In the NFL, the Red Zone is the final 20 yards before the goal line – the area in which the defense needs to be strong and where the offense must take advantage of practiced skills and sharp thinking in order to score. For the Closers Group, our Red Zone approach is part of what sets us apart from other business development consultants. When we talk about the Red Zone with our clients, we’re referencing the time that they’re meeting with their prospects, one on one, and using the closing skills they’ve developed to win a new engagement.


One of the most important closing skills that attorneys can bring to the Red Zone is the ability to listen carefully to what prospects and clients say. This directly relates to the importance of understanding client needs (and being able to react to them) when it comes to winning contracts.


Most lawyers are great at talking and good at asking questions, but only fair at listening. For new business development, whether you’ve just made contact or you’re at the one yard line and about to seal the deal, the importance of listening cannot be stressed enough. The art of listening should permeate legal sales training, be a part of every firm’s marketing plan, and be a strategy used during every concerted law sales opportunity.


When lawyers meet with a prospect, they should focus on creating at least a 60/40 breakdown: during any business development meeting, get your prospect or client talking 60% of the time and make sure that you’re listening to and acting on what he or she says. Listening and responding to a client or prospect’s needs are imperative if you want to move through the Red Zone and score.

Business development strategies need to be nurtured to thrive. The seeds of new marketing tactics need to be regularly tended in order for legal sales to follow. For too many who take on the role of managing law firm marketing departments however, it can be difficult to see the full potential for growing the firm. Rather than a well-tended garden, these professionals find themselves surrounded by rocks, weeds, and other obstacles.


When law firm management chooses to implement a business development training program, there is opposition. . As a business development consultant, I’ve frequently heard internal objections like:

• “It’s not my responsibility.”
• “Let’s bring it up and review again in 6 months.”
• “We’re not ready for that kind of change.”
• “Let’s give it some more thought.”
• “It won’t pay for itself.”
• “I know a firm that tried that. . .”
• “It’s unprofessional.”

The best way to tend to the garden of the firm’s growth is to work with partners and lawyers who are eager to learn and focus on developing new business for their own practice and the firm. As leaders emerge and their success begins to bloom, new clients are signed, and client retention becomes more common, others will see the incentives and rewards – and their reluctance to take a larger part of caring for their firm’s sales garden will fade away.

Some lawyers may have an uncanny advantage for marketing their practices simply because of when they were born – at least if you take personality traits of astrological birth signs into consideration. Pisces, for example, are thought to be creative, sensitive, helpful, and intuitive. All of these traits are vital when it comes to invisible marketing—and fortunately, you can hone those traits, no matter what your sign.


Business development consultants will tell you to look for every possible opportunity to market your services or your firm. The consultants at the Closers Group will also tell you to take advantage of invisible marketing techniques –to be creative, to anticipate future possibilities, and highlight your value for your prospects and current clients – to navigate legal sales.


Lead development (and eventual conversion) requires seizing the moment. If a prospect or client asks you what’s new, focus on a recent big win at your firm rather than the success of your son or daughter’s soccer team. This keeps the emphasis on your services and the way that your clients and prospects benefit from them. Move relationships forward whenever possible. If your client calls with a complaint, be sure to fix the problem as quickly as possible; you’ll be able to leverage this later by reminding the client of your fast response to their needs. This sets the stage for future follow-ups as well. When you have the opportunity, ask your client if there are other problems or concerns – and focus on resolving those just as quickly.


Adopting the Pisces profile – using invisible and creative marketing strategies, intuiting your prospects’ and clients’ needs, and offering solutions as quickly as possible – will ensure that you never miss a business development opportunity that comes your way. Good deeds and a focus on building strong relationships both become ingrained in your prospects’ and clients’ memories and will lead them to seek you out when they’re looking for services.

Competitive alpine skiers – whether they focus on downhill, the slalom, the giant slalom or the super-G – know that in order to achieve their goals, they need a specific action plan. In the case of alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics, that action plan starts by determining which events the skier will race and then moves on to focus on breaking down the course, identifying the right path to make the jump or turn, and analyzing the terrain and conditions in order to ensure that – when they arrive at the bottom of the hill – they produce a winning time.


