Achieve prosperity by making your firm a sales-driven organisation

There are five big fat myths about business development in law firms.

1. All partners should sell

Saying that all partners should sell is like saying all centre-forwards should be great goalkeepers. This is nonsense. Less than five per cent of lawyers are natural salespeople, 15 per cent can barely look you in the eye let alone sell, and 50 per cent could sell but just don’t want to.

My advice is to invest all of your efforts in the remaining 30 per cent of partners. This investment should fall into two initiatives. The first should help them to work in a sales environment that is systematic, organised, measured and controlled. The second should concentrate on improving their sales skills and techniques, which is less important if the first initiative is done properly.

2. Marketing wins new clients

Traditional marketing presents what the firm does to the outside world. Mailshots, seminars, newsletters, social media, brochures, websites and social events all proudly proclaim ‘look at us, aren’t we great, come and buy from us’ but rarely result in a fatter bottom line.

Prosperity and security come from becoming a sales-driven organisation. First, have a clear idea of what your ideal clients look like, then devise ways to talk directly to them and engage their interest. Next, you need a system that turns these prospects into clients or rejects them from the process quickly.

While marketing is based on volume, sales is an exclusive rather than an inclusive activity. It’s better to spend your time excluding everyone you can’t trade with and convert those who are left. Also, it involves a fraction of the cost.

3. Training makes people better at sales

Frequently, law firms hire a sales coach, send their lawyers on a course that everybody raves about and then nothing really changes. As an alternative, try creating a sales environment by making someone responsible for sales who is not just a coordinator but has real power.

Then implement a rigid sales pipeline that is prioritised around three key questions: how much? How soon? How likely? This will direct most effort to where there’s most profit.

Next, implement a series of very structured and controlled sales meetings where the sales leader can discuss each person’s pipeline in detail, record next actions, unblock or remove any static prospects and make people accountable.

Finally, coach people to work within the new order.

4. There is no time for sales

Workloads do vary, but if partners are organised and focused, they can vary sales activities accordingly.

The real problem is that partners tend to invest too much time in doing things that are enjoyable, safe and within their comfort zones. This translates into seeing people they like instead of organising more difficult sales pitches, or calling warm clients instead of cooler prospects.

I’m all for keeping existing clients loved up, but not at the expense of winning new ones. Get partners organised and doing what needs to be done, rather than what they enjoy doing.

5. Networking gets results

There’s no point in working a room or collecting enough business cards to choke a minke whale. Building a group of people who are willing and able to help you achieve your business goals is about three things: listening, giving and asking the right people. This is real networking, which builds empires.

Not a black art

Selling legal services is not a black art, but quite the opposite: a series of simple processes that are triggered by real-life events and require minimal skills to do well. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

mike.ames@flair.co.uk