By Steve Bell

In the previous installment, we examined how innovative professional services sales professionals have addressed the new reality posed by COVID-19.  We concluded that although salespeople and lawyers have implemented new twists, primarily, these are variations on existing techniques and technologies.  It seems that all continue to compete with a common set of tools, which leads to the question:  How then do they differentiate and get ahead?

The difference-maker may not be the tools in the toolkit, but rather the manner in which the tools are applied, which is to say, the skill in designing and operating an integrated sales process, something still relatively new in the world of law firms.

While creating a sales process sounds like a big chore, it really is not that complex, involving simply the creation of case studies of how key engagements were won, and then reverse-engineering the steps that led to those wins.

Here’s an example.  Say a firm considers the mutually satisfying, expanding, highly profitable relationship with its top client. How did the firm acquire such a client?  By landing the first assignment and delivering world-class service at the right price and in the right style so that additional opportunities from the same client emerged.  How did the firm get to the point that it could do this?  It followed up with the company when it was but a prospective client until the relationship matured and an opportunity to serve surfaced.  How did it get to the position where it could follow up?  It opened the door and got the first meeting. How did it get the first meeting?  It targeted the company and used research to identify topics that would interest and intrigue the primary buyer.  When the buyer’s interest was aroused, she requested outreach from the law firm, although the firm itself had simultaneously asked for a meeting.  How did the firm know whom to target?  It understood its own strengths and weaknesses and analyzed at which companies – including its now top client -- those strengths and capabilities were the best fit.

When this simple analysis of how the sales win came about is complete, it’s easy to turn the steps around, yielding a proven, efficient, replicable sales process.  Using the above example, here is the resulting sales process:

• Understand the firm, its strengths, weaknesses, capabilities, reputation and differentiators; Understand oneself
• Develop targets based on this understanding
• Research
• Follow up
• Open the door
• Land the first assignment 
• Deliver world-class service
• Expand the relationship 

Understand self

Of course, every lawyer knows his or her own professional persona – education, job history, area of practice, additional skills and certifications, cases won or transactions closed, and so forth.  Most lawyers, however, know very little about the professional skills, experience, and achievements of the other individuals in their firms.  This lack of knowledge can result in a missed sale when a client mentions an area of need outside the pursuer’s expertise and he or she does not have a reasonably ready answer about what others in the firm can do and provide. 

And how about non-technical strengths?  As a certified Gallup Strengths Coach, I have helped scores of lawyers understand their personal attributes – areas of strength and areas of weakness.  As part of such personal-understanding exercises, it’s also valuable to contemplate the personal strengths and weaknesses of clients and prospective clients.  Such an understand of self and client helps home in on the best way to communicate with and relate to clients and prospective clients. 

The Gallup Organization codified all of this in its Strengths Finder, in which it identified 34 attributes that all humans possess.   When using the top 5 or 10 strengths, people find the work easy, efficient, and refreshing.  They probably can tap into the other 29 or 24 attributes when necessary, but doing so may not be easy, enjoyable or energizing.  In such instances, the pursuer may want to find ways to engineer around their weaknesses by teaming with others who have complementary strengths.  We include this suggestion, because the first step in our process is “know ourselves.”  This means knowing not only our firms in a technical sense, but also our personal strengths and the strengths of those around us.   

Now, let’s walk through two other early critical components of an effective sales process.

Targeting

Candidly, most law firm target lists consist of aggregations of business cards gathered at the hors d’oeuvre table at business meetings, or lists of people that the lawyers know.  However, considering the amount of time and resources that will be invested in a formal sales process, it’s important to recognize that more discipline than that is necessary to prepare a truly aligned target list.  Here’s a list of sample targeting criteria.

Great Target Lists

• Individuals
• Large, complex issues we can address
• Understand big-law-firm economics
• Know us and like us
• Not locked into another firm
• Right geography
• Resemble clients we already serve well
• Fun to serve    

Law firms certainly will choose their own attributes of good targets, but no matter which criteria are selected, it is most helpful to list them in advance so all can focus on the right targets and avoid those that are not in alignment with stated goals.

In addition, it’s important to have the right number of targets.  Most lawyers have far too few targets, or far too many.  In the first category are lawyers who say they have two or three targets – not nearly enough to take up even an hour per week of client development time.  Other lawyers have dozens or hundreds of targets.  That’s far too many, and it generates sales paralysis; no human being can launch and maintain relationships with that large a list.

Here’s a way to think about the appropriate number of targets.  If a lawyer has one hour of client development time per week, she or he should have 24 targets.  This number is derived by the number of 15-minute segments in an hour (4); 15 minutes is plenty of time to forward a target an interesting article, send a birthday card, point out what the target’s competitor is doing, or undertake some other relationship-advancing activity. Some of the most-experienced professional services sales consultants contend that a prospective client must be “touched” at least once every six weeks if that target is to keep the seller near the top of mind.  That’s where the number six in targeting calculator comes from.  Multiply six by four (the number of targets that can be touched in an hour in one week), and the result is 24 targets.  For those who have two client development hours per week, 48 targets are needed, and so on.

