When you find yourself in the Red Zone – that legal sales area in which lawyers are directly in front of their clients and prospects – you’ll need to have the right strategies. It’s essential to have a plan for dealing with all of the people you may encounter.


During our business development training workshops and one-on-one advisory, coaching and strategy sessions, one of the most frequent questions that I am asked is, “I have a friend who could introduce me to their counsel. How do I ask for an introduction without risking the friendship?” The answer is quite simple.


For law business development, the recommendation that we give is to address your friendship directly and ask if you can make contact. You can approach your friend by simply saying, “I really value our friendship. Would it be alright if I call you in your office next week to set up a meeting?”


Every single client who has followed this advice and asked for a meeting has had a positive result. Better yet, after you’ve done it once, your comfort level for attorney selling will grow! Just ask.

Success in the Red Zone doesn’t just come for teams like the New England Patriots. Hard work, determination, focus, practice, teamwork and preparation can pay off for much smaller teams as well – something exemplified by the women’s soccer team at Messiah College in Pennsylvania. No one was surprised when the women of Messiah ranked number one in NCAA Division III despite being a smaller school. Instead, their competitors often identified the team as a “national powerhouse.”


Similarly, successful law firm growth isn’t limited to the giants of the game. Smaller and mid-sized firms are able to accomplish similar successes. Like the Messiah women’s soccer team, smaller players are recognizing that - with the right strategy in place, a practiced approach, and a thorough understanding of the market and their target clients – growth is possible.


An October 9, 2009 Law.com article, “Some Midsize Firms Believe Now Is the Time to Expand,” said it this way:

“We think there are a lot of great opportunities to grow in this market,” said Bruce James, Brownstein Hyatt’s managing partner.


“There are certain practices and opportunities that are opening to midsize or regional firms that aren’t attractive to the large firms.”

The Red Zone approach to law firm growth and closing more business is not only about looking for growth possibilities that may come in the future. Success in the Red Zone comes from identifying the best immediate opportunities, designating attorneys who can take action quickly to pursue new contracts, and closing more business.


If you’re ready to focus on your firm’s growth and success, the time is right to look into business development training, to develop a legal sales culture and to commit to winning more clients.

The primary goal for joining associations and boards, at least from a business development perspective, is to generate future business. But the essence of this activity is developing relationships. Because you are a member of a popular association in your industry does not necessarily guarantee a full docket of new business. Sometimes smaller, more intimate organizations may reap the largest rewards.
 
A client prospect of mine, already involved in several associations and non-profit boards, was asked another busy lawyer to join a neighborhood association. I suggested she give it a try and if it seemed valuable, consider dropping one of the others. She joined, and immediately received new engagements from him. She wisely dropped two other “underperforming” boards.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

Like many myths, this one has a grain of truth. If your firm is spending tons of dough on sponsorships and speaking engagements only for attorneys to sit in a corner clique, then yes: it’s a total waste of the firm’s time and resources.
 
Clients won’t come in by osmosis. Law selling requires an active effort. I remember observing attorneys at a firm I was doing work for congregating together at an event, sitting together at the same table instead of mingling and chatting up clients and prospects. For future events, I advised the firm to have each partner assigned to meet several prospects and to sit at separate tables.
 
Their leads grew to over 125 last year and 15 produced new engagements.

Ever feel like the character in “Where’s Waldo” when you look around at other competitors who perform the same services as you do? If the marketplace in which you serve is crowed, it’s time for some drastic measures to get noticed and generate new business.


Gather Intelligence
What law firm marketing maneuvers are your competitors using to get noticed? Is everyone advertising in the same law journal or legal web site? Find out what others are doing, and put your own unique spin to it. Or better yet, go the opposite way. For example, if you notice that your competition engages in expansive marketing and advertising sweeps, don’t be tempted to follow the herd. Go small. Be strategic about advertising. Put more effort into public relations. If others are heavy in print, go to the radio or television and become a go-to source for reporters on hot topics.


Focus on What Your Client Wants
If you want to know what your clients want, ask them. Then honor the request. A few weeks later, follow up, then ask how you can serve them further. Then, ask again. See a pattern here? To be attuned is a great client retention technique. Soon, word will spread about your commitment to strong customer service, which could lead to more business development.

