Business Development Training – Getting More Bangs for Your Buck!

Posted on 22 January 2012 by tonyreiss

Law firms are using a number of different ways of improving the business development skills in their practice groups, particularly during this downturn. But are some training formats better than others?

Sherwood PSF Consulting ran Breakfast Workshops with speakers from Linklaters and BLP to explore potential developments to help training become more effective. We recognised the following ways of getting more bangs for your buck from training investments in BD skills:

  • Better links between the classroom and the real world
  • More effective on-the-job BD coaching
  • Better use of technology to support learning
  • Training BD staff to be trainers
  • Better links between BD and other business support functions
  • Creating a BD training faculty
  • Involving partners in BD training programmes

We describe these approaches in more detail below.

Better links between the classroom and the real world

One of the biggest criticisms of management training is that it is often too far removed from the real world. The role-plays perhaps aren’t realistic. Or the models or frameworks aren’t presented in a way that shows they can work in a professional context (ie there are insufficient links made to what the professionals do in their jobs). It is important to ensure that sufficient time is built into programmes to ensure the professionals can reflect and ask questions about relevance, but we believe some of these criticisms are well founded.

To overcome these challenges, Sherwood has developed some protocols for significantly enhancing the linkages that are needed to the real world, as follows:

  • During the programme, participants work, wherever possible, on real life issues (eg real client relationships) rather than hypothetical ones that the trainer invents.
  • Before attending, participants meet their supervising partner to have a structured conversation about the specific role the individual will have in the practice group. For example, a programme on client management would encourage a discussion as to which Client Team the associate might work with.
  • After the programme, the participants are encouraged to meet up again with the partner. They are encouraged to talk about what they learned (good for consolidating what they have learned) and what challenges or support they need. 
  • As a follow up, sessions can be arranged (which some trainers call ‘action learning sets’) to allow participants to revisit the points raised in the programme and they can be offered further suggestions for implementing their action plans.  

More effective on-the-job BD coaching 

Fee earners spend something like 7 hours earning fees each day. Even with the professional bodies requiring Continuous Professional Development, the amount of time professionals spend on training courses is very low. So the firms that can equip their senior professionals to ‘coach’ the juniors on-the-job will reap significant rewards. But few firms have cracked this. Delegation is too often poorly done. At one end of the spectrum there are still examples of files with ‘post it’ notes saying ‘please fix’ being left on desks. In contrast, there are times when senior competent managers are over-managed and left demoralised because they are given no responsibilities or few opportunities to show initiative.

A handful of firms are pioneering the introduction of external coaches to support and challenge heads of departments with a view to a coaching style cascading through the practice groups. Some senior business support professionals are also starting to use external coaches. This must be a good thing.

There are also important opportunities to integrate classroom BD training with better one-to-one coaching before and after programmes, perhaps using supervising partners, external coaches or involving senior members of the BD function in a coaching role. 

Better use of technology to support learning

Interest in using technology is fuelled by the following drivers:

  • The need for consistent messages to be delivered, which is particularly difficult for firms with many offices
  • Professionals looking for training to be delivered when it’s needed, rather than when the next course is scheduled
  • Allowing professionals to learn at their desks in their own time, thereby reducing travel time and costs

It is clear to us that there are some exciting developments in the use of technology to support learning. Some firms are investing a lot in this area, either by developing their own e-learning programmes or by buying or adapting off-the-shelf products.

Several comments were made at the Sherwood Workshops about the need for an integrated intranet with useful learning material from Learning & Development, Knowledge Management, Business Development, etc all available in one location.

Training BD staff to be trainers

External trainers should have all the skills for designing the BD programme and engaging with the group (assuming you’ve picked the right people!). But their biggest weakness is their relative lack of knowledge of the firm and its internal systems, procedures and what changes to these are being considered. So, on a business development programme, it can make a big difference if a member of the Business Development function co-trains with the external trainer to help build links to internal issues.

For this to work well, particularly if BD managers will be running small group discussions or role plays, they will need some training or facilitation skills. We have found BD managers more than willing to attend our Train the Trainer programmes where they learn the skills needed to deliver effective training on BD courses. 

Better links between BD and other business support functions

It is not always clear which department has responsibility for BD training. Sometimes the Training function has responsibility. Sometimes the BD function takes charge. It probably doesn’t matter which takes the lead as long as it doesn’t end up with either both running the show or neither! There needs to be clear responsibility and a good deal of collaboration.