Target Calculator

Weekly Client Development Hours

         x4

          x6

= Proper Number of Targets

Those who are just starting won’t get to the proper number of targets instantly, but, but rather over a year or more. 

Here’s another way to calculate the right number of number of targets starting with the number of engagements needed.  If a lawyer needs one new engagement, and he or she, on average, wins work from one in 10 prospective clients with whom meetings are set, and the lawyer can schedule a meeting with a prospective client once out of every 10 tries, then she or he needs 100 targets -- 10 meetings leads to one new engagement.     

Target Calculator

Number of Engagements Needed

         x Proposal Success Rate

          x Meeting Acquisition Rate

= Proper Number of Targets

 Of course, many will have better results than that.  Say the need is one new engagement, that the get-a-meeting success ratio is 1:6, and the new-clients-from-meetings ratio rate is 1:4, 24 targets are needed.

Everyone has his or her own experience rating.  Some appear to get a meeting every they ask. Some seem to win every opportunity they attempt.  Some don’t come anywhere close to these numbers.  But it’s only numbers, not a value judgment.  We advise lawyers to start where they are and to improve what they can improve to achieve their optimum experience ratings.  But always, we remind them, make sure to undertake sufficient numbers of targets to create the results needed.

Research

Public company information, such as SEC 10-K reports, reveal much about a company for those who know how to read and interpret this information.  Handing unfiltered 10-Ks to lawyers, however, may not be productive, because very few lawyers are trained to understand the application of public company reports to business development.  Still, it’s incredibly important to have this information.  We often recommend engaging an outside service to perform this function, or to make sure that professionals inside the firm know how to do it well on behalf of the lawyers.  This analysis capability addresses three of the needs that lawyers want most from their lawyers.  The first is understand the business.  Second, understand the business.  Third, understand the business.

By Stefane Marrone

The way you format your LinkedIn posts is just as important as what you say.

Given that reading online is 25% slower than in print and attention span becomes shorter and shorter every day, it’s important to be strategic when structuring your LinkedIn posts.

Here’s how to structure your LinkedIn posts for maximum impact.

For example, don’t write long, dense paragraphs. Today people skim content, especially online.

Instead, break up your information into short snippets like I’m doing here.

Use paragraph breaks, bullets, numbers or headers when you can to help the reader as they scan the post.

The first three lines of your LinkedIn post are the most important in terms of capturing your reader’s attention. After that point the post is truncated and says “show more.”

For people to see more you need to give them a reason to, which you can do with an enticing first three lines. Think of it as your headline. Draw the reader in and let them know what they can expect in the rest of the post.

Write LinkedIn posts in the first person. "I" and "we" help you sound like a real person talking to real people. It builds a personal connection with your audience and makes your posts compelling.

Always write with your audience in mind. For lawyers and law firms that means no defined terms. No formal language. No jargon. Don’t refer to people by their surnames. No skipping two or three spaces between sentences. This isn’t a legal brief.

Also, put all hashtags at the end of your posts and don’t use more than five or LinkedIn can flag your post as spam. I find them hard to read when they are interspersed in the body copy.

Don't put links in your posts - LinkedIn wants to keep people on its platform and will penalize you if you try and send them off of it. That's why people put links in the comments.

Users don't read but scan content when they scroll a newsfeed. Your job is to get them to stop the scroll.

Remember client-centric, easy-to-follow, authentic, value-added content will bring you success on LinkedIn and as a thought leader on any platform.

What other tips would you add to this list?

15 Ways to Improve Your SEO

Do you have an SEO strategy? If not you need one ASAP.

With more than 4 billion Google searches every day, you need to make sure your web site is optimized for SEO. Don't let your website become a crisis situation - it should be updated every three or so years. It's the first impression a visitor has of your organization.

Here are 15 ways to improve your Google SEO results.

By Steve Bell

Law firms, operating virtually and remotely for nearly two years, have been asking “What’s new in law firm sales in these challenging times?” 

“Challenging times” is a phrase that emerged in March 2020 and had grown stale by April.  Yes, things are different, more difficult and exhausting.  But then again, these are not the first “challenging times” to put a strain on professional services sales teams.     

On Black Monday in October 1987, the stock market crashed because of programmatic trading. In September 2001, the US homeland was attacked, stranding road warriors across the planet.  In 2002, the dotcom bubble burst.  In 2008, Lehman Brothers collapsed and launched the Great Recession. Each of these incidents created sales difficulties that required new solutions.  And each roughly coincided with an important leap forward in sales techniques and technology. 

