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Myth #4: CLIENTS WANT SELLERS TO DO MOST OF THE TALKING

By ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |
May 29, 2012

MYTH #4 – CLIENTS WANT SELLERS TO DO MOST OF THE TALKING.Keep your resume to yourself and let the potential client do the talking. Adopt the tried and true IBM 60/40 sales training rule – keep them talking 60 percent of the time. Spend the remaining 40percent of the time asking good questions based upon your research and talking strategy. Pay attention to your client/prospect's verbal cues and refine your pitch accordingly.In survey after survey of in-house counsel from American Lawyer Media Intelligence, Inside Counsel and BTI Consulting, the number one or two attribute for retaining outside counsel is “understands my business.” And this has been consistent through many years of polling. The best way to summarize this is with a current IBM advertisement, ” Stop sellling what you have; start selling what they need.

MYTH #4 – CLIENTS WANT SELLERS TO DO MOST OF THE TALKING.Keep your resume to yourself and let the potential client do the talking. Adopt the tried and true IBM 60/40 sales training rule – keep them talking 60 percent of the time. Spend the remaining 40percent of the time asking good questions based upon your research and talking strategy. Pay attention to your client/prospect's verbal cues and refine your pitch accordingly.In survey after survey of in-house counsel from American Lawyer Media Intelligence, Inside Counsel and BTI Consulting, the number one or two attribute for retaining outside counsel is “understands my business.” And this has been consistent through many years of polling. The best way to summarize this is with a current IBM advertisement, ” Stop sellling what you have; start selling what they need.

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