Began reading a book by my friend from “Across The Pond” Chrissie Lightfoot; a United Kingdom lawyer (non-practicing) and entrepreneur (very practicing) :-).
Provocatively entitled, The Naked Lawyer, it shows attorneys and other professional services providers how to more effectively market, brand and sell themselves.
I know that, whenever I address lawyers, my biggest challenge is helping them to really grasp and embrace the fact that they are … in sales. And, that a big part of sales is providing the best buying and ongoing client experience.
I thought of this while reading the following paragraph early in Chrissie’s book:
“…the perception of a lawyer and the legal profession remains as someone or something that we need usually in a stressful, difficult situation/time and that, as a buyer of legal advice/services, you’re going to get whacked with an expensive bill for a piece of work that you don’t understand for the privilege of not being communicated with very often throughout the process.”
Now, this article is not intended to slam the legal profession or to imply that most legal practitioners and firms act this way. But, the fact is…many of them do.
This is good! Good, that is, for the lawyer or firm that understands that by taking the contrarian approach, they can “make lots of rain” (bring in a lot of new biz) while their competitors are acting like…well, lawyers.
I’ve had the same lawyer now for 20 years. Carlos is brilliant. But, so are a lot of lawyers. What separates Carlos from his competitors, is that he cares about his clients. I mean, truly cares. More than that, though (because there are many lawyers who care), he and his staff communicate that caring.
One of the many ways they communicate this is that phone calls are returned in a reasonable amount of time. I had to include that since so many lawyers seem to buy into the first rule of (in Latin) “Clientium turnoffium big-time-ium” which says, “we don’t return client calls because, frankly, you ain’t that important to us.”
Here’s what I’m saying: You are in sales, my friends. And, selling is giving. It’s giving “time, attention, counsel, education, empathy and appreciation.” More than anything, it’s giving a value-based experience second to none; one that totally overshadows the invoice, regardless of how large the invoice is.
If you do this, you can build a hugely successful law practice. If not, then you’ll remain dependent on both market conditions and the hope that other lawyers will continue to falsely think that they are not in the profession of selling legal services. The same pertains to any and all service professionals. Actually, it pertains to anyone in business.
I’ll end with what Chrissie calls the “ROAR Model.” ROAR stand for “Reach Out And Relate.”
Good idea.
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Bob,
This is so familiar. How does it go? “Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.” Actually it probably embodies several of the lessons from “The Go-Giver”.
Thanks. You are much appreciated.
Jeff
Wow, Jeff. Thank you. You are much appreciated!
Bob…your humor knows no measure! Your Latin translation in the post was simply hilarious. The excerpt from Lightfoot’s book definitely puts things in a different perspective. I will have to share this my lawyer/lawyer friends. Also, I really liked the concept of sales and giving which you so elaborately explained as providing, “…time, attention, counsel, education…”. This can highly benefit my agenda and endeavors. Once again, keep up the good work!
Thank you, Chi Chi. Very kind of you, my friend. Humor? I guess every so often I say something that someone finds quasi-funny. Thank you for being that someone. 😉
Thanks for writing about lawyers Bob. One of the biggest challenges I have when working with lawyers to help them grow their businesses (besides helping them understand that they are in sales and selling is a good thing) is reprogramming their minds to help them remember why they are really here. Most lawyers really do want to help. They went to law school for that purpose and then got all twisted up and confused. So job #1 is reminding them – the law is a helping profession and they really do want to help. Job #2 is then showing them how to do that without giving away their time, feeling like they need to overeducate their prospects, or otherwise prove something. Job #3 is helping them to embrace business systems as a loving container around themselves and their clients. I’ll check out Chrissie’s book the Naked Lawyer, thanks!
That’s awesome, Alexis. Beautifully said. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us. And, I know that you do such a terrific job of helping lawyers and those in many other professions to understand and do these same things!
Evening Bob, Chi, Alexis and Jeff! Well, it is here in the UK:-)
Bob – you’re so kind. Thank-you for being you i.e. giving, giving and then giving some more. I do hope The Naked Lawyer has touched you as much as you have touched my life. I am highly appreciative of the time you have taken to bring The Naked Lawyer (and a part of its message) to the attention of your readers… and in your usual fun style. I love your blog posts and your wisdom!
Alexis – couldn’t agree more with you. SPot on. I’d also add that the real challenge for a lawyer is to be bold enough to be their authentic self and to continually focus on the THEM (client) rather than the ME ME ME. It’s a total paradigm shift when most lawyers have been schooled into time-orientation rather than task and big picture. If you are intrigued by The Naked Lawyer then it is available as an eBook and a Paperback (simply scroll to the bottom of the ebook webpage and you will see the option to buy the paperback) 🙂 I’d love to connect with you on Twitter and LinkedIn as I believe we have lots of synergy.
