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  • February 15, 2018 8:57 PM | Kirsten Lovett

    BE RECOGNIZED FOR YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS!

    The LSSO Sales & Service Awards salute the efforts and results of individuals and teams who have spearheaded initiatives contributing to law firm revenue growth.

    If you or someone you know has demonstrated innovative techniques in retaining or growing firm revenue, submit a nomination on or before March 8, 2018 in one or more of the following categories:

    Sales & Service Executive of the Year
    This award goes to a leader who played a crucial role in retaining clients and/or growing firm revenues in 2017.

    Sales & Service Team of the Year
    This award goes to a team who played a crucial role in retaining or growing firm revenue in 2017. 

    Sales & Marketing Collaboration Team of the Year
    This award goes to the sales/business development and marketing/communications team who collaborated to retain or grow firm revenue in 2017.


    Awards will be presented by Berbay Marketing & PR​ at the 15th Annual RainDance Conference June 6-7, 2018 in Chicago. Click below to learn more and submit a nomination.

    Deadline Thursday March 8, 2018.

    Meet the Judges

  • February 08, 2018 1:30 PM | Kirsten Lovett

    Nomination Submission Deadline March 8

    BOSTON – The Legal Sales and Service Organization (LSSO) has chosen a panel of three esteemed judges to evaluate submissions and select winners for the 2018 Sales & Service Awards. Sponsored by Berbay Marketing & PR, the awards recognize the efforts and results of individuals and teams who have spearheaded initiatives contributing to law firm revenue growth. The judges’ panel includes: 


    David Burkhardt: Client Service Director with Wyrick, Robbins, Yates & Ponton, a corporate transactional law firm in Raleigh-Durham, N.C. Read more...



    Mari-Anne Kehler: Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer with Green Hasson Janks, a Los Angeles based accounting, tax and consulting firm. Read more...



    Jonathan Mattson: Director of Business Development with Baker & Hostetler, LLP, a law firm handling litigation, business, employment, intellectual property and tax matters. Jonathan is based in the firm’s Cleveland, Ohio office. Read more...


    Winners will be announced at LSSO’s 15th Annual RainDance Conference being held June 6 - 7, 2018 in Chicago, Ill. Nominations must be submitted on or before March 8, 2018 in one or more of the following categories:

    More information on categories and submission guidelines can be found at http://www.legalsales.org/LSSO-Awards or by contacting Beth Miller at 850.294.8464 or beth@berbay.com. Follow conference and award updates on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LSSO_RainDance and hashtag: #LSSO2018.

    Submit a Nomination

    ### 

    About LSSO

    Launched in 2003, LSSO delivers the education and resources that lawyers and those who work with them need to improve their sales and client service skills with exclusive research, and tools and information for members only. LSSO supplies the legal marketplace with innovative, groundbreaking events and resources, including the annual RainDance Conference and LSSO's Process Improvement Certification Programs. Follow LSSO on Twitter and LinkedIn.

    About Berbay Marketing & PR

    Founded in 1995, Berbay Marketing & PR is a marketing and public relations firm specializing in fueling law firms’ revenue growth.  Follow Berbay on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.


  • February 07, 2018 6:53 AM | Kirsten Lovett

    Early Bird Registration Ends FRIDAY

    Coaching Advantage Certification Program

    March 8 & 9, 2018 - Washington, DC

    Become a Master Coach with our Certification Program 

    Coaching is becoming a profession within the legal profession.  Learning to become a business development coach or to refine your coaching skills to help lawyers reach their full potential for developing business is a great career opportunity. Through Legal Sales and Service Organization's (LSSO) partnership with LawVision, we bring our attendees and members unparalleled opportunity for advancing their careers as business development coaches. Further, our coaching certification will provide you with the training, tools, and credentials to coach lawyers at all skill levels. 

    LSSO's Coaching Certification program is delivered through classroom instruction by sales and coaching experts, accompanied by in house coaches who will provide case studies and examples of the day-to-day challenges and opportunities they face and discuss the methods for meeting those challenges and leveraging opportunities. Onsite programming, a live coaching session and one class follow-on webinar will complete your certification.

