<b>Sales and Service Strategies</b> Establishing a Key Client Sales Initiative

(Editor's Note: We at MLF are pleased to announce this new bi-monthly column featuring knowledge and information about sales and service excellence tips and tools, and thank LSSO for contributing authors and content.)

Key client sales initiatives can be as successful or as cumbersome as a firm wants to make them. Follow these simple guidelines for establishing the firm's major client initiative for success:

• Identify the clients and prospects;
• Identify the teams and include senior partners, junior partners, associates and support staff ' anyone who interacts with the clients;
• Meet with all teams;
• Educate teams about sales and client service;
• Assign revenue goals;
• Establish monthly and quarterly meetings;
• Adjust compensation credit to benefit all team members;
• Track the key clients' activities and those of their industry;
• Schedule client meeting(s); and
• Keep the process moving.

Internally

1. Identify the clients and prospects.

The clients the firm chooses for its major account focus may not always be the top clients of the firm (although it is wise to include the top clients in addition to the other clients on the eventual list). Review all the clients of the firm for consideration. For example, if a significant corporation is one of the firm's clients, even if the total billed to that company was small, it is still a client; the firm has a 'foot in the door' and the opportunity is worth pursuing. Surely any amount of work the firm has completed for a Fortune 100 company puts the company on the list for possible expansion as a client. The critical fact to remember as a firm progresses into a sales culture is that sales, like practicing law, is a serious business ' one that requires careful analysis, constant focus and results goals. Firms must understand this is like representing clients; the difference being, firm members are advocates for the firm.

2. Identify the teams.

For existing clients, determining who should be on each client team is critical. First, select firm members who are team players. A partner who has contacts with the client or the prospect is good to have on the team, but is not the most critical person. A note of caution: Partners who have contact with clients are not always in touch with the business goals of the company. In many cases, their contact is limited to a one, or very few, people in the law department. It is rare for a partner to have continuous communication with the CEO, CFO, CLO or COO of a client company. Select a more junior partner or senior associate to drive the process each month; to follow up with individuals on their goals and to schedule meetings.

Other team members should include a range of people from the firm, including junior partners and senior associates. It is critical to build a team of people who will allow the firm to build in succession planning to continue long-term client relationships. It is often a mistake to include only partners on the team ' and the clients will think so as well.

Note that when identifying the teams, it is also wise to meet with the CFO and senior-management team (managing and marketing partners) to discuss the financials and develop goals for each team leader and team. These goals might include expectations about revenue (called 'quotas' in corporations), training, compensation, meeting and reporting frequency. Expect teams to visit clients at least once per quarter, unless the clients suggest otherwise. These visits will insure the dialog is ongoing.

3. Meet with all teams.

Schedule a first meeting with all teams to discuss the firm's objectives for the major account initiative, to set expectations and to answer questions team members may have about the initiative and their goals.

4. Provide sales training education for all team members.

The client and prospect team members must learn new skills ' sales skills. To insure teams are able to effectively compete for business, it is wise to build sales education and ongoing coaching into each team members' annual plan. Three or four training programs will not be too many. Lawyers do not have the training that professional salespeople have. It will be important for them to learn as much as possible, and to be comfortable with the sales process. Knowledge in this area increases the odds of winning new business. A criterion for moving forward as a member of the team will be to attend at least two training sessions. Attending training requires an investment of time. Two to 3 days total is not too many; in fact, it's just a start to the education. Anyone who is not willing to invest this time in his or her training should not be part of the team ' they may ultimately hurt the firm's chances of success.

5. Assign revenue goals.

For existing clients, this process will be a bit easier since the firm has a track record and a billing history with the client. For prospects, the specific revenue goal will not be easy to determine until one or more meetings have taken place. Since most lawyers are goal- and deadline-driven, knowing what the goal is will make it easier to know what steps to take to achieve it. Corporations' major account teams always work toward goals that are established by the company at the beginning of each fiscal year. Every one at the company has a clear understanding of the revenue targets. A firm would be wise to follow their clients' lead on setting target revenue goals. These goals should be adjusted after the first few client meetings, once the opportunities have been assessed.

6. Establish monthly meeting agenda.

Ask all teams to plan out a calendar of regular team meetings, right up front. Using the firm's calendaring system, enter the dates into everyone's calendar. Teams should meet monthly to stay on target. As long as the majority of team members are available, the team should meet, take notes and update all team members in writing. Many accounting firms have borrowed from their corporate counterparts and have adapted major account-planning formats that will be conducive to team updates. Having everyone working from the same documents and task lists will be important to ensure accurate flow of information across communications channels (which, in many cases, will be across offices).

