Personality: Why 25% of Lawyers Can't Sell
Only 20% of lawyers are natural born marketers, according to Dr. Larry Richard, a Director of Hildebrandt International, in Somerset, N.J. He found that an additional 55% of lawyers can learn to be rainmakers. "They will makre efforts to do marketing; so your goal should be to reduce their discomforts," he said. The remaining 25% are hopeless at marketing and should be ignored. "The trick is to figure out who they are and not to waste time on them," he said.
"Personality is a key factor in business development," Richard emphasized. Lawyers are very different from general population in 6 of 18 traits - and no other profession has more than 2 deviations. For example, 2/3 of lawyers are introverts, but in contrast, ¾ of the general population in the U.S. are extroverts. In analyzing lawyer personalities, Richard employs the Caliper Profile, which has been used for more than 40 years to measure personality traits.
Further, lawyers differ dramatically from marketers. Lawyers are analytical, detached, introverted and reflective. Marketers, in contrast, are creative, enthusiastic, extroverted and interactive. "The good news for marketing is that lawyers are a quick study--you don't have to do a lot to teach them," he said at the Marketing Partner Forum in Florida.
The six traits that distinguish lawyers are...
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Refreshing insight. Just alittle confused why the article finishes with what marketers have too do. Attorneys need to step-up and make some changes. Vendor relations are often severed because of this lack of understanding. Granted approaching firms with different approach say, making it their idea, can produce. However, my business services other markets that frankly don't put us through half the non-sense. Companies using marketing successfully are proactive, if the source is not, what result can be delivered. Attorneys moan they hate Salespeople, yet they cry for more clients. Make-up your mind....
Really John:
I'm not one to defend us lawyers but, in case you're interested, it's not that lawyers can't "make up their mind" about salespeople. On the contrary, I'm POSITIVE that I dislike them. Know why? They LIE. That is, they say things that aren't true to get my business and then disappear when I need to follow up. By contrast, I am there for my Clients at all times -- at the beginning, middle, and end of the representation. Does THAT clarify the difference between a lawyer who sells and a salesman that lies?
M. Hedayat
I find this post very interesting form the point of view that as a marketer, I work with software developers.
They too are blessed with multiple talents, but are in many cases hopeless at marketing themselves (at least in my niche anyway).
I've found I learn more about myself when working with such clients, than I actually teach them about marketing.
Stewart Alexander