    Register Here - Early Bird Discount Ends February 9

    Facilitators:

    Silvia L. Coulter, LSSO Co-Founder and Principal, LawVision Group

    Jim Cranston, Principal, LawVision Group

    Location: Goulston & Storrs; 1999 K Street, NW; 1st Floor Conference Center; Washington, DC

    Dates: March 8 & 9, 2018

    Registration: Early Rates Available - click here

    LSSO Members receive a discount on registration.

  • February 02, 2018 7:32 AM | Kirsten Lovett

    Ask three-time Super Bowl champion and venture capitalist, Brent Jones, at RainDance on June 6-7, 2018 in Chicago.

    Brent Jones spent most of his twelve-year career in the National Football League playing for the San Francisco 49ers, the dominant team of his era (think Patriots today – Go Pats!). He won three Super Bowl rings and received the NFL’s Bart Starr Award for outstanding character in the home, on the field and in the community. In 2000 he co-founded Northgate Capital, a venture capital and private equity firm in Silicon Valley. 

    Hear what one of the most clutch tight ends ever to play the game says it takes for an organization to make it to the Super Bowl. Taking those skills off the football field, Brent then went on to a  successful career in venture capital.

    Brent will share coaching strategies and sales techniques that you can take back to inspire your own teams.

    Register Now for RainDance

    GO PATRIOTS!

  • January 18, 2018 4:20 PM | Kirsten Lovett

    By Craig Brown, Senior Consultant, LawVision and LSSO Coaching Certification Instructor

    Business development directors and managers are often tasked with coaching lawyers but many don’t have a business development or coaching background. Despite interest and enthusiasm, some of these very capable people are unclear where to start or how to be successful in that role. Many of them also face challenges outside coaches don’t have to deal with. Building trust, establishing credibility and building accountability from the inside can be more difficult. If this describes you, here are some ideas to get you started if you need to coach your lawyers in their business development efforts without the help of an outside consultant. 

    1. Attitude is King. When selecting coaching participants, remember that attitude is the number one qualifier.  Introverted wallflowers willing to learn and try can be better coaching participants than budding rainmakers who think they already know what to do.  Check in on attitude before you begin.
    2. Lead with Strengths. Taking time to really understand the personality and strengths of those with whom you work so you can assist them in finding business development activities that will tap into their natural strengths. Leading with strengths increases comfort levels which increases amounts of time invested and success rates.
    3. Get “buy-in.” Working from the inside (as opposed to as an outside consultant) may require you to forge a different relationship than you have had in the past.  Be open and transparent about this. Ask your coaching participants for permission to hold them accountable. Don’t be afraid to push them to meet objectives they set form themselves.
    4. Get them to the C-Suite. Coaching lawyers to form stronger relationships higher in the organization is a sound strategy and raises your own profile as well.
    5. Use Pipelines. Centering business development activity on the pipeline moves lawyers away from static awareness activities (just writing an article or giving a speech) to dynamic relationship activities (meeting a new prospect or strengthening an existing relationship). Pipelines can help focus lawyers on next steps, assist in analyzing the depth and make-up of a lawyer’s network and motivate lawyers to hit their goals.  Keep them simple and useable.
    6. Move from Awareness to Relationships. Many of your lawyers probably already speak, write, join and attend.  Coaching at a higher level includes moving them from simple awareness activities to activities that find new and build existing relationships.
    7. Build Value Propositions. It’s not enough to just have your lawyers take people to lunch and keep in touch. It doesn’t really matter how many ball games you take people to if you don’t have something they need. Value propositions answer the question, “Why would I give you twenty minutes of my time.” Help your lawyers create a value proposition that causes prospects to say, “That could help me, tell me more.”

