Tag: Legal Marketing

Part 2: Influencing the Client Experience – Takeaways from LMA Capital’s Half Day Program

On October 29th, a record number of legal marketers attended LMA Capital’s half day program to discuss how to best influence the client experience. Part one discussed how marketers can address a few major concerns of clients: how the firm can add value to the representation, how a firm can build a strong client team to address issues like credit and succession planning, and how to grow client relationships through better scoping and budgeting. This part will wrap up the final three TED-style talks for the program.

Communication and Managing Expectations – Exceed Their Expectations Every Time: How to Communicate with Clients in Good Times and Bad

Mary Panetta, of Blank Rome LLP, took to the podium in her talk about managing client expectations. Understanding the goal of why you are at the table is crucial to understanding client’s expectations. Sometimes the goal of litigation isn’t always to win, sometimes it’s to acquire the client, or to settle. Ms. Panetta emphasized that it’s important to make no assumptions about what the clients goals are; always ask. If partners are not involved in connecting on a daily basis with the clients to find out what is going on at the company, the client is not going to feel like the firm understands their needs and they are not going to come back with return business. Another key point Ms. Panetta hit on is that it’s important to tell the truth about everything, including budgets. For the firm, it’s important to monitor the budget aggressively and if there is an issue or potential overage on the horizon, share the information with the client early and without alarm. Marketers can help the firm’s lawyers in the process as well by understanding what’s at stake and helping deliver the news to the client either by scripting a dialogue or being present when the call needs to be made. Clients are much more amenable to scope changes when they are appropriately notified and walked through what happened. Also, in this market, there is potential for the client to seek out other services that may cut into the work that the law firm does. Ms. Panetta advises firms to embrace these inevitable market disruptors and present them to your client as a collaborative process. This may be counterintuitive to the firm’s bottom line, however, partnering with a disruptor is a way the firm can bring value to the client and builds vast amounts of goodwill.

Affinity Group Initiatives – Developing Client Relationships Through Affinity Groups

When it comes to working with affinity groups in the firm, Dawn Afanador, of Gibbons P.C., reminded the audience that the groups are still client focused. The Women’s Initiative at her firm is focused on educating women and their clients, give back to the community and their client’s causes, mentor their women and their clients, and provide networking opportunities for women and their clients. Ms. Afanador has found that their women’s initiative to be one of their best client relationship building programs. Rather than focus on having bigger events with high attendance, her firm scaled back the size of the events and narrowly focused on areas of law that address their key client’s needs. The intimacy of the smaller programs, such as focused roundtables, succeeded in helping client engagement and presented opportunities for cross marketing. Firm groups also have an opportunity to help their clients with initiatives they may not be able to achieve on their own. For example, a company might want to get more involved in meaningful pro bono work, but has a small legal department and limited resources. The firm’s pro bono group would be able to collaborate with the client to help them further their pro bono initiative by providing them with support and training. Affinity groups can also add value to networking opportunities: people don’t have time to simply network anymore, so providing programs where your in-house team can learn something and network with others is invaluable. When starting an initiative, it’s important to have some small wins to generate excitement about the initiative. As the initiative grows, don’t be afraid to evolve the program based on client’s needs and feedback from folks internally.

Complacency and Responsiveness – Using Innovation to Motivate and Empower Attorneys and Connect with Clients

To round-out the TED-talks, Jennifer Castleberry of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, discussed how her firm uses innovation to motivate and empower attorneys and connect with clients. Her firm has created an innovation initiative, DWT De Novo, that focuses on technology, process improvement and people. When they began the program in 2013, they started by first listening to the client’s pain points, which eventually led to the appointment of a chief innovation partner that promoted the initiative at all of their offices. On this roadshow, they worked with people in the firm to solicit their pain points so they can figure out how best to create an initiative that is focused on addressing everyone’s concerns. In response to these concerns, the firm was able to create several tools that are designed to help placate client concerns. For example, their team developed a template for attorneys to summarize, for the client, how the firm has added value, in some ways that aren’t apparent to them. Attorney’s customize this to their clients so they get a clear picture of their relationship with the firm. They also spent a lot of time listening to what client’s wanted in a client dashboard, and used their input to create a “dashboard of the future”. Their dashboard includes realtime matter tracking, financials, as well as curated pieces that are specific to the client using the dashboard. These tools were designed specifically to provide efficient, transparent, and cost-effective legal services for their clients.

