Lawyers.com Editor in Chief : Larry Bodine Law Marketing Blog : Law firm marketing, legal marketing, attorney marketing, business development, sales training, practice development, training, marketing consultant, legal consultant, individual lawyer coaching, business development, client team, practice development, business development, law firm coach

Amy Knapp spelled out how law firm marketers can be effective business development coaches, speaking at the Continuing Marketing Education Conference of the LMA Virginias Chapter in Richmond.

“I am hearing the word sales more and more frequently in law firm,” she said. “Business development is getting in front of the client, making the sale and bringing home the bacon. There is nothing between you and bringing in the money,“ she said. Amy, the Principal of Knapp Marketing of Washington, D.C., is a marketing and business development strategist with more than 20 years experiences working for professional services firms.

1. Read business books about the sales process. She recommended Legal Business Development by Jim Hassett, Rainmaking Made Simple by Mark Maria, Spin Selling by Neil Rackham and Business by Referral by Ivan Misner.
2. Go sell something. "If you want to be a good coach, you have to go sell something." It is a disadvantage for many marketers that they haven’t sold anything. Amy suggested joining your daughter and sell Girl Scout Cookies. “You will feel the fear that your daughter feels.” Other options are selling an LMA sponsorship for a chapter or raising funds for a charity.
3. Help them move the ball forward. It can be useful to do something as basic as edit a lawyer's email proposals. A lawyer might write, "I’d love to talk with out about opportunities with your company. My phone number and email address are…” Change it to: “I’d like to speak with you about we can provide value to your company. I'm available to talk anytime this Thursday or Friday and I'll give you a call then. If you would prefer a different time, just let me know."
4. Use pre-recorded training. She recommended Rainmaker VT, an online education program for lawyers featuring videos created by sales coach Mike O'Horo. Sales coach Cordell Parvin offers free podcasts of coaching sessions on iTunes.
5. Make them comfortable. Marketers think in terms of engaging people, being entrepreneurial and creative and cultivating relationships. Lawyers are focused on following precedent, avoiding risk, preventing problems and picking apart documents, according to Amy. A marketer can develop a list of prospects and marketing initiatives -- which will feel intimidating to a lawyer. When you make a list of things they should do, start at the bottom so they can take little steps and it’s not a high-states situation. You can’t make them afraid to take the first step.

By using these tactics, a marketer can coach a lawyer to finally say to a prospect, "I would like to be of service to your company.

                         Register for this event!!

Have you ever felt overwhelmed at the thought of trying to get an endorsement for your practice?  There are actually several ways to get those positive reviews.

Research shows that more and more consumers are depending on reviews and endorsements for products and services before making a purchase. Online reviews of a business or product are viewed as “unbiased”, and therefore more credible. A good review can make you, and a bad review can turn clients away in droves. 

Here is the PILMMA Bright Idea of the Week by Ken Hardison. The important function of responding to new callers is often relegated to whoever's available. "As business owners, we understand the new callers and clients are our lifeblood," he says. Ken, who is president of the Personal Injury Lawyers Marketing and Management Association (PILMMA), offers these tips.

• Hire at least one person who is dedicated to answering new callers. Get people who are pleasant, empathic and good listeners. By using a Plantronics wireless headset, the person can answer a call no matter where they are working in the office.
• When the call-taker is not busy taking calls, they can be busy scanning and opening new mail, filing, making copies, sending out letters, and closing and opening new files.
• You must train these people and give them scripts to follow. Once they're working test them with "mystery shoppers" and record incoming calls (be sure to check local laws about this). You can also can train people by using role-playing.

These tips will give you more cases, a happier staff and happier new callers.

WEBINAR PRESENTED BY: The Ackert Advisory and the Professional Business Development Institute (PBDI)
SPEAKERS: David Ackert and special guest Larry Bodine, Esq. 
DATE: Tomorrow, Tuesday, July 10, 2012 - one hour
♦ 10 am Pacific ♦ 11 am Mountain ♦ Noon Central ♦ 1 pm Eastern
LOCATION: on the web, on your computer
WEBSITE: http://bit.ly/Q6PeCj

Join David Ackert and me this Tuesday in this live program about how to lure, attract and capture the best clients of competing law firms and turn them into paying members of your own clientele.

Click here to sign up for this event.

Click here to register instantly with a credit card. Registration fee: $300. You can display the program in a conference room, put the telephone on speaker mode, and invite as many attendees at your firm as you wish. One connection per registration.

Join us to learn the techniques that law firms employ to lure away the clients of their competitors. 

Be aware that the strategy of most law firm marketing directors is to take away the clients of competing law firms. This is a highly profitable strategy in the current law firm recession. If you want the business of another law firm's best clients, we'll show you how to win it away from them.