By 1987 and Black Monday, electronic mail was emerging and soon became a critical sales tool.  In 1995, WebEx was launched so that in 2001 when sales travel came to a screeching halt, virtual meetings could take place.  The Great Recession resulted in the sharp contraction of law firm sales forces, but by then, Artificial Intelligence and Marketing Automation facilitated the nurturing of clients in a way that did not necessarily require human intervention.  It’s not too surprising, then, to expect creative sales minds to quickly adjust to the lockdown of a global pandemic. 

To find out more about sales solutions in the COVID moment, approximately 25 sales professionals from accounting and law firms – the Brain Trust -- were surveyed about how they are adapting to today’s reality.  Many of them have moved on to other professional-services businesses, but all are still selling, still succeeding, and always innovating.

Subsequently, about 50 lawyers from Lex Mundi member firms attending a conference in Washington, D.C. were asked many of the same questions to see what else could be gleaned. 

The survey of the Brain Trust began with the money question, asking about their personal revenue production in 2021.  All of those who responded reported revenue gains of 20% to 100% over the preceding year.   

Later, the Lex Mundi lawyers were asked how their firms were doing with revenue.  Also very well.  None reported a decline, and only a handful reported flat revenue.  The substantial majority reported that their firms’ top lines were up, many of them substantially so. 

They are not alone among law firms in 2021.  All the major organizations that examine law firm revenue reported it was up substantially across the board.  According to American Lawyer, there were “significant gains in key financial metrics as clients leaned on their lawyers for counsel.” And, American Lawyer added, “Firms grew revenue by an average of 5.9%, a remarkable result in an unprecedented year.”  Wells Fargo reported that more than 90% of the 120 law firms surveyed reported an increase in revenue.  The bank added that law-firm revenue was up 14%, even more among Top 50 firms.

Parenthetically, it’s hard to imagine why law firms should be thinking about sales right now.  With starting associate salaries topping $200,000 even at midsized firms, and associate spot bonuses of up to $150,000, the phrase “Value for the dollar” is in cold storage.  Things are great for law firms.  Why think about sales?  Why change?  Well, here’s one reason:  Whatever is causing today’s law firm revenue growth and profit is not permanent.  When the field of play changes again, as it will, firms that have institutionalized sales will stay on top, and those who are passively riding the wave will recede with the ebb tide. 

The survey revealed that while some of the historic key tools in the sales arsenal – conferences, events, client CLE, sales meetings in client offices, and so on – have disappeared, not surprisingly, substitutions were quickly and effectively put into play.   

Let’s go through the list, starting with the obvious collaborative platforms including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, RingCentral, WebEx, and others.  All respondents use them, and, it would seem, hate them during the times that they are not loving them.  In any event, no one can do without them. It is true that collaborative platforms have caused the loss of some of the intimacies of live meetings, but they have dramatically increased efficiency and expanded geographic sales territories.  They allowed sales professionals and buyers alike, unintentionally most of the time, to be more vulnerable and human and to introduce clients to home offices, dogs and cats, kids, significant others, and personal foibles. 

Here are some of the creative ways the sales professionals have used collaborative platforms during the pandemic:

• Client and prospective-client meetings
• User-group summits with clients as the “stars”
• At-home virtual dinners
• Virtual cooking courses
• Virtual cocktail mixing events
• Virtual happy hours

The Brain Trust also reported other technologies that they deployed more aggressively: 

• E-mail
• Social media (including more-obscure ones)
• Social media direct messaging
• Mobile phone
• Facetime
• WhatsApp
• Text
• Phone calls

And they dusted off some techniques from the analog era – you know, the 1990s:

• USPS Mail (which allowed collection of client home addresses)
• Special-Day Cards
• Delivery Services 
• • Swag
  • Large white-paper or promotional documents
  • Food and beverage
• Handwritten Notes
  

• And, even though traditional person-to-person contact was put on hold, the surveyed sales professionals still found responsible ways to get together in person: 

  • Golf
  • Socially distant lunches and dinners
  • Dog walks
  • Bag lunches in art museum outdoor spaces
  • Outdoor walks over lunch with clients or prospective clients

  Although all these techniques are useful and represent some new twists, none are truly extraordinary and epoch-making.  Without doubt, all law firms undertook similar tactics. 

  The Lex Mundi crowd was asked to add to the Brain Trust’s list of COVID-necessitated sales techniques.  Here’s what they reported: 

  • AI
  • Videoconference Quizzes
  • Virtual road shows
  • Virtual CLE for clients
  • Virtual client feedback Interviews
  • Curated care packages for televised events such as sports championships or the Academy Awards
  • Twitter Spaces
  • Online Follow-Me Ads
  • Home-schooling resources for clients

  Again, these are creative but not groundbreaking techniques.  So, what are we to make of this?  If no truly revolutionary sales techniques and technologies have emerged in the age of COVID, and if all competitors have access to and are deploying the same bag of tricks, how does any one of them get ahead?  We’ll cover this in our next installment.

  
  

By Silvia L. Coulter

Steffan, a second-year equity partner in a global law firm, was working with us to up his business development game. When we began working with him, we were told the following:

• He is working for two to three years in one of the firm’s overseas offices and has moved there with his family.
• His practice leader is not very involved in day-to-day management and has to focus on his own business and clients.
• Partners are required to hit a minimum of $3 million in new business annually
• He is focused on building out the firm’s successful high-end hospitality practice globally
• He has a solid $2 million dollar book of business
• His goal was to increase his book, and to also at some point to lead his practice group
• Like everyone else, the COVID lockdown prevented him from in-person networking with his new target prospects and clients
• His network was amazing and he was great at keeping in touch; but doing so while in Europe for two years will be a challenge

One of our sales coach consultants began to work with Steffan. Here is the sales strategy:

• Organize his contacts and select those individuals to focus on for the next twelve to twenty-four months. These were individuals who could help his reach his goal of $3+ million, and those whose relationships he could leverage for introductions to others. Overall it was important for him to stay in touch with his existing U.S. and global clients while developing other contacts.
• Take credit where credit is deserved. Have open discussions with other global partners he will have the opportunity to introduce new contacts to when mandates come in. Having discussions about how to divvy up origination credit before work is received is important.
• Get off committees that are not furthering his career at the firm. If committee work does not translate to recognized billable time and path to continued success as an equity partner, think twice about the time it takes away from more productive hours that could be spent building a book of business and billing client work. The exception is committees that are of interest for potential future leaders: EC, or Comp specifically.
• Prepare a sales forecast to stay focused on top pursuits. During busy times, it’s easy to forget about, or move to the side, business development priorities. But those opportunities ready to provide new revenue may only need a few more discussions to kick them over the goal post.

Our coach initially worked with Stefan on a sales strategy to leverage his existing relationships and contacts for introductions to their contacts in Europe. At first, he was a bit apprehensive and pushed back a bit. With some encouragement, he gave it a go and was delighted and surprised at how well this strategy worked. His exact words, “I’m so over being apprehensive about this approach. I’ve met some great contacts!”

By staying focused on leveraging existing contacts for introductions to others, Steffan continues to build new and strong relationships in his new jurisdiction. Like all sales strategies, staying connected to existing contacts is key.

By Silvia L. Coulter

Renita, a non-equity partner in a global firm, was working with us to up her business development game. When we began working with her, we were told the following:

• She is working 80% and is taking care of her an elderly parent and two high schoolers
• Her practice leader is not very flexible when it comes to making equity partners in the group. Partners are required to hit $X million in revenue prior to him recommending them for equity partner (no exceptions)
• She is a diverse female partner
• She has a solid $1 million dollar book of business
• Her goal was to increase her book, and to also make equity partner
• COVID lockdown prevented her from in-person networking with her target prospects and clients
• Her network was amazing and she was great at keeping in touch

We teamed up with Renita and got to work.

One of our sales coach consultants began to work with Renita to help her:

• Organize her contacts and select 50 individuals to focus on for the next twelve months. These were individuals who could help her reach her goal of $2 million
• Take credit where credit is deserved. Have open discussions with other partners she is bringing in to meet with contacts for new business opportunities. She would receive at least 50% or more of the credit for any new business brought in through her efforts, regardless of who works on the matters
• Check in with her practice leader regularly. Restate the goal of expecting to become an equity partner, and ask for feedback about progress in that direction—one needs to know where one is at in this process all year long
• Get off committees that are not furthering her career at the firm. If committee work does not translate to recognized billable time and path to equity partnership, think twice about the time it takes away from more productive hours that could be spent building a book of business and billing client work
• Prepare a sales forecast to stay focused on top pursuits. During busy times, it’s easy to forget about, or move to the side, business development priorities. But those opportunities ready to provide new revenue may only need a few more discussions to kick them over the goal post.

Our coach worked with Renita to show her that her confidence as a lawyer needs to show through during the sales process. Clients want to work with confident and talented lawyers who they like. We pushed her a bit out of her “comfort zone” to connect with her contacts and to stay focused on how she could help them with their business goals. This is a stronger approach to take versus “pitching” one’s services.

By staying focused on those specific steps it will take to close new business, dealing with the political side of the practice so there are no surprises internally, and bridging firm services to client goals Renita has taken her career to a whole new level and is heading into a blockbuster 2022.

Happy New Year! By now, you’ve considered resolutions. You may have been brave enough to write them down. You may even have broken a few already. Whatever personal goals you might have in the new year, this article will help you enhance your professional development as a business advisor by focusing on Pricing tactics.

Why Pricing? First, it is the final step in the sales process. Second, for all the hard work Business Development professionals invest in the sales funnel, no engagement letter is signed without an agreement on the price. Third, Pricing has been a hot topic, but the focus has been on determining price tags (i.e., Finance Dept.) rather than on winning the price (i.e., Business Development). So, how can Business Development professionals play a role when it comes to Pricing? Below are ten tips that will help you be a better advisor to your attorneys.

10. Discount Wisely.
You have heard this before, but it bears repeating: first, never discount; second, if you do, do not let your attorney fall into increments of five (e.g., 5%, 10%). The higher the discount, the lower the profit. You can help minimize the discount by helping focus the discussion on all the integers: for example, 3% is better than 5%, 7% is better than 10%. Also, the more granular the discount (e.g., 6.71%), the more buyers perceive thoughtfulness and honesty, greatly reducing a buyer’s desire to challenge the price.

9. Make a Trade.
Even the wisest of discounts is still a financial loss. The better tactic is to offer a discount only with a trade: if a buyer wants to get something (aka a discount), then you must get something in return. For the trade to be successful, an attorney must be forearmed with options. You can help assemble a menu of options to share with your attorney, such as a (higher) retainer, an automatic rate increase, or a shorter payment cycle. This is a great place to think outside the box.

8. Build Fences.
Law firms get into (financial) trouble when they do not properly communicate the amount of service for the proposed price. Before an engagement letter is even drafted, you should ensure your attorney has an accurate understanding of the requested/needed services (aka scope) which will ensure an accurate price. This business conversation should include staffing, availability, resources, timing, outcomes. It helps to keep in mind the adage: measure twice, cut once.

7. Offer Options.
Put simply: buyers need options. Studies show buyers have an aversion to a single option. That is one reason GCs consider several firms. When advising attorneys on pitches and proposals, you should help attorneys understand the need for your firm to offer at least two options; three is ideal (see next tip). For example, a firm can offer full rates and discount rates, or hourly rates and an AFA. As a bonus: if you do provide options, buyers are less likely to need a competitor’s offer.

6. Offer More Options.
The best tactic for options is the familiar framework, Good-Better-Best. It’s all around us: S-M-L meals, GM’s Chevy-Buick-Cadillac, ring’s Basic-Plus-Pro. You should work with your attorneys to understand the firm’s services and work toward developing three buckets of offerings. As a bonus: if your firm can create three versions of its services, it will minimize—if not solve—the issues in Tips 7-10.

5. Prepare to Negotiate.
Does your law firm put equal resources into holding its price as it does into determining its price? Sadly, no. Therefore, it falls to the Business Development professionals to prepare attorneys to negotiate the price. For starters, negotiation is both science and art. Scientifically, you must collaborate with the Finance team to understand how the firm sets its billable rates and creates any non-hourly fee arrangements. Artistically, you should work with attorneys on the basic strategy and tactics of negotiations. These internal efforts will prepare you for price negotiations (see next tip).

4. Negotiate Wisely.
Price negotiation in a nutshell: sellers want to sell at the highest price; buyers want to buy at the lowest price. In your preparation (#5), you have learned how low your firm can go*. The secret to success is knowing how high your buyer will go; this is known as Willingness-to-Pay (WTP). WTP helps you maximize your sale price—if you make the time to understand your buyer and her/his motivation—by challenging what the buyer wants to pay. (* Partners often reduce price to win work; knowing the "floor" helps preserve profitability.)

3. Avoid Being a Commodity.
The most dangerous label to have in a price negotiation is “commodity.” You lose all price control, and the buyer dictates your price. This happens when firms fail to connect their Pricing to their Business Development to their Marketing. You can help correct this many ways: some firms appear visually distinct; some firms emphasize individual talent; some firms highlight high-caliber client list; some firms tout public recognitions. As a bonus: firms that can rise above “commodity” enjoy less collections issues.

2. Be Different.
The best way to avoid negotiations (#4) or being a commodity (#3) is to be different. If water can be differentiated, your law firm can be. In fact, every day, your clients believe you are different: they choose to send work to your firm, not to your competitors. So, you should ask your clients why your firm is different. Then, discuss internally if you can add a difference, such as a new technology or new resource (e.g., LPM team). Once you understand your differences, work with your Marketing colleagues to create strong, differentiated messages across all marcom channels: it will help you improve your Pricing.

1. Articulate Your Value.
The single, most important tip to embrace in the new year: focus on value. Specifically, you need to focus on three areas: the attorney’s value, the firm’s value, and the buyer’s values. The internal values will help you create Value Propositions; the buyer’s values will help you understand motivation. When you can match Value Propositions with motivation, the price always goes up.

By now, you understand there is much more to Pricing than numbers (i.e., determining price tags). Business Development professionals play a vital role in the success of a law firm’s Pricing (and Profitability) efforts. By embracing these Ten Pricing Tips, you can help your attorneys originate more profitable clients. Good luck with your professional (and personal) development in the new year!

 

Patrick Johansen CPP is the Business Development Director at Lerner David IP, New Jersey’s largest intellectual property law firm. He can be reached at pjohansen@lernerdavid.com.

I’m not sure I know how to set up our sponsor exhibit booth anymore.  And don’t get me started about diminished skills at carrying on a fluid “small talk” conversation.  It’s so bad that yesterday, as I rehearsed my 30-second “elevator pitch” and stumbled over phrases that previously rolled off my tongue with hard-earned muscle memory, I timed myself at 56 seconds – umm, Houston, we definitely have a problem. 

