<b><i>Professional Development:</i></b> Trust: Addressing The Issue In Business Development Training

It's probably not lost on you that the reason that the Professional Development team wanted to meet with me was because they wanted to incorporate business development and marketing training into their development curriculum. It made perfect sense to me and I was delighted to collaborate. In those days, my training was somewhat ad hoc, informal, and was deployed on an individual, rather than group, basis. One of the things that I learned from my Professional Development colleagues was that I needed to create a formal curriculum. Since it didn't make sense to teach the same lessons to junior associates that were being shared with senior partners, the formal “curriculum” actually turned out to be formal “curricula.” So, my starting point was breaking down the generic “lawyer” group into separate and distinct groups that made sense from a messaging standpoint; junior associates, senior associates, new partners, senior partners, etc. Of course, some of the messages, like “business development is relationship development”, were common to all of the groups, but the level of detail might, of course, differ from junior associate to senior partner.

Once the logical categories were created, it was incumbent upon me to determine what messages and related tools we wanted the respective participants to walk away from the training sessions with. This was a little more challenging, but falling back on my business development training fundamental of “thinking like a client,” I put myself in their shoes and, as we say in the business, “looked at the world through their eyes.” Not being a lawyer myself made this task more difficult than one might imagine. To help develop perspective, I did what any good sales professional would do: I asked a lot of questions, interviewed junior associates, senior associates, new partners and senior partners to find out what was important to them.

Additionally, I discussed the messages at length with my Managing Partner and, of course, my Professional Development colleagues to ensure that the emphasis of my messages were aligned with the direction and governance of the firm more broadly. Finally, the curriculum was broken down into modules and a training schedule was created. Et voil', a formal business development and marketing curriculum was born and it looked something like this:

Training

For early- to mid-level associates, we focused on basic relationship development skills, networking building and management, and questioning and listening skills, but the most important thing we asked from the early- to mid-levels was to do great work. Moving on, we emphasized marketing and business development training (group sessions), marketing and business development coaching (individual sessions), and a systematic approach to contact management with mid- to senior-level associates. As one might suspect, the partners' (all levels) business development training and coaching curriculum was more comprehensive and included business development fundamentals, including; the stages of the sales cycle; recognizing different types of buyers; creating a business development and marketing plan; a systematic approach to managing contacts; effective targeting; turning pitch presentations into interactive discussions; asking good questions; listening skills; closing techniques; internal marketing; client feedback; strategic account management; and some leadership skills.

The process to create the program took about three months, deployment began immediately thereafter, and training followed until my departure. Many of the things that I share with my clients today were borne out of that exercise.

Developing Trust

Since those days, I have had the great fortune to work with hundreds of lawyers and, always the student, have learned much through my interaction with them. The high points include validation that the categories that were chosen as lawyer “breakout” groups and the messages related to the topics listed above that I shared with those groups were pretty much on-point across the board. However, a critical element that was not included in my program, nor was it included in the Professional Development team's curriculum was the issue of “trust.”

As many of you know, the development of client teams and, in some cases, the adoption of strategic account management principles is a primary focus at firms that are serious about relationship development and making their valued client, in the words of Malcolm Gladwell, “sticky.” Cross-selling activity requires a lot of trust to be effective; trust by the client for the lawyer/law firm and trust by the lawyer who has established the client relationship for their own partners. As consultants, we talk about the concept that people buy from people that they like and trust all the time. When we're sharing this fact about buying behavior, we're typically addressing the lawyers and are referring to their external relationship with clients and prospective clients. It's equally important to shine a light on the value of developing trust internally as well. If a partner does not trust another partner or group of partners (think “office” here), he or she is not going to introduce those lawyers to his or her client; it's as simple as that. It's important to note that the trust I'm referring to manifests itself in two forms; competence trust and interpersonal trust.

The former refers to the fact that a partner doesn't think that another partner or group of partners possesses the requisite technical skills to offer best-in-class counsel (and, therefore, value) to their respective client. A lack of interpersonal trust means that a partner is concerned that you are going to “steal” their client after the introduction is made. Addressing these two forms of trust as part of a Professional Development program is of utmost importance, if a firm desires to have a culture that is institutionally-minded, rather than individually-minded. There isn't a one-size-fits-all answer to how to establish, build, fix, etc. trust internally. However, most typically, it requires a lead-by-example leadership team, a savvy marketing department who is able to help with internal marketing, transparent and frequent communication, and individual lawyers who are more interested in delivering value to their clients than they are being ranked as one of the firm's top fee originators year after year.

This issue of trust is of critical importance to developing deep relationships internally and this internal trust will result in more cross-disciplinary conversations with clients externally.

Conclusion

If your Professional Development program does not include a component focused on the importance of trust and isn't engaged with firm leadership on how best to overcome the two most prevalent types of trust in a professional services firm ' focusing on between partners and building trust across practices and offices ' perhaps you've identified the reason that the level of collaboration, communication, and cooperation is low and why the firm's client team program isn't as successful as everyone would like it to be. To remove the primary reason why client teams and related cross-selling fail, focus on building trust throughout your organization. The Professional Development team can be invaluable in the quest to address this important issue.

Bruce Alltop, a member of this newsletter's Board of Editors, is a Senior Consultant at LawVision Group. He helps firms with client retention and growth as well as with new business development. He may be reached at 781-834-3825 or [email protected].

In my early days as a law firm Chief Marketing Officer, I was approached by our Professional Development team asking for a meeting to discuss my contribution to the lawyers', well, “professional development.” Previously, during my tenure as Director of Sales at Ernst & Young, I did not have the good fortune to interact with a Professional Development team, so I wasn't sure what to expect from this meeting. In hindsight, I certainly wish I had recognized the value and, as such, worked more closely with the Professional Development department as we changed the sales culture at that great firm.

