Finding Where The Work Is

Each calendar year, attorneys with private law firms are charged with the unique challenge of creating and realizing a target number of billable hours. In a quieter moment, perhaps late at night, we ask ourselves: “Where will this work come from?”

The more fortunate ones may have a more-or-less guaranteed stream of steady work from an established client, but that seems to be the exception rather than the rule. Others may benefit from a relationship with a high-profile partner who brings in work for a team or group, and this helps fill out some of an annual expectation. Finally, to some extent work may simply fall into our laps through no discernable effort of our own.

Although these are important sources of work, it is the rare attorney who can count on these sources of work alone to fill out an annual expectation. This means that we have to go find work. Searching for, qualifying, and closing new or additional business is as important to building a successful practice as your numbers this year for annual hours worked, billed and realized. So, how do we do that?

First, we have to set a standard for what type of client we want. This means that we have to invest time in qualifying. For these purposes, our definition of “qualify” is that a potential client must meet specific criteria.

Since we cannot bill anyone for the time we invest in qualifying a potential client or a current client with whom we may be able to uncover more work (let's call them all “prospects”), we have to be selective about how much time we spend, and with what people.

Some readers may recognize the “Let's have lunch” invitation as an opportunity for a prospect to have us buy them lunch, in return for which they listen to us pitch our services while they wrangle a free hour of legal advice. Whether that lunch is a waste of time or a worthwhile business opportunity depends upon what you do with the time you spend with that prospect.

In order to qualify a prospect, we have to get them talking. This means that we must adopt and employ an underdeveloped skill for many of us. John calls this skill “Asking Open Ended Questions.” In saying this skill is “underdeveloped,” we mean that as lawyers, we have been trained never to ask a question to which we do not know the answer. This is fine for cross-examination, but prospects do not want to feel as though they are being deposed – they want to feel that you understand what they want and will be effective in helping them get it! The amazing thing is that people begin to feel this way about us when we allow THEM to speak ' without interruption.

In John's book “Move The Sale Forward,” he makes the following observation of human nature: “The more I listen to what others say, the more fascinating they find me.” By asking open-ended questions, we facilitate a dialogue that most people do not have with their attorneys. By virtue of this experience alone, we set ourselves apart from everyone else the prospect may be considering hiring.

Open-ended questions are those questions designed to elicit something other than a “Yes” or “No” answer, and they are created via the following guidelines:

Begin your question with:

• Who;
• What;
• When;
• Where;
• Why;
• How; or
• Which.

Examples of open-ended questions to ask prospects:

• “What is your company hoping to accomplish this year?”
• “What role will you play in that effort?”
• “How do you see a firm like ours helping you?”

As you develop your skill in asking open-ended questions, you will find an additional benefit: Not only can you use it with prospects with whom you already have some relationship, but you can use it to jump-start that relationship in the first place. Due to ethical restrictions on making cold calls (and the natural human reluctance to make them), we have to walk a fine line of what we can do to gain a face-to-face meeting. Referrals are a great entree, but they do not guarantee a qualified discussion. This is where open-ended questions can be particularly useful.

It is vitally important when you ask an open-ended question that you allow your prospect to answer each question in as much detail as he or she can. Lunch is a great environment for discussions like these because the less you speak, the more they will. It follows that when they do most of the talking, you will learn more about what work you can uncover, how comfortable you will be working with them (and vice versa), and what the true scope of the work at hand might be. You may begin a conversation about one business issue on the prospect's mind and, through allowing your prospect to talk through his or her view of the issue, you may uncover other issues together. You may also discover together that what they thought might be a complex issue may turn out to be much simpler than they had anticipated.

Any or all of these are good news. Why? Because people want to feel as though speaking with you is a good investment of time, and the only way they will have that experience is if you do more listening than talking.

Understand that we are not talking about simply chatting people up. Finding where the work is requires more than chatting up your current clients to see if there is more work you can do for them. It is about defining in advance:

• What work you prefer to bring to the firm;
• How much revenue/billing that type of work generates;
• How often you can create referral opportunities to cross-sell within the firm; and
• How you can reach your billable hour targets.

These may sound like overly optimistic goals, but procuring new or additional business is a skill. This means it can be learned, and based on John's experience, this is a skill that all of us can learn.

In future articles, we will discuss various issues relating to finding, qualifying, and winning the assignments that will make your desk, your practice, and your business more profitable.

