departments.

Credential Your Colleagues. In business development coaching, attorneys and I often discuss the positive impact third-party credentialing can have. It’s much easier to talk about someone else’s awesomeness than tout how great you are. We can apply the same principle. An important step in fostering a culture of collaboration AND credentialing the good work of your colleagues is to tell your attorneys about it.

Dispel Myths. Nothing raises my blood pressure more than hearing a flip comment about my firm’s “broken CRM” from one of the attorneys. I’m sure our librarians and researchers feel the same when there’s a comment made about lengthy reports with no analysis or too many email alerts. We can become one another’s best ally in dispelling myths and reinforcing our value proposition for our firms.

Holly Barocio is the head of the Marketing and Clients Services Department at Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP.