Selling Innovation to General Counsel and Other Decisionmakers

This article is a version of Chapter 41 of Successful Innovation Outcomes in Law: A Practical Guide for Law Firms, Law Departments and Other Legal Organizations, by Dennis Kennedy. Available on Amazon.

It’s worth repeating that several years ago, a survey of general counsels asked what innovation their outside counsel had brought to them. The top answer was “none.”

In one sense, the threshold for outside counsel innovation efforts is quite low and the opportunity to differentiate from other firms is there for the taking. In another sense, however, the answer illustrates the desire of in-house counsel to see their outside firms take the lead in innovation and technology initiatives and their disappointment with the perceived lack of leadership.

Since outside firms are known for NOT bringing innovation ideas to corporate counsel, simply initiating the conversation might be a differentiator for you.

For in-house counsel, there is a sharp disconnect between what is requested and what outside firms seem to hear from them. In- house counsel often tell me about asking for simple email newsletters from outside counsel that, rather than summarize new cases or laws, offer a firm’s perspectives and insights and suggest practical action steps. Then they say, “And we never got them.”

A legal technology “solution” that outside counsel like to advocate is “contract lifecycle management.” Yes, there is a need, but those projects are not at the top of the in-house priority list, are nightmarishly complex to implement, and involve many moving parts in the entire corporation.

If, instead, the innovation process produced a pilot project of one of the three simple ideas I suggested in an earlier chapter (i.e., a dashboard of highly relevant data, an expertise locator, or a list of places where routine legal review could be eliminated), you would have delighted in-house counsel. Each of these addresses pain points, solves business problems, and are easy experiments. Each of these also illustrate how well you have listened and suggested some options that have worked elsewhere, not just tried to sell a pre-conceived innovation “solution.” And they provide value to the client and help them get their jobs done.

Many lawyers hate to “sell.” Most in-house counsel hate to be “sold to.” The good news is that pitching innovation efforts should not involve selling in the classic sense. It should consist of many of your best lawyering skills: asking good questions, active listening, investigating, getting to the core problem, looking at options, and patience. You want to understand what the client wants before you jump in with a solution.

The client does not want you to swoop in and save the day. You can do that when handling important legal work. Instead, clients want to be the heroes of their own innovation stories.

In the innovation process, there are three steps, as I have mentioned: why, what, and how. The sequence is to start with why, move to what, and, only at the very end, look at the how. Resisting the urge to move too quickly to the how stage plays a key role in success.

While there are many definitions of innovation, most of them emphasize “customer- focused” or “customer-centered” problem solving. Your client has the problem to solve. Your goal, and your role, are to help your client solve their problem and eliminate their pains and achieve their gains.

The client does not want you to swoop in and save the day. You can do that when handling important legal work. Instead, clients want to be the heroes of their own innovation stories. They want a guide with a plan to help them win the prize while avoiding disaster. Think Yoda, not Superman.

With that in mind, what approaches work best when discussing innovation projects or processes with a client?

1. Bring it Up First. Since outside firms are known for NOT bringing innovation ideas to corporate counsel, simply initiating the conversation might be a differentiator for you. If you put innovation in the context of improving the relationship, controlling or cutting legal spend, or a new benefit for key clients, you will have a winning combination.

2. Talk to the Real Decisionmakers. General counsel often lead and drive department innovation and select the winning projects to carry forward. However, they typically delegate the details to the innovation team. To move specific efforts forward, you will need to identify and engage with leadership of this team. We see more law departments with roles like Chief Innovation Officer than ever before.

3. Use the Value Proposition Canvas. A great, simple tool to use is something called the Value Proposition Canvas (https://www.strategyzer.com/canvas/value-proposition-canvas). It gives you a quick, visual way to map out the client’s problem, the pains the clients hope to alleviate or eliminate, and the gains they want to achieve. You can then match those items with the project or approach you suggest. For example, a client’s problem might be that they don’t know who the subject matter experts are for specific issues. The pains might include not knowing there was someone who could answer the question off the top of her head or mismatching people to projects. The hoped-for gains might be getting the right work to the right people or creating subject matter teams. After making the diagnosis, you can match the proposed solution (expert locator app) or process (design and prototyping sprint) and its pains solved and gains achieved with those desired and see how good the fit is.

4. Pitch Pilots, Not Products. Upwards of 90% of innovation projects fail or drastically change from the initial concept. That’s a good thing. It’s part of the innovation and start-up process. The more pilots, the better. Pilots?give you and the client prototypes to test, examples of possible projects to share with others, and quick wins that build momentum.

5. Understand Internal Goals and Objectives. In-house counsel and law departments have annual objectives and goals. Understand what those are and make them part of the equation. Visible achievement of annual goals will always be a desired gain for your client.

6. Bring the Whole Team. Get the right teams talking, especially in panel convergence presentations. If a law department has a Chief Innovation Officer or innovation lead, they will want to meet and talk with their counterparts. Your client will want to hear from the people who can answer their specific questions.

Innovation initiatives from outside counsel are moving quickly from nice-to-have to must-have. Law departments are looking for help to show innovation results and meet corporate and department goals and objectives. In-house counsel will be looking for guides who give them plans to achieve what they need and let them remain the heroes of their own stories. If you can provide that, you will cement long-term client relationship and open the doors to new legal work as a preferred law firm and a valued partner.

PRO TIP: Persuading a general counsel on innovation efforts requires special approaches and language, but these can be learned.

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