By Karl Graf
Over the years, we have observed the mistakes of many legal professionals in business development or "selling situations"; that is, where they are trying to acquire a new client or account. Although the actual approach may vary, there are many common pitfalls that trap professional services marketing people.
1. They talk instead of LISTEN
Too many legal professionals monopolize the time they have in front of prospective clients with their talk, only allowing the prospect to listen. For every hour in front of a prospect, they spend five minutes selling their services and fifty-five minutes buying them back. Result: no engagement, or "We need to talk to other firms". The prospect should do most of the talking, as much as 70%.
2. They presume instead of ASKING QUESTIONS
Some legal professionals seem to have all the solutions. The only thing wrong with this is too many legal professionals offer solutions without knowing what the problem is. The professional must ask questions "up-front" to insure a complete understanding of the prospect's perspective.
3. They ANSWER UNASKED QUESTIONS
When a client makes a statement such as, "Your fees are too high"; most legal professionals automatically go into a defensive mode. Often they begin a speech on quality, value, or experience. Sometimes they respond with a concession or a fee reduction. If a client can get a discount by merely making a statement, then maybe he or she shouldn't enter into an engagement until they try something more powerful to get an even better price. "Your fees are too high" is not a question! It does not require an answer. Rather, affirm with “interesting observation” and ask the prospective client, "Why do you think some firms charge higher fees than others?"
4. They fail to get the prospective client to REVEAL BUDGET up front
How can you propose a solution without knowing the prospect's priority on a problem? Knowing whether there is money planned for a project will help the professional to distinguish between the prospect who is ready to solve a problem and one who may not be serious about it. The amount of money that the prospect sees investing to solve a problem will help to determine whether a solution is feasible, and if so, what approach will match the prospect's ability to pay. Is the fee amount the only consideration as to which firm to use? What has the prospect paid in the past? How has it worked for them? Why get into a bidding war, or "low-ball" prospective clients without full understanding of their budget thresholds and expected ROI?
5. They make TOO MANY FOLLOW-UP CALLS when the engagement is actually dead. Whether it is a stubborn attitude to turn every prospect into a client or ignorance of the fact that the engagement opportunity is truly dead, too much time is spent on chasing prospective clients that don't qualify for a service. This should have been detected far earlier in the process.
6. They fail to get a COMMITMENT to engage, before doing a proposal
Legal professionals are too willing to jump at the opportunity to do proposals and often end up wasting their most precious commodity: TIME. They miss their true goal in acquiring a client and become free educators, many times merely teaching their prospects how to engage with other firms. How many proposals has your firm done where thousands of dollars of unbillable time and effort were spent because there was a poor job of qualifying the prospective client early on in the screening process?
7. They chat about everything and AVOID STARTING to understand the requirement before doing a proposal
Building rapport is necessary and desirable, but all too often the small talk doesn't end and the "opportunity" doesn't begin. Unfortunately, the prospect usually recognizes this before the professional. The result is the professional thinks he or she has a “relationship”, and the prospective client is left wondering how savvy the firm really is.
8. They prefer "MAYBE" instead of getting to "NO"
Prospects are constantly ending the engagement interview with the ever so prevalent "think it over" line. The professional accepts this indecision, and even sympathizes with the prospect. It's easier to bring back the message that the prospective client might use the firm's services "sometime in the future", rather than saying this prospect is not a candidate for the firm's services. After all, wasn't it the professional's responsibility to go out and get prospects to say "yes"? Getting the prospective client to say "no" is counter intuitive, but actually very affective, and PROS know how to convert “no’s” to YES.
9. They work without a SYSTEMATIC APPROACH business development!
Professional services marketers find themselves ad-libbing or "going with the flow" to “sell” a new client deal. They allow the prospect to control the selling process. Professionals often leave the “selling” interview without knowing where they are because they don't know where they've been, and what the next step is to get the engagement. The need to follow a specific systematic sequence and control the steps through this process is vital to the professional's success in acquiring new clients and getting more business from existing ones.
10. THEY LOOK, ACT, AND SOUND LIKE THEIR COMPETITION
What do professional services people know about the "Greatest Skill in the World: The Art of Persuasion"? What happens when the prospective client is faced with marketing programs and people who look, act and sound alike in a multiple selection process? How might the prospect make a decision in that situation? By whom has the lowest fee? By personality? In order to “outsell” the competition and avoid losing prospective and current clients, the professional needs to develop an approach to selling the firm's services that differentiates them from the competition and that is more effective. Develop a questioning strategy, looking for a prospective client's "pain" (not by playing some form of "show and tell"). "Pain" is the underlying emotional reason people make decisions.
