A Southwest Airlines’ marketing poster tells viewers “It’s hard to move on when you’re standing still.” While the obvious goal is to encourage people to fly, it’s quite applicable to attorneys who are ready to grow their practices. Whether these lawyers want to focus on lead development or they’ve been told to get out there and generate more business, it’s hard to get results if they don’t make an effort.


The first step is to begin work on a business development plan that’s based on a self-assessment of your strengths and weaknesses with regard to legal sales. Consider your background, skills, and network of contacts (including past clients). Consultants from the Closers Group urge our clients to maximize what and who they know and associate with, and to find tactics and approaches that they feel comfortable with – or are at least willing to try.


Once you’ve created a list of your strengths, weaknesses, organizations you’re associated with, awards you’ve received, and even hobbies that help you to develop closing skills, ask a friend or colleague to review your list with you. This will especially benefit lawyers who are just started out either with their career or their firm.


After you’ve begun to build momentum, continue planning your strategy. Set specific goals, then work from your list to use you contacts, tactics, and skills to generate a specific program for developing new business. Update your plan, evaluate your successes, and revise your strategy when necessary. Most of all, make sure that you’re always on the move toward developing new business.

United Airlines’ Emmy-nominated advertising campaign, “It’s time to fly”, sells business travel by focusing on the benefits and rewards that business travelers experience when they arrive at their destinations. This feeling of going out into the world and experiencing what it has to offer is relevant to legal sales as well – and is directly related to the difference between law marketing and business development.


Legal marketing is about the exposure more than the personal experience – and is hands-off for most attorneys. Marketing serves three key purposes:

1. Creating awareness of the firm “brand” to differentiate the firm from others in the area.
2. Targeting one-way communication to client markets that are the most likely to need the firm’s services.
3. Simplifying the task of business development.

In contrast, business development consultants will tell you that developing new business is a hands-on experience. Developing new business is:

• A focused, one-on-one activity.
• Only able to be executed by individuals or groups of lawyers – not by the firm.
• Based on direct, personal communication.
• Deemed a success based on the individual’s skills and willingness to actively engage in the process.

Traditional law firm marketing departments are beginning to recognize the need to refocus their efforts to better support the more personal closing sales efforts of individual attorneys and smaller practice groups from the firm. By working with a business development consultant, firm marketing departments can learn to encourage the attorneys to be more active in client development and show those attorneys that it’s time to fly.

In Christine Stead’s The House of All Nations, Jules Bertillon’s approach to investment is characterized by unlimited risk-taking and a willingness to capitalize on his relationships. An opportunist, the character at one point states, “Here we are sitting in a shower of gold, with nothing to hold up but a pitchfork.”


Many lawyers who are beginning to focus on client development and building relationships will understand the sentiment: it often seems as though there are prospects all around them, but no real way to close the sales.


It’s easy to overlook the fact that current and future business is all about relationships. If you have them, focus on strengthening them. If you’re meeting with new prospects, remember to focus on building relationships. Closing sales occurs when you:

• Always remember that you are in the relationship business.
• Strengthen relationships with other lawyers who have different practice areas and market yourself inside your firm.
• Find a partner or business development consultant to be your mentor.
• Create a collaborative and cooperative marketing program with your colleagues as well as your current and past clients.
• Identify and actively participate in industry and partner groups.
• Remember that producing good work is only the beginning of developing a reputation and creating a demand for your services.

Ultimately, the “gold” of new business is out there. It’s the firm that actively engages in building relationships and selling that will be able to collect it.

When she was in Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland, Alice faced confusion everywhere she turned. Efforts were constantly made to misdirect her and, at times, it seemed impossible that Alice would find her way back home.


Some lawyers feel equally thwarted in their efforts to develop new business. Legal sales leadership should provide all of the support, research, graphic design, and tools necessary for the lawyer who is selling services. It is crucial, however, to remember that law firm selling is a highly focused, one-on-one activity that must be internally directed.


In order to find success in business development, much like Alice, individual lawyers must decide which advice to take and determine which of the available tools and strategies are necessary. They must be willing to experiment, to perfect their tools and strategies, and then get out to develop a strong network and to pursue new business opportunities.

Stalled legal sales are a contributing factor when lawyers and law firm marketing departments begin talks with a business development consultant. The slow down can often be attributed to the attorneys taking a “hurry up and wait” approach to making sales.


If you’ve been waiting for prospects and clients to bring business to you, it’s time to get the lead out and make a change. Rather than sitting in the office and catching up on emails, use lunch breaks for lead generation by meeting with clients or prospects. Connect with business acquaintances or friends outside of the law business to get feedback and ideas on client prospects from them. Form partnerships with other professionals, and take advantage of the opportunities this creates to develop closing skills and to encourage your prospects to lean in.


Business development training can help attorneys and their firms identify under-utilized assets, develop sales strategies, and – most importantly – provide the confidence necessary to get out there. Developing leads, building and strengthening relationships, and identifying opportunities will help you start generating business in record time.

“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” Thomas Edison is heralded not only for his contributions as an inventor, but also for his ability to gain recognition for his accomplishments – feats that some now suggest were the result of Edison’s marketing ability.


Thomas Edison got out there and “sweat” to ensure that people knew about his work. The genius of legal selling is similar: once you have an individual marketing program for your legal sales efforts, stick to making it work. The key to developing new business for your individual practice or your firm is keeping your name and skills on the minds of your prospects.


When you work with a business development consultant, focus on working with someone who emphasizes the creation of simple, straightforward action plans for pursuing lead development and retaining your current clients. While these strategies themselves won’t automatically make you a legal sales genius –developing new business requires constant effort – they will provide inspiration and the foundation for your success.

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.