“Off with their heads!” The phrase has been attributed to everyone from Shakespeare, to Lewis Carroll (in Alice in Wonderland) and even King Henry VIII. But if you ever hear this phrase whispered in the halls of your law firm, it’s much less important to know who said it than it is to know you’ve got cause to be concerned—especially in this time of unparalleled law firm layoffs.


One of the key reasons non-equity partners have been laid off from their law firms is because of the absence of successful legal sales. A primary cause behind this is the absence of solid business development training offered to the attorneys by the firm.


As a business development consultant working with law firms on expanding or creating an active training program for business development, I am often asked to review the annual performance assessment format used by clients. All too often, there is, at best, a cursory review of attorney marketing efforts. And while many attorneys are asked to provide their plan for the year, rarely is anyone tracking and supporting their marketing and sales efforts, let alone offering suggestions for improvement as time goes by.


Simply by focusing on lawyer marketing and helping non-equity partners and other lawyers who are new to the team learn more about closing sales, you will be actively contributing to the firm’s success. If the economic downturn has not yet convinced your firm to take a proactive approach to business development, start proposing it now. Your future and the future of the firm may depend on it.

When told that the peasants of France were so poor that they could not even afford bread, Marie Antoinette said, “Let them eat cake.” Even if scholars argue that the young queen never spoke the phrase, there is an important lesson to be learned for those who are involved in law sales. When you aren’t listening to your clients’ real needs and offering them what they’re asking for—like alternative billing arrangements–it’s going to be difficult to keep them coming back for more.


Rather than looking at client retention, client services, and practices like alternative billing arrangements that would help to grow the business, large “name” firms have focused on the reputations of their top lawyers. They are so busy leveraging their associates into high profits that they’re essentially offering their prospects “cake” rather than services that actually meet their needs.


When it comes to keeping clients, it’s the small and mid-sized firms that offer the best value. These smaller firms are looking at their current clients and their top prospects, they are embracing changes like alternative fee arrangements, and, as a result, are positioned to address the needs that are most critical.


By looking at creative law selling methods, offering alternative billing to win major clients, and learning techniques that make and keep your clients happy and adding value to your services, you’ll be on your way to business development success.

For the L.A. Lakers, it was a long time between championships. After being called basketball’s first dynasty for early back-to-back wins, the Lakers started to see long gaps between titles. During the 2008 NBA Playoffs, the team was embarrassed by the way they lost the finals to their longtime rival the Boston Celtics. After the loss, they made a team commitment to keep at it until they won – a commitment that paid off in the 2009 finals.


Similar to the Lakers’ challenges, making a commitment to a comeback success is related to an often-overlooked concept in legal sales – an approach I call Maximizing Rejection. Simply put, if you don’t win a proposal, are passed over for new client work, or aren’t even invited to the dance, do not go in the corner and let yourself disappear. Instead, make sure that you continue to be present. As you continue to gain more experience in lawyer marketing, you’ll realize how important your investment with the company or agency is, and why continued follow up and follow through is so worthwhile.


Things not going your way? Here are some suggestions on turning things around:

• If another firm has been selected for an engagement, call back to follow up with your prospect in 3-4 months. Remind prospective clients that you look forward to working with them in the future, and ask if they are getting what they expected and what they need from the firm that was hired.
• Keep clients who’ve received proposals on your “touch” list and make sure to follow through with a contact 2-3 times a year. Consider inviting them to be on a panel with you at an upcoming professional/bar association event—it’s a great way to reconnect.

Practicing proactive legal sales is a matter of recognizing that the prospect made an investment in spending time with you and your proposal. They got to know you–and if you were close in the finals, keeping in touch will enhance the prospect of future work. Don’t give up – stick with your commitment to your prospects, continue doing your best work, and close the sale.

Getting in the green is about making sure that, as an attorney, you’re focused on selling your services; of course, like Kermit the Frog said, it’s not (always) easy being green.


Law firm management is taking a much closer look at the productivity of their attorneys, not only in the quality of their work and the number of hours billed, but at what they are doing in law sales. The focus in many firms has become about the money – and the money that they want to see will come from new clients.


If you are still on board in your firm, it is critical that you expand your business development efforts to make your bar association and community participation more focused on future prospects. If you prefer to speak or write, double the effort. If you have not asked your current clients what you can do to meet their needs, do it now. These practices will not only help you keep your current position, but prepare you for the next downturn.