When sports’ analysts comment on the downhill events, their focus is on two things:

1. What individual skiers are doing that sets them apart.
2. The terrain of the course.

Business development consultants who work with lawyers and law firms have a similar focus. Their expert commentary and guidance helps lawyers successfully analyze the terrain of client meetings and client relationships, and helps firms support lawyers who must show that they have what it takes while emphasizing what makes them unique.


Every firm (and, most likely, every attorney within the firm) has something that sets it apart. For some firms, the differentiating factor is a heightened level of client knowledge. When this is the case, all of the components of business development training dovetail because client understanding and relationships are law firm differentiation.


If you’re having difficulty pinning down what makes your firm different, a business development consultant like the Closers Group can help you identify it and work with you to build a strategy around that difference. If you’re looking to improve your closing skills and take your sales strategy to the next level, we can help you identify the best strategies for evaluating the options available to you, choose the right path for your presentations, and work with you to ensure that you stay on course and sign new clients in record time.

Snowboarding debuted in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano and has been evolving ever since. The 2006 games in Torino, Italy, saw the introduction of snowboard cross, but the thrills of the halfpipe competition are what really draw in the fans. Performing in the halfpipe requires athletes to minimize their start-to-finish times while maximizing the “air” they achieve and the artistry of their tricks.


Olympic snowboarders train extensively during the off-season and continually push themselves harder to ensure that they stay on the cutting edge, perform at peak levels, and have that extra something that will wow the crowds. Similarly, lawyers focused on successful law firm marketing will find benefits when they minimize the time invested in business development strategies and maximize their performance.


There’s no doubt that, during the last 25 years, law firms, lawyers and legal marketing professionals have made great strides in spreading the word about their services. Unlike coaches of snowboarders like Shaun White, however, law firm marketing professionals sometimes struggle to get lawyers to practice new tricks. Many also still face a key obstacle to ongoing innovation for business development: there are lawyers who don’t consistently follow through when it comes to individual or group law sales.


The challenge is that the lawyers are often struggling to find balance between business development and practicing law. One of the business development strategies that the consultants at the Closers Group recommend to address this is fairly simple: narrow the focus of what is on a lawyer’s agenda.


When a lawyer’s focus is spread across a range of tasks, the marketing department can help by cutting down the lawyer’s to-do list. A lawyer is more likely to at least begin to make an effort to get through assigned or agreed-upon tasks when these tasks are clearly defined.


Just as a snowboarder will have a more successful run when he or she is focused and in the moment, law firm marketing teams will find that business development efforts are more successful when the attorney’s time and activity are focused on tasks like lead generation and lead development.

There’s a lot to be said for using tried and trusted tactics when you’re approaching your prospects or planning a sales presentation, but when your tactics aren’t getting results, it’s time to try something new. Dave Barry had some great advice on this – referencing two famous ships:

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur build the Ark while a large group of professionals built the Titanic.

Marketing teams at law firms often think they’re the ones with all the answers, but this overlooks the fact that lawyers focused on sales and solid presentations can be even more successful when it comes to bringing in new business – especially when they have the right support.


As part of our Closers Consulting, we urge our clients to pick a new tactic and try it out, encouraging our clients to get input from others in their firms who have used the strategy. We also answer questions about the strategy and talk them through implementing it, work with them to refine it, and take the time to do a “post mortem” after they’ve had the chance to take it out into the field. Then we continue practicing and refining it until it becomes natural – all before moving on to another lead development technique and repeating the process.


Trying something new doesn’t mean that you’ll go in unsupported. Having a business development consultant on your side ensures that you’re able to form new strategies, try new tactics, and bring in new clients.

In Hair, the “Age of Aquarius” was all about a time of peace, love, and understanding. While for most people, this utopian concept is long lost, many working in law firms could benefit from bringing it back.


In typical law firms, the only area where the “peace, love and understanding” concept plays out is in the realm of client services. The understanding that lawyers have of their clients’ cases leads to a working peace; the love part comes in when the lawyer wins the verdict for his or her client. But the concept has a solid place in other areas of the business, too—like business development and client retention. Unfortunately, when it comes to those areas, the understanding piece is often missing.


