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.

When you’re hosting a sales presentation – or participating in any other presentation or panel that can be used to draw in more business – proper planning is crucial. Not only do you need to be prepared to make your contribution, but also your firm should strategize regarding the best ways to “deploy the troops” to interact and build relationships with attendees. However, all of the preparation and tactical maneuvering that you do will be for naught if you fail to follow up after the event.


After the event has concluded, the time is right to “merchandise” your presentation. Post the content of your speech – or even a well-recorded video – to your website or send the content out as an e-blast to your online mailing list. Identify the prospects who were unable to attend the conference that would be interested in the subject you covered, and send them highlights of the presentation. If it’s possible to convert your presentation into a press release, do so and get it out to journalists who are covering related topics. Alternately, use the content to create an article that can be submitted to industry-focused publications.


Additionally, if the event was sponsored by an association or third-party, part of your follow-up process should include identifying additional ways to participate in the organization’s activities. Consider looking into other professional initiatives that the organization sponsors, identifying additional presentation opportunities, and looking for ways to offer your services on a pro bono basis.


To really seal the deal, however, you will also need to follow up with the contacts that you made at the event or presentation. Take the time to enter all contact info from the business cards you’ve collected (as well as from survey responses and event feedback comments) into your CRM or other contact database, then start building relationships. Follow up on any questions you were asked, find pretexts for making direct phone calls, and extend lunch invitations to those attendees in your area.


As with all firm marketing, put yourself in the prospect’s role. What kind of outreach would you appreciate if you’d been in the audience? What would maximize the value of the event for you? Generally speaking, the answers to these questions – along with marketing best practices that your firm has already established – can provide direction. If you can add value and be helpful to your prospects, you’ll have identified actions that are worth making!

In military strategy, deploying the troops happens when the right place and the right time have been determined – when the generals and commanders have had the opportunity to identify a strategy for “meeting the enemy where they are” in an effort to reach an established goal. In our previous post, we began to explore the challenges on the battlefield of sales presentations We looked at the importance of knowing how each opportunity should be met with a marketing strategy in mind, and the need to place members of your firm with the individuals on the “must-get-to-know list.”


Within the context of your sales presentations, deploying the troops is about two things:

1. Ensuring that the members of your firm’s staff are accessible to those in attendance.
2. Encouraging attendees to seek out your colleagues so that they can get the information that addresses their needs.

The first step is fairly easy to accomplish. There should be at least one attorney from your firm at each table if it’s at all possible. This creates the potential for every audience member to be engaged. In order to avoid redundancy – and the risk of attorneys simply talking with one another – no more than two attorneys from your firm should be seated at the same table.


Making sure that your colleagues are accessible to attendees enables attendees to easily gather more information. You can encourage this contact in a number of ways; here are some examples:

• Introduce your colleagues before, after, or – if appropriate – during your presentation to create cross-selling possibilities. If, while planning your presentation, you find yourself thinking about your colleague’s area of expertise, work it into the speech. As an example, “This whole related area of sick building litigation is also important – and it’s something that my colleague Don Jones, who is here today, specializes in. Don, can you please identify yourself in case anyone in the audience has a question for you after the presentation?” would allow attendees to identify the person best able to respond to those needs.
• Without being obviously self-promoting, be on the lookout for opportunities to mention one or two relevant successes that you and your colleagues have had during the presentation or panel discussion.

Additionally, you will want to look for opportunities to engage further contact with those who attend the presentation. Any topic-related pretext for future contact is worth pursuing. Consider distributing a survey on your presentation topic with the promise to send results to the attendees once they are compiled. Alternately, refer to an event, opinion, piece of new legislation or related matter saying, “If you want more information, leave me your card and I can call or email you with further details.” This – along with simply asking those who you meet if it will be okay to contact them in the near future – opens the door for permission-based marketing (something that we’ll explore further in Part III: Sealing the Deal).

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.

Fans everywhere – including those who hadn’t been born when the King left the building – celebrated what would have been Elvis Presley’s 75th birthday this past January 8.


Ever wonder why his music and presence is still in such demand that it brings in so much revenue for his Estate? As far as I know, Elvis never even lost a fan. He consistently demonstrated best practices in his work that provide a great example for those focused on client retention and legal sales.


First and foremost, Elvis ensured that his music was on the minds of his fans (and, as a result, for his future fans). When he starred in a film, the soundtracks were released as Elvis Presley albums. Lawyers can follow this example. When you give a speech, make sure that it is converted to an article, placed on your website, sent to your contact list, and used as an example of why a company or agency should invite you to make a CLE presentation.