HR can add a lot of value to BD training effectiveness. People learn best when they want to learn. Occasions when people are particularly receptive to learning are either when they are promoted or are given a new role, or when they are in the frame for promotion. More effective training can result if the BD function can align training programmes with career structures or competency frameworks and time the training delivery appropriately.

Training also works better when participants already have a sense of their personal strengths and weaknesses. An effective appraisal scheme or the use of 360-degree feedback can provide a foundation of greater self-awareness that can be effectively built on in any training programmes. We typically find junior professionals saying their appraisals are a waste of time because they are just told that they’re ‘doing fine’.

Again, Sherwood has designed pre-programme diagnostic tools to enable participants to assess themselves against an agreed list of skills. Participants are then encouraged to discuss this with a supervising partner, perhaps in the same meeting as the one to agree a relevant focus for the programme.

But it’s not just the HR function that can add value to training activities. There are so many ways in which business support functions can help. For example:

  • the Business Development function can co-deliver training on CRM activities and can advise on good external trainers for selling skills programmes or can provide just-in-time coaching for partners or fee earners
  • the IT function can work with the Training function to develop e-learning products
  • KM can create learning tools with the Training function

But what we find in some firms, particularly the larger ones, is support functions not working well together. For many professionals looking for useful information to help them do their job better, there can be dozens of such sources in many different places. Not much of it is coordinated. Clearly not the most helpful arrangement!

Creating a BD training faculty 

Some leading firms see the external faculty as an extension of their internal resource. One firm said: “If they are no good, our credibility suffers. Consequently we spend a lot of time kissing frogs to ensure a good cultural as well as technical fit. But all parties need to be prepared to invest – L&D, externals and the practice areas.” 

External providers of training obviously want to do a good job. To do this they need to know:

  • what is happening in the business – one firm, unbeknown to its training providers, announced at a partners retreat that it was trying to create a more collaborative culture, but didn’t tell the external training staff who could easily have      reinforced this message on relevant programmes
  • what the training function is trying to achieve – one firm was interested to improve the way it measured training effectiveness, but did not consult its training providers who could have shared their experiences of what had proved to be successful
  • what messages are included in the other programmes, so trainers could reinforce key messages and avoid confusing the participants with contradictory messages.

What some firms have found helpful is to organise gatherings of the internal and external training faculty. At these events, important news can be disseminated and issues discussed.

Involving partners in BD training programmes 

An obvious one this, but one that is harder to achieve than it might sound. It is relatively easy to find partners who are willing to turn up to a training programme and give a talk on, for example, why business development is important. They might even be prepared to answer some questions. But it’s not easy to ensure the messages are aligned with the programme. Also it can be difficult to get the tone right. Too often managers say they feel a partner is patronising. Also there can be problems with partners having to cancel at the last minute. Some firms that have introduced partner-led sessions on training courses have had to drop them because of the feedback.

To overcome these potential problems, it can be a good idea to have a small squad of partners who are thoroughly briefed on core messages and who are open to feedback from participants so that the sessions can be refined and improved. Quite often these sessions work well if the partner is only a few years more qualified that the participants, rather than somebody that the participants would find harder to relate to.

In summary, the challenge for those responsible for BD training is to develop a more integrated learning approach by building closer relationships between BD and the other areas of the firm that can contribute to learning. Not an easy task, but there are great rewards at stake. Of course, they’ll be learning in the process of trying to achieve it!

A final thought…..I think it probably helps to avoid using the word ‘training’ and talk more about ‘learning’. This might help others in your firm get the message and realise that it should be a team effort with the professionals themselves as part of the team. 

The original version of this blog was published in Professional Marketing magazine.

Posted in Business Development and Selling, Coaching and Training | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

How to Create the Optimum Coaching Climate -an ideal process to start a coaching discussion

Posted on 22 January 2012 by tonyreiss

When athletes are getting ready to run their race and achieve the best they can, we see them prepare. They know the importance of being ‘in the zone’. They prepare physically, warming up, loosening their muscles, stretching. They prepare mentally, seeing the finishing line, imagining themselves being relaxed and calm. Isn’t it interesting to contrast what happens in most organisations. To what extent are managers preparing mentally to be at their best in important meetings?