This is a time of volatility in the profession, with as many as half of all clients switching law firms in a year. If you know what to look for, you can channel this new business to your firm. We'll describe the telltale signs that another law firm has unhappy clients. Once you've targeted another firm, we'll reveal how you can learn who are their top clients.

You'll discover that many business clients have remained with a particular law firm because of inertia. They'll keep using their old law firm -- until they hear a better offer. David Ackert and special guest Larry Bodine have interviewed many law firm clients and will inform attendees of this webinar exactly what clients want to hear that will make them switch law firms.

My friend Stacy West Clark, a sales coach for lawyers in small firms, published a terrific list of business development tips from four million-dollar rainmakers she knows. She has been helping Pennsylvania lawyers and law firms expand their practices or 25 years. She is a former attorney with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius and was its first marketing director. Here are a few tips from the field:

Bring in business to the firm and your partners — not to yourself. More than anything else, lawyers who look to cross-sell a client to other sections and lawyers in their firm quite simply make more money. It’s easy to understand why. There is only so much you can bill as an individual.

Million-dollar rainmakers all decided to pursue a hobby, which they use for selling legal services. For the last decade, the golfer has scheduled golf dates months in advance with clients at top courses at which clients are excited to play. The tennis player has had a regular standing game with three other professionals and also plays challenge matches to meet more people. Because they chose endeavors they really loved, each was able to use the activity very successfully to develop business.

Help clients find a new job. These rainmakers had clients over the years who lost their jobs or whose jobs were changed because of mergers, bankruptcies and more. Each made a point to help any client who lost his or her job — sending their resumes around, speaking to contacts and arranging meetings for the client. When the client landed on his or her feet, a pattern developed: The client would try very hard to steer legal work to the lawyer who had been there for him or her over the years.

Over the years, all four report being told “no” by prospective clients. And none of them cared. They did not suffer feelings of rejection. In fact, it made them want to get the target even more. So they kept trying. That’s right: The target said “no,” but they kept in communication in ways that were useful to the target. One reported to me that it took 10 years to bring a Fortune 100 company in to the firm — but he did — and he did it by learning everything he could about its operations and how it made money, and by constantly bringing to its attention legal news that could affect its business. Persistence paid off.

Keep your business antennae up — no matter where you are. These rainmakers assess everyone they meet and every situation they are in to spot possible new business. In short, they are rarely “off” because they have changed their DNA to think about people in a new way. They were not born like this — they made a decision to be like this.

Dress the part. Throughout their careers, to a letter all four of the rainmakers — whether on a casual day or otherwise — deliberately made sure they looked “well-dressed.” They bought their clothes at nice, but not ridiculously expensive, stores, and they made sure they always looked highly professional. Ready for a serendipitous encounter with a client — they always looked the part of being smart. Don’t ever forget that appearance does matter — a lot.

Go where clients are in your personal and professional life. If you want corporate clients, hang out where professionals “live” — their trade associations, their alumni reunions, their charitable endeavors, their pastimes. If you want consumer clients, be active in your community; talk up what you do with the local barber, your pharmacist and others who can be walking ambassadors for your practice.

You can read all of Stacy's great rainmaking tips in her article My Night With a Few Multimillion-Dollar Rainmakers.

How to Motivate the Next Generation of Rainmakers will be broadcast this Thursday, May 24, at 10 AM Pacific time. It's your last chance to register for this practical business development program. 

You get a trifecta of experts: David Ackert of Practice Boomers, Mike O'Horo of RainmakerVT, and yours truly, the Editor in Chief of Lawyers.com.  

We'll tell you what works and how to do it. You'll learn how to inspire your colleagues to market by directing their focus. You'll find out about proactive, methodical approaches to business development.You'll see how to create a "sales culture" that engages all your lawyers. 

How to Motivate the Next Generation of Rainmakers

PRESENTED BY: Practice Boomers and the Professional Business Development Institute.

DATE: Thursday, May 24, 2012 - two days from now.

   ♦ 10 am Pacific ♦ 11 am Mountain ♦ Noon Central ♦ 1 pm Eastern

LOCATION: On the web, on your computer

MORE INFO: Larry Bodine (Tel) 630.942.0977

WEBSITE:

bit.ly/attorneymarketing

How you present your services when you are pitching for new business makes all the difference. Here's a guest blog post by Roger Ledin of Legal Process Consulting, Inc. in Lakeville, MN. He he can be reached at rledin@legalprocessconsulting.com.

When a potential client asks why they should do business with your firm, do you struggle for an answer more substantive than, “because we’re really good lawyers?” Clients increasingly want to see the “why” that sets your firm apart – and Legal Process Improvement (LPI) can help provide the answer.

