Here comes the rain again...

In the current climate, if you’re having a rough time in a law firm, let me tell you a secret – sales solve everything! One of the most important skills a lawyer can develop, especially in the current climate, is to be a fantastic rainmaker.

Lawyers are living and working in times of immense challenge and change: de-regulation of the profession; alternative business structures; and of course there’s the small matter of a recession and the bottom falling out of many markets from which lawyers traditionally earned good fees.

In 2006, after 17 years as a practising lawyer, I left an equity partnership with a Scottish law firm to join a specialist communication skills training company, allowing me to pursue my passion for learning and development. As a result, I’ve been fortunate over the past four years to have worked with thousands of lawyers, helping them to improve their communication skills and behaviours in a whole variety of areas which have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with their technical legal abilities, but which I believe are vital for success.

Naturally, I have nothing against technical ability. Actually, I’m going to assume that you’re technically brilliant in your chosen areas of practice. If you’re not technically brilliant (well, OK, at least technically competent), then please read the necessary books, go on the required courses and become so. But… I firmly believe that there is a whole lot more to being a great lawyer than technical ability.

Where do I start?

So, let’s look at the challenges facing lawyers who are being pushed to get out there and bring in the business (and let me assure you that there are an awful lot of lawyers out there who are being pressed very hard to do this). The fundamental problem for many is that they simply haven’t got a clue how to go about that.

A senior associate in a Scottish law firm told me recently that she was constantly being pressed by the partner for whom she works to get out and have coffee with all her contacts and clients (she’s a property lawyer, so she’s been a bit on the quiet side of late on the chargeable work front). She confided that she was spending large portions of her day wandering up and down the street, swimming in coffee, but really not at all clear what it was she was supposed to be doing over these endless coffees. She is not alone.

Here’s a pretty typical selection of feelings such lawyers regularly share with me at the start of my BD (business development) skills coaching and training sessions:

• It seems so daunting – [insert name of rainmaker within their firm] is so great at it and I just can’t possibly be anything like as good as him/her and I have no idea how he/she does it.

• The whole BD process is actually something of a mystery to me – the work just used to be put on my desk by someone else and I never really paid much attention to how it got there.

• I have no idea where to start. What am I supposed to do? Who do I call? Who do I meet? Where do I go? What do I do when I get there?

• Presumably I’m going to have to go and do loads of “networking” and I’d rather hit myself over the head with a shovel than do that!

• If I’m honest, I’m afraid of making a real mess of my BD attempts and showing myself up as being no good at it.

• What if I ask my contacts and clients for (more) work and they say “no”?

• I find the thought of “selling” a bit distasteful; I didn’t do a law degree to become a “salesman”.

• I’m under huge pressure to record chargeable time and hit fee targets so I don’t see where I can possibly find the time to do BD as well.

• I’m not remunerated based on my BD activity or results but on my fee charging so I’d rather concentrate on that.

Firm essentials

It all comes down to fear: fear of the unknown; fear of looking stupid; fear of failure; fear of rejection; fear of the impact on hitting chargeable time and fee targets.

I believe that, with the appropriate training and support in a firm with the right culture, just about every lawyer can get loads better at BD. Many of them will actually find that they really enjoy it. If you’re running a law firm, or managing a team within one, I think the following are key:

1. Be clear with your lawyers what’s expected of them in relation to BD activity.

2. Adjust chargeable time and fee-earning targets to allow people the time to undertake BD activities (you really need to be spending a minimum of 20% of your time on BD or else you’re just playing at it).

3. Encourage and support your less experienced lawyers as they take their first tentative steps, and don’t expect results immediately.

4. Put in place some financial incentives for good BD performance: what you reward is what you get; if you don’t reward BD activity and results then you won’t get them.

5. Provide BD skills training (OK, I would say this, but it really is essential – you wouldn’t hand a property lawyer a corporate share acquisition deal and just expect them to be able to get on with it without appropriate training and guidance).

On this last point, BD skills training, I’m often asked if it’s really possible to teach people this stuff.

Yes – absolutely!

Steps to the pitch

So what are the key elements of a BD training programme?

• Well, core to it all is an understanding of the BD process (basically it involves networking, relationship building, and selling – usually in that order), and identification of the points in the process where someone is getting stuck. Also important is a wider, less cynical view of “networking”, including an appreciation of the importance of internal networking within a law firm (anyone for cross-selling?) and creating an action plan for networking activity – right events/groups/conferences, preparation, targets etc.

• Appropriate follow-up with people with whom you actually want to move from the networking into the relationship building phase – you need to pick up the phone, and you need to know how to handle all the responses you’ll encounter when you do that.

• An appreciation of the difference between being persistent and being pushy – never be pushy but always be persistent.

• Resilience; an ability to cope with “no” – you will get some knocks in the BD process.

• An understanding that there comes a time when it’s alright (in fact it’s essential) to ask for the business (don’t get stuck in the loop of endless lunches that don’t take you anywhere).

• Conquering inbuilt fears of “selling”: actually it doesn’t have to involve any cheesy sales techniques (it positively mustn’t), and in fact it can and should be a pleasant experience for you and for your contacts and clients.

• Good preparation for all “BD meetings” (pretty much any meetings with a client or contact that aren’t about a specific piece of legal work).

• An understanding of the importance of asking the right questions to uncover real client “needs” before you start offering solutions.

• An ability when the time comes (not too soon) to make a compelling pitch; an appreciation of the difference between “features” and “benefits”; and an ability to articulate your pitch in terms of the latter not the former.

• A wide range of ways of keeping, and reasons to keep, in touch with your contacts and clients and deepen your relationships – even when they don’t have any work to send you (you should have at least 40 at your fingertips).

• So times are undoubtedly very tough for a lot of lawyers, but with the right training, development of the necessary underlying skills, and the right attitude, undoubtedly you can vastly enhance your rainmaking skills. What are you waiting for? Go for it, because – sales solve everything!

Michael Fleming LLB DipLP is Training Director and Head of KWC Legal (Kissing With Confidence Ltd) 

t: 0845 643 6002 e:m.fleming@kissingwithconfidence.com w:www.kwclegal.com; www.kissingwithconfidence.com

Personality points

Just what are the key underlying communication and behavioural skills that underpin the whole BD process and make for fantastic rainmakers? According to some very interesting emotional intelligence research, star performing lawyers tend to be better developed than most in the following emotional intelligence competencies:

• happiness – which doesn’t mean they run around smiling all the time and extolling the virtues of spring, but that they feel basically satisfied with their lives and know how to have fun;

• stress tolerance – it’s a tough job and star performers know how to unwind, relax and cope with the pressure; and

• self actualisation – a constant desire to improve themselves, become better at everything they do and to realise their potential abilities.

And for those who excel at selling professional services:

• self regard – an ability to respect and accept themselves as good people, a feeling of being confident and secure while accepting their limitations;

• optimism – the right “explanatory style” (the little voices we all hear in our head), a positive approach, and the ability to cope with rejection.