Following the TED talks, the audience broke-out into discussion tables where each table was tasked with coming up with five action items specific to a particular TED talk, and we all came together in the end to share the action items.  Firms should rally their teams to create their own action items so that they are able to better address the myriad of client concerns. Considering these major areas of concern, adding value, credit, succession planning, billing and budgets, communication, managing expectations, and responsiveness, is crucial to creating a positive client experience.

Article By Nicole Cudiamat Minnis
The National Law Review / The National Law Forum LLC

Copyright ©2015 National Law Forum, LLC

Influencing the Client Experience – Takeaways from LMA Capital's Half Day Program Part 1

The LMA Capital group brought together a record number of legal marketers in the D.C. area on Wednesday, October 29th to discuss how best to positively influence the client experience and foster lasting relationships between their firms and clients. Tara Weintritt, partner at Wicker Park Group, kicked off the program by setting the scene for attendees. In the past, law firms focused on touting their experience and success in handling particular matters. However, Tara elaborated that smart, capable, intelligent lawyers are baseline characteristics. Clients want to know how you can help them and what it’s like to work with you. After speaking with over 1,500 in-house counsel, the folks at Wicker Park Group have been able to identify seven major areas of concern that are consistently at the forefront of these decision-makers’ minds: adding value, credit, succession planning, billing and budgets, communication, managing expectations, and responsiveness. Tara provided direct quotes from actual client interviews as an introduction to attendees, but six thought leaders in the legal marketing industry gave in-depth (but brief!) TED-style talks to really drill down to the heart of why these are concerns for clients, and what can be done to address these concerns.

Adding Value –  Creating a Culture of Strategic Business Intelligence

Gina Lynch, of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, kicked off the first TED talk. Clients want to know how you can add value to the relationship that does not show up on the billing report. This is where competitive intelligence teams are valuable in influencing the client experience. Firms must go above and beyond the requisite skills required for establishing the business relationship, which are thorough writing and analysis skills. The firm counterpart must demonstrate that he or she can understand the complex research.  CI teams must fully understand the work the client does. Ms. Lynch elaborated, “they need to be able to talk like your client, act like your client”. It not enough to present a report to the client. They want to know how this is relevant to them, what their competitors are doing and what their long-term strategy might be. Ms. Lynch also advocates for the CI team to be outside of the marketing department so it can be involved in all aspects of the firm’s relationship with the client: intake/pitch, research, knowledge management and retention. This circles back to the notion that it’s critical to understand the work the client does. Finally, the relationship should be client-focused! This is a no-brainer as members of the team should be living in the client’s world so it can play offense when a problem comes up. If a CI team is strategically informed, it can spot opportunities for growth (or damage control) when a new situation arises.

Credit and Succession Planning – Creating Strong Client and Industry Teams for the Long Term

Ms. Weintritt, at the start, elaborated that a major concern clients have is not being involved in or more aware of transitions within the firm. Tara Derby, of Reed Smith LLP, in the next TED talk, discussed how to mitigate this concern, and ultimately develop a long-term, successful relationship with the client by creating strong client teams. A successful client team will be focused on leadership, collaboration, a proactive and intuitive approach, and strategic client engagement. There are two things that need to be accomplished in order to build a strong client team: 1) the right client relationship leader must be selected, and 2) he or she needs to work hand in hand with the key account manager, or client relationship driver. This leader needs to be organized, efficient, client-facing and engaging. It’s important that the correct leader and team be in place or else service provided to the client will be only mediocre. Teams are only effective when there is a high level of collaboration across the firm, but people that are part of the team need to make a positive impact on the client. Strong client teams are proactive, not reactive, and to do so requires the team to know the client’s needs, culture, and ultimately how they think. Clients will feel understood and listened too because the relationship is 100% centered around their needs.