And what about coaching meetings? What can coaches do to be at their best? And what about the coachees? Can coaches do anything to help their coachees be at their best in the meetings? We all know that it will help the coachee to be in a good state to find the resources they’ll need to achieve their potential. So what can coaches do to help?

In the World of Sports

Let’s first remind ourselves about what has been learned about coaching in the high performance world of sport. Tim Gallwey, author of books on the ‘Inner Game’, says that:  Performance = Potential less Interference. In a sports context, he noticed that when sports coaches gave instructions (eg ‘hit the ball like this’), it tended to raise anxiety levels and take away enjoyment. This heightened the level of interference and thereby reduced performance rather than raise it. To reduce interference we need to get in the zone and the key ingredients to do this are:

  • Creating a quiet confidence that leaves no room for self doubt
  • Generating the presence of something bigger than the inner fear
  • Being in a relaxed state that creates the sense of ‘no effort’

Fundamental to the inner game is our ability to stay in a high performance state when confronted with difficult circumstances.

In the World of Work

Robert Dilts, one of the early pioneers in NLP coaching, takes this concept of interference further and applies similar thinking to the coaching setup. He emphasises that, in order to perform, we need to prepare somatically as well as cognitively. In other words we need to get our body prepared as well as our mind. Einstein said ‘you can’t solve a problem with the same thinking that’s created it!’ And if our body is in an anxious place, our mind will be too.

As coaches, one of our biggest challenges is that our coachees often turn up in a limiting state that’s not conducive to finding the resources to deal with their issue. They might be feeling desperate, angry or trying to prove that their view of the world is true. Not in a great place to be open to seeing the potential for change! Ideally the coaching discussion should be a generative exploration, rather than a discussion that either goes around in circles or confirms any sense of hopelessness.

The challenge for the coach is to find the best of the coachee so the discussion is productive.

A Process for Creating the Coaching Climate

Dilts describes the optimal state that’s needed in a coaching context using the following acronym:

C- Centred

O – Open

A – Aware

C – Connected

H – Holding

Coach and coachee will both benefit from being centred. The “centre” refers to a relaxed yet focused state of being. Being centred is especially helpful in the midst of strong emotional states such as excitement or anxiety, and is often used by athletes, public speakers, actors, and anyone who wants to feel stable and prepared before a potentially stressful event. Anything that helps you feel calm and aware can help. Noticing how you feel in the chair….whether there are any tensions…..loosening them out.

It will also help to take a few moments to breathe slowly and feel some strength in your core (as practised in yoga or pilates). The coach can help sustain this state by continuing to breathe deeply during the meeting. This will encourage the coachee to do the same, even during the discussion about the current, potentially difficult, situation they are in. Other helpful states for the coach and coachee to adopt include:

  • Slowing down – this will help enhance awareness of thoughts and feelings
  • Pausing – to strengthen the state of being connected, to the issues and to each other
  • Being relaxed – to hold the issues being discussed

Both coach and coachee ideally need to create this state and the state should exist between the two so there is a feeling of connection. Dilts calls the space in which the coaching is taking place the ‘coaching container’. He recommends a rigorous process for creating a contract for coaching, including both parties making commitments to each other and the coachee scoring out of 10 where they are on each of the aspects of the C.O.A.C.H state. If any of the scores are low, the coach might ask ‘What would you need to do to move the score higher…?’ Another helpful coaching intervention to strengthen a more positive state might be to ask ‘What becomes possible for you with a higher sense of, say, openness?’

One of the roles of the coach is to create and protect this more positive, generative state. By doing this, the coachee will be at their best and the coaching channel will be open, thereby increasing the chances of the coachee finding the resources they need.

Dilts points out that even if the coach pays no conscious attention to this set up, there is a set up, a sense of rapport and connection. And the coaching meeting might go well. But it will be down to luck. If you want more of your coaching sessions to go well, it will help to think about the set up and create a positive coaching container. Until, of course, you become unconsciously competent and the skill goes into your muscle – just like a high performance sports star!

Posted in Coaching and Training, Leadership and Management | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Procter & Gamble’s Seven Selling Steps – a ‘traditional’ approach to selling

Posted on 16 January 2012 by tonyreiss

As part of my marketing and brand management training at P&G I had to go out and sell. The training was fantastic and I was motivated to do at least as well as the sales team, even though I was straight out of college. This was the approach we were taught.