    Need more help? To assist our clients in their coaching efforts we’ve partnered with the Legal Sales and Service Organization (LSSO) and launched a program that trains people to be successful internal coaches. Public sessions are scheduled for March 8-9, 2018 in Washington, DC and Southern CA (dates to be announced).  The program is two full days with both pre and post work including actual coaching sessions and feedback. Participants will come away certified as master trainers by the Legal Sales and Service organization with the skills to make them effective coaches in their respective firms.

    Click here for more information on LSSO's Coaching Advantage Certification Program.

    About the Author

    Craig Brown uses his experience as a lawyer, business developer and seminar leader to train and coach lawyers to build relationships that lead to strong books of business and satisfying careers. He can be reached at cbrown@lawvisiongroup.com or 949-369-9400.

     

     

  • January 18, 2018 3:21 PM | Kirsten Lovett

    By David Whiteside, Director of Client Growth & Success at CLIENTSFirst

    Are there correlations between CRM and Taxes?

    When we see so many firms struggling with CRM “adoption” it creates a question: Is it possible that the professionals in your firm view your CRM system as a tax? Like a tax, CRM benefits the firm and others, but not them?

    The most common frustration heard when rolling out a CRM – my users just won’t adopt and use it! The initial tendency is to blame the users as being stubborn, obstinate and unwilling to “change”. But the real question is WHY are they unwilling to change? Could it be your CRM is viewed as a “Tax” on the user?

    A few Tax Factoids:

    • Any tax tends to depress the activity being taxed (i.e. income taxes directly affect the number of employees that can be hired).
    • Taxes are frequently used to affect behavior (i.e., ‘sin’ taxes on cigarettes and alcohol).
    • Tax breaks or credits are often viewed as benefiting a select few while they result in higher taxes for everyone else.

    About everything from our paycheck to our gas tank has some type of tax on it.  The reason for this dislike of paying taxes is simple. Rarely does anyone feel they received benefits from their tax dollars equivalent to the taxes they paid into the system. My tax dollars benefit others more than me. Human nature at work - we just don’t like to pay for things when we don't see any value or personal return (aka, WIIFM: What’s in it for me!).

    Let’s do a quick “Tax Audit” of Your CRM:

                        Taxes

                     CRM

    Viewed as a burden

    Viewed as a burden

    Viewed as good for Uncle Sam?

    Viewed as good for “the firm” or Marketing Department?

    Viewed as paying an unfair share – benefits others more than me

    Viewed as paying an unfair share (lost billable hours)

    Goal of individual is to legally minimize their share of taxes

    Goal of individual is to legally minimize their share of the CRM Tax?

    Failure to comply has serious penalties

    Failure to comply has serious penalties?  Failure to comply has no penalty?

    Full compliance has no tangible reward(s)?

    Ultimate benefit to the individual hard to measure and often perceived as a negative benefit relative to the amount of tax paid

    Ultimate benefit to the individual hard to measure and often perceived as a negative benefit relative to the amount of tax paid

    Fail the Audit? You are not alone.

    With a little introspection, you may find users simply don’t see any WIIFM, and your CRM system is viewed as a “Tax” on the users. Like most of us that means we see the benefits flowing to Uncle Sam and “those less fortunate”, and not a “tax break” that provides benefit to me.

    How Do We Change the “Taxation” view of CRM?

    Success lies in three areas:

    1. Understanding your firm’s unique culture and the limitations, strengths and challenges your culture creates.
    2. Once you understand the firm culture and challenges, you can now have realistic goals of what you want CRM to do. What does success look like?
    3. An effective rollout plan that communicates effectively to the culture, and trains users on not just how to operate the system, but how the system specifically benefits each unique individual.  

    Notice “Culture” was mentioned in all three. You have likely heard the saying from famous management guru Peter Drucker, “Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch Every day”. This is especially true where the value to users is not obvious and in demand. Relative to document management and time & billing systems, CRM systems rarely have a high demand from attorneys and CRM deployments can be the firm poster child for challenges in getting user adoption.

    Defining WHY and for WHOM we need CRM:

    I often see charters and business cases with a list of desired benefits that look like this list below:

    1. Better client relationships. ... 
    2. Less client attrition….
    3. Improved ability to cross-sell. ... 
    4. Increased revenue and profitability. ... 
    5. Increased team collaboration. ... 
    6. Improved efficiency in serving clients. ... 
    7. Greater staff satisfaction. ... 
    8. Cost savings. ... 

