<b><i>Sales Speak:</i></b> Law Firm Bus Dev

The legal market continues to change. One thing that continues to remain constant is the difficulty that law firms and lawyers have with identifying and communicating how they differ from their competition. The most common refrains that I hear being used when asked the question, “Why should clients retain you?” include the standard “quality, responsiveness, communication, practical advice,” etc.

The reference to deep industry experience is bantered around, too, but all too often, not in a manner that truly differentiates. This article offers two suggested solutions to the differentiation conundrum; the first of which relates to the go-to-market approach itself and the second relates to the communication of value.

Let's begin with the go-to-market approach. I continue to hear from industry sages and from our clients' clients (through feedback engagements) that legal decision-makers expect outside legal counsel to understand their business. This drum beat continues to grow louder with every passing year and becomes more important to legal decision-makers as they select outside legal counsel. In fact, “Understanding the Client's Business” has been highlighted in recent BTI surveys as being the single best way to differentiate your law firm from your competition.

Meanwhile, many firms still have not made understanding their clients' business a priority. Most firms continue to go to market by practice area, rather than taking a coordinated, client-centric approach to the marketplace. What this means is that firms are not listening to what the clients are saying, which we all know is bad business development strategy.

How to Start

In successful relationship development, listening is rarely an insignificant component. When asked, many of my clients tell me that they aren't changing their approach because they aren't quite sure where to start. So, I offer the following questions that you and your teams should be considering, among many others, as you start down the road to “understanding your client”:

• What is your client's business model? In other words, how does your client's company make money?
• Where is your client's industry heading? What are some regulatory trends that may result in an impact on your client's business?
• What are your clients' business goals and objectives? What are your key contacts' personal goals and objectives?
• What are some obstacles that may get in the way of your client's company achieving their objectives? What are their stated risks (Hint: companies list them in their annual 10K SEC filing)
• How is your client's company organized? (Hint: get a copy of their org chart); which business unit leaders are influential in hiring outside counsel?
• What is your client's definition of success? How about their definition of value?
• Which legal solutions can we bring to them that we've brought to other clients just like them to help them overcome the obstacles that are getting in the way of them achieving their objectives?

Finding the Answers

So, how do you go about finding the answers to these questions and others like them? You can certainly create intelligence dossiers, create Google searches, use an aggregator tool like Manzama, go to the client's website, review their securities filings, etc. There are several technology tools available to help keep apprised of developments with your client companies that are relatively inexpensive; particularly considering the increased importance clients are placing on this knowledge year-after-year. However, although valuable, the information provided by these tools is no substitute for an interactive discussion with your client!

There is no need to wait for a formal setting like a pitch meeting to ask your client contact these questions (and many similar others). As a side note, there is no need to feel obligated to get the answers to all of these questions in just one meeting. I'm not alone in believing that firms should make client-centricity the keystone to their go-to-market strategy, but it's certainly something that I'm passionate about. Given the competitive environment in which we're operating, I think you should be, too.

Understanding the client's business is very important. So, too, is going to market by industry. What does this actually mean? Going to market by industry really means being focused on what the client needs, rather than what we're trying to “sell.” To be successful in professional services business development these days, it's imperative that you understand what business issue that you or your firm is solving for the client. Then, and only then, do you bring the “solution” to the problem.

Communicating Differentiation

Understanding how to surpass the competition typically begins with an understanding of who the competition is. In many cases, firms or practice groups with whom I work haven't taken the time to identify their competition or to investigate and discuss their respective go-to-market messages.

Communicating how we are different may manifest itself in a couple of ways; 1) the facts themselves are very compelling; e.g., “No other firm in the universe has ever attempted and achieved such a feat of extreme litigation”; or 2) quite simply, the manner in which the value message is delivered. Let's focus on the latter. Typically, because they are really smart, my clients will resort to responding to the differentiation question by answering, “We have more experience in your industry, Ms. Prospect, than any of our competitors.”