Billing and Budgets – Doing Your Homework: Strengthening and Growing Client Relationships Through Better Scoping, Budgeting and Risk Assessment

Since the major shift if the legal industry a few years ago, clients have been more cost conscious. As Melissa Prince, of Ballard Spahr, elaborated in her TED talk, the quality of the work matters less than the value the work provides the client. In terms of cost-effectiveness, clients want transparency in the budgeting process and improved budget forecasting, more than the lowest cost. In terms of scoping, it’s important to develop the client relationship to understand the client’s goals and business objects. This means speaking to the client about their needs before the scoping process. The key thing is to put everything in writing: matter phases, tasks, expected deliverables, proposed timelines and deadlines, responsible time keepers, etc. It’s also key to identify assumptions, that is, to identify what is and what is not going to be included in the matter. In terms of budgeting, use historic financial data to identify ways to improve efficiency. The budget should also be documented in writing as specifically as possible. It should include metrics such as hours work, type of work, who will be completing the task, identifies different hourly rates, and outlines low and high estimates, as well as start and end dates. To preserve a positive client relationship, any overages that arise should be communicated as early as possible. Properly managing their expectations for the scope and budget of the representation will help improve the firm’s efficiency, but also deepen their relationship with the client.

Stay tuned for part 2 of LMA Capital’s Half Day Program.

Article By Nicole Cudiamat Minnis
The National Law Review / The National Law Forum LLC

Influencing the Client Experience – Takeaways from LMA Capital’s Half Day Program Part 1

The LMA Capital group brought together a record number of legal marketers in the D.C. area on Wednesday, October 29th to discuss how best to positively influence the client experience and foster lasting relationships between their firms and clients. Tara Weintritt, partner at Wicker Park Group, kicked off the program by setting the scene for attendees. In the past, law firms focused on touting their experience and success in handling particular matters. However, Tara elaborated that smart, capable, intelligent lawyers are baseline characteristics. Clients want to know how you can help them and what it’s like to work with you. After speaking with over 1,500 in-house counsel, the folks at Wicker Park Group have been able to identify seven major areas of concern that are consistently at the forefront of these decision-makers’ minds: adding value, credit, succession planning, billing and budgets, communication, managing expectations, and responsiveness. Tara provided direct quotes from actual client interviews as an introduction to attendees, but six thought leaders in the legal marketing industry gave in-depth (but brief!) TED-style talks to really drill down to the heart of why these are concerns for clients, and what can be done to address these concerns.

Adding Value –  Creating a Culture of Strategic Business Intelligence

Gina Lynch, of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, kicked off the first TED talk. Clients want to know how you can add value to the relationship that does not show up on the billing report. This is where competitive intelligence teams are valuable in influencing the client experience. Firms must go above and beyond the requisite skills required for establishing the business relationship, which are thorough writing and analysis skills. The firm counterpart must demonstrate that he or she can understand the complex research.  CI teams must fully understand the work the client does. Ms. Lynch elaborated, “they need to be able to talk like your client, act like your client”. It not enough to present a report to the client. They want to know how this is relevant to them, what their competitors are doing and what their long-term strategy might be. Ms. Lynch also advocates for the CI team to be outside of the marketing department so it can be involved in all aspects of the firm’s relationship with the client: intake/pitch, research, knowledge management and retention. This circles back to the notion that it’s critical to understand the work the client does. Finally, the relationship should be client-focused! This is a no-brainer as members of the team should be living in the client’s world so it can play offense when a problem comes up. If a CI team is strategically informed, it can spot opportunities for growth (or damage control) when a new situation arises.

Credit and Succession Planning – Creating Strong Client and Industry Teams for the Long Term

Ms. Weintritt, at the start, elaborated that a major concern clients have is not being involved in or more aware of transitions within the firm. Tara Derby, of Reed Smith LLP, in the next TED talk, discussed how to mitigate this concern, and ultimately develop a long-term, successful relationship with the client by creating strong client teams. A successful client team will be focused on leadership, collaboration, a proactive and intuitive approach, and strategic client engagement. There are two things that need to be accomplished in order to build a strong client team: 1) the right client relationship leader must be selected, and 2) he or she needs to work hand in hand with the key account manager, or client relationship driver. This leader needs to be organized, efficient, client-facing and engaging. It’s important that the correct leader and team be in place or else service provided to the client will be only mediocre. Teams are only effective when there is a high level of collaboration across the firm, but people that are part of the team need to make a positive impact on the client. Strong client teams are proactive, not reactive, and to do so requires the team to know the client’s needs, culture, and ultimately how they think. Clients will feel understood and listened too because the relationship is 100% centered around their needs.