Close communications during any client contact effort, whether pursuing new business or arranging for an in-house presentation, are critical to assess success, analyze and adjust to challenges, and keep on moving. I’ve often had outside counsel tell me how surprised they were about in-house questions they were unprepared for. And I’ve also heard from in-house counsel how surprised they were at the absence of communications once an engagement started.
 
So what does work when you are preparing for a legal marketing foray? The following questions should be asked and answered, by you and your colleagues, before you begin pursuing current or recent clients:
 
* How do you define the current relationship?
 
* What is client’s satisfaction level with your work? Can you be sure?
 
* Who are the contact points in your firm that have contacts at the client’s?
And have you gathered their information and strategies?

Novices tend to panic. They don’t know where to begin. They see themselves as failing if initial efforts don’t immediately pay off. They need to understand that marketing is a methodical art; that it happens on a step-by-patient-step basis. They need to understand each separate step as part of a larger programmatic initiative.
 
As such, the first important training goal is to help them develop a comfort level with the jprocess as a whole. And, the way to do that is by enumerating individual tasks that are singularly manageable and often enjoyable. Among them:

* Attend Cle and bar events.
* Get involved with sponsoring committees.
* Memorize an elevator speech.
* Enrich your resume.
* Expand your contact list.
* Job performance.
* Help colleagues.
* Write lists and set deadlines.
 
Next column, we’ll discuss details of these tactics. The impact of such curricula is to demystify marketing for associates. It’s a practical agenda with specific steps any committed professional can take - simple enough steps, perhaps, to deprive lawyers of excuses for inaction.

(Almost) Invisible Marketing III.
 
This third in a series of Invisible Marketing tactics presents two approaches which are not quite “invisible” but are often overlooked by attorneys. The first is:
 
During speeches, have other firm members in the audience working the crowd.
Make sure you introduce your colleagues from the podium and indicate that they and you are available to answer questions, send featured articles, discuss opportunities, etc. You are there to do more than “educate”, you are also there to “generate.”
 
One of the most frequent mistakes so often observable at dinners, receptions, etc. is that instead of mingling, attorneys from the same firm congregate together.

At parties, dinners, hosted events - do not talk to your own firm’s attorneys.
Recently, I attended a law firm hosted/sponsored workshop at which over 125 clients and potential clients had breakfast and then listened to a 1 hour CLE presentation. Of the 10 firm attorneys present, 9 sat at the same table. By adding their non-billable hours, advertising, promotion, powerpoints, handouts, facility and food cost, etc., $12,500.00 was thrown out the window.
 
Once we reviewed this waste, a new approach has been implemented. Each attorney is now assigned 2 non-clients to meet and greet. Each attorney is assigned to a table. And each attorney is introduced from the podium by their speaker/colleague. And of course, if a client is present, invite them to sit with you. They could become your marketing supporter in talking with non-clients seated at your table.

Parlay Benevolence into Business Generation:
Maximize the use of your organization participation
 
If you or another attorney at the firm is the president-elect of an industry counsel or bar association subdivision, or has been asked to co-chair a conference for an industry association such as the National Bar Association, you have a golden business development opportunity in the making. As the head of such organizations, you are poised to handpick the speakers at affiliated events, and parlay those contacts into future business.
 
You don’t have to know personally the general or senior counsel of any company you call and invite to be a guest speaker. Your position in the organization gives you access you might not ordinarily have. Then, when the opportunity permits, maximize your contacts by engaging them into another aspect of the conversation—namely, your elevator pitch. Throughout the planning stages, keep in frequent contact and send email updates on company developments and solicit suggestions regarding the event. Invite members of the panel to a dinner a night before the meeting, and then stay in touch thereafter.
 
Just think. For six to nine months, you have the opportunity to engage future targets.

Leigh Jones recently wrote an article in American Lawyer about how the current economic uncertainties have forced large law firms to tighten the reigns on bonuses. But does that mean firms should back off of bonuses completely? No. More and more, I am garnering interest from my clients to help make their incentive systems more contemporary, an example of which would be to reward newer partners and associates for bringing in new business.
 
Here is the magic of implementing such a system: associates, and seniors, and newer partners are motivated to further your firm’s business development and business generation efforts and as a result, the pipeline expands. A strong pipeline will help to offset the financial ebbs and flows of the economy in the future.
 
Relationships are the key into the Red Zone. Make training and bonuses in this arena part of your law firm’s culture, rather than an extraneous project. Rewards beget more effort in winning new business, which translates into a bigger bottom line, even in lean times such as these.