I have long argued that ‘traditional’ selling differs from what I call ‘professional’ selling. Those of my clients in professional service firms (lawyers, accountants etc) can judge for themselves if this P&G approach is relevant to their market place.

  1. Pre-meeting Preparation

Before meeting with the prospective customer we had to set an objective for the meeting and devise a plan to achieve our objective. If this is a new prospect:

  • How will we begin to build a relationship and establish credibility?
  • What do we know about their business situation?
  • What are the key questions we can ask to best understand how what is important to them and how we can help them?
  • What homework can we do in advance to show them that we understand their situation and can help them be successful?

If this is an existing customer, we needed to review what happened in the last sales call and build our sales call around what we learned from the last call:

  • What did the customer tell us last time?
  • What was most important to them?
  • What goals did they share with us and what objections did they have?
  • What has been successful in the past and what has prevented them from moving forward?
  • What creative ideas do we have for increasing business or overcoming prior objections?
  • Are there new market forces or competitive threats that we can leverage to encourage them to take action?

Based on this pre-call preparation we devised a well thought out approach and implemented it as follows.

  1. Summarize the Situation

First, we started the conversation by sharing information that got the listener interested and that made them receptive to what we had to say.

It was best if we talked about things our customer said were important to them the last time we spoke.

We also shared key facts, information or industry trends that helped to set up the discussion.

      3. State the Idea

When we had their attention, we got right to the point and told them a brief statement of our proposition. We just provided a headline of our recommendation, stated in a way that made it compelling.

  1. Explain How It Works

Once we’d clearly stated the proposition, then it was time to provide details of the recommendation. Typically this included more information about the product, pricing and execution of the proposal such as timing and logistics.

  1. Reinforce Key Benefits

Once they understood the detail, then we presented the key reasons they should agree to move forward. P&G called these the “3 Reasons”.

P&G says if you only have 2 reasons, that’s not enough, and if you have more than 3, then that’s too many and none of the 3 reasons is potentially powerful enough. This is a helpful tip because it is tempting to try to win over the customer with a long list of why they should agree. But a prospect will only focus on the first few issues, so it is good practice to narrow down the list to the top 3 key reasons.

  1. Suggest Easy Next Steps

Naturally, no sales process would be best practice without the Close. At P&G, we were taught to move very naturally right into the close by “suggesting easy next steps”.

The emphasis was to make it easy for customers to say yes. We planned in advance to remove barriers and show customers a way forward that fitted easily into their situation.

7. Post-meeting Analysis

After every sales meeting, P&G taught us to analyse the meeting straightaway. There were four basic steps to the post call analysis:

  • overall summary,
  • what went well,
  • what could have gone better, and
  • what is the key takeaway for success in the next sales call.

The process, I hope you agree, all seems very logical. But the key aspect that I’d like to emphasize for the benefit of my lawyer and accountant clients is the rigour of the process – particularly the preparation and post event analysis.

For more insights from P&G see what advice I was given as a new graduate upon joining the company…https://tonyreiss.com/2014/04/02/advice-from-a-mentor-at-procter-gamble/

Posted in Business Development and Selling, Fee Negotiating, Networking | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How Top Firms Look After Their Clients….and develop more work

Posted on 13 January 2012 by tonyreiss
Mountain

Firms need to get to the top of their client organisations

The advertisement from a global law firm in The Economist magazine grabbed my attention. Under a colour photograph of an archetypal psychologist’s couch, the headline read “TELL ME ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR LAWYER”. The copy continued…..”It turns out, there was no relationship….”

The reality is that many professional service firms are finding it difficult to replicate the customer relationship management (CRM) successes achieved by service providers in other markets. So I thought firms might find it helpful to have a fresh look at what the critical success factors are.

What follows is based on 3 CRM projects I’ve worked on recently and some interviews I’ve conducted with other professional organisations, as follows:

  • two top twenty law firms, widely judged to be pioneers in CRM
  • two big 4 accounting firm, which have had more than 20 years running international CRM programmes
  • two not-for-profit bodies providing qualifications and training to the professional sector
  • an international manufacturer of food products which needed to build close relationships within the grocery sector.