Heck, I’m so starved to get back to normalcy that I got a little tendinitis just from dragging my carryon luggage from my car up the driveway and into my parents’ house in Florida, where I just spent Thanksgiving. I’ve got all the signs and symptoms of a business developer who is woefully out-of-practice at personal engagement.  Zoom and GoToMeeting and the virtual conference platforms were cute for quick minute, but have you ever stuck around at the end of a virtual program?  You can practically hear every attendee click their mouses at the same time to “Leave the meeting.”  Engagement at any meaningful personal level was not happening.

And I’ll admit it, I kind of gave up on it. I’m the guy who will sooner show off the best professional headshot I’ve ever taken in my life than turn on my live webcam.  I just don’t like the virtual meeting environment.  There is a certain energy that happens in a live room where people are talking to one another, and that energy just doesn’t exist (at least not in the same way) in a virtual meeting.  In interpersonal communications, that energy is more commonly referred to as “communications signals” – and without them, I’ve been like a fish out of water.

But even as the Delta (and now Omicron variants of COVID) are rearing their ugly heads and threatening another winter surge, something remarkable has happened to snap me out of my doldrums.  The world has started to slowly open back up.  Not every corner, but a lot of them. Professional trade groups, industry groups, product and service expos – all the places guys like me congregate and scoop up new business leads – are starting to show signs of life again.

Emboldened by this turn of fate, I decided maybe I could shake off even more rust and actually land speaker slot or a seat on a panel at one of my usual conference stops that just announced it was coming back…LIVE!  And wonder of wonders, I got picked.

And panic set in. I’m about as far removed from polished at any of the business development skills I would need to exercise to pull this off.  After a few deep breaths, I reassured my subconscious that I’ve got this.  Yes, I’ve been a little rusty, but funny thing about time…you can use it to practice and rehearse and get better.  And the speaking gig itself?  Come on!  I was a teacher for 7 years and I’ve got an undergraduate degree in musical theatre performance.  I may not be signing at this conference, but as an actor/performer, the showmanship needed to dazzle an audience at a trade conference is in my blood.  And this conference will be the perfect opportunity for me to re-brand yourself as a subject matter expert, engage with some industry cohorts, and draw some attention to me and my firm, highlighting both as go-to resources for the topic of my program.

Of course, none of that will matter if I don’t have  a plan to capitalize on this opportunity.  The Pre-COVID days of my firm barely batting an eyelash at conference and tradeshow expenses are long gone.  These days, there’s not only an expectation that I’m going to derive some credible, measurable ROI from this event, but I’m going to execute this event with a plan to do exactly that. In the old days, maybe the exposure for branding and profile awareness was enough, but in this economy, every penny spent needs to derive value -- and in today's results-driven environment, every dollar spent on that trade association conference is going to be measured against every dollar generated by new business cultivated from that conference. So, unless I plan to take some additional steps aimed at squeezing every ounce of return on my investment of time and my firm's financial investment in sending me (and probably sponsoring or advertising in the program), then I might as well not even bother speaking at all.

Over the course of my 25+ year career, I’ve picked up a few tricks and tactics that I regularly rely on to help lay the groundwork for business development in advance of a speaking engagement – whether it’s at a big tradeshow or conference, or a seminar for the local Bar Association’s CLE Committee. And now, I’m sharing them with you.

NOTE: It’s important to understand and stay cognizant of the fact that we are still VERY  MUCH in the throes of a pandemic.  Some experts may think we’re nearing the endemic stage, but at the sluggish pace we’re getting our herds immunized with vaccines, getting TOTALLY back to normal is nowhere near the horizon.  For that reason, I urge you to consider these large public gatherings carefully. If you know the crowds, the usual suspects at each one, make a value determination and do what’s best for your health and your family’s health.  No amount of business development success is worth potentially losing your life over. End. Of. Story.

*shooting star* “The More You Know!”

OK, enough of the “Very Special Blossom” PSA about COVID and back to the tactics and strategies I use to help set myself up for stronger lead generation and more qualified leads via my speaking engagements.

1. Get the Attendee List In Advance

If you're speaking, you may be able to request this from your conference contact. If you're also a sponsor, this should be a given benefit in your sponsorship contract, and if it's not, tell your marketing and BD team to renegotiate the sponsorship. I have haggled with sponsorship managers at trade associations to barter less significant "sponsor benefits" like swag in the conference bag or an advertisement in the program to get the attendee list in advance. In fact, I believe you can do without just about any other "sponsor benefit" if you can trade them all away to get the list.

Why is this list so important? Besides being a goldmine of potential leads, it's also the first step of qualifying new business opportunities. You know everyone on that list is planning to be at the conference, so they should be on your radar as target clients for this conference.

