I am delighted to announce that I will be teaming up with Jim Hassett at LegalBizDev in providing sales coaching for law firms.
Although the “S” word is not bantered about by a lot of law firms, just as the “M” word was a no-no in the not too distant past, firms that do “get it” have certainly recognized the need to prepare their lawyers to be more effective at closing the deal. Lawyers, after all, have always been selling (I’m sorry – “persuading” prospects and clients to retain their firm), whether at the country club while golfing or dining, making presentations, writing or speaking, entertaining in general, and, of course, the old standby – while networking at tons of events.
Okay, we’ve established that “sales” isn’t new in the legal world, but why am I teaming up with LegalBizDev? Under the mantle of “marketing” coaching I have been providing many of the tools commonly associated with sales, I just didn’t call it that. It turns out that my approach is similar to what Jim is doing. Only his is better, and he has done much more of it than me. I was so impressed with Jim’s credentials, experience, and most of all the success of his program that I was flattered when he asked me to team up with him. His approach has been so successful, for example, in the brief span of a couple of months the results were so impressive in one prominent Boston law firm, that the firm has nearly doubled the number of the attorneys participating in his second program.
Jim is a Harvard-educated Ph.D., who has spent the last 20 years providing sales training to corporations, including American Express, Bank of New York, Bank of America, TD Waterhouse, State Street, TIAA-CREF, and Telamon Insurance. He now provides this business development training to law firms. He is the author of seven books (including The Law Firm Business Development Workbook and Legal Business Development: A Step By Step Guide) and he is a fellow blogger at Legal Business Development. You can learn more about Jim on his web site.
If you want to learn more about the specifics of LegalBizDev Network programs…
60-Day Coaching Program
Our 60-day coaching programs are customized for groups of up to six lawyers that are interested in increasing new business, and willing to commit a few hours per week to following up.
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Step 1: Prioritize |
1. A planning meeting with management to review the firm’s overall business development goals, and define precise measures of success for this program. 2. A two-hour business planning meeting/ workshop with up to six lawyers. Based on their practice and personality, each lawyer will answer the question What should I do today to increase new business? 3. A one hour one-to-one meeting with each lawyer, on the same day as the workshop, to define action items that are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timed) and likely to achieve maximum results in the minimum time. 4. Each participant will receive copies of two books by Jim Hassett, Ph.D.: Legal Business Development: A Step by Step Guide and The Legal Business Development Workbook.
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Step 2: Follow up |
Eight weeks of one-to-one coaching, including: 5. A weekly individual telephone conversation initiated by the coach. 6. Unlimited phone and email consultation initiated by the lawyers. 7. Unlimited help preparing for business development meetings, such as
8. Weekly written reports to summarize results and motivate lawyers in a friendly group competition. |
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Step 3: Evaluate |
9. At the end of the coaching, a meeting with decision makers to review results and next steps. 10. A final report, summarizing how to continue the business development program, with or without additional support from LegalBizDev. |
Custom programs
We also custom design training and coaching programs to meet the unique needs of large law firms. We will create materials that incorporate your proprietary procedures, and develop train the trainer programs for your internal business development staff. Our goal is to support and enhance the work of internal staff, and to improve coordination between lawyers from multiple offices.