Being actively engaged in attorney selling – and knowing that you have what it takes to close the sale – will keep you in the green. With the right sales strategy, you just might start to wonder what Kermit was talking about!

In Star Wars, Yoda was involved in training a young Jedi to defend the galaxy from The Empire. During the course of that training, the master offered some sage advice: “Do or do not. There is no try.”


There are many ways the concept of “do it or don’t do it” comes into play in attorney marketing. Alternative fee arrangements offer one example.

Offering alternative fee arrangements to clients is something that a lot of smaller and medium-sized firms have been doing because their overhead is lower and they tend to have more flexibility than the larger firms. These alternative fee arrangements along with the advantage of having enhanced talent who have chosen to work in their venues and practices become a part of their attorney marketing message. Larger firms are also adopting alternative fee arrangements because their clients are asking for them, but bureaucratic oversight can slow the process down.


The time to debate alternative fee arrangements is over – either do it or don’t – but remember this: whether you’re addressing financial needs or other elements of client care, focus on what your clients want – then make sure you’re giving it to them – and they’ll reward you with word-of-mouth marketing and referrals that will grow your practice. Client retention should always be a part of your law marketing plan.

When she was approached about sewing the American Flag, Betsy Ross might have said “You want me to sew a what?” But rather than letting her personal doubts come into play, Betsy realized that an opportunity presented itself to raise the profile of a new country – and, now, the symbol that she created shows the accomplishments of Americans landing on the moon and of reaching the peak of Mt. Everest.


Much like our new country needed a little brand recognition, today’s law firms could benefit from a boost in their public profile–and many are realizing that they need outside assistance from business development consultants to increase their attorney marketing efforts.


Business development training and counseling provides attorneys with:

• Resources that are readily available
• Strategies to improve upon what’s already being done, and
• First-hand experience necessary to help them with closing skills and client retention.

The thought of working with a business development consultant might initially leave you thinking “You want me to do what?” But perhaps you’ll feel a bit more interested (and confident!) when you hear about the kinds of results that this type of partnership can bring. For example, over the course of a mere six months, our clients averaged a 285% increase in leads and opportunities. Even Betsy would be impressed by those numbers!

Ben Franklin performed plenty of experiments before he took that kite and key out into the middle of a storm. Ben understood that sometimes, one needs to use a variety of different tactics to get to the result you’re looking for. The same holds true for attorney marketing: You will get the best results if you employ a variety of methods to identify and meet new prospects.


Take advantage of business development tools like LinkedIn to stay in touch with law school classmates, or join the board of a local non-profit. Get started on these things as early as your first year of practice.


You never know where your law school chums will end up or what opportunities your board participation may lead to. Maybe your old schoolmates will encounter a conflict and refer a case to you or move in-house and need your practice area.  Or perhaps a contact you met through the board will recommend you for her business’ law needs. But the only way you will be able to make this happen is by making sure that they see or hear from you at least 2-3 times a year. Make this kind of outreach a regular part of your lawyer marketing and you will increase your chances of landing a new engagement.

Pop icon Madonna is an example of one who stays current and even ahead of the curve in her profession. She is considered a marketing genius by many, and every time you turn around she is doing something different.  Believe it or not, people who sell law services can take a lesson from her. How? By making the commitment, early in your practice, to learn what works for you, staying current and keeping yourself in front of prospects.


Things like authoring articles, giving speeches and even asking your clients to be on panel sessions at conferences with you all add to your visibility and your credibility.


As your career matures and you begin directly pursuing client work, it becomes even more critical to let prospective clients know what you do, how you think, and how you will help them as a business. Make sure in your speeches and articles to use examples that highlight how you solve complex business problems, so that prospective clients they can anticipate how you would work with them.

That great American philosopher, John Wayne, may have been speaking to his fellow cowboys when he said “Round ‘em up and move ‘em out!”, but he very well could have been talking to law marketers. After all, the three components of the cattle business…

• Get ‘em: Find good cows and bring them back to your corral
• Keep ‘em: Take care of the cattle you have and keep an eye out to make sure no one steals them.
• Grow ‘em: Do what you need to do to help your cows grow stronger and increase the size of your herd.

… also hold true for law marketing. In essence, this mindset contains the same basic elements that are required from your law selling advisors: how to get contacts/clients, how to do what it takes to keep clients, and how to grow the engagements with clients.

We will be exploring each of the Big 3 concepts– get ’em, keep ’em and grow ‘em—over the next few weeks, so keep your eye on the Closers Group blog for more commentary.