This one might look odd! I have included it because I believe this more sophisticated and competitive market could offer insights for professional firms

Choose the right clients  

The biggest clients won’t necessarily be the best clients, though they obviously need to offer good potential. The most important aspect for choosing the right clients is that you have a similar set of values and are in ‘rapport’ with them. This means that the extra effort you put in is more likely to lead to rewards.

The other finding is that CRM seems to work better when the efforts are channelled on fewer clients. The grocery manufacturer put it this way:

Working out which customers we should put particular emphasis on was key to our success. We discovered that it wasn’t necessarily the biggest customers. We had to see signs that we were compatible. We developed a couple of tests. One involved mapping the current relationship. The other analysed the potential in the relationship.

One of the law firms added:

Some of our best successes have been where our partners, frankly, just hit it off with the client! The other thing we discovered was that we were trying to develop relationships with too many clients. When we cut the list down, we could provide more support and things improved.

Get to the top

Once you’ve selected the right clients, find out what they are trying to do with their business. What is their vision? How are they proposing to get there? What support are they looking for from their professional advisors? What gets up their noses? Without this knowledge it will be difficult to manage the relationship in ways that will support their vision.

The Relationship Partner might be the right person to have this meeting. An alternative would be to invite a more senior representative from the firm (eg senior partner) to meet their counterpart. It might depend on who it is important to meet from the client side.

An additional benefit of top-to-top meetings is that they show real commitment to building a relationship. As seen by the grocery manufacturer:

Top-to top meetings also helped us demonstrate our commitment to building the relationship and this helped give the relationship some momentum 

Where there is currently a limited relationship with, say, the Board of the client, one of the big 4 accounting firms has found it useful to offer clients useful insights on sector business issues that might provide competitive advantage:

We find ‘thought leadership’ programmes work well for us. We might research an industry issue and use this to help us open doors. We have realised that to impress clients, it’s important to be clear what your value proposition is. How will you help your clients? We typically spend hours preparing for top-to-top meetings to ensure we get our agenda and insights correct.

For other clients, perhaps where more transactional work is already underway, the top-to-top meeting might focus on a service review to uncover what aspects of service were going well and what needs to be improved.

It’s the relationship not the sale

But how do you measure relationships, I hear you wonder! A big 4 firm uses a checklist and point system:

We use a 10 point scale. If we haven’t met them and we don’t think they have heard of us, we’re at ground zero. If we’ve met, they know what we do and think we’re good, we’d score them 5 or 6. When they instruct us, it moves them up to 7. Only if they recommend us to others do they score 10.

A law firm provides a prompt sheet with their client relationship teams to help them consider ways of getting to know their client contacts:

To encourage our partners to get to know their clients better we have given them a list of areas to explore, including their careers, interests outside work, ambitions, hopes and fears, how their bonus is comprised etc. Some of these topics are safer to talk about than others. Our partners obviously need to build more trusted relationships to comfortably talk about some of the deeper stuff.

Most partners find these sorts of conversation uncomfortable, so this brings me on to the next insight….

It takes training and practice 

It’s easy suggesting that partners should build closer relationships with clients. It’s much harder in practice and firms are starting to address this by providing training and coaching in relationship-building. An important aspect in such training is skills practice (otherwise known by that dreaded word ‘role-play’!).

Training can be designed to help answer questions such as:

  • How do you pick up the phone and arrange to meet a senior member of the client team who you hardly know?
  • What are the best ways of winning work from our rival firm?
  • How do you get the associates and your PA to play an increasing role in developing relationships with clients?

One of the big 4 accounting firms has utilised their PA’s in their CRM programme:

I’m not sure how good we are at motivating the back office in our CRM programme. This is an area we need to look at further, though we have recognised some talented PA’s/secretaries. So we launched a PA programme. This involves our PA’s meeting client PA’s. They might have drinks or attend any of our sponsorship events. This has helped improve client relationships enormously. It’s like it’s oiled the wheels.

One of the professional bodies has used CRM training throughout their organisation.

It’s made a big difference to have the skills training linked to the Relationship Management project. Our Directors and Heads have all praised the top-to-top training and we’re now training our Director PA’s.

One of the law firms added:

We could probably do more to engage with the support staff who deal with our key clients – I accept that our service is only as good as the weakest link

Another law firm added: 

We are having great success offering partners and senior associates one-to-one coaching on BD and developing client relationships particularly at important stages of their careers. 

