Lawyers: It's About Results, Not Sales Training

Business development takes time. Acquiring the skills to develop business takes even longer.

This is one of the tensions law firms face. On one hand, firms and lawyers alike feel pressure to win new business quickly, especially in today's daunting economy. On the other hand, firms rely on lawyers who need a lot of time and support to become sales experts.

In his book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell quantifies how much is “a lot.” Gladwell cites the 10,000-hour rule that researchers agree it takes to become an expert at anything.  

Guidance required

Time, however, is just one ingredient. Gladwell argues that the 10,000 hours of focused practice is neither a solitary activity nor simple repetition. Rather, experts and mentors must guide it. Furthermore, it must take you outside your comfort zone.

Neurologist Daniel Levitin adds, 

“Ten thousand hours is equivalent to roughly three hours a day, or 20 hours a week, of practice over 10 years. No one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery."

Seasoned lawyers have spent their 10,000 hours mastering lawyering; the chances of lawyers allocating 20 hours per week to master selling skills? Laughable. Even if they somehow could -- and if their firms were willing to invest in the necessary coaching and mentoring -- the firms' urgent need for immediate business development results precludes the traditional teach → coach → practice, practice, practice approach.

The game changer

Today's market has challenged pre-recession market strategies. Whether your firm’s approach is defensive (hoping to preserve current revenue levels) or offensive (aggressively capturing market share amid the economic crisis and chaos), the times call for a new business development model. 

So, at least for the short term, redirect your sales improvement investments away from the traditional training-centric approach, in which a lawyer’s sales capabilities grow incrementally over time. Instead, adopt a result-centric approach, where sales capabilities derive from immediate, dramatically ramped-up successes and results.

How do you shift your focus from training to results? The easiest and most reliable way is to rent a proxy sales force of “ringers,” seasoned sales pros who can coach and guide lawyers to a much higher closing percentage. Manage for this era by using sales pros who are focused solely on converting high-quality, immediate business opportunities into high-margin engagements.

Professionals never lose to amateurs

If two laypersons find themselves in a business dispute, it’s anybody’s guess which will prevail. However, if one of them has a seasoned lawyer advising them, the outcome is foregone.  

Most lawyers are amateur salespersons; they haven't reached mastery by investing 10,000 hours honing the sales craft. Give your lawyers the insurmountable competitive advantage of being guided by a sales pro. It’s all about stacking the odds in your favor:

• Receiving coaching is a form of practice. The lawyer practices the sales interaction with the coach, then again with the prospect. Success breeds additional activity, which, combined with more coaching, constitutes still more practice.  
• Over time, skills will develop. Over enough time, you’ll become an expert.

Coaches also prevent wasted time, effort and sales cost by quickly exposing false opportunities, which eliminates fruitless activity and reduces frustration and discouragement.

Scoring while the clock is stopped

Coaching cannot turn a lawyer into an instant sales expert. By dividing the labor, however, coaching vastly speeds up the results of the sales effort. It frees lawyers from having to do the opportunity analysis, strategic, and tactical thinking parts of the sales process.  

With coaching, lawyers will approach each sales opportunity with greater confidence and discipline. They’ll shorten the decision cycle and win more business at a higher margin and lower cost of sales.  

That's the immediate effect. There’s a long-term benefit, too.  

The more sophisticated methods that coached lawyers apply will deliver a more positive and valuable experience for your buyers.  This will differentiate the lawyers -- and your firm -- permanently.

Mike O’Horo

You couldn’t have become a great lawyer without training, practice, and mentoring. 

Why struggle unnecessarily to become a great business developer on your own without training, practice, and coaching?

Marketing and Sales are two separate, but related, professional disciplines to learn and master. Can you do that on your own? Maybe, but how much more time and effort will it take, compared to having a seasoned coach to simplify and shorten the journey?

Would you be more comfortable under the hands-on guidance of a coach who’s helped thousands of lawyers generate $1.5 billion (yes, that’s a “b”) in new business? While you’re thinking about it, why not take three minutes to see how my coaching philosophy and process can help you get to where you want to be--painlessly.

Questions? Prefer to chat by phone? Schedule a free call with me.