How does that sound?

Each calendar year, attorneys with private law firms are charged with the unique challenge of creating and realizing a target number of billable hours. In a quieter moment, perhaps late at night, we ask ourselves: “Where will this work come from?”

The more fortunate ones may have a more-or-less guaranteed stream of steady work from an established client, but that seems to be the exception rather than the rule. Others may benefit from a relationship with a high-profile partner who brings in work for a team or group, and this helps fill out some of an annual expectation. Finally, to some extent work may simply fall into our laps through no discernable effort of our own.

Although these are important sources of work, it is the rare attorney who can count on these sources of work alone to fill out an annual expectation. This means that we have to go find work. Searching for, qualifying, and closing new or additional business is as important to building a successful practice as your numbers this year for annual hours worked, billed and realized. So, how do we do that?

First, we have to set a standard for what type of client we want. This means that we have to invest time in qualifying. For these purposes, our definition of “qualify” is that a potential client must meet specific criteria.

Since we cannot bill anyone for the time we invest in qualifying a potential client or a current client with whom we may be able to uncover more work (let's call them all “prospects”), we have to be selective about how much time we spend, and with what people.

Some readers may recognize the “Let's have lunch” invitation as an opportunity for a prospect to have us buy them lunch, in return for which they listen to us pitch our services while they wrangle a free hour of legal advice. Whether that lunch is a waste of time or a worthwhile business opportunity depends upon what you do with the time you spend with that prospect.

In order to qualify a prospect, we have to get them talking. This means that we must adopt and employ an underdeveloped skill for many of us. John calls this skill “Asking Open Ended Questions.” In saying this skill is “underdeveloped,” we mean that as lawyers, we have been trained never to ask a question to which we do not know the answer. This is fine for cross-examination, but prospects do not want to feel as though they are being deposed – they want to feel that you understand what they want and will be effective in helping them get it! The amazing thing is that people begin to feel this way about us when we allow THEM to speak ' without interruption.

In John's book “Move The Sale Forward,” he makes the following observation of human nature: “The more I listen to what others say, the more fascinating they find me.” By asking open-ended questions, we facilitate a dialogue that most people do not have with their attorneys. By virtue of this experience alone, we set ourselves apart from everyone else the prospect may be considering hiring.

Open-ended questions are those questions designed to elicit something other than a “Yes” or “No” answer, and they are created via the following guidelines:

Begin your question with:

• Who;
• What;
• When;
• Where;
• Why;
• How; or
• Which.

Examples of open-ended questions to ask prospects:

• “What is your company hoping to accomplish this year?”
• “What role will you play in that effort?”
• “How do you see a firm like ours helping you?”

As you develop your skill in asking open-ended questions, you will find an additional benefit: Not only can you use it with prospects with whom you already have some relationship, but you can use it to jump-start that relationship in the first place. Due to ethical restrictions on making cold calls (and the natural human reluctance to make them), we have to walk a fine line of what we can do to gain a face-to-face meeting. Referrals are a great entree, but they do not guarantee a qualified discussion. This is where open-ended questions can be particularly useful.

It is vitally important when you ask an open-ended question that you allow your prospect to answer each question in as much detail as he or she can. Lunch is a great environment for discussions like these because the less you speak, the more they will. It follows that when they do most of the talking, you will learn more about what work you can uncover, how comfortable you will be working with them (and vice versa), and what the true scope of the work at hand might be. You may begin a conversation about one business issue on the prospect's mind and, through allowing your prospect to talk through his or her view of the issue, you may uncover other issues together. You may also discover together that what they thought might be a complex issue may turn out to be much simpler than they had anticipated.

Any or all of these are good news. Why? Because people want to feel as though speaking with you is a good investment of time, and the only way they will have that experience is if you do more listening than talking.

Understand that we are not talking about simply chatting people up. Finding where the work is requires more than chatting up your current clients to see if there is more work you can do for them. It is about defining in advance:

• What work you prefer to bring to the firm;
• How much revenue/billing that type of work generates;
• How often you can create referral opportunities to cross-sell within the firm; and
• How you can reach your billable hour targets.

These may sound like overly optimistic goals, but procuring new or additional business is a skill. This means it can be learned, and based on John's experience, this is a skill that all of us can learn.

In future articles, we will discuss various issues relating to finding, qualifying, and winning the assignments that will make your desk, your practice, and your business more profitable.

How does that sound?