Making it happen

The firms making most progress with CRM seem to put the most emphasis on making things happen, rather than just talking about it.

One of the law firms said:

Out of our top 20 clients, the ones that work best seem to meet most often (some meet weekly for just 10-15 minutes) and chase people to ensure actions are implemented. Support from the BD function is important. We attend meetings and provided checklists for client team meetings and proforma relationship plans. These help give team meetings a focus.

The grocery manufacturer put more emphasis on joint business plans with the customer and ensuring the customer could see early results:

Drafting a joint business plan with the customer is important. Without the customer involvement we felt we wouldn’t get their commitment. We also put great emphasis on good quality execution. We were aware that little things could spoil the effect of what we were trying to do. We felt it was important to hold monthly meetings to progress the plan and track performance to demonstrate results.

The joint business plan is interesting. It implies that a conversation has been held where the supplier says that the client is strategically important to them. How many professional firms say this to their client? Producing a plan to develop a client relationship will probably be helpful. Producing, with the client, a plan to add value to both parties is on a different level of commitment and lead to great results.

One of the professional bodies used a relatively sophisticated contact management system. This enabled them to monitor client contacts and produce a report based on a ‘traffic light’ code, in which no contact over a 3 month period might produce a ‘red alert’.

We have a powerful database in which every interaction with a key organisation is recorded. The database is hugely important to us because our relationships are complex. It’s like a big matrix. Everybody is encouraged to contact who they know, regardless of who the Relationship Manager is. We call it a “web of contacts”. They just have to tell the Relationship Manager the outcome.

Conclusion

There are, of course, many systemic challenges in professional service firms with respect to CRM, namely:

  • Partners are typically more comfortable with the task of doing their technical work and less comfortable with building client relationships
  • The measurement and reward processes used by many professional firms do not encourage the behaviours associated with good CRM (eg spending time deepening and broadening client relationships).

The long term breakthroughs will probably be achieved by addressing these fundamental issues. Meanwhile, I hope you find some of the insights in this research useful.

Posted in Business Development and Selling, Fee Negotiating, Networking, Strategy | 1 Comment

Prospects to Advocates – A Suite of Six Group Coaching Workshops to Develop BD Skills

Posted on 9 January 2012 by tonyreiss

Most lawyers find their role as sales people uncomfortable. They typically didn’t enter the profession to become a sales person. Yet the increasingly competitive market, coupled with the ongoing economic situation, requires lawyers to be more active and competent at generating business.

I have designed a suite of programmes to develop the necessary BD skills. But more than that, these programmes develop confidence in selling.

They typically run at lunchtime or after hours to groups of 6-12 people and I always offer a demonstration of how to do something (eg call a prospective client to arrange a meeting, work a room at a reception etc). Participants would be offered free copies of the new book The BD Handbook for Lawyers – Prospects to Advocates. I would propose to work with a member of your BD team to ensure messages are consistent with your firm’s way of doing things.

Here is the list of programmes:

  1. The Ultimate Networker – Working a room, with confidence and with a plan
  2. Professional Selling – The art of building relationships with prospective clients and asking for work professionally
  3. Converting Contacts to Clients – Using professional selling techniques suitable for the legal profession
  4. Pitch Perfect – State-of-the-art techniques in pitching to give you an inside track and make your submissions more persuasive
  5. Developing More Work from Existing Clients – Using best-practice CRM approaches to increase your share of work from key clients
  6. [For Management] Running Effective Sales Programmes  – The art of motivating your teams to be more active at BD

But are These Programmes any Good?

Our recent work has led to us receiving the LETG Award for Best Trainers.

But don’t just our word for it. Here is some feedback on these programmes from lawyers in leading firms:

I thought the course was extremely useful on both technical and motivational grounds. I suspect that it pays for itself many times over as it acts as a real spur to develop new clients and cement existing relationships. The tools on offer on the course are not ordinarily acquired ‘on the job’ and it was clear to me that all of the participants left the course with a greater sense of purpose and confidence as to how win business.

This programme has been great for my self-confidence. Every day in the office is driven by the thought that you could have done it better etc. The programme gave me a safe environment to try things out and see if they work.

I tried one of the models the week after with a Chief Exec and it worked like a dream! I couldn’t believe how well it worked. I’ve already been asked back to do more work.

I’ve been taken along one of the most incredible learning journeys in my life.