    These are all worthy objectives on which to build a business case – but none of them contain a WHY and a WHO? Why are each of these important? And to whom are they important?

    The WHY and the WHO are important because they define who is the customer? Are you focusing benefits on the lawyers? Their clients? The firm? Or the Marketing Department? Who cares about these items being improved? What benefit will they gain by having them improved? Do they see the need? Or are you selling to a prospect without a perceived need? Is it worth the cost to the “customer” in money, time and effort?

    Making the “System” Deliver the WHO and WHY Benefits to the “Customer”.

    To get the adoption you are looking for here are some suggestions.

    • Set up meetings with key stakeholders. Interview them for their feelings and perceptions of the business case issues you have created. Do they agree these are problems important to solve? How do they see themselves benefiting from solving these problems? Collect feedback and assess findings. Does the feedback and the user’s perceptions of what they need/want strongly or generally agree and support the business case? Disagree? Hear any new desired benefits? Look for consistent responses as well as outlier responses. One to really pay attention to is the sensitivity to “privacy”. This often manifests through comments about “my clients” and any comments showing reluctance to share contacts and information. This is often the number one culture hurdle that will challenge success. Don’t assume it will change or go away. Develop the CRM plan knowing it exists. This culture risk mandates a “pilot” program that includes testing the culture’s willingness about sharing.
    • Using your stakeholder interview findings, define what is important to each user group and each individual user. This will determine what functionality will be accepted and adopted (target three to start), be the basis for the “Communication Plan” messaging, and how to focus the “Training Plan”. Be certain they are designed to meet the unique needs of each user.
    • The technical functionality of a CRM system comes factory installed. The challenge is they come factory installed with way more features and functions than any one firm can ever use, more than any user can be trained on and rarely configured in an optimal way to support your unique workflows. A good rule of thumb is let’s start by focusing on the top three requirements that will really move the needle. The top three vary by firm and even by practice and possibly individual users within a firm. The more tightly you can identify the top three and why they are important to each user or group, the more adoption you can expect. Configure, communicate and train on these three. You can add more features and functionality over time. But important to walk before we run.
    • Communication Plan - are we communicating individual WIIFM benefits? Is it specific? Or is the message closer to “Tax man is here”?
    • Training - Be prepared to train every lawyer right at their desk as the WIIFM adoption battle is often won one lawyer at a time. Video training may work for Marketing team or as a primer. Group sessions as primers for attorneys can work (be sure to have food!). But real adoption only happens when lawyers are trained deskside on what is specific to them. Depending on the system plan 15-30 minutes. Sound like a big effort? It is, and is critical to success.
    • The last point is CRM is not a project that now ends. It is a fundamental change in how the firm does business. Plan on the communication, training and data quality effort to continue forever.

    Data Quality:

    The last key to success is high quality data. Data is the oxygen that keeps your system alive. If a user perceives the data is bad, they will quickly make the leap that the system is bad, cannot be trusted and no point using it. All other effort can go down the drain if the Data Quality is perceived as poor. Make a commitment to keeping data clean and up to date. It costs money, time and resources to have good data. Finding and training high quality data professionals is much harder than it might seem. But the investment is critical and worth it.

    You can get there – but let’s not be a tax on our users. Let’s focus on passing the WIIFM audit.

    About the Author:

    Dave Whiteside is Director of Client Growth & Success at CLIENTSFirst.

    Dave’s focus is helping the company grow and expand its CRMData QualityeMarketing and Client Intelligence service offerings, and building alliances that help deliver additional value to Clients.

  • January 15, 2018 9:06 PM | Kirsten Lovett

    BE RECOGNIZED FOR YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS!

    Submit your nomination now for the 2018 LSSO Sales & Service Awards

    Deadline Thursday, February 15, 2018


    We're less than a month out from the deadline to submit for the LSSO Sales & Service Awards! The awards salute the efforts and results of individuals and teams who have spearheaded initiatives contributing to law firm revenue growth. 