Both the lawyers and their marketing departments play a role in the misunderstanding, of course. Often it appears that the lawyers don’t value their marketing department’s services, many times disagreeing with the strategic business development suggestions that the marketing team provides. On the flip side, law firm marketing departments can gets caught up in a cycle of feeling snubbed when their ideas are seemingly ignored by attorneys who are busy practicing law.


Ultimately the firm benefits when lawyers make servicing their clients a top priority, as it leads to repeat business and referrals. Many times, it takes the help of a business development consultant to pinpoint how the lawyer’s focus on representing clients is best for the firm before the marketing department can recognize the benefit.


Strategies developed with the assistance of a business development consultant allow for a shift in the firm dynamic. This shift places client retention at the top of law firm marketing priorities and serves as the foundation of a lasting Aquarian peace throughout the firm.

David Copperfield is known for performing astounding feats of illusion – most notably, making both a 747 jetliner and the Statue of Liberty disappear. The magic, as Copperfield shows us, is in making sure that there is ample planning for all possible contingencies – after all, the Statue of Liberty is still there and David Copperfield is one of the most successful people in the field of magic.


Just as careful planning can accomplish tremendous feats of magic, it is also necessary when you begin to plan for making law sales. When you’re working with a business development consultant, some of the best advice that you’ll receive is about preparation: focus on filling your sales pipeline with prospective clients who are in various stages of the marketing process. Make sure that some of your prospects are current clients who are looking for additional services, and focus too on those prospects you’ve just met at presentations or those who’ve called after seeing an article that you published.


Successful law sales take time. You need to have a strategy in place, and you need to plan for a number of possible outcomes. The right business development consultant can help you to see your options, and develop a plan for reaching out to everyone along the way – and help leave your competitors in awe of your magic touch.

People watch the Superbowl each year as much for the commercials as they do for the big game. And while law firms and legal sales leaders rarely have an audience as large or as interested in their marketing message, there are still some valuable lessons that they can learn from the big brands.


Many marketing experts polled about which Superbowl commercials were the most successful point to ads from brands with a repeated presence during the game. Whether or not fans like Coke, Budweiser beers, or Doritos these brands certainly did an excellent job of keeping their names in front of the viewers.


Successful law marketing draws on this concept of frequency. For lead generation purposes, follow up and follow through are keys to success. If it’s worth your time to make an initial contact, it’s worth the time to follow up. Unless you remain in contact with your prospects, you’ll never break through.


Likewise, if your messages don’t stand out, it’s going to be difficult to convert your prospects. Take the time to learn about who your prospects are. Budweiser and Coke do this and use it to appeal to their viewers; Doritos does this so effectively that their prospects and customers contribute to creating standout ads.


For lawyers, standing out can be a bit more difficult – especially in this age of email and faxes. Formal letters are often overlooked as a marketing tool; by adding them to your business development efforts, you can be sure that your marketing message is noticed and remembered just as clearly as the Budweiser Clydesdales.


This post was co-authored by attorney David Mylrea, a partner at Hinshaw and Culbertson in Minneapolis.

Harry Houdini, like all great magicians, didn’t just start performing a new trick. In order to “wow” his audience, he took the time to consider what would win them over. He rehearsed new illusions before the performance and tailored the show to each audience. A great example of this is Houdini’s entertaining police officers by working his way out of handcuffs and escaping from the jail cell of President Garfield’s assassin.


Many attorneys think that they understand the magic behind closing sales, but all too often they start the conversation by launching into a discussion of the services their firm offers. Houdini would not be remembered as a great illusionist if he simply described the feats that he could perform; as an entertainer, he knew he had to entertain – and that the most general of his tricks would not make the grade.


When you market your law firm and services, the only thing a perspective client cares about is what you will be able to do for them. Learn as much as you can about your prospects. Identify their needs and prepare for your meetings accordingly. New business development and closing sales calls for the same concentration prior to the meeting that Harry put into his performances: practice your best moves, build on successes, understand your audience, and go in with what you know will win them over.


This post is another in our series exploring some of the top client development tactics written with attorney David Mylrea, a partner at Hinshaw and Culbertson in Minneapolis.