Legal Sales Training by the Numbers: It’s As Simple As “3‐4‐5”
The Power of 3
As a business development consultant, I have often pondered why there is a rule that keeping your name in front of a client three times a year works. Or, why is it that new business only comes from three sources, clients, referrals and new prospects? And who invented that old marketing bromide about developing contacts that has only three components: go where they go; know who they know; read what they read?
There is magic in “3.” For example, if you listen to an ad on the radio, the phone number is always repeated three times; in sports, there is the triple threat; and "the third time is the charm." This rule holds true for legal business development as well. When firms send articles, legislative updates, unusual verdicts, or a simple note to their clients and prospects 3 times a year, their profile remains high and the likelihood of receiving a call is tripled.
The 4‐Stage Offensive Strategy
Using a football analogy, there are four steps to get attorneys into the RED ZONE, win new clients, and keep them:
- • Find ‘em
- • Meet ‘em
- • Get ‘em
- • Keep ‘em
In attorney marketing, “Find ‘em” refers back to the three sources of new business: clients, referrals, and new prospects. Combined with research on the company or agency, identifying its senior counsel or chief executives, and understanding their business, pressures, competitors, etc., helps identify where the contacts are coming from.
“Meet ‘em” repeats the second trio, go where they go, know who they know, and read what they read. This is known as the RED ZONE, when you are directly face‐to‐face with clients or prospects. If you go to their industry conferences, not bar association meetings, you are much more likely to encounter in‐house counsel, business executives, or human resource administrators who have significant problems to solve.
The term “know who they know” has multiple options for attorney business development. Ask your clients to introduce you to their colleagues, business unit executives, or others that they know at non‐competing organizations. Invite prospects to sit on a conference/seminar panel with you as a method of cultivating them as future clients. Arrange a luncheon with several clients and prospects to brainstorm about the future, the economy, the industry, etc.
“Read what they read” implies that you read the industry journals that your clients read, not just your own legal journals. Understand the issues inhouse counsel deal with and ask clients and prospects if these same concerns are shared at their companies. Ask a client to co‐author an article and have it published in their industry journal. And then suggest a joint presentation on this very same topic at one of their in‐house meetings.
The list of tactics is endless. But the basics are simple and direct.
5 Steps to Greater Business Generation
Would it surprise you to learn that so called individual marketing plans only need five lines? At the beginning of a quarter, require each attorney to commit to no more than five meetings, speeches, articles, or follow‐up calls, etc. At that rate, a firm of 100 would have 2,000 contacts, leads, and opportunities generated in just one year. How does this compare to your current efforts?
To be honest, the second quarter would have ten lines in each Business Generation Commitment. Note we have dropped the title of marketing plan. Most firms that have marketing plans acknowledge there is little response and even less follow up to the unwieldy, time‐consuming documents that are often circulated and rarely completed.
The objective here is business development, not just marketing. The first five lines would review what was accomplished on the original targets, and the second five lines outline the actions for the new quarter. The firm’s management would actually have a simple way to review, support, and advise each attorney on their actions or non‐actions. For example, below are a few action items that can easily be deployed:
- • holding meetings with new prospects or current clients who may need additional services
- • writing and submitting articles for publication
- • performing follow‐up via phone or in writing
- • attending conferences
- • participating on a panel discussion
Again, there is an endless list of tactics to employ. The results are direct and measurable.
Time Commitment – 5 Minutes per Week
It will only take a dedicated five minutes a week to get all of this action moving. That’s right, five minutes a week to make that call, send that email, set that meeting, agree on speaking, commit to writing an article, etc. The actions themselves will take longer, but will have been set on course by true efficiency and converting marketing into business generation actions.
Allan Colman, CEO of the Closers Group, has spent more than two decades helping law firms and professional service firms generate more revenue. He is a legal sales specialist who has brought in millions of dollars of new business and built business development structures that continue to perform. Allan can be reached at acolman@closersgroup.com.
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"Legal Sales Training by the Numbers: It’s As Simple As '3‐4‐5'"
© 2011 Bloomberg Finance L.P. All rights reserved. Originally published by Bloomberg Finance L.P. in the Vol. 2, No. 1 edition of the Bloomberg Law Reports—Law Firm Management. Reprinted with permission. Bloomberg Law Reports® is a registered trademark and service mark of Bloomberg Finance L.P.
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