Keeping in mind that clients have said over and over again that they want their providers to understand their business, the previous sentence could be a very compelling differentiator. However, it could also mean losing the engagement. Allow me to share both scenarios with you.

In the simplest of terms, the experience-related differentiation statement above is a “feature” statement. It implies value, but it doesn't explicitly convey value. When we imply value in business development, we give the prospect an opportunity to come to their own conclusion about the value.

For example, when we only provide a “feature” statement such as the experience-related answer above, we think that the prospect is going to be duly impressed because of the obvious value that this level of experience will deliver to the prospect once we're retained. Well, the truth is that by only providing the “feature” statement about industry experience, we have given the prospect an opportunity to determine what that actually means to them and their organization; many times, their conclusion wasn't what we intended.

If we answer the question, “Why should we retain you?” and our answer is, “We have more experience in your industry, Ms. Prospect, than any of our competitors,” the prospect, left to his/her own devices, may arrive at a different conclusion altogether. What if that prospect, although placing industry experience at the top of his or her list of decision criteria, also wants the provider not to be limited to that one industry, but also have experience outside of the specific industry to incorporate best practices from elsewhere? If we simply convey that we have experience in his/her industry and leave it at that, instead of differentiating ourselves, we may have just disqualified ourselves.

Conclusion

The takeaway here is to always include a “benefit” statement along with the “feature.” We have established above that “We have more experience in your industry, Ms. Client, than any of our competitors.” is the feature statement. A benefit statement might be “which means that we can alert you to business issues of consequence and best practices that fall outside the boundaries of this specific engagement.” All too often, I find that feature statements are what are being delivered. Look at your website, fast fact sheets, your lawyers' bios, etc. and I suspect that you'll find many of these feature statements.

Consider adding a benefit statement to each of them. Although many of your feature statements will be similar in nature to the competition's feature statements, telling the prospect what the value is through a benefit statement will differentiate you and the firm.

Communicating value by using benefit statements will set you apart from your competitors, because, for the most part, they are not doing it properly either.

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].

The legal market continues to change. One thing that continues to remain constant is the difficulty that law firms and lawyers have with identifying and communicating how they differ from their competition. The most common refrains that I hear being used when asked the question, “Why should clients retain you?” include the standard “quality, responsiveness, communication, practical advice,” etc.

The reference to deep industry experience is bantered around, too, but all too often, not in a manner that truly differentiates. This article offers two suggested solutions to the differentiation conundrum; the first of which relates to the go-to-market approach itself and the second relates to the communication of value.

Let's begin with the go-to-market approach. I continue to hear from industry sages and from our clients' clients (through feedback engagements) that legal decision-makers expect outside legal counsel to understand their business. This drum beat continues to grow louder with every passing year and becomes more important to legal decision-makers as they select outside legal counsel. In fact, “Understanding the Client's Business” has been highlighted in recent BTI surveys as being the single best way to differentiate your law firm from your competition.

Meanwhile, many firms still have not made understanding their clients' business a priority. Most firms continue to go to market by practice area, rather than taking a coordinated, client-centric approach to the marketplace. What this means is that firms are not listening to what the clients are saying, which we all know is bad business development strategy.

How to Start

In successful relationship development, listening is rarely an insignificant component. When asked, many of my clients tell me that they aren't changing their approach because they aren't quite sure where to start. So, I offer the following questions that you and your teams should be considering, among many others, as you start down the road to “understanding your client”:

• What is your client's business model? In other words, how does your client's company make money?
• Where is your client's industry heading? What are some regulatory trends that may result in an impact on your client's business?
• What are your clients' business goals and objectives? What are your key contacts' personal goals and objectives?
• What are some obstacles that may get in the way of your client's company achieving their objectives? What are their stated risks (Hint: companies list them in their annual 10K SEC filing)
• How is your client's company organized? (Hint: get a copy of their org chart); which business unit leaders are influential in hiring outside counsel?
• What is your client's definition of success? How about their definition of value?
• Which legal solutions can we bring to them that we've brought to other clients just like them to help them overcome the obstacles that are getting in the way of them achieving their objectives?

