Beyond Biglaw: Sales Training (Part 1)
What is the hardest part about selling services, and what can law firms do to better train partners on how to sell?
It can never be said often enough: law is a service industry. And as much as we like to think of our work as generating “products,” at bottom we are just a service industry. The help. That realization is something many lawyers run from. We even call our briefs, and nasty letters to one another, “work product.” As if that is what the client wants when they hire us. Yes, clients prefer coherent briefs. And don’t like to see us generate mistake-riddled or sloppy documents. But what they really want is not our “products,” but the solution to business problems they have. Just like you don’t really care about the chemical composition of the laundry detergent at the dry cleaners you take your shirt to. You just want a clean shirt. Pressed nicely, and without that spot of tomato sauce that miraculously landed in the small area between your blazer lapel and tie.
I do not know if it is easier to sell products, as opposed to services. Products seem easier, because the customer either needs or wants what you have to sell. If you have a good product, you can easily show how it is better than the other options available to the customer. And you can paint a picture of how it will meet their need, or indulge their want.
Selling services is more nuanced. What’s the most difficult aspect of it?
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The hardest part is getting the client to focus on what they really want. Harder than it sounds, especially when the client does not have a clear understanding of what is really possible. Or a way of truly distinguishing between good and bad service. Anyone who has seen the client on the other side of the case super-thrilled with the inanities of subpar opposing counsel appreciates the subjective nature of a service business.
Learning to sell is a skill. One that can be learned, and one that must always be nurtured. Techniques that were once effective can get stale. Especially when the customer’s outlook has changed. And I am not talking only about trying to secure new customers. Existing customers change as well. Sometimes the people you need to sell to move on or are replaced. Or sometimes it is as simple as the customer realizing that they have other options. Either way, the day your sales pitch gets stale is the day you need to start planning for your next “adventure,” career-wise.
As you grow older in the legal profession, you understand more just how important sales skills are. Clients are the lifeblood of any practice. And they have plenty of other options.
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You would think that firms would start conditioning their lawyers how to sell from their earliest days in the business. And would understand that learning how to sell legal services is, at least, a fair bit more complicated than learning the sales techniques that would stand a person well at a garage sale. But as everyone knows, most firms don’t. Especially Biglaw firms, and firms that cater to a corporate clientele. Instead, they tell their young lawyers to just work hard and learn how to be good lawyers. Of course that is important. But it also creates a false impression. That the clients are “just there,” magically dispensing billable work like candy from a Pez dispenser.
A few years into a lawyer’s career in Biglaw, the idea of needing to learn how to sell comes into play. Aspiring lawyers are ranked based on their “sales potential” as part of the partnership consideration process. Who needs proof of actual sales? You become partner, and then the firm will teach you how to sell to sophisticated consumers of legal services. It will work out great. Day one as a partner, and you get to compete not only with the rainmakers at your firm, but the rainmakers in your practice area at all the other firms. The way that Biglaw and similarly situated firms approach grooming future rainmakers is as random as going through a senior class at a local high school and picking out the kids who look like they would be great boxers. And throwing them into a winner-take-all tournament with a few other kids like them — plus Mike Tyson and his professional boxing friends. While wringing hands and acting shocked that the handpicked future champions are not more successful right away.
If firms want to wait to train their younger lawyers how to sell, that’s great. But at least make an effort to give younger partners the skills they need to compete. That means real mentoring, starting with reviewing how the firm secured the last five matters that the young partner worked on. Were there beauty contests involved? That means there are presentations that can be reviewed. And senior partners who can share some thoughts about the meetings with the potential client. What resonated and what did not in the pitch. Why they think the firm beat out the competition for the engagement. What they would have done differently the next time. Not just bromides about the importance of a good attitude and firm handshake. Real analysis of prior sales situations.
A further note about competition. Most lawyers, especially sheltered Biglaw ones, fail to appreciate just how much competition there is. In our business, I have heard firsthand from brand-name clients how they get approached by dozens of Biglaw firms every time a new patent case is filed against them. Sometimes within hours of being sued in the first place. I am sure other practice areas are no less competitive.
To win and retain business in such a competitive environment requires real training. Sales training, geared toward the realities of the current market. Next week, I will share an idea of one possible way firms and clients can partner up to help train their young lawyers in this regard.
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Please feel free to send comments or questions to me at gkroub@kskiplaw.com or via Twitter: @gkroub. Any topic suggestions or thoughts are most welcome.
Gaston Kroub lives in Brooklyn and is a founding partner of Kroub, Silbersher & Kolmykov PLLC, an intellectual property litigation boutique. The firm’s practice focuses on intellectual property litigation and related counseling, with a strong focus on patent matters. You can reach him at gkroub@kskiplaw.com or follow him on Twitter: @gkroub.
