Many trial attorneys will be familiar with Louis Nizer from reading My Life in the Courtroom. Of all of the advice that he had to offer lawyers falling in his footsteps, it’s difficult to select the real gems; however, his way with words was quite evident as he discussed the importance of preparation:

Preparation is the be-all of good trial work. Everything else - felicity of expression, improvisational brilliance - is a satellite around the sun. Thorough preparation is that sun.

While great lawyers are unlikely to enter the courtroom without familiarizing themselves with the case at hand, finding relevant procedural rulings and prepping their witnesses, many of these same lawyers who are preparing for sales presentations don’t have the same focus. Even those who prepare the content of their speech or their part of the panel discussion in advance often fail to identify the business reason for presenting and to take steps ensuring the greatest possible positive impact of the event. As a result, key logistics - like those below – are often overlooked:

• Send invitations on your own letterhead or by email even if one has been sent separately by your firm. From a marketing standpoint, this serves as a reminder of your expertise on the presentation topic. Additionally, it can boost attendance for the event as colleagues, clients, and prospects who might not attend a general institutional event may want to attend if they associate the event with you.
• Encourage attorneys from other practice areas to send invites to their clients and prospects. The presentation you’re giving may be valuable for their clients and prospects too – and recipients can pass the information along to others in their company or organization who may be interested.
• Circulate an internal memo urging others at your firm to attend the presentation. Marketing staff should attend as well – this will help them promote and follow up after the event.
• Arrange to contact all prospective attendees with a reminder a week ahead of the event. Call your own contacts with a reminder as well.
• Obtain the most up-to-date attendee list and assign each attending attorney and support person from your firm a group of “must-get-to-know individuals.” This will ensure a personal touch during the event.

Paying close attention to logistics before your sales presentation helps to ensure the success of the event. Focusing on before-the-event logistics not only strengthens the marketing impact of the speech or presentation, but also serves to help you focus on the remaining two keys to sales presentation success: “deploying the troops” and “sealing the deal.” We’ll be discussing these additional elements in our next posts.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 11:47 am and is filed under Legal Marketing. 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.