In an earlier post, we talked about the potential disconnect between a law firm’s branding and tag line and what the firm actually delivers. But what happens if your law firm doesn’t have a tag line—what message are you conveying?


Many law firms that forgo a tag line simply rely on their name and reputation to deliver their brand message. However, you may need more than the old standby of being a firm that is “reliable, timely and helpful” in order to close new business. Even if your firm doesn’t have a particular tag line, it is imperative that you develop clear, consistent messaging about what your firm name represents. Also key is schooling attorneys on this messaging so that they can make use of it in new business pitches, speeches, articles and other marketing and new business opportunities, and ensuring that your messaging remains clear across all of of your multiple practice specialties.


If your rely on your name as your brand, help strengthen your name by making certain that your messaging supports what your larger brand represents.

In our last post, we started to look at the common disconnect that often happens between a firm’s tagline – and the “brand” they aim to create with it – and the ways in which lawyers at the firm attempt to sell their services. We noted that the takeaway message from a pitch, speech, meeting, proposal, and other law firm marketing efforts often doesn’t match up with the firm’s tag line. Of course, in that post, we looked at taglines that were broad in scope and may have left readers wondering, “But what about firms using with tag lines that are more direct and focused?”

• DRI – “The Voice of the Defense Bar” – promises DRI “Delivers Resources to Build Your Practice.” The associated DRI Europe uses the tagline “Defending Business.”
• Dickstein Shapiro LLP markets “Experience Innovation.”
• Wolf Greenfield defines their firm as “Specialists in Intellectual Property Law.”
• The welcome screen for the Fitzpatrick – Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto – website professes “We Are IP,” even before the name of the firm is mentioned.
• Ius Laboris, an alliance of international law firms that specialize in lending legal support to firms with human resources concerns ranging from employee benefits to the impact of immigration, brands itself with the tagline “Global Human Resources Lawyers.”

While each of those taglines is focused clearly on an area of specialty or the core function of the firm, others focus on action. At Ogletree Deakins, the tagline is simply “Now” – and is meant to convey to prospective clients that what they do now will have a lasting impact on the future of their businesses. “Now” also can relate to the up-to-date, action-oriented work that the firm does on a client’s behalf. Faegre & Benson stresses “We Deliver More Together” – emphasizing the importance of partnering with their clients.


What separates these taglines from those previously discussed is simple: each would be a strong takeaway if used as a critical part of an attorney’s legal marketing efforts. Therefore, the question remains: are these marketing and advertising components also finding their way into the Red Zone – the business development arena – where meetings and pitches are being held with prospects?


Remember, a firm’s brand is only as strong as the attorneys make it. The more firms connect their brand with their sales process, the more memorable it will be and the stronger the impact it will have.

According to a recent article in The Professional Lawyer by Michael P. Downey, author of The Ethical Quandary blog and partner at Hinshaw & Culbertson, lawyers and staff are using online posts–and in particular social networks–to promote their services, network with colleagues, and share their lives, activities and friendships with others. Downey is quick to point out, however, that law firms can and should take steps to mitigate their risks from such online activity. Downey’s recent article provides a strong starting point that could help your firm design and implement its own online activity or social networking policy.


In our sales consulting services, we’re hearing more questions and concerns about social networking and how law firms should interact within the social environment. Keep an eye on the Closers Group blog over the next several weeks, where we’ll be posting entries highlighting this topic and pinpointing the impact that social media will have on legal selling and law sales.

ROI, or return on investment, is a business term that isn’t often found in law firm culture. But lawyers and law firms could benefit from focusing on ROI so as not to overlook prime marketing and law selling opportunities. For example, let’s discuss the ROI of a speech you recently prepared—something we talked about in our last blog post. You may have received a handful of leads as a result of your presentation, but are there other things you can do to improve the return on your investment? Yes!


Consider the amount of preparation you put into your speech, doing research and putting together notes for your presentation. By spending just a little more time with it, you can turn your presentation into an article or blog post since your research and your outline are already completed. This act alone will increase your speech’s original ROI exponentially.


But don’t stop there—use this as an opportunity to get clients involved and further build your relationships. Consider asking a client to add his or her thoughts to your article or post as a co-author, or even send a draft to your clients and prospects and ask for their comments and feedback before finalizing it. Both of these tactics are great legal selling and client relationship building approaches which may actually provide an opportunity to improve the article.