Billing and Budgets – Doing Your Homework: Strengthening and Growing Client Relationships Through Better Scoping, Budgeting and Risk Assessment

Since the major shift if the legal industry a few years ago, clients have been more cost conscious. As Melissa Prince, of Ballard Spahr, elaborated in her TED talk, the quality of the work matters less than the value the work provides the client. In terms of cost-effectiveness, clients want transparency in the budgeting process and improved budget forecasting, more than the lowest cost. In terms of scoping, it’s important to develop the client relationship to understand the client’s goals and business objects. This means speaking to the client about their needs before the scoping process. The key thing is to put everything in writing: matter phases, tasks, expected deliverables, proposed timelines and deadlines, responsible time keepers, etc. It’s also key to identify assumptions, that is, to identify what is and what is not going to be included in the matter. In terms of budgeting, use historic financial data to identify ways to improve efficiency. The budget should also be documented in writing as specifically as possible. It should include metrics such as hours work, type of work, who will be completing the task, identifies different hourly rates, and outlines low and high estimates, as well as start and end dates. To preserve a positive client relationship, any overages that arise should be communicated as early as possible. Properly managing their expectations for the scope and budget of the representation will help improve the firm’s efficiency, but also deepen their relationship with the client.

Stay tuned for part 2 of LMA Capital’s Half Day Program.

Article By Nicole Cudiamat Minnis
The National Law Review / The National Law Forum LLC

Branding Challenges: Law Firm vs. Individual Attorneys

As a legal marketer, the challenge of marketing your law firm versus individual attorneys is an ongoing struggle. We have all been in a meeting with a firm’s “rainmaker” who wants to place an ad or produce a handout that doesn’t look like the other materials the firm has produced. Instead, he wants his piece to be different and to “stand out” from the law firm’s brand.

As a marketer, this goes against all we know about brand consistency, including the use of a firm’s logo, fonts, colors and the overall messaging of the law firm.

Which Brand Comes First?

The issues related to law firm brands versus attorney brands parallel the age-old question: “Which came first: the chicken or the egg?” After all, a law firm cannot exist without attorneys. The fact is, most firms started out with one or two attorneys who had a growing reputation that the firm was built on. As more attorneys were added, the reputation of those attorneys enabled it to continue to grow. However, without a solid brand for the firm, relying on the reputations of the firm’s founders can damage an individual attorney’s ability to attract larger clients with needs that span practice areas.

The reality is that both the firm and its attorneys need to have a symbiotic relationship that balances the individual attorney’s brand and the overall firm brand. Both the marketing professional and the attorney need to relax their egos some and come to an agreeable understanding. Some issues can be averted with pre-planning and tweaking of the firm’s brand guidelines and marketing materials to allow for more flexibility while still maintaining a degree of consistency.

Balancing Brands

Competition is fierce in today’s legal market, so it’s important to have a strong firmwide brand that represents the sum of all the law firm’s parts, including its reputation in the marketplace, its core competencies, its key differentiators, and the experience of its attorneys and the support staff that keep all the wheels in motion. But what room is left to insert visual elements that represent the brand of an individual attorney?

Some brand guidelines are overly rigid, making it impossible to balance the firm’s brand with an attorney’s brand. If this is your case, consider taking a new look at how you can adjust these guidelines to allow for some additional flexibility.

Tweaking Your Guidelines

A firm’s identity is conveyed through its branding elements, such as:

  • The firm logo

  • Brand color

  • Type font

The use of these items is a must to convey the relationship between the attorney and the firm. They create a very strong brand consistency and should be used as much as possible to create an immediate recognition of your firm and brand message. But there can and should be flexibility in their use that includes relocating the standard placement of the logo or use of a secondary color.

More flexibility can also be given to components like photo imagery and other graphic elements These will allow for more personalization of the piece while maintaining consistency across the core brand elements.

Finally, another way to add flexibility to your branding is to create a standard footer on all ads or printed materials that allow for greater personalization across the rest of the collateral.

Adding Flexibility to Your Website

The law firm’s website is an integral marketing and branding tool. It also should be flexible enough to allow attorneys and practice areas to promote themselves in a way that makes sense for their particular markets.

Can attorneys post a blog, upload video content or add photos that will market themselves or their practice areas without interfering with the law firm brand’s use across the site? If not, this is something that needs to be addressed the next time you go through a website revision.

Using Social Media for Your Personal Brand

If you’re looking to promote your personal brand, look no further than social media. Social media is the perfect brand builder for individual attorneys. Lawyers can share blog posts and post other relevant information pertinent to their practice areas.

