Why lawyers must finally embrace sales

Lawyers are justifiably proud, and often quite protective, of their achievements and status. They have worked hard and long to claw their way to the top of the tree.

They have learned, understood and assimilated a vast library of knowledge in disciplines in which most people would struggle to get past the first page. They can articulate and apply that knowledge to solve other people’s intractable problems and help them complete complex business deals.

Their contribution to their firm is handsomely rewarded not only in financial remuneration, but in the approbation of their peers and the recognition and respect that other professionals and society as a whole offers them.

So, it is hardly surprising that lawyers devote their attentions to developing their technical skills and honing the finer points of their craft. They tend not to have prioritised developing their selling skills. 

“I’m a lawyer, not a salesperson,” is a common mindset amongst those in the legal services world.  They did not decide to do a law degree because they wanted a career in sales. And “selling” is viewed as something rather tasteless and unbecoming. It’s certainly nothing like as prestigious a role as being a lawyer. 

Of course the idea that lawyers are above the fray of sales is a serious misconception. Legal firms are multi million dollar businesses. Competition for business is fierce. Lawyers are most definitely in sales! 

And at a more fundamental level when you think about it, we are all selling something in pretty much every interaction we have with other people, in every request we make and in every project we undertake. We are selling every time we seek to persuade someone to take our idea seriously, be that a colleague, a client or a boardroom full of sceptics.

So it is essential that lawyers also work on developing the skills that they require to enable them successfully to influence and persuade colleagues, contacts, clients and potential clients. And more fundamentally - to ensure that their firms continue to thrive and provide the income that pays their handsome wages and partner drawings. 

Of course to make Partner in pretty much every law firm one of the key requirements will be an ability to sell, to bring in more business from existing clients and to convert contacts into clients. And whereas in the past the description of an Associate’s role rarely included much if anything around business development, (BD) that has been changing massively in the past few decades. In more and more firms there is now an expectation that everyone has some role to play in BD.  

And as lawyers progress through the ranks to Senior Associate, Managing Associate, Counsel, Legal Director, the BD expectation rachets up considerably in most firms. Happily, some of the more enlightened firms are also adjusting their remuneration mods so that it is not only the Partners who can benefit financially from an ability to bring in work with Associate bonus schemes now starting to include a financial reward for BD successes. 

Over the years, we have trained tens of thousands of lawyers, be they reclusive, diffident or proudly resistant, to become more comfortable and confident with selling, without ever asking them to become someone they’re not.

“Selling”, done well in the world of professional legal services, doesn’t actually involve you doing anything unpleasant or distasteful. It doesn’t involve hoodwinking people or being pushy or trying to sell them services they don’t need. Or doing any of the other things that we all hate when subjected to bad sales techniques. 

Selling done well involves building relationships, listening to people, understanding their needs, offering them relevant services where you believe that your skills can help them with their challenges. Done well selling can and should be a positive experience for you and for them. You will require to learn to think more optimistically, to give things a go, to beware your tendency for analysis paralysis and just to press send on the email or make that call asking for a chance to meet.

So yes it may push you out of your technical legal skills comfort zone but rest assured the skills you need to develop can, just like your legal skills, be taught and learned.

So embrace it: if you’re a Senior Associate, Director or Partner in a law firm then you most definitely are in sales. And that’s definitely a good thing.