The amount of personal coaching has surpassed anything I’ve ever experienced.

The Call to Action

Ring Tony Reiss on 020 8408 2242 to discuss your requirements and see if we’ll be a good fit for your needs. I’ll be happy to offer one free workshop, so what have you got to lose?

Posted in Business Development and Selling, Fee Negotiating, Networking | Leave a comment

A Parable Showing that Effective Selling is Like Magic…..

Posted on 6 January 2012 by tonyreiss

Effective Selling is Like…..Magic

A sales consultant with a hobby in magic tricks was working away from home for a client. He was pretty good and had performed professionally a few times in restaurants and at parties. Though it was just a hobby, he wanted to take his skills to the next level.

He found out that Roberto, a famous magic author and one of the world’s leading magic teachers, lived a short distance away from where the client was based. So the sales consultant booked a lesson one evening.

He did a short routine for Roberto and then they sat back and analysed the routine. What he expected was that the teacher would focus on his technique. What happened was very different.

Roberto asked him what he was trying to achieve with his magic. What he wanted his audience to experience and to feel as a result. A tough question, but a good one.

Was he trying to fool them? Amuse them? Astound them? Make them laugh? Give them a once in a lifetime experience of sheer wonder?

And who was he trying to be? A suave entertainer? A clown? A skilful cardsharp?

Roberto and the salesman worked through these questions over a number of hours. It was hard work. These were questions the salesman never really thought about much before.

But it turns out Roberto was right. If your goal is to entertain your audience and if you’re playing with them, rather than trying to outwit them – then they play nicely back.

Rather than your performance being about you trying to impress them – to make them laugh, to make them like you – it becomes one where you work together with the audience to help them have a good time.

When they know they’re in safe hands – that you’re not trying to make fun of them or embarrass them – then they can relax and enjoy the ride.

Technique is still important. Clumsy technique spoils the illusion and can break the spell. But in magic, intent is more important than technique.

If your audience doesn’t choose to join you – if it’s you against them rather than you with them – then all the technique in the world won’t save you.

The Lessons for Selling

Selling is like magic in that you must start with the right intent. Your goal must be to help your clients succeed, not merely to sell them your stuff. It’s about you working with them, not you being against them.

When your potential clients see your intent is positive, they too can relax knowing they’re in safe hands.

So before you go into any sales meeting, ask yourself the questions Roberto asked:

  • What are you trying to achieve?
  • What do you want your clients to feel and experience?

Then consider:

  • What do I need to say or do that is authentic to deliver this result?

Get that clear and you’ll see a difference in how clients react to you.

 

Note: I’m indebted to Ian Brodie for sharing this story. For more insights from Ian see his blog at www.ianbrodie.com

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Partners in Law Firms – Some Tips on How to Feel More Comfortable in a Selling Role

Posted on 27 December 2011 by tonyreiss

Partners are right to feel uncomfortable as conventional sales people. Compared to typical selling contexts (retail, consumer, big one-off purchases such as insurance etc) there should be a different mindset in professional service firms, particularly for those wanting to develop long-term relationships with clients.

Much of what has been written about selling is not appropriate in a law firm environment. The table below compares traditional selling as we all experience it and what I would call professional selling.

I offer the following recommendations for partners:

  1. Learn to listen more and speak less. As an expert in your field with so much to say, you may find this difficult, but those who can learn this simple skill will be liked more by their clients.
  2. Bear in mind that your potential buyers are different and you may need to reflect a different aspect of your personality to impress each one. But don’t try to be someone other than yourself. Be authentic! Everyone can spot a fraud.
  3. Consider whether there is more than one person who has an influence on which professional firm gets the business. If there are other influencers, work out a strategy for meeting them and persuading them. Meet the business people as well as the in-house lawyers.
  4. Try to put yourself in your potential buyer’s position. Try to see selling more in terms of helping people buy.
  5. Distinguish between people who say they have needs (but never intend to do anything about them) and those with real problems that they are not happy with. You’ll waste less time if you can do this.
  6. Consider what type of relationship your prospective client wants. If you don’t know, ask.
  7. Be confident about your ability to provide a service that will be of value to your clients. Too many partners have inner doubts about this (they might think they are expensive, for example) and their propositions come across unconvincingly. If you have doubts, your prospects will.