Not all social channels may fit your personal brand, so enlist your firm’s marketing personnel to help you define what channels are the best fit for you. Remember to maintain consistency across all networks by using the same profile picture. In addition, some social channels work best if you post once or twice a week, while others may require more regular attention. And remember to know your firm’s guidelines as well as your respective state bar association’s rules on social media use. Some actions can be construed as “advertising” and thus are subject to association guidelines.

Law is a professional service. That means that a large part of the decision-making process that determines whether a client hires you or someone else is how much they connect with you as an individual. The way you shape this identity is by honing your personal brand. So attorneys and law firms need to take their brands seriously and figure out how to strike a balance between the firm’s image and that of its individual attorneys.

Article By Alan E. Singles of Jaffe

© Copyright 2008-2015, Jaffe Associates

Join LMA New England for their annual conference – November 12-13 in Boston

Please join the LMA New England Chapter next week at their 2015 Regional Conference, taking place on November 12 -13 at the Hyatt Regency in Boston. This year’s theme is “What’s Your WOW Factor?” Join attendees as they learn about the best tools and approaches to stand out among the competition, succeed at winning new business and become industry trendsetters. Don’t miss out on the chapter’s most important and popular event, one that saw record attendance last year!

lma new england lmane Boston regional conference

When – November 12-13

Where – Hyatt Regency Boston

Register today!

Rainmaker 101: 3 Tips from a Top Producer at a Law Firm [VIDEO]

One of the most interesting elements of my job as a business development coach for attorneys is interviewing top rainmakers to better understand “How they did it.” While every attorney knows a rainmaker or high-level business developer, you might never get the chance to hear how they actually accomplished their goals, what it really took to do so and how to avoid the pitfalls they’ve encountered. One of my first interviews occurred with the Managing Partner and co-founder of Stahl Cowen, Jeff Stahl. He put everything on the line when he went out on his own.  As he stated in our interview, it was “a combination of need and fear,” to begin developing his book of business. Here are Jeff’s top three tips for success in building his legal practice, followed by some of my own thoughts on the subject.  Jump to the end for the full interview. Enjoy!

Jeff’s Tip #1: Helping versus Selling

Jeff’s first and most important revelation as a business developer was to really want to help people, not to sell them legal services.  He says quite empathetically that it’s imperative to, “Recognize when someone is in need of service and then be there, and be creative to help them. Then it isn’t perceived as a sale, but as assistance that usually has greater receptivity than somebody who is hard selling.”

From my point of view, he is touching on one of the critical turning points for attorneys as it relates to sales and being viewed as a “salesman.” I don’t know too many lawyers who like or want to be seen as a salesman. What Jeff explains so clearly in his interview is that you need to switch off that mindset and turn on the idea that you are in the unique position to help people with real problems. The key here is to try not pitching and selling, but rather try asking and listening.

One of my favorite mantras is, “Prescription before diagnosis is malpractice.” Think about that. If you walked into a doctor’s office with a migraine and he suggested amputating your head, I’m sure you’d move pretty quickly to the nearest exit. The same rule should apply to prescribing legal services in the form of a pitch meeting. Just don’t do it! At least not until you’ve fully diagnosed the issues, needs and pains the prospective client is dealing with.

Jeff’s Tip #2: Market Yourself When You’re Busiest

If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it 1000 times, “I’m too busy to market myself.” One of the best take-aways from Jeff’s interview was his statement, “Too many people go out and market when they’re slow. You need to market when you are busy, because when you market when you’re slow, you often appear desperate. That comes across and people realize that.” Even when you’re working 60 hours a week, it’s imperative to find ways to market. If nothing comes in right away from the effort, at least you’re building your pipeline which will pay off when things do slow down.

In my experience, the key to success here is to find the time to market by getting organized with your day and opening up gaps of time for business development. A few suggestions I typically offer include:

  • Time blocking- Get into the office at 6:30 am once a week and spend an uninterrupted hour emailing clients, strategic partners and new people you’ve met to schedule a coffee or lunch sometime in the next few weeks. This one hour block of time each week will help ensure that you get meetings set every week without fail.
  • Delegating more- Do everything in your power to delegate administrative tasks to others at a lower billable rate. If you are billing $300-600 an hour, why are you making copies or doing filing? Try making a list of every administrative task that you do and add up the hours in a week. You might be shocked at how much time you’re wasting on activities that can be done for under $50 an hour by someone else. This “found time” can be better used for business development activities or even going home for supper with your family once in a while.
  • Never eat lunch alone- It’s the title of a great networking book for a reason. Schedule lunch at your office and invite someone to join you. Utilize a conference room so that it’s quiet and you can focus the conversation on your guest. If you did this with two of your existing clients or strategic partners every week, you will be delighted to the results you might see. Working during lunch might be helpful to get things done, however it doesn’t have to be your routine every day.