Great, so that means I should send a mass email to the list alerting them about my program at the conference? Yes and No. Certainly a blind message wouldn't hurt, but you really need to spend a few minutes segmenting the attendee list first and further qualify this list of leads:

Take out anyone who's a competitor. No sense giving them any potential competitive advantage by telling them you're speaking.

Segregate any non-competitor "service providers" on the list. I wouldn't necessarily blast to them either, but I would spend a little time investigating who they are. Some of them could be valuable referral sources.

From the remaining list, identify those contacts who are the most likely to be decision makers. These are the people you MOST want in the room for your presentation. It's not that everyone else is negligible, but you should be aware of the demographics of the conference and who your real target clients are.  Time is money, and you don’t want to waste it pitching to the Office Assistant, rather than the Manager of Director.

Your message to the list needs to be compelling. Give them a reason to come to your presentation. A REAL reason. Be creative, but don't oversell.

Which message would you be more likely to respond to?

EXAMPLE A: Hi Jim - just wanted to reach out and let you know that I'm presenting next Tuesday at the Conference. My topic will be "X, Y, and Z." I really think you'd get something out of it and hope to see you there!

...or...

EXAMPLE B: Hi Jim - What would you say if I told you I have found a way for your company to save as much as $100,000 per year in compliance costs. I'll explain how and I'll share some other secrets to avoiding enforcement actions when I present "X, Y, and Z" at the Conference next Tuesday. If you're free, perhaps we can do a deeper diver over coffee, lunch, or dinner after the presentation. Here's my contact information...

 

The first example offers nothing of compelling value, but the second example not only grabs my attention (who wouldn't want to save $100K per year), but it also describes some other learning outcomes -- what is your audience getting out of the presentation. Don't give away the farm, but a few details to whet the appetite can be a difference maker.

The point, after all, is to help encourage attendees to come to your presentation so that you have an opportunity to brand yourself and your firm as subject matter experts worthy of their consideration.

The second example also opens the door to follow-up, and demonstrates to your target audience that you're interested in helping them and you're willing to put in the time to get to know them and their business. This is how relationships that turn into lucrative business are born.

2. Craft Your Materials Smartly and Carefully

If there is one part of speaking engagement marketing that I've seen repeatedly abused or wasted, it's in the presentation materials. The professionals I've worked with either put too much into the materials, or not enough. Worse yet, some don't even care about leveraging the branding opportunity by effectively utilizing their firm's own presentation templates.

How much content is enough? I once worked with an attorney who was presenting for 45 minutes and insisted on a presentation with 130 slides. That allows for roughly 20 seconds for every slide -- and you know every slide was packed from header to footer with legalese, citations, and paragraphs of excerpts from the statute. And of course, he didn't get through it all.

I've always coached that a comfortable presentation pace is about 1-2 minutes per slide. This keeps the slides changing frequently enough that people don't glaze over, and it will help you streamline how much content you're prepared to share.

But pace isn't the only tip to consider when building your materials...

First of all, attorneys need to STOP quoting the statute verbatim (this is a problem ALL attorneys have who give presentations). Unless the audience is full of ABA members, it's not only unnecessary, it may actually damage the clarity of your message.

Instead, give the audience the name and maybe the statute number, and if you must include an excerpt, only include specific phrases. The audience can look up the substance of the statute on their own, and if they can't, they'll pick up the phone and call you for help. But they'll have no reason to do either if you put the entire statute on a slide in your presentation.

Second, limit your slide content to concepts and ideas. The substance should come from what you say about these concepts and ideas during the presentation. As the late, great composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim (may he rest in peace) once wrote, "let it come from you, then it will be true." You don't need to say everything on the slide, and if you do, people are going to be compelled to read it while you're speaking.  Why is that a problem, you ask? Because your audience should be paying attention to you when you're speaking, not reading along. Give yourself a chance to shine as a subject matter expert and hold a little back. Yes, there are times when an issue is important enough that you'll want to get specific in your materials, but the vast majority of the time, less is more.

Lastly - and this one is important, because it lays the foundation for my last tip about maximizing business development leads - if you're going to build a handout based on your presentation, you don't need to include the kitchen sink. Save it for your follow-up.

As an example, I used to work with a Construction Litigator in Chicago who is famous for his 50-State Survey of the Occurrence Issue, which is a substantive area of insurance law related to whether a construction defect effectively constitutes an "occurrence" under the commercial general liability (CGL) policies that typically govern construction projects. In his handout materials, he would include his presentation, his bio, some marketing materials about the practice, and a full copy of his 50-state survey - all told, it's at least an inch thick spiral bound booklet. Do you have room for something that bulky in your carryon? Yeah, me neither.

One year, I asked him how often he hears from people who saw his presentation, and he admitted only a handful of people who had questions had reached out that year. So, I suggested a radical idea that required some serious back-and-forth before he would agree

“DO NOT include the 50-state survey in the materials,” I told him.  Reference it in the presentation and talk about how awesome the survey is, but don't give it away. Instead, I encouraged him to offer to send the survey to anyone who was interested - free of charge. Sure enough, he brought back about 20 business cards the next time he did the presentation, and we used the delivery of the survey as the perfect business development follow-up to a prospect who essentially self-selected as a qualified lead. By the way, this litigator never argued with me again.