Of course, merchandising your best work doesn’t mean putting the exact piece out there time and time again. Elvis updated his songs, modified his staging, and had more costumes than anyone could imagine, but he always brought excellence to the table and let his fans know that he was giving his all every time. Within your firm, insist that your entire team give their all and provide true value in all client work. It should go without saying that this helps to build relationships, enhances closing skills, and can lead to more work in the future – especially for those lawyers who continue to interact with those who they have worked with in the past.


In business development, it is critical to go where your clients go; even Elvis toured the US and Canada to perform wherever his clients—otherwise known as his fans–congregated. If your clients and prospects will be attending an industry conference, be there to reinforce the relationship. Co-present with them, ask for introductions to their colleagues, and impress them with your work. All of these things will help you to continue to pave the way for positive recommendations for you to their co-counsel. Not only will it help them remain a “fan,” but also these steps can help to expand your “audience.”


“It’s now or never” for law firm marketing; keep Elvis in mind as you proceed.

Since the first broadcast of Sesame Street more than 40 years ago, Oscar the Grouch has popped up from his trash can to share his opinion or tell his fellow residents to ‘Scram!‘. Though he is indeed grouchy – preferring everything dirty, dingy, and dusty to all things sweet and nice – there’s no doubt that Oscar has made a significant contribution to the show’s ability to succeed.


Just as Sesame Street wouldn’t be the same without its grouchiest resident, an action-oriented law firm business generation effort wouldn’t be the same without effective marketing. For firms that have cut back the number of marketing professionals on staff, or for those that need to access expertise that is not currently in residence, interim marketing and business development support is available. Firms like The Closers Group “pop up” and provide the services that will help your firm grow now. We add value and support to your staff without adding an additional headcount.


When you need a team that provides the skills and experience critical to continuing and upgrading your legal sales promotions call us or request more information. There is no startup or education period necessary–because just as Oscar stands prepared to criticize and complain, we stand ready to work with you to strategize, innovate, and manage your marketing efforts.

A law firm’s growth and success is never due only to marketing. Put differently, the marketing piece of the pie is not the only aspect of a law firm’s services that will make it successful. The product – the legal services – has to be good to have clients return a second time.


Assuming that this is the case in client development, law firm marketers should realize they cannot ask their lawyers to do too much. Business development consultants recommend that by setting clear guidelines and limiting the lawyers’ obligations, a law firm’s marketing staff will make it more likely that their lawyers will be successful at sales and presentations.

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!

In astrology, persistence is a noted characteristic of Capricorns whose sign is rising this month. Similarly, being persistent is an important part of business development. Combining this trait with a comment made by a rainmaker featured in Diversity and the Bar last year – “Never overlook anyone” – can create more opportunities for legal sales.


One of the most basic business development tactics is to “touch” your contacts and prospects two or three times per year. You can do this by picking up the phone, sending a hand-written note, crafting a personal email, sending an eblast, forwarding relevant articles, or even by inviting your contacts to events.


Staying in touch may not seem like it’s going to pay off, but it does. After 6 years of reaching out to a prospect, one of my clients was invited to speak at a national organization’s annual conference and to address more than 1,000 attendees. In this case, persistence paid off – and it can for you too. Stay connected with your clients, prospects, and leads and legal sales opportunities will abound.

Just as an NFL team rarely starts a drive in the Red Zone, lawyers focused on closing new business don’t often have the luxury of attracting new clients by simply offering an engagement letter. Closing skills and lawyer marketing begin with the first contact and involve following up, building the relationship, understanding the prospect’s business, brainstorming, and offering ideas before ultimately asking for the business.


The Closers Group Red Zone approach ensures that the legal sales leadership in your firm develops the skills necessary every step of the way – and focuses on helping your marketing team practice these skills in preparation for closing more business. In part, this is done by uncovering underperforming assets.


Here’s an example:


A law firm client came to me because, after her firm spent hundreds of thousands of dollars sponsoring client workshops and giving speeches at bar and professional association meetings, only two leads resulted. While providing sales consulting services, I asked to have the chance to observe some of these workshops and meetings.


I could immediately see the issue observing that the firm’s lawyers congregated, talked and sat with one another rather than “chatting up” clients and prospects. This led to a new directive for the firm. Now, each lawyer is given targets to meet at every session. The lawyers sit at separate tables and follow up after the presentations. Their lead source grew to over 125 the following year; of those, 15 were developed and converted to engagements.


Success in the Red Zone is possible – provided the legal sales leadership focuses on developing the right strategies, cultivating teamwork and taking the time to practice and prepare for that success.