Jeff’s Tip #3: Be Impressive!

“When a client tells you what their issue is, it isn’t always their issue. Through effective listening you may recognize things that they may not even realize themselves.” Effective questioning and listening is not only important as a way to best service the client, but also as a way of differentiating yourself from other attorneys who aren’t focused on the clients story, needs and issues. From Jeff’s perspective it’s more important to be perceived as impressive and knowledgeable, than to beat your chest regarding your prowess as a successful attorney.

Jeff’s  hit on something really critical here. Perception is reality and belief stronger than fact. The concept is simple if you think about it. By asking relevant, probing and open ended questions, the prospective client will perceive that you are an expert based on the way you are managing the conversation and your bedside manner. A great example here would be observing two psychologists. The first spouts off about why she is so good at what she does and her advanced degrees. The other, warmly welcomes her patient onto the couch and begins building rapport. Then the second psychologist begins asking questions about the patients reason for being here today. The patient’s response is followed up with additional questions which open up the dialogue to reveal the actual issues being faced.

If you are working diligently to find new business opportunities, and a prospective client finally agrees to meet with you, try to act like the second therapist by asking questions and being an expert listener. You will not only build greater credibility as a lawyer, but also uncover issues that your new client didn’t even know he had. A win-win outcome is inevitable.

I’d like to thank Jeff Stahl for his rainmaking insights. The reality is that there is always a way to find balance in work and in life. For many of you, it’s a matter of having the proper mindset. For others it’s obtaining new strategies and tactics to accomplish the goals you’ve set. Check in monthly for a new installment of Rainmaker 101 for more tips from the business development superstars I’ve interviewed.

Article By Steve Fretzin of Sales Results, Inc.
Copyright @ 2015 Sales Results, Inc.

Join LMA New England for their annual conference – November 12-13 in Boston

Please join us for the 2015 Regional Conference, taking place on November 12 -13 at the Hyatt Regency in Boston. This year’s theme is “What’s Your WOW Factor?” Join attendees as they learn about the best tools and approaches to stand out among the competition, succeed at winning new business and become industry trendsetters. Don’t miss out on the chapter’s most important and popular event, one that saw record attendance last year!

lma new england lmane Boston regional conference

When – November 12-13

Where – Hyatt Regency Boston

Register today!

Join LMA New England for their annual conference – November 12-13 in Boston

Please join us for the 2015 Regional Conference, taking place on November 12 -13 at the Hyatt Regency in Boston. This year’s theme is “What’s Your WOW Factor?” Join attendees as they learn about the best tools and approaches to stand out among the competition, succeed at winning new business and become industry trendsetters. Don’t miss out on the chapter’s most important and popular event, one that saw record attendance last year!

lma new england lmane Boston regional conference

When – November 12-13

Where – Hyatt Regency Boston

Register today!

Three Reasons Why Lawyers Avoid Business Development

One of the scariest things someone can do is to approach an attractive stranger in a bar and begin speaking.  While there are the limited few with nerves of steel who can talk with anyone about anything, the majority of us humans are actually intimidated by this act.  Why are some of us afraid of these conversations and others confident? How does this apply to being a lawyer and building a sustainable book of business? The ability to understand the “why” and overcome your own personal uncertainty could mean the difference between success and failure in building a sustainable law practice.

Although there are many different reasons why lawyers are so hesitant to go after new business, I would like to explore the top three that keep some attorneys awake at night.  The unfortunate truth for many attorneys is that without developing your own clients, you will not have the freedom and security that was so easily obtained 20 years ago.

Reason #1: The fear of rejection

One of the main reasons people don’t go into sales is because of the seemingly endless amount of rejection that comes with selling a service. You may recall your first experience with rejection when you were picked last for a game of kickball or when your best friend found someone new to hang out with. As you became older, someone may have turned you down at your local bar. You may have felt sick before approaching that person, and even worse when he or she wasn’t interested in your advances.  Whatever the case, you knew that you hated rejection and the way it made you feel. It’s obvious that the risk of getting rejected is something to avoid if given the choice.

