Are You a Five-Tool Player?

World Series season has just passed (no winner as of press time!) and there's not a better time to take lessons learned from Major League Baseball. The baseball term “five-tool player” is used to describe a player who has an array of skills across a broad spectrum. In quick summary, the five tools are: 1) Hitting for power — hit home runs; 2) Hitting for average — adapt the hitting approach to the situation in the game; 3) Speed — speed on the base paths; 4) Fielding — catch and cover wide spaces; and 5) Throwing — throw quickly and accurately.

Baseball legends are known for their exceptional talents across such a wide range of talents. This type of player is a particularly difficult thing to find in baseball as these are skills that often don't go together. The same can be said for professionals in our industry. More and more firms are looking for five-tool players in legal sales, service and marketing. In the game of being an all-star executive and leader at a major league level, what are our five tools? As we see it, they are: 1) Marketing Communications — internal and external messaging. 2) Sales (aka business development) — strategies to convert prospects to client (sales process, sales strategy and pricing). 3) Service — keeping and growing existing clients. 4) Technology — efficiencies. 5) Leadership & Management — vision and execution.