Help Stay the Course - Navigate Along the Way

Once you've offered a roadmap and started attorneys on their journey, it's important that you stay along for the ride to make sure they keep moving in the right direction. Help attorneys find their identity: All too often, attorneys have a limited viewpoint about what marketing is. At its core, marketing is just communication about a product or service, so for attorneys, any opportunity to communicate who they are and what they do is a marketing moment.Those moments might range from striking up a conversation in the grocery store line, to chatting with other parents at a child's soccer game, to initiating a conversation with a stranger at a networking event. The key is for the attorney to be prepared with a ready description of what he or she does that is unique, memorable, and compelling.

You can help your attorneys to take advantage of these marketing opportunities by helping them develop their quick pitch. Attorneys often say, “I'm just a litigator” or “I'm a real estate attorney.” Help them to dig a little deeper to find something unique by asking them “What do you do? Who do you do it for? What types of problems do you solve? How is your approach to solving those problems unique?” It doesn't so much matter what type of law your attorneys practice, but rather what they can do for clients.

For example, one attorney we work with realized that her clients often comment, “You're an attorney who actually returns phone calls” so that become part of her quick pitch. Another client describes himself as the lawyer that loves working on really messy, complex cases – the messier and more complex, the better.

Help attorneys find their voice: We often hear from prospective clients that the results from a sales coach often go away after the sales coach leaves. When this happens, part of the cause is that the attorney never really found his or her authentic voice. To create sustainable momentum, attorneys must find a business development approach that is based on their own preferences, passions and interests, and every individual will have their own unique approach. Administrators can help attorneys discover their voice by helping them to focus their activities through a lens based on their strengths and interests. Ask an attorney what they would be spending their time doing if they had all the time in the world. Discover what their passions are. Find out what others see as their strengths. Then help them to build marketing activities that are rooted in joy rather than duty.

For example, we recently worked with a young rising star partner who was also a mother of young children. For her, the idea of investing additional time into business development meant spending less time with her family. We helped her to realize she could do both at the same time by inviting clients and prospects with young children to join her family at kid friendly events, such as the circus, a local kids concert and the zoo. In addition to helping the attorney leverage her own passions and interests, these activities had the added benefit of endearing her to her clients and prospects, who appreciated the opportunity to also combine personal and professional time, and it helped the attorney to deepen her relationships with her contacts beyond just their professional connections.

Help attorneys find their rhythm: Our experience with both corporate and professional services selling is that those who are great at sales are disciplined in investing time on a regular basis. In a law firm, time, or lack of it, is the single biggest obstacle to sales. If attorneys are to manage the practice of law, amongst other major priorities, how can they find time for selling? Finding a rhythm is key. There are three – Base Hit, Sandwich and Push. Base Hit individuals prefer to do a little business development each day, say 15 minutes. Sandwich people prefer to ramp up at the beginning of the week and ramp down at the end of the week, fitting in their actual client work during the days in between. Finally, Push folks like to contain all their business development efforts to one concentrated timeframe. Work with your attorneys to help them figure out which of the three styles best fits them and then encourage them to commit time every week.

Help attorneys find authentic reasons to stay connected: Your attorneys may have fears that being proactive about staying connected after a meeting is limited to asking for business. As administrators, here are a few simple suggestions you can give attorneys to help them keep prospects warm without “stalking.”

• Send copies of articles or firm newsletters by email or snail mail that advances their knowledge and demonstrates insight into their client or prospect's business
• Extend invitations to coffee, breakfast, lunch, a charitable event, a sporting event, etc.
• Invite them to speaking engagements or seminars with content relevant to their business
• Send handout materials from a speaking engagement to those invitees who could not attend
• Send q uick emails or brief notes in the mail with a “thought you might find this interesting”
• Update clients and prospects on new news about the firm (new laterals, new partners, case and deal successes, etc.)

Read More:

• How to Steer Your Firm to Greater Revenues when you're not in the Driver's Seat
• Conclusion

Other Whitepapers:

• Technology Sales People – The New Success Profile
• Diagnosing Your Revenue Generation Issues
• Building a Client Service - Minded Staff
• High Impact Returns from Strategic Account Management
• How to Steer Your Firm to Greater Revenues when you're not in the Driver's Seat
• Sales Tip – Building credibility through "Discovery" Letters
• Selling to Multiple Decision Stakeholders
• Firm Leadership's Role in Retaining and Growing Clients
• The Pursuit Drill ™: Improve Your Sales Team's Ability to Close Deals

Back to Top