Last week I gave you the first of my observations after being sold to by law firms for several hours. The first two observations were: (1) be prepared for the interaction (with information about the client if possible, but at least information about yourself); and (2) listen to your potential client when selling your services.
This week, the rest of the list:
3. Be Engaged
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Following on the directive of “Listen to Your Potential Client” is to engage with your potential client. This instruction follows “Listen” because listening is a prerequisite for engaging. Being prepared with talking points about your firm and yourself is a good start, but it isn’t enough to be special and memorable. I need to believe that you care about me, and my concerns. I hire outside counsel to help me sleep at night. I won’t be able to sleep if I don’t think that you care about my organization.
You don’t have to actually care. I would like to believe that you do, but I know that may be asking too much. However, I need for you to at least pretend. How do you pretend to care? You show me you are listening to me. You share experiences and knowledge with me that you think might help me. You ask me questions about my business and plans for the future. Maybe, just maybe, you empathize with my concerns.
4. Be Creative
If you are prepared, listening, and engaged, then you will have an idea of my worries, my gaps in legal services, blind spots I may have. With this, you can start helping me figure out how to use you best.
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During my speed-dating morning, I met several firms without specialties that lined up 100 percent with what one would think my organization would need. Some individuals were rigid in their attempts to force my needs into their specialties, some were almost belligerent in their annoyance that I wanted to talk to them, but some were able to see the opportunity to sell their services in an unusual way.
The ones who saw the opportunity were able to think three steps ahead as to how they could provide services to me, albeit differently than how they service their other clients. Your firm may specialize in litigation, or medical malpractice, or securities, but that doesn’t mean that your services are only valuable to potential clients who want to use you the way you have always been used. If you are a litigation firm, you have knowledge of current case law, trends in the jurisdiction where you practice, and probably national trends. I may not need a litigator to litigate, but I might benefit from a litigator who can tell me what she’s seen in the area I’m concerned about so I can avoid using her as a litigator in the future.
Finding creative solutions to problems is a great part of being a lawyer. I can’t help but be impressed when outside counsel finds a way to solve my problems that I didn’t see myself. Your experience is valuable in more than one way. You can impress me by showing me how your knowledge, which is different from my knowledge, can help me sleep at night.
5. Be Happy About the Opportunity to Sell Yourself
Getting a new client should be a big deal to any attorney at a law firm. Getting clients is how you build your career beyond doing work for other people. Having an opportunity to talk to a potential client is an exciting event. It shouldn’t be a chore.
I met two types of people during my hours of “speed dating”: people who made me feel like they were happy to be presenting themselves to me and people who made me feel like they would have preferred to be anywhere else. Guess who I liked more? Obviously, those who were happy to be there. Trust me, I understand the motivations of those who were less than enthusiastic. It was a tough and exhausting day. Asking a person to give 100 percent for the entire time almost seems cruel. However, you never know when that next opportunity is going to present itself to you. If you can’t muster up energy, you can at least find a spark of joy in the possibility that you might be able to help the person in front of you.
I know it is hard to make an effort for something that isn’t a sure thing. We are lawyers, we are risk-averse. If we had wanted to do sales as a career, we could have saved ourselves a lot of time, education, and heartache, but it is part of the job. If you want people to buy, you have to sell.
I have the business cards of the individuals who hit all these points on my desk. I may not be able to use them today, or possibly even tomorrow, but I will remember them. I may even give their names to colleagues who are looking for specific services. Their sales performance did not guarantee them my business, but it did guarantee them my interest in learning more. The more I learn about them, the more I will remember their names, what they do and the more likely theirs will be the name I come up with when I need, or a colleague needs, someone to help on a specific issue in their specialization or in their jurisdiction.
None of these points are earth-shattering. None of them are new. Being on the receiving end of multiple sales pitches made me realize how important the fundamentals are, even in sales.
Earlier: The Road Not Taken: Sell Me A Story (Part 1)
Celeste Harrison Forst has practiced in small and mid-sized firms and is now in-house at a large manufacturing and technology company where she receives daily hugs from her colleagues. You can reach Celeste directly at [email protected].