    If you or someone you know has demonstrated innovative techniques in retaining or growing firm revenue, submit a nomination on or before February 15, 2018 in one or more of the following categories:

    Sales & Service Executive of the Year – This award goes to a leader who played a crucial role in retaining clients and/or growing firm revenues in 2017. 

    Sales & Service Team of the Year – This award goes to a team who played a crucial role in retaining or growing firm revenue in 2017.  

    Sales & Marketing Collaboration Team of the Year – This award goes to the sales/business development and marketing/communications team who collaborated to retain or grow firm revenue. 

    Awards will be presented by Berbay Marketing & PR​ at the 15th Annual RainDance Conference June 6-7 , 2018in Chicago. Click below to learn more and submit a nomination.

    Submit Now

    Questions? Contact

    Beth Miller

    850-294-8464

    beth@berbay.com

    Thank you to our sponsor, Berbay Marketing & PR. Founded in 1995, Berbay Marketing & PR is a marketing and public relations firm specializing in fueling law firms' revenue growth. Follow Berbay on TwitterFacebookLinkedIn and Instagram.


  • January 09, 2018 7:07 AM | Kirsten Lovett

     





     





     

    PLEASE JOIN US!
    YOUR INVITATION FROM THE LEGAL EXECUTIVE INSTITUTE




     






     

    The 25th Annual Marketing Partner Forum
    January 24-26, 2018




    EVENT LOCATION: Terranea Resort, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
    PRICE: $2695

    "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly, one begins to twist the facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." - Sherlock Holmes

    Intelligent business requires business intelligence in all its myriad forms. Indeed, in an industry where failure and success seem to pivot upon the razor's edge, the ability to make fearless and informed decisions is a fundamental step for securing (or maintaining) new business.

    This month, the Thomson Reuters Legal Executive Institute proudly presents the Silver Anniversary of Marketing Partner Forum featuring interactive workshops, breakouts, panel discussions and more on the evolving synergy between business intelligence and revenue strategy.

    Register today to join an elite faculty of peers and clients at one of California's most charming resorts.

    NEW this year is a solo and small law firm track containing sessions designed specifically for firms with 10-15 partners or less!

    Less than 10 seats remain!

    Agenda

    Register today and take advantage of our special 20% discount for LSSO members valid until January 17, 2018. Enter LEXMPF18
    at checkout.

    REGISTER NOW

     







     

  • January 04, 2018 1:03 PM | Kirsten Lovett

    Become a Master Coach with our Certification Program 

    Coaching is becoming a profession within the legal profession.  Learning to become a business development coach or to refine your coaching skills to help lawyers reach their full potential for developing business is a great career opportunity. Through Legal Sales and Service Organization's (LSSO) partnership with LawVision, we bring our attendees and members unparalleled opportunity for advancing their careers as business development coaches. Further, our coaching certification will provide you with the training, tools, and credentials to coach lawyers at all skill levels. 

    LSSO's Coaching Certification program is delivered through classroom instruction by sales and coaching experts, accompanied by in house coaches who will provide case studies and examples of the day-to-day challenges and opportunities they face and discuss the methods for meeting those challenges and leveraging opportunities. Onsite programming, a live coaching session and one class follow-on webinar will complete your certification.

    Register Here - Early Bird Discount Now Available

    Facilitators:

    Silvia L. Coulter, LSSO Co-Founder and Principal, LawVision Group

    Jim Cranston, Principal, LawVision Group

    Location: Goulston & Storrs, 1st Floor Conference Center, 1999 K Street, NW, Washington, DC

    Dates: March 8 & 9, 2018

    Registration: Early Rates Available - click here

  • December 27, 2017 10:58 AM | Kirsten Lovett

    Ballard Spahr is hiring a Marketing Technology Manager and Marketing Specialist. See the job postings on LSSO's job bank: https://lnkd.in/dCUYkGJ

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