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.

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.

Have you ever watched The View? Whether the guest is a celebrity or politician or a fashion designer, sometimes the hosts of the program become so vocal and passionate about a topic that no one listens to the guests – they merely talk over one another.


A lot of business development consultants – as well as attorneys who are marketing their services – fall into a similar trap. They spend too much time talking and not nearly enough time asking questions and listening to the needs of their prospects and clients.


To provide value to a current or potential client, lead generation service providers must ask questions and encourage their clients to do the same. Making successful legal sales requires asking the right questions and listening to the responses from your prospects as they tell you what they want and how they need to be sold on the services that you provide.


The practice of developing great closing skills involves asking the right questions, listening to what your clients and prospects say (and how they say it), and knowing how to respond when they ask questions of you.


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

While the action may not be on the diamond, don’t think that there isn’t activity during baseball’s off-season. Owners, managers, and coaches are making behind-the-scenes changes that will help build the team’s strengths, develop new offensive strategies based on their players (and those who they’ll be facing once the season is underway), and preparing for the action. Players are doing their best to stay in shape as well so that, once Spring Training is underway, they’ll be ready to perform when the time comes to step up to the plate.


Like the Red Zone in football where the offense needs to stay focused and persevere toward the end zone, baseball’s batters need to step into the box in order to score. Studying the opposing pitcher’s patterns and form – along with good, old-fashioned practice – are crucial parts of success. Still, no matter how much power a hitter has, often strikeouts precede hits and runs. That’s where perseverance comes into play.


Persistence also pays off when you’re engaged in lawyer marketing. An attorney client of ours had held several meetings with an Assistant General Counsel at a university in her area. When this AGC was promoted to General Counsel, our client asked my advice about how to proceed now that her prospect was twice as busy. I suggested she offer to provide backup support, filling in at the GC’s former position until a replacement could be found. Not only did her prospect take her up on the offer, but additional engagements were lined up.


Had she not been to the plate several times to develop her closing skills, and learned her prospect’s best moves, she would not have been ready to hit this one out of the park!

As one year draws to a close and another begins, “Year in Review” lists are showing up everywhere – the top movies, the tech industry, and, of course, in the news. Similarly, many businesses and firms are reviewing the results of their efforts and making plans for action in the coming year.


Business development consulting may be in your future, especially if your focus is on improving legal sales leadership and closing more business in 2010. Closing skills don’t begin when you place a contract in front of your client or prospect; acknowledging this will prepare you to address key questions like:

• Do your client relationships need reinforcing?
• What other firms do your clients work with – and how does your team stack up?
• Who is the final decision maker for your clients?
• Where are additional openings for your specialties?
• What internal pressures on your client might impact their receptivity to additional engagements?
• Are there opportunities for you to cross-market with your colleagues?

Effective law firm marketing is based on the answers to these and related questions before pursuing a client or prospect. Addressing these questions and constantly reinforcing relationships will strengthen your closing skills and help you create a great 2010.

It was perhaps the best NFL game of the year, where the Indianapolis Colts came from behind with less than a minute to play, beating the New England Patriots by a single point.  Watching the game, it was clear that neither team was willing to quit—both team’s offenses and defenses played their hearts out.

The number of times each of these teams scored when entering the RED ZONE demonstrates just how important it is to persevere and to never say it can’t be done. That same ‘never quit’ sense of commitment should be practiced by the legal sales leadership team at your firm.  Just because your proposal wasn’t selected, your firm did not make it on a company’s panel, or you couldn’t get that client meeting you wanted, don’t quit.  Periodically contact the prospect in order to keep your name in front of them.  That way, when it comes for his business to replace their current firm or bring in a legal specialist, you’ll be considered again.

Each year, Major League Baseball’s World Series is a reminder of the importance of developing strong closing skills. Regardless of which teams make it to the “big dance,” the players to watch are the power hitters and the closing pitchers. This year, the Philadelphia Phillies returned to the series, but the power of the hitters and the closing skills of the New York Yankees pitchers combined to dethrone last year’s champs.


Just as strong closing pitchers are critical to an MLB team’s success, an attorney’s closing skills are crucial for law firms. In our recent survey, the overwhelming majority of responding attorneys indicated that closing was an essential component for business development training.


Whatever analogy you use when you’re making an important pitch to a prospect it’s important to focus on the close. Perhaps one of the most underutilized tactics for closing involves simply having an agenda.


When you’re invited to the big dance and have an opportunity to generate more business– whether an informal dinner meeting to discuss future opportunities with a current client or a formal RFP response–take the time to talk with your prospect ahead of time. Indicate what you believe will be important and be sure to identify your prospect’s ideas and priorities. Focus on each of these areas, practice your responses to possible questions; consider different approaches, anticipate what might be “thrown at you,” and even ask your business development consultant to play devil’s advocate and introduce additional scenarios.


The preparation that you put into a meeting will ensure that you’re ready for the big event. After the handshakes and greetings, “warm up” by reviewing the agenda with your client or prospect. Ask them if anything new has become opportunity or a challenge for them, get their input on the importance of discussion items and involve them in agreeing to the order in which topics will be discussed.


Think of your agenda as a playbook for the meeting – and go back to is as necessary to adjust your play when they throw a curveball or count on receiving a soft pitch. Make sure that your bases are covered throughout the meeting – focus on addressing all of their questions and needs, and don’t be afraid to swing for the fence and ask when their decision will be made.


The more that you practice your plays, the more that your performance will improve and the more success you’ll have.

No matter how many times Spider-Man was knocked down, captured, delayed, or rejected, he found a way to get through the situation and to win the fight.


Maximizing Rejection is an extension of this lesson – one that this business development consultant emphasizes to clients. Just because your proposal is not the one chosen doesn’t mean that you don’t still have a future prospect.


Instead of giving up when you don’t close the sale, try the following:

• Analyze your process to determine the reasons why your law sales effort was less than successful. Learn from this experience and use the knowledge you gain the next time that you’re making a pitch.
• Follow up with the prospect after 3-6 months have passed. Asking how the engagement is going will let them know you still want to work with them, and that you’re interested in keeping in touch.

Regular contact helps improve your chances of being retained in the future. Don’t give up: remember, Spidey eventually got his man – and you can close more business if you follow his lead, and continue to pursue your prospects.

John Daly, a great PGA golfer, was once asked to describe his style of play, The Lion came back with “Grip it and rip it” – a philosophy he expanded into a book focused on helping would-be golfers perfect their stance and grip so that they could hit the ball further than before. The book’s premise boils down to the thought that with the right training and practice, reaching a goal is as simple as going for it.


When you have a sound strategy for making legal sales and you build on your experience to the extent that it becomes second nature, you’ll find that Daly’s approach works well for law business development. The message is simple: concentrate and close. As you gain confidence, you’ll be able to take the next steps – focusing on four objectives:

1. Identifying more opportunities
2. Building a higher attack/pursuit rate.
3. Developing a pipeline.
4. Creating more business builders.

When you’ve developed your skills in these areas, closing sales naturally follows. You’ll be able to stay out of the rough and get to the green in fewer strokes.

“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!”