For effective management of teams (and therefore firm goals and revenue targets), meet quarterly with teams to learn which ones may need assistance with their strategy, team focus or team members. Showing management support for the initiative will accomplish two tasks: First, teams will be held accountable for their performance; and second, teams will understand what the firm expects and that it applauds the client focus and the team members' efforts.

7. Adjust the firm compensation to benefit all team members.

From the management side of the firm, adjustments may need to be made to the firm's overall compensation system to facilitate team and cross-firm selling. A team is a team, and one individual will not be carrying the weight for the team, nor should one individual obtain credit for the whole team. This important adjustment in compensation has already been made in many firms' compensation plans. Adjusting compensation to insure clients are firm clients and not individual clients will be not only show important support for the team members, but will begin the necessary shift of the firm's culture from individual participation in firm goals to team participation. Firms that have a one-firm mindset will surely survive over those firms that are made up of a group of individuals.

8. Track the target companies' activities through the firm's information resources (library) group to stay apprised of any recent developments with the company.

A good resource in general for tracking industries and large companies are publications such as Fortune, Forbes and Business Week. It will be important for team members to be up-to-date on their clients' media recognition, speeches and corporate activities. The clients will be impressed that the team members are tracking their company activities.

Externally

9. Schedule a meeting with the client (or prospect).

The objective of this initial meeting is not to tell the client what the firm can do for them, but rather to listen. At this stage of planning, gathering information is the most important part of the sales strategy. If the team loses out on an opportunity, it will be at this critical step of the process where the snag in the sales plan began. This meeting will be to take control of the process. The team is in charge of the questions, and the client or prospect members are in charge of the answers. This means that the team is listening 80% of the time. Try not to schedule any meetings with clients until team members have spent time in sales training, and time planning out the strategy for the initial meeting. The team must always be coordinated in its efforts.

When meeting with existing clients, inform them that they have become part of the firm's major client initiative. They will understand what this means and are often pleased to be considered an important firm client. From this point on, the sales process takes over, and team members should have a clear vision of what this meeting will achieve.

10. Keep the process moving.

Building new business, from either existing clients or prospects, takes time. Sometimes, it takes years. Constant focus and attention to building the team members' relationships with the clients is critical. At this stage of the strategy, consider ways in which to remain in contact in between engagements or when there is no current matter on which to work. Think of ways the team or firm may support the clients' business. For example, team members may often be a conduit to others with whom clients are trying to meet, or whom clients might wish to target as potential customers for their business. It's one step at a time ' just take it and move toward success.

(Editor's Note: We at MLF are pleased to announce this new bi-monthly column featuring knowledge and information about sales and service excellence tips and tools, and thank LSSO for contributing authors and content.)

Key client sales initiatives can be as successful or as cumbersome as a firm wants to make them. Follow these simple guidelines for establishing the firm's major client initiative for success:

• Identify the clients and prospects;
• Identify the teams and include senior partners, junior partners, associates and support staff ' anyone who interacts with the clients;
• Meet with all teams;
• Educate teams about sales and client service;
• Assign revenue goals;
• Establish monthly and quarterly meetings;
• Adjust compensation credit to benefit all team members;
• Track the key clients' activities and those of their industry;
• Schedule client meeting(s); and
• Keep the process moving.

Internally

1. Identify the clients and prospects.

The clients the firm chooses for its major account focus may not always be the top clients of the firm (although it is wise to include the top clients in addition to the other clients on the eventual list). Review all the clients of the firm for consideration. For example, if a significant corporation is one of the firm's clients, even if the total billed to that company was small, it is still a client; the firm has a 'foot in the door' and the opportunity is worth pursuing. Surely any amount of work the firm has completed for a Fortune 100 company puts the company on the list for possible expansion as a client. The critical fact to remember as a firm progresses into a sales culture is that sales, like practicing law, is a serious business ' one that requires careful analysis, constant focus and results goals. Firms must understand this is like representing clients; the difference being, firm members are advocates for the firm.

2. Identify the teams.

For existing clients, determining who should be on each client team is critical. First, select firm members who are team players. A partner who has contacts with the client or the prospect is good to have on the team, but is not the most critical person. A note of caution: Partners who have contact with clients are not always in touch with the business goals of the company. In many cases, their contact is limited to a one, or very few, people in the law department. It is rare for a partner to have continuous communication with the CEO, CFO, CLO or COO of a client company. Select a more junior partner or senior associate to drive the process each month; to follow up with individuals on their goals and to schedule meetings.

Other team members should include a range of people from the firm, including junior partners and senior associates. It is critical to build a team of people who will allow the firm to build in succession planning to continue long-term client relationships. It is often a mistake to include only partners on the team ' and the clients will think so as well.