Finding the Answers

So, how do you go about finding the answers to these questions and others like them? You can certainly create intelligence dossiers, create Google searches, use an aggregator tool like Manzama, go to the client's website, review their securities filings, etc. There are several technology tools available to help keep apprised of developments with your client companies that are relatively inexpensive; particularly considering the increased importance clients are placing on this knowledge year-after-year. However, although valuable, the information provided by these tools is no substitute for an interactive discussion with your client!

There is no need to wait for a formal setting like a pitch meeting to ask your client contact these questions (and many similar others). As a side note, there is no need to feel obligated to get the answers to all of these questions in just one meeting. I'm not alone in believing that firms should make client-centricity the keystone to their go-to-market strategy, but it's certainly something that I'm passionate about. Given the competitive environment in which we're operating, I think you should be, too.

Understanding the client's business is very important. So, too, is going to market by industry. What does this actually mean? Going to market by industry really means being focused on what the client needs, rather than what we're trying to “sell.” To be successful in professional services business development these days, it's imperative that you understand what business issue that you or your firm is solving for the client. Then, and only then, do you bring the “solution” to the problem.

Communicating Differentiation

Understanding how to surpass the competition typically begins with an understanding of who the competition is. In many cases, firms or practice groups with whom I work haven't taken the time to identify their competition or to investigate and discuss their respective go-to-market messages.

Communicating how we are different may manifest itself in a couple of ways; 1) the facts themselves are very compelling; e.g., “No other firm in the universe has ever attempted and achieved such a feat of extreme litigation”; or 2) quite simply, the manner in which the value message is delivered. Let's focus on the latter. Typically, because they are really smart, my clients will resort to responding to the differentiation question by answering, “We have more experience in your industry, Ms. Prospect, than any of our competitors.”

Keeping in mind that clients have said over and over again that they want their providers to understand their business, the previous sentence could be a very compelling differentiator. However, it could also mean losing the engagement. Allow me to share both scenarios with you.

In the simplest of terms, the experience-related differentiation statement above is a “feature” statement. It implies value, but it doesn't explicitly convey value. When we imply value in business development, we give the prospect an opportunity to come to their own conclusion about the value.

For example, when we only provide a “feature” statement such as the experience-related answer above, we think that the prospect is going to be duly impressed because of the obvious value that this level of experience will deliver to the prospect once we're retained. Well, the truth is that by only providing the “feature” statement about industry experience, we have given the prospect an opportunity to determine what that actually means to them and their organization; many times, their conclusion wasn't what we intended.

If we answer the question, “Why should we retain you?” and our answer is, “We have more experience in your industry, Ms. Prospect, than any of our competitors,” the prospect, left to his/her own devices, may arrive at a different conclusion altogether. What if that prospect, although placing industry experience at the top of his or her list of decision criteria, also wants the provider not to be limited to that one industry, but also have experience outside of the specific industry to incorporate best practices from elsewhere? If we simply convey that we have experience in his/her industry and leave it at that, instead of differentiating ourselves, we may have just disqualified ourselves.

Conclusion

The takeaway here is to always include a “benefit” statement along with the “feature.” We have established above that “We have more experience in your industry, Ms. Client, than any of our competitors.” is the feature statement. A benefit statement might be “which means that we can alert you to business issues of consequence and best practices that fall outside the boundaries of this specific engagement.” All too often, I find that feature statements are what are being delivered. Look at your website, fast fact sheets, your lawyers' bios, etc. and I suspect that you'll find many of these feature statements.

Consider adding a benefit statement to each of them. Although many of your feature statements will be similar in nature to the competition's feature statements, telling the prospect what the value is through a benefit statement will differentiate you and the firm.

Communicating value by using benefit statements will set you apart from your competitors, because, for the most part, they are not doing it properly either.

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].