LPI helps you understand, and therefore better market, the detail behind your services. On many occasions for RFPs and marketing presentations, I have provided process diagrams of proposed services that clients can immediately relate to and then use as a benchmark for competitor comparisons. Setting the standard leaves a lasting impression and can significantly improve your chances of winning the business. 

The following simple example shows the roles, responsibilities, and sequence of tasks from drafting through signature of a real estate purchase agreement. These process diagrams should be easy to understand with the boxes representing key tasks and the color coding designating responsibilities. This task and assignment information can then be used to set expectations for responsibilities and delivery of service. Getting everybody on the same page helps eliminate dropped handoffs and missed assignments.   

Example: real estate purchase agreement.

Key: blue = buyer firm
Red = client (buyer)
Green = seller

Clients really like these visuals because of the clarity provided. In addition, with many clients already employing process improvement disciplines, speaking the “language of process” provides a distinct advantage. Your firm, in turn, reaps the benefits from the process improvements that help not only your firm’s bottom line, but also client satisfaction as delivery of services is more consistent and predictable.

Here are some great tips from my friend Steve Boutwell, Director of Client Services at Kean Miller in Baton Rouge, LA:

My firm exhibited at a large conference of in-house attorneys this week. The experience reinforced the notion that if you put a lot of thought and effort into trade show marketing, it can pay big dividends. If you don't, well, it won't. A few thoughts:

1) Engage passersby: If you engage them, they will come. If you simply nod, or read internal email from your firm about someone finding a set of keys in bathroom on your Blackberry/iPhone/Android, or eat, or stare into space, you’ve lost them. However, if you engage attendees with a “good morning”, or a “how are you” or some other acknowledgement, you’ll have more success.

2) Shiny Objects: Like bees to flowers, have shiny, colorful, unusual trinkets. Pen? Multicolor highlighter? Candy? Why bother! We are a Louisiana firm, so we had our own hot sauce, Mardi Gras beads, cookbooks, and Gumbo mix.

3) Elevator Speech: Be prepared to tell a compelling story about your firm in 15 seconds or less. Rehearse it well and be prepared to make it interesting. Follow your story by asking about theirs.

4) Information Capture: Ask for a business card, send a follow up communication (we are sending New Orleans pralines), and add contacts to your CRM.

5) Never Leave: Man your booth as if your life depended on it. Some of the best conversations we had were during times the in-house counsel were coming from, running to, or avoiding the CLE sessions altogether.

I love the tip about giving Mardi Gras beads. Giving something that's uniquely New Orleans is a great idea. Now if Steve asked attendees to pull up their shirts and show show off to get the beads -- that would be priceless.

Rainmakers know better than to make empty follow-up calls saying, “Anything new?” or “Is there something we can do for you?” or “How would you like meet one of my partners?” These calls will fail because they offer nothing of value. It is essential for each follow-up message to offer the recipient a reason to continue the relationship with the caller. Following are 10 ideas to choose from.

1. Offer free training or CLE at the client’s premises. If they liked the general conference, they’ll love the intimate tailored workshop.
2. Invite prospects to attend your Web seminars, speaking engagements and public seminars. Not only will they learn something, they’ll more likely perceive you as an expert.
3. Send congratulations — personal and business. This is why it’s useful to learn another person’s birthday and to notice their career promotions.
4. Invite potential clients to social events, mixers and firm outings. If you plan to have a good time, you can win new business by sharing the fun with clients.
5. Send a link to a relevant blog or online news story. The other person may already know the news, but will appreciate that you thought of them.
6. Distribute a case study that analyzes an actual situation that the person you are pursuing can relate to.
7. Send a checklist that the other person can keep on hand, such as “10 things to do after a traffic accident” or “Estate planning steps to take when an elderly parent goes into assisted living.
8. Publish a “Biggest Mistakes” newsletter recounting cases and transactions where a legal disaster happened to someone like your target. Good topics might include “How a local construction company went bankrupt” or “Lessons learned after a costly divorce.”
9. Ask people to “Rate Yourself” against best practices. People love quizzes. Any prospective client will appreciate a one-page list of policies and procedures that your must successful current clients are using.
10. Give a GOT. I credit this idea to David Ackert, a business development consultant in Los Angeles. A “GOT” is a Gesture Of Thoughtfulness. An example is a Chicago lawyer I knew who would personally deliver finished documents to a bank client, and bring along several coffee cakes that he had baked for all the staff and clerical personnel.

Remember, before you undertake any marketing initiative, Step #1 is to plan what the follow-up steps are and who will take them. What a lawyer does after the first meeting is more important than the initial meeting. Be sure to follow up in a meaningful way that makes the other party want to have more contact. The new clients, files and revenue will all arrive after the initial meeting.