Once it is published, whether it is in a legal journal, industry publication, local business paper, etc., it’s time to squeeze even more return out of your investment:

• Ensure that a copy of the article (or a link to it) is loaded on your website
• Add the title of the article and its publication outlet to your bio
• Make copies of the article to use as handouts at future presentations
• Provide your colleagues with copies to refer to or use as a handout
• Distribute copies out to your contact list
• If your article was co-authored by a client, or appears in one of their industry publications, ask that client to arrange a presentation for both of you at their upcoming annual meeting

With just a little extra elbow grease and a strong drive for closing deals, you can boost the ROI of practically any marketing activity you can think of.

While Pisces’ intuition and Capricorn’s persistence are traits that benefit individual lawyers who are marketing their services, Aries’ confidence and leadership tendencies can benefit senior partners and marketing departments focused on business development. A recent horoscope for Aries offered advice that all firms should apply to their client development training and follow-up: “Dive into your work knowing what you want to accomplish.”


In our experience as law sales consultants, there is not a single example of business development training efforts that work without an end goal in mind. As a practical step, firm marketing departments, senior partners, and other firm leaders should make a commitment to their goals before sitting down with law firm consultants to set up a training agenda.


Managing partners, practice group heads, partners-in-charge, and other firm leaders must know what they hope to accomplish before they dive in, focus on training, and see attorneys develop new business.

Baseball players are trained to be aware of surprisingly strong throws to the plate when they’re rounding third base – a well-placed throw out of left field prohibits them from scoring and seems to come out of nowhere. Many lawyers have felt a similar sense of surprise when clients ask unexpected questions or change the expectations in the middle of the engagement.


Business development training that focuses on relationship building and client retention can ensure that a firm’s lawyers are prepared to close more business. Offering this type of training to your firm’s staff not only helps prepare attorneys for client meetings and requests—even those of the ‘unexpected’ variety–but also helps them develop strategies for meeting client needs.


In smaller and mid-sized firms where the attorneys are a close-knit group, senior partners and sales leaders often provide lead development programs for their attorneys. With additional training focused on client retention – understanding the client or prospect’s needs and developing solid strategies for meeting those needs – client-friendly marketing and value-added collateral are the result. When legal marketing focuses on what clients are clamoring for, left-field requests are far less likely to derail business development efforts.

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.

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.

Snowboarding debuted in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano and has been evolving ever since. The 2006 games in Torino, Italy, saw the introduction of snowboard cross, but the thrills of the halfpipe competition are what really draw in the fans. Performing in the halfpipe requires athletes to minimize their start-to-finish times while maximizing the “air” they achieve and the artistry of their tricks.


Olympic snowboarders train extensively during the off-season and continually push themselves harder to ensure that they stay on the cutting edge, perform at peak levels, and have that extra something that will wow the crowds. Similarly, lawyers focused on successful law firm marketing will find benefits when they minimize the time invested in business development strategies and maximize their performance.


There’s no doubt that, during the last 25 years, law firms, lawyers and legal marketing professionals have made great strides in spreading the word about their services. Unlike coaches of snowboarders like Shaun White, however, law firm marketing professionals sometimes struggle to get lawyers to practice new tricks. Many also still face a key obstacle to ongoing innovation for business development: there are lawyers who don’t consistently follow through when it comes to individual or group law sales.


The challenge is that the lawyers are often struggling to find balance between business development and practicing law. One of the business development strategies that the consultants at the Closers Group recommend to address this is fairly simple: narrow the focus of what is on a lawyer’s agenda.


When a lawyer’s focus is spread across a range of tasks, the marketing department can help by cutting down the lawyer’s to-do list. A lawyer is more likely to at least begin to make an effort to get through assigned or agreed-upon tasks when these tasks are clearly defined.


Just as a snowboarder will have a more successful run when he or she is focused and in the moment, law firm marketing teams will find that business development efforts are more successful when the attorney’s time and activity are focused on tasks like lead generation and lead development.

There’s a lot to be said for using tried and trusted tactics when you’re approaching your prospects or planning a sales presentation, but when your tactics aren’t getting results, it’s time to try something new. Dave Barry had some great advice on this – referencing two famous ships:

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur build the Ark while a large group of professionals built the Titanic.

Marketing teams at law firms often think they’re the ones with all the answers, but this overlooks the fact that lawyers focused on sales and solid presentations can be even more successful when it comes to bringing in new business – especially when they have the right support.


As part of our Closers Consulting, we urge our clients to pick a new tactic and try it out, encouraging our clients to get input from others in their firms who have used the strategy. We also answer questions about the strategy and talk them through implementing it, work with them to refine it, and take the time to do a “post mortem” after they’ve had the chance to take it out into the field. Then we continue practicing and refining it until it becomes natural – all before moving on to another lead development technique and repeating the process.


Trying something new doesn’t mean that you’ll go in unsupported. Having a business development consultant on your side ensures that you’re able to form new strategies, try new tactics, and bring in new clients.