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Beware the Chicken Little Consultant
Paying for expertise is an inherent part of business. How else
can we make the best decisions in specialty areas without
informed help?
Unfortunately there can be conflicts of interest on the part of
your expert which can be subtle yet...
Get Out Of The Stone Age: Give Leadership Talks
PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to...
Home-Based Business Leadership Skills
Home-Based-Business Leadership Skills
By Mark Shaner
Home-based-business leaders make decisions quickly and change
their minds slowly.
This has been my experience throughout my entire thirty-two
years of managing my own businesses....
Making Profitable Lemonade From Lemons!
This October 31 turned cold, wet and dreary across Chicago and its suburbs. A rotten night for Halloween. And it could have been a lousy night for this business traveler, cheered only by the prospect of conducting an interactive team session the...
PR: Focus on What Matters!
Sure, as a manager, you have a talented member of the PR team assigned to your department, division or subsidiary, or housed at your agency, and s/he is darn good at placing product and service plugs on radio and in the newspaper. Which may be all...
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Catching in a Pitch Meeting: The Key to Listening
The tendency to start a business development meeting talking
about yourself and your firm is a natural one - but one that
should be done selectively, in very small amounts- after you
have taken the time to determine the needs of the client. The
focus of your meeting must be on your potential client, the
problem keeping your client up at night, and how you can help
the client solve that problem.
Most lawyers are very proud of what they do - as individuals
and as law firms. They attended good law schools, mastered the
practice of law and achieve good results for their clients. And
they are just excited to tell potential clients all about it.
This is what do most lawyers do about a business development
meeting: * Put it on the calendar * A couple of hours before the
appointment, they ask marketing (if they have marketing) to pull
together materials about the law firm. * Quickly plan with a
colleague about who will deliver which parts of the presentation
about the firm and its services. * Spend most of the
presentation about the qualifications of your firm and talking
about your successes. * Congratulate each other about how well
it went * Wait. * Two weeks later, they wonder why their firm
didn't get the work.
Where did they go wrong?
In any successful business development meeting the potential
client should be encouraged to talk more than 75 percent of the
time. Your lead representative should be posing careful
questions and all of the lawyers should be listening, mirroring
body language, taking notes and asking follow up questions to
generate even more discourse by the potential clients.
A business development meeting is not about you. It is all
about your potential client.
Step 1: Do Your Research: The first step in preparing for a
business development meeting with a potential client is to start
early and do your research. A lot of information about any
company is available on the Internet - via the client's web
site, content searches and case-filing searches. You can also
look at competitors and do market research so you know about the
client's space and where they are in their industry.
Step 2: Pose Questions and Probe Your Potential Client: Call
the potential client prior to the interview and ask about the
company's goals, culture, emerging challenges and legal needs.
This will always make a favorable impression. Identify who will
be participating in the meeting. Go back to the Internet to find
out as much information as you can about these individuals
(Google-ing works really well!).
Step 3: Learn Your Client's Industry: Any prepared materials
should demonstrate - without going in too deeply - how your law
firm has successfully solved problems for clients like them in
industries like theirs. Generic firm, group and biographic
materials can be included - but only as supplemental materials.
The key is to show your potential client that you can truly meet
their unique needs.
Step 4: Mirror the Potential Client Behaviors: The firm's
business development team should mirror - without looking
artificial - the team of the
potential client, including the
number of individuals, age, gender, ethnicity, language,
communication style and dress. Business development is all about
relationships, and people find it easier to be persuaded by
people who are similar to themselves. That said, team members
should not be selected to be mere window-dressing; they should
be the actual individuals who will be doing the work.
Step 5: Focus Conversation on the Potential Client: At the
meeting, well-prepared participants should ask specific
questions about the potential client, its market, its
administrative structure, its operations, and its business and
legal challenges. The answers should be used to generate
follow-up questions.
When you understand the problem, switch gears and "leave it all
on the table." Act as if the potential client has already hired
you and provide advice of value that demonstrates exactly how
you and your colleagues function as trusted advisers. Remember -
if they could have done this on their own, they would have.
Anything you can give them in a two-hour pitch meeting will not
eliminate their need for outside counsel. At the same time, they
will notice and appreciate your willingness to be of assistance.
Step 6: Follow Up with the Potential Client: When the business
development meeting is over, try to leave with a specific next
step. Either set a date for follow up, or identify when and how
they would like to hear from you. Don't wait around passively
for the potential client to contact you. When you return to the
office, send a thank-you note, along with information about any
additional subjects that might have come up in the meeting.
Follow up with a schedule of regular contact to continue to
build the relationship.
Step 7: De-brief the Potential Client: You will either get the
work or you won't. In either case, have someone de-brief the
client. If you get the work, find out what it was about your
presentation that turned the tables in your favor. If you don't
get the work, find out what you could have done differently to
bring about a different outcome.
Step 8: Plan for the Next Potential Client: Often, it is easier
to have someone who was not on the business development team do
the de-briefing interview. Use this information to continuously
improve your presentation skills. Even if you are not hired to
solve a particular problem, continue to find ways to add value
to the potential client. There will be additional opportunities
down the road.
Successful law-firm business developers know how to turn the
spotlight away from themselves and shine it on the potential
client and the potential client's problems.
About the author:
David Adams is a seasoned coach, author and speaker. He brings
over 20 years of experience to his role of helping attorneys at
AMLAW firms improve their business development, leadership and
team skills?in short, helping them to achieve that ideal
combination of professional success and personal fulfillment.
Find more free law marketing and legal business development
articles at Clear Impact's site: http://www.lawfirmcoaching.org
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