And After the Presentation Is Over...

Tell me if this sounds like you: You just finished your big presentation at the conference. Without missing a beat, you drop the slide remote from one hand while grabbing your shoulder bag with the other. You immediately head for the door because your stuff is waiting at the front desk and you booked that flight that's only an hour and a half after the end of your presentation. No time for long goodbyes. Or any, really.

The problem with that scenario - and yes, it does happen - is that it completely ignores a valuable opportunity to network with your attendees after the presentation.

I've presented at large conferences about a dozen or so times, and every single time, at least 2-3 people came up to me afterward to either express their gratitude for the presentation and the materials, or to ask follow-up questions.

These are people who are seeking you out and you've completely ignored them. I don't care if you were the second coming of Ronald Reagan at the podium that day, if you don't make time for folks after the presentation, you're sending the signal that their individual reactions, feedback, and questions are meaningless to you.

But let's assume, instead, you made the time to mingle and network. In fact, you referenced a white paper related to your topic, which you wrote and have offered to send to anyone who brings you a business card. Instead of 2-3 people, you're surrounded by a throng of 10-15 or 20. You collect the business cards, greet your fans, answer a few questions and head out. Back at the office, you've got your 20 business cards. What do you do next?

[ side note: I feel like Sam McKenna right now…asking these rhetorical questions about business development strategy ]

If you said "send them the white paper," you're only half right. The white paper was the excuse you needed to collect the cards. The real purpose for the outreach is to keep the conversation going and start developing the kind of business relationship that’s built on mutual trust and respect for subject matter expertise, and more importantly, that eventually leads to new business.

So what goes into this follow-up communication? You can open with a cordial hello, thank them for coming to your presentation, talk about the white paper, reinforce why the white paper is useful, and maybe mention your next speaking engagement or include a link to your latest blog post on a similar or related topic. All of that is good marketing, and you probably already knew that. But here are a few suggestions, and one caution, that you may not have considered:

Keep the conversation going by asking open ended questions in your communication. Try to learn more about the attendee, and their role in addressing the issue in question. These tidbits of information may come in a trickle, but they are all important points to know in order to begin building a relationship.

If there was anything about your original interaction with the attendee that stands out - whether it was something they said, did, wore, etc., try to make reference to it in a meaningful way. This is another piece of the relationship building, because it helps demonstrate that you have a genuine interest in them.

Never - and I mean NEVER - close by saying "if you have any questions, let me know." Instead, offer to schedule a follow-up phone call or meeting to specifically answer any questions they may have. They may not have any questions, but between the time you book the meeting and the meeting itself, you may have developed some additional content worth sharing, or there may be a breaking development in case law. Again, you're trying to keep the conversation going. If you leave it to them to reach out if they have any questions, more often than not, they're never going to reach out to you.

There are times when a speaking engagement leads immediately to work, and that's money in the bank. I worked with an attorney in South Bend, Indiana - another Construction Litigator - who did a program for development projects. It was a soup-to-nuts half-day that included some content around labor & employment law, some construction litigation, and a financing piece. We were careful to fill the room with a good mix of existing clients and high-value new business targets. By the end of the afternoon, we signed up four new engagements, including two brand new clients.  Sometimes, lightning will strike.  And sometimes, you just get thunder.

Don't kid yourself, though. In this instance, signing up four new matters was probably the result of more fluke than strategy. But with diligence, grit, and some technical know-how, anyone can turn a simple speaking engagement at your favorite trade association conference into an effective and (hopefully) lucrative pipeline for generating qualified business development leads.

  Jim Jarrell is the Director of Marketing & Business Development for the law firm of McCarthy Lebit Crystal & Liffman Co., LPA in Cleveland, OH and has enjoyed a career spanning more than two decades helping professional services firms, nearly half of it spent leading the strategic marketing and business development programs for several law firms. In all his work, Jim focuses on achieving goals and never assumes that “the way we’ve always done it” is necessarily the best way. Stints in leadership roles with two AmLaw 100 firms and managerial experience with a handful of smaller regional firms and boutiques have helped shape Jim’s national reputation as a leader in the field. As a LSSO-Certified Business Development Coach, Jim has developed the kind of tenacity and gravitas required to effectively steer attorneys at all levels and tenures in their careers, from junior associates to the senior-most rainmakers. In addition to his coaching skillset, Jim has developed and conducted formal training programs on a variety of other marketing, communications, and business development topics - many that have been accepted and approved for continuing legal education (CLE) credits – with topics that range from business development planning to cross-selling strategies, personal branding, social media best practices, and delivering the perfect elevator pitch. linkedin.com/in/jamesjarrell

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