Incidentally, I'm told that my colleagues who are still with E&Y have found their relationship with these professionals to be invaluable. So, back to the meeting request referenced above. I wasn't sure what to expect from this meeting. How was I going to help them with “professional development?” The answer now is certainly obvious, but, back then, I didn't equate business development training with lawyer “professional development.” I simply viewed it as business development training'my view couldn't have been more myopic. Thankfully though, the Professional Development team at my firm was amazing and, as a result, I learned a great deal from them.

Establishing Curricula

It's probably not lost on you that the reason that the Professional Development team wanted to meet with me was because they wanted to incorporate business development and marketing training into their development curriculum. It made perfect sense to me and I was delighted to collaborate. In those days, my training was somewhat ad hoc, informal, and was deployed on an individual, rather than group, basis. One of the things that I learned from my Professional Development colleagues was that I needed to create a formal curriculum. Since it didn't make sense to teach the same lessons to junior associates that were being shared with senior partners, the formal “curriculum” actually turned out to be formal “curricula.” So, my starting point was breaking down the generic “lawyer” group into separate and distinct groups that made sense from a messaging standpoint; junior associates, senior associates, new partners, senior partners, etc. Of course, some of the messages, like “business development is relationship development”, were common to all of the groups, but the level of detail might, of course, differ from junior associate to senior partner.

Once the logical categories were created, it was incumbent upon me to determine what messages and related tools we wanted the respective participants to walk away from the training sessions with. This was a little more challenging, but falling back on my business development training fundamental of “thinking like a client,” I put myself in their shoes and, as we say in the business, “looked at the world through their eyes.” Not being a lawyer myself made this task more difficult than one might imagine. To help develop perspective, I did what any good sales professional would do: I asked a lot of questions, interviewed junior associates, senior associates, new partners and senior partners to find out what was important to them.

Additionally, I discussed the messages at length with my Managing Partner and, of course, my Professional Development colleagues to ensure that the emphasis of my messages were aligned with the direction and governance of the firm more broadly. Finally, the curriculum was broken down into modules and a training schedule was created. Et voil', a formal business development and marketing curriculum was born and it looked something like this:

Training

For early- to mid-level associates, we focused on basic relationship development skills, networking building and management, and questioning and listening skills, but the most important thing we asked from the early- to mid-levels was to do great work. Moving on, we emphasized marketing and business development training (group sessions), marketing and business development coaching (individual sessions), and a systematic approach to contact management with mid- to senior-level associates. As one might suspect, the partners' (all levels) business development training and coaching curriculum was more comprehensive and included business development fundamentals, including; the stages of the sales cycle; recognizing different types of buyers; creating a business development and marketing plan; a systematic approach to managing contacts; effective targeting; turning pitch presentations into interactive discussions; asking good questions; listening skills; closing techniques; internal marketing; client feedback; strategic account management; and some leadership skills.

The process to create the program took about three months, deployment began immediately thereafter, and training followed until my departure. Many of the things that I share with my clients today were borne out of that exercise.

Developing Trust

Since those days, I have had the great fortune to work with hundreds of lawyers and, always the student, have learned much through my interaction with them. The high points include validation that the categories that were chosen as lawyer “breakout” groups and the messages related to the topics listed above that I shared with those groups were pretty much on-point across the board. However, a critical element that was not included in my program, nor was it included in the Professional Development team's curriculum was the issue of “trust.”

As many of you know, the development of client teams and, in some cases, the adoption of strategic account management principles is a primary focus at firms that are serious about relationship development and making their valued client, in the words of Malcolm Gladwell, “sticky.” Cross-selling activity requires a lot of trust to be effective; trust by the client for the lawyer/law firm and trust by the lawyer who has established the client relationship for their own partners. As consultants, we talk about the concept that people buy from people that they like and trust all the time. When we're sharing this fact about buying behavior, we're typically addressing the lawyers and are referring to their external relationship with clients and prospective clients. It's equally important to shine a light on the value of developing trust internally as well. If a partner does not trust another partner or group of partners (think “office” here), he or she is not going to introduce those lawyers to his or her client; it's as simple as that. It's important to note that the trust I'm referring to manifests itself in two forms; competence trust and interpersonal trust.

The former refers to the fact that a partner doesn't think that another partner or group of partners possesses the requisite technical skills to offer best-in-class counsel (and, therefore, value) to their respective client. A lack of interpersonal trust means that a partner is concerned that you are going to “steal” their client after the introduction is made. Addressing these two forms of trust as part of a Professional Development program is of utmost importance, if a firm desires to have a culture that is institutionally-minded, rather than individually-minded. There isn't a one-size-fits-all answer to how to establish, build, fix, etc. trust internally. However, most typically, it requires a lead-by-example leadership team, a savvy marketing department who is able to help with internal marketing, transparent and frequent communication, and individual lawyers who are more interested in delivering value to their clients than they are being ranked as one of the firm's top fee originators year after year.

This issue of trust is of critical importance to developing deep relationships internally and this internal trust will result in more cross-disciplinary conversations with clients externally.

Conclusion

If your Professional Development program does not include a component focused on the importance of trust and isn't engaged with firm leadership on how best to overcome the two most prevalent types of trust in a professional services firm ' focusing on between partners and building trust across practices and offices ' perhaps you've identified the reason that the level of collaboration, communication, and cooperation is low and why the firm's client team program isn't as successful as everyone would like it to be. To remove the primary reason why client teams and related cross-selling fail, focus on building trust throughout your organization. The Professional Development team can be invaluable in the quest to address this important issue.

Bruce Alltop, a member of this newsletter's Board of Editors, is a Senior Consultant at LawVision Group. He helps firms with client retention and growth as well as with new business development. He may be reached at 781-834-3825 or [email protected].