Selling without Selling
And why sales should no longer be a dirty word in the legal profession
Dirty Words in Law Firms
When I used to commute to work every day, there were a number of legal assistants who sat close to my office.
Naturally, I overheard plenty of their conversations. Most weren’t particularly interesting, though occasionally you got to hear some juicy stuff.
One assistant worked with a particular lawyer who was frequently out of the office, and it wouldn’t be uncommon for the assistant to get off a call and utter a phrase that I assume she learned at Barber Ranen.
The phrase involved a 4 letter word that both starts and ends with c*nt, and it was directed to the lawyer she worked for (though that lawyer was never in the office when it was uttered).
I am told that word is a dirty word that has no place in the legal profession.
I am confused as to why the word ‘sales’ is used less frequently by lawyers and legal professionals.
Alas, I clearly don’t make the rules.
To Sell is Human
In his classic sales book To Sell Is Human, Daniel Pink sets out a number of key insights that don’t seem to have made their way into the legal profession. Then again, how many lawyers do you know that have taken the time to read sales books?
These insights include:
Almost every job these days involves selling - and that is certainly true of lawyers, regardless of what stage they’re at (though it’s especially true at the partner level)
Modern selling is about making other people’s lives better - we need to sell in a way that offers value and service to others. That doesn’t sound particularly sleazy to me, yet so many lawyers are afraid of selling - I suspect because they haven’t encountered too many salespeople who have embraced modern sales techniques or spent enough time looking into those techniques
You need to believe that your product/service sincerely helps improve your customers’ lives - I mean sure, if you’re working for asbestos manufacturers to ensure that cancer victims get a smaller payout, that’s going to be pretty tough to pull off. But even in areas of law that involve working with large corporations (which there is plenty of in Big Law), there are lots of ways to see your services as helping your clients and your clients’ stakeholders.
You need to spend a lot of time listening and a lot less time talking - we’re currently piloting software that helps our lawyers see the data on this when those they do calls with potential clients, as some of them (out of the goodness of their hearts) talk way too much; not because they’re trying to sell, but because they’re friendly people.
All successful people have to get used to rejection - something that this profession is not really known for.
The point being - modern sales isn’t what a lot of people think it is. It’s really just about trying to help people solve their problems.
It’s Tough to Sell When You Don’t Believe in the Product
As a corporate associate, you better believe I didn’t think I was providing value to clients for the first few years of practice.
I didn’t have the mentorship or training that I needed, which meant I wasn’t happy with my work product
I didn’t believe in our inherent business model, which seemed to reward inefficiency and sought to repeatedly re-invent the wheel
I didnt know who at the firm I could trust to work on my clients in the way I would serve them - i.e. being value conscious and truly trying to put the clients’ needs first
I didnt have control of the final bill - and that definitely concerned me.
Figuring It Out Over Time
Over time, as I progressed as an associate, I suddenly had a lot more ways to control my output and be sure of the value I could offer
I systematized stuff internally, so that I knew I could ‘win’ (or at least not lose) on fixed fees
I figured out which partner would oversee a file without actually overseeing my work - which helped avoid racking up unnecessary fees at a really high hourly rate (to be clear, this was once my competence had improved dramatically)
I found clients I liked working with - and who I knew weren’t being served well by other firms/existing providers
I learned what legal tech was out there, became a power user of that tech, and built that into my workflow to keep costs down
I trained my assistant on that tech and workflow, so that I could leverage her on my files without driving up bills by using a student or 1st year associate who wasn’t going to add much value
I figured out which of my colleagues saw the world the same way I did and which didn’t. You could guess which ones I looped into files
In short - I found a way to build something that I could sell, even if it wasn’t fully productized. It was definitely something clients wanted and appreciated, and I had the data and positive feedback to confirm that.
My Selling to Date
I truly don’t think I’ve done any selling of the legal services that I offer in the past few years. In fact, our firm historically hasn’t done much traditional selling.
As an interim solution, for example, I put together a simple page the other week to help a referral source understand what they could send our way. Our website has been pretty barren (remains a work in progress), and I haven’t needed to put anything together before because I’ve been sufficiently busy and able to bring in plenty of new work.
We’ve definitely failed to follow tons of best practices - but that’s the exciting part, because I’ve managed (and our firm has also managed) to build some impressive books of business without following best practices. So imagine what we can do as we start following best practices.
What I have done well, however, is offered a ton of value to people without expecting anything in return.
Over the last few years, I planted a ton of seeds (though I didn’t always remember to water them). Many of those seeds have turned into flowers.
And many of those flowers (which may be how we start referring to our clients internally from now on) have enjoyed working me and have referred more clients to me.
It’s a nice flywheel - the more clients you deliver value to, the more clients you’re likely to have.
Learning Best Practices
There are so many great books out there, and I’ve spent my share of time reading them over the last few years. There is so much low hanging fruit.
If you’re looking for a podcast recommendation, I highly recommend 30 Minutes to President’s Club.
It’s meant for professional salespeople (not lawyers), and I have learned so much from it as I power through episodes over the last few months.
It’s always fun listening to an episode and realizing I made that mistake on a call with a 4L Academy Client last week and that mistake the week before with a potential firm client.
To be clear - I am far from a sales expert. But compared to most lawyers…
What Next
If you’re looking to get started, then just get started. Try something, fail a bit, learn some lessons, and try again.
Or as they say in Lean Startup: Build —> Measure —> Learn —> Repeat
Don’t be like most lawyers and wait until you feel comfortable or for that mythical perfect time. There is no perfect time, and you will learn how to be comfortable by trying things and building your confidence.