“Go ahead; make my day” is one of the most frequently repeated movie quotes. However, that memorable line isn’t the only great advice that Dirty Harry offers to lawyers who are interested in making more legal sales.


Since most attorneys don’t conduct sales meetings with a 9mm Glock in hand, when you’re planning a meeting with your clients or prospects, it’s probably better to focus on Harry Callahan’s advice from The Dead Pool: “You want to play the game you’d better know the rules.”


A business development consultant can help you learn “rules” that will help you prepare for meetings or calls and produce successful legal sales:

1. Understand the economics of the business your prospect or client is involved in. The more you know about the financial side of a client’s business, the more focused your message will be to their needs.
2. Know your audience and what resources will be available. It’s important to know to whom you will be speaking and what their role is. It’s also helpful to know what the facility where you will be giving the presentation is like. If you have a presentation with slides, for example, you’ll need to have access to screen and projector in order to show them.
3. Plan and rehearse your presentation, conversation, or phone call. Be sure to anticipate the questions that your prospect or client is likely to ask and to develop your answers.
4. Clarify the objectives at the beginning of the call or meeting. Even if you come to the table with one plan in mind, remember that situations change. Your client or prospect’s needs may have changed between the time the meeting was scheduled and the time you sit down to talk; taking stock at the beginning lets you make any necessary adjustments and gets them involved early.

Get your clients talking 60% of the time and then listen to how they are responding. Pay attention to how they give and receive information to get clues on what communication techniques they favor. Make sure to address their concerns and focus on creating a positive result – closing the sale.

Of course, a business development consultant can do more than help you prepare for the meeting. You can also learn to stay on top of your game by conducting a post mortem after the meeting, presentation or call. Your business development coach can help you pinpoint questions that you could have asked but didn’t, identify answers that have room for improvement, and create a plan for going after additional opportunities that were presented.


When you know the rules of the game, have the right “coach” and put in enough time preparing, you’ll be ready to go ahead and ” make each meeting work!”

This entry was posted on Monday, September 21st, 2009 at 1:24 pm and is filed under Closing Skills. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.