Note that when identifying the teams, it is also wise to meet with the CFO and senior-management team (managing and marketing partners) to discuss the financials and develop goals for each team leader and team. These goals might include expectations about revenue (called 'quotas' in corporations), training, compensation, meeting and reporting frequency. Expect teams to visit clients at least once per quarter, unless the clients suggest otherwise. These visits will insure the dialog is ongoing.

3. Meet with all teams.

Schedule a first meeting with all teams to discuss the firm's objectives for the major account initiative, to set expectations and to answer questions team members may have about the initiative and their goals.

4. Provide sales training education for all team members.

The client and prospect team members must learn new skills ' sales skills. To insure teams are able to effectively compete for business, it is wise to build sales education and ongoing coaching into each team members' annual plan. Three or four training programs will not be too many. Lawyers do not have the training that professional salespeople have. It will be important for them to learn as much as possible, and to be comfortable with the sales process. Knowledge in this area increases the odds of winning new business. A criterion for moving forward as a member of the team will be to attend at least two training sessions. Attending training requires an investment of time. Two to 3 days total is not too many; in fact, it's just a start to the education. Anyone who is not willing to invest this time in his or her training should not be part of the team ' they may ultimately hurt the firm's chances of success.

5. Assign revenue goals.

For existing clients, this process will be a bit easier since the firm has a track record and a billing history with the client. For prospects, the specific revenue goal will not be easy to determine until one or more meetings have taken place. Since most lawyers are goal- and deadline-driven, knowing what the goal is will make it easier to know what steps to take to achieve it. Corporations' major account teams always work toward goals that are established by the company at the beginning of each fiscal year. Every one at the company has a clear understanding of the revenue targets. A firm would be wise to follow their clients' lead on setting target revenue goals. These goals should be adjusted after the first few client meetings, once the opportunities have been assessed.

6. Establish monthly meeting agenda.

Ask all teams to plan out a calendar of regular team meetings, right up front. Using the firm's calendaring system, enter the dates into everyone's calendar. Teams should meet monthly to stay on target. As long as the majority of team members are available, the team should meet, take notes and update all team members in writing. Many accounting firms have borrowed from their corporate counterparts and have adapted major account-planning formats that will be conducive to team updates. Having everyone working from the same documents and task lists will be important to ensure accurate flow of information across communications channels (which, in many cases, will be across offices).

For effective management of teams (and therefore firm goals and revenue targets), meet quarterly with teams to learn which ones may need assistance with their strategy, team focus or team members. Showing management support for the initiative will accomplish two tasks: First, teams will be held accountable for their performance; and second, teams will understand what the firm expects and that it applauds the client focus and the team members' efforts.

7. Adjust the firm compensation to benefit all team members.

From the management side of the firm, adjustments may need to be made to the firm's overall compensation system to facilitate team and cross-firm selling. A team is a team, and one individual will not be carrying the weight for the team, nor should one individual obtain credit for the whole team. This important adjustment in compensation has already been made in many firms' compensation plans. Adjusting compensation to insure clients are firm clients and not individual clients will be not only show important support for the team members, but will begin the necessary shift of the firm's culture from individual participation in firm goals to team participation. Firms that have a one-firm mindset will surely survive over those firms that are made up of a group of individuals.

8. Track the target companies' activities through the firm's information resources (library) group to stay apprised of any recent developments with the company.

A good resource in general for tracking industries and large companies are publications such as Fortune, Forbes and Business Week. It will be important for team members to be up-to-date on their clients' media recognition, speeches and corporate activities. The clients will be impressed that the team members are tracking their company activities.

Externally

9. Schedule a meeting with the client (or prospect).

The objective of this initial meeting is not to tell the client what the firm can do for them, but rather to listen. At this stage of planning, gathering information is the most important part of the sales strategy. If the team loses out on an opportunity, it will be at this critical step of the process where the snag in the sales plan began. This meeting will be to take control of the process. The team is in charge of the questions, and the client or prospect members are in charge of the answers. This means that the team is listening 80% of the time. Try not to schedule any meetings with clients until team members have spent time in sales training, and time planning out the strategy for the initial meeting. The team must always be coordinated in its efforts.

When meeting with existing clients, inform them that they have become part of the firm's major client initiative. They will understand what this means and are often pleased to be considered an important firm client. From this point on, the sales process takes over, and team members should have a clear vision of what this meeting will achieve.

10. Keep the process moving.

Building new business, from either existing clients or prospects, takes time. Sometimes, it takes years. Constant focus and attention to building the team members' relationships with the clients is critical. At this stage of the strategy, consider ways in which to remain in contact in between engagements or when there is no current matter on which to work. Think of ways the team or firm may support the clients' business. For example, team members may often be a conduit to others with whom clients are trying to meet, or whom clients might wish to target as potential customers for their business. It's one step at a time ' just take it and move toward success.