There are two key elements to overcoming the fear of rejection. Unfortunately, they are not easily mastered until you’ve obtained the proper mindset. The first element is dealing with what I call “head trash.”  Head trash is the mess that you create between your two ears regarding things that you are afraid of. There’s an acronym for F-E-A-R, which stands for “False Evidence Appearing Real.” This means that you’ve built up something scary in your mind, when in reality nothing bad is going to happen. Think about the first time you went skiing or rode a roller coaster. Of course you might have been afraid—until it was over. Then you probably said, “What was I so afraid of?”

When it comes to rejection from your business development activities, the same sentence can be uttered, “What was I so afraid of?” One of the first things I do with the attorneys I work with is to get them to realize there is absolutely nothing to fear.  You’re not going to die or get hurt in any way. The rejection, if it does happen, is not personal.  The reality is that not everyone is going to do business with you. Sometimes it’s because you weren’t the best fit for them or they weren’t the right fit for you. That’s just the way it is.

Another important element to overcoming fear when selling legal services is to be very skilled at what you do. Top lawyers have an endless reserve of confidence because they know that no one else can do a better job for a client than they will. This confidence allows the fear to subside because if someone doesn’t select you, it’s his or her loss. Move on to the next opportunity, as there will be many more to come.

Reason #2: The stigma that is attached to the word “sales” and “salespeople.”

One of the main reasons why lawyers are hesitant to invest time on their business development efforts is because of the negative feelings one has towards sales. It is seen as a dirty profession. The imagery of carpetbaggers and soapbox pitchmen is synonymous with the word sales.   To make things worse, we have all been “taken for a ride” at some point in our lives, paying too much for something we were sold.

It’s possible that you chose a career in law, specifically to avoid having to sell anything.

While I have been in sales for over 25 years, I never remember saying as a child, “Gee, one day I hope to grow up to be a salesperson.”  For many millions that are currently in a sales role, it’s really a default profession.

As an attorney, you probably never thought that you would have to sell anything right?  More like “hoped.” The reality for most attorneys over 60 years old is that they didn’t have to sell. Being a good lawyer and trusted counselor was probably enough. In fact, my father retired from law in 1999 and never had to make a business development call or attend a networking event in his entire career. Well, obviously, things have changed.  Lawyers today need to control their own financial destiny by getting out there and originating new business.

As I mentioned previously, it’s important to be the best lawyer you can be. It’s also critical to have a better process for selling legal services. The old school “pitch” meetings and aggressive tactics to closing new business are outdated. The easiest way to stop the negatively charged stigma associated with sales and salespeople is to stop doing it yourself.

Think about it this way. When you enter a courtroom for a big trial, are you properly prepared?  What happens if you aren’t? All attorneys know that preparation and execution in a courtroom are paramount for success to occur. In selling legal services, it’s not that different. Being properly prepared for a prospective client meeting is just as involved as going into the courtroom.  You need to have a more relationship driven and consultative approach, to remove the salesy element from the room. Ask questions and learn about the prospective client’s needs, wants and desires. While this is easy for me to say, it’s very difficult to actually execute. We are all wired to solve problems and present solutions. It’s a constant struggle to hold back, ask quality questions and really listen to a prospective client’s issues. Just yesterday, one of my clients closed a new piece of business. At the end of the meeting the prospect said to him, “I’ve never had an attorney ask me so many questions before. You really seem to understand my problems.” That’s it! If you can change your approach to avoid being salesy, the negative stigma will also be removed from within your brain.

Reason #3: Lack of education on business development

“They never taught me this in law school.”  If I’ve heard this once, I’ve heard it a hundred times. It’s sad, but true.  Skills including networking, time management, follow-up and selling process are all learnable for attorneys. Business development can be frustrating and challenging. Without the proper education on how to plan and execute on it, you might be doomed to fail from the start.

In order to be great at something, anything, you take lessons. For example, try learning a new language, sport or musical instrument without any professional help. Not an easy road to travel.  While some people are more adept at figuring things out through trial and error, we all know it’s best to seek out the best help available.

A few ideas for finding this education include seeking out an open-minded mentor at your firm. She likely has already traveled down the wrong paths and may help you avoid those pitfalls. Another option is to study the topic of sales. If you were to read five books and get a few take-aways from each one, you will probably make fewer mistakes. Even one small positive change that becomes a habit could have a significant effect on a career’s worth of business development. Lastly, look for professional help. There are coaches, consultants and trainers locally and nationwide that may be a good resource for you. Be sure to check references and try to find someone that you can connect with on a personal level. And those legal superstars around you who seem to attract business wherever they go? They are continually fine-tuning their skills as well—in such ways as coaching, training and peer-to-peer counseling. Whichever direction you decide, it’s definitely better than wasting countless hours on marketing efforts that aren’t getting you results for your time invested.