Table: Comparing Traditional Selling and Professional Selling 

  Traditional Selling Professional Selling
Style: Manipulative, Exploitative, Adversarial Facilitative,Co-operative
Mindset: Taking Giving
Time frame: Short term Long term
Aim: Get   business Develop   trusting relationship
Division between sales and delivery   roles: Usually   different person Usually   same person
Attitude towards confidentiality: Bragging   is common! Discretion,   few client names mentioned
Methods of prospecting: Advertising,   cold mailshots, neon flashing lights! Personalised   letters and low key approach

But the biggest tip I can offer concerns your whole attitude to bringing in business. If you go into your meetings with the objective of selling, you have probably lost before you have even started.

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The Psychological Barriers to Cross Selling

Posted on 19 December 2011 by tonyreiss

Whatever approaches management choose to use to address the lack of cross selling, they need to bear in mind the deeper psychological factors. Let’s consider why cross selling isn’t happening to the extent that most firms would wish?

Firstly, many partners don’t know enough about what their clients need. Partners are typically too transaction-oriented and not relationship-oriented. They feel more comfortable doing the job, being a technician. After all, it’s why most lawyers were attracted to the law.

Then, partners also don’t know enough about what their colleagues do. This is potentially an embarrassing situation and it can be hard to ask a fellow partner at lunch ‘What do you do?’. Particularly if they’ve been in the firm for 5 years or so!

Then there’s fear! Fear that the other partner and team you introduce will screw up and spoil the relationship. After all the hard work you’ve put in and the sense that everybody is looking at your figures and client following, why would you take any risks on this?

Then, there’s the even deeper fear – that the client will prefer them to you! How awful would that be! I wonder if this deep fear is why so many partners fail to brief their colleagues on all the little things they know their client contacts love, like that reassuring phone call on a Friday afternoon?

For cross selling to work from the client perspective, the new service being introduced needs to be carefully delivered so it remains seamless – perhaps with the Client Partner taking an active role in the delivery. How many partners like their work to be ‘coordinated’ by another partner, particularly a partner in another practice group?

Anything management does to improve cross-selling needs to be sensitive to these potential psychological barriers.

More on the art of cross selling is in my handbook for lawyers called Pitch Perfect available at http://www.amazon.com/The-BD-Handbook-Lawyers-Perfect/dp/1783060301

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How to Stimulate More Cross Selling Activity in Your Firm…..

Posted on 16 December 2011 by tonyreiss

Every firm I know wishes they could encourage more cross-selling  — keeping business inside the firm that might otherwise go elsewhere. I started a thread on LinkedIn to get views from others and here’s a simple idea that will get lawyers talking about the kinds of work they can share within the firm:

  1. Each practice group delegates one partner and an associate to attend each of the other practice group meetings. It helps if the selected lawyers have a good relationship with the group.
  2. These lawyers need to do some homework on clients served by this group and the type of work done.
  3. In a very short one-minute introduction, the ‘outsiders’ share the kinds of clients their group serves and the types of work they do.
  4. Then, in a quick 10 minute presentation, the ‘outsiders’ present a punchy Top Ten List, entitled: “The Top Ten Ways Your Clients Could Use Us.” The list should focus on new legal developments, more obvious “burning platforms” and non-obvious ways that the other practice group’s lawyers could add value to existing relationships.

The presentations can either be done in regular practice group meetings (as a monthly agenda item), or in a series of 5-10 rapid-fire presentations (one for each practice group) that take place at the firm-wide retreat.

Part of the success of these presentations is to consider how you can help make the other team look good in the eyes of their clients by mentioning your services.

I know one firm where this approach was tried by a Pensions team who tailored their presentations to Corporate and Litigation departments and it worked a treat!

Another firm has had success structuring their cross selling so that it was done on a mutual basis. In other words, Team A referred work to Team B and vice versa.

I’ve also been reminded that cross selling works better if you shift your mindset to thinking about cross buying. In other words, what do we need to say and do to make it easier for these clients to buy other services from us.

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The BD Handbook for Lawyers – Prospects to Advocates is available on Amazon

Posted on 15 December 2011 by tonyreiss

Thanks to all of you for comments on the draft….the material is based on the training material I’ve been using over the years with partners and senior associates in law firms over the last 10 years. I know it works!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/BD-Handbook-Lawyers-Prospects-Advocates/dp/0755213998/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325697059&sr=1-1

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