Whether you are a new partner in your firm, a solo player or an up-and-coming associate, it’s important to understand what sales is really all about.  The best business developers today aren’t the most aggressive, pushy or salesy. They are relationship focused, confident in their skills and consultative in how they approach new clients.  Strong business developers have lost the fear of rejection, and replaced it with confidence in their skills as a top lawyer and high level solution provider in the legal field.

Article By Steve Fretzin of Sales Results, Inc.

Copyright @ 2015 Sales Results, Inc.

Deciding what Platform to Use for Your Law Firm Website

I often have clients ask me how frequently they should refresh or update their websites. That is a tricky question. When it comes to content, a website should be updated on an on-going basis – every week is good, and every day is not too much. Frequent content additions will increase the likelihood that your site is viewed often, as search engines catalog content using the keywords users are likely to query and return results based on a combination of the most recently posted content, the closest match to the query and the most highly viewed pages that contain the appropriate keywords. That means the more optimized (good use of keywords) content you post, the more views the content is likely to get.

When it comes to design, a website will begin to look dated in two to three years and should be revisited and updated. This is the perfect time to review the site’s navigation and make sure it has remained user-friendly and consistent with current trends in website design. As with most things in business, having an initial strategy when building a website will reduce the need for changes and make the changes easier to implement when it does come time to refresh the site.

So, what does good initial strategy entail when beginning a website build?

The Importance of CMS Selection

First and foremost, you must think about the foundation the site is built upon. Nearly every website built now has a Content Management System (CMS). A CMS allows for ease in operating the website without a need for knowledge of coding. For instance, adding and deleting content can be easily managed on the back-end of the site with the use of built-in templates. There is no reason for a law firm not to use a CMS. The only questions to consider are which category and type of system to choose. This is the big overall strategy decision, and it will impact the ease of use and updates for the life of the site.

There are two categories of CMSs: Proprietary and Open Source. They provide similar functionality, but they operate very differently. A Proprietary CMS is built and owned by an independent company, and that company “leases” the right for a firm to use the technology. Proprietary was the most used form of legal website CMSs for many years.

Open Source CMSs are built and maintained by programmers throughout the world and are open for anyone to use at no cost. Programmers continually update and add to the code making improvements, which they openly share. This is a newer platform for the legal industry.

Deciding Between Open Source or Proprietary

Proprietary CMSs generally come with a hosting and maintenance plan, providing a sense of security to smaller firms without the in-house resources to update and maintain the site. Though this can ease the burden of website management for the firm, it also requires a monthly or annual fee to keep the site up and running. In addition, as most licensors will not allow access to their code, a site refresh will entail additional fees whenever upgrades are needed.

With the use Open Source CMSs, programmers are continually enhancing the code and the updated functionality is freely shared. Any firm can add the enhanced functionality to their site free of charge. That said the firm must have the in-house capability to do so or contract with an outside vendor to complete the project. If a firm does use an outside vendor to assist, it’s a one-time project fee as opposed to a long-term commitment.

The Move Toward Open Source

For the past several years, law firms have steadily trended toward the use of Open Source platforms and ownership of their websites. Long gone are the days of two or three legal power vendors owning the mass market share of law firm websites by using a formulaic, proprietary build approach and charging for site content and technology updates on an hourly or monthly basis.

Not if, but when you do plan for a refresh or new site build, you can reduce costs and enhance site longevity by using an Open Source platform. There are three main options, WordPress, Drupal and Joomla. There have been many comparisons of these Open Source Code options, and I share the main value/asset for each below.

WordPress: This system works best for small- to medium-sized firm websites. (Most Popular)

Drupal: The most powerful Open Source CMS, it allows for efficient upgrades. (Most Advanced)

Joomla: The better platform for e-commerce, it requires some level of technical coding. (The Compromise between WordPress and Drupal)

There is considerable information on the Internet regarding each of the listed Open Source systems. Identifying which CMS to use, whether proprietary or open source, is key to ensuring a smooth and effective website strategy for years to come.

Article By Sue Remley of Jaffe

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