If you fancy chatting about TNL or other issues, or, if I can help any of you in any way then please do feel free to get in touch…
Warmest wishes to you all from across the pond…
Chrissie Lightfoot
The Entrepreneur Lawyer
(of the naked kind)
Hey Chrissie, great to hear from you. Thank YOU for the wisdom you shared which provided me with the idea for the post. I thought the paragraph of yours that I read early in your book and quoted near the beginning of this article provided a ton of insight, and I thank you for making a long-time challenge of the Legal Profession (and its clients) so concise and clear.
Bob, a undercover part of what you (I believe Alexis and Chrissie also) teach that isn’t explicitly stated here, but well worth mention, is that they can have a lot more fun as well. I’m just discovering that the more I relate to and understand my ideal clients the more fun I have. The ‘sales conversations’ when they come about are still about giving and service instead of what I used to think sales was about.
The principles you teach in The Go-Giver have re-shaped my approach to these conversations and so has my favorite quote from Michael Port – “Make sales offers proportionate to the amount of trust you have earned.”
It used to be that lawyers and doctors in particular could rely upon trust ‘earned’ by their studies. But as some of their competitors start earning trust through relating to their clients/patients the playing field really tilts in their favor.
Thanks for once again sharing valuable information that gets my wheels turning,
Jim
Very powerful Jim, and very true! Great thinking, my friend. Thank you for sharing with us!!
Hi Jim. Great point. Absolutely fab to hear of your success. If only we could encourage more attorneys / lawyers / solicitors / barristers in ‘the way’.
Funny you mention ‘fun’ as that’s exactly what Bob, Alexis and I advocate invariably occurs; I know from experience, as do you 🙂 So much so that it’s a big theme throughout The Naked Lawyer i.e. engouraging lawyers to have more fun too and not to take themselves so seriously.
I’ve recently received a bashing from an american lawyer who took issue with myself as the author and Paul Brennan (a credible commercial lawyer and author in Australia) who stated in his review of The Naked Lawyer that I have “produced the Karma Sutra of client care”. Said american lawyer commented that a reference to the ‘Karma Sutra’ would not be something they would want their own work compared to if they meant to reach a serious professional audience (having not even read the book).
I’ll leave you to think on that my friends…
What do you think?
Hi Bob:
Thanks for sharing with us a brief summary of Chrissie’s book, The Naked Lawyer. As you know I work with many lawyers and quite frankly most of them have no clue about marketing their services, they seem to think marketing is a 1/2 page ad in the yellow pages. This is particulary true of the “seasoned” older lawyers. I have found that I would much rather work with the younger lawyers. Since there are so many of them coming out of Law School without any chance of employment they need a lot of help and they are willing to listen and learn. The only thing I would be critical of is the name of her book. Having practiced for over 26 years before retiring and with many Bar Association meetings and conventions under my belt the thought of seeing “Naked” especially older Lawyers, does not conjure up pleasant thoughts. LOL I am looking forward to reading her book.
One more thing, can I have permission to use your Latin, “Clientium turnoffium big-time-ium”
Jim, thank you. I appreciate your sharing your insights with us, as I know you have a hugely successful practice working with lawyers. It is somewhat baffling regarding by the seeming lack of understanding of the sales and marketing aspect of their practice. And, yes, much more so for the older generation. I won’t comment on the “Naked” part other than, yes, those images are not especially pleasant. LOL. And, of course, I just assumed “Clientium turnoffium big-time-ium” was a well-known Latin phrase. Borrow away. LOLOL
Excellent post that I will be sharing with my client lawyers.
No matter our vocation, we all have to sell. And most lawyers have come to understand this, even if they don’t enjoy it.
I look forward to reading Chrissie’s book and comparing her thoughts to my fifteen years of experiences in teaching selling to high-end lawyers (average comp in those I teach is in excess of 500K per year). In the meantime, for any lawyers reading this post, I would offer two fundamentals for succesful selling of legal services: (1) Start by adopting Bob’s “Go-Giver” philosophy, and (2) Stop pitching and start catching.
The most succesful graduate of my program personally originates over $15,000,000 per year (and he is not in NYC where billing rates are markedly higher). He originates at this prodigious level by being a role model, in all aspects of his life, of being a “Go-Giver” and by being very, very skilled at catching (client needs).
As Zig Ziglar taught me many years ago, “You can get whatever you wants in life IF you will just help enough others get what they want.” Applies even to lawyers. 🙂
Bob, thanks for bringing Chrissie’s book to my attention.
Dave, thank you, both for your kind words about the book, and for sharing your wisdom. I know you have had a distinguished career in helping lawyers become more successful. And, yes…Zig’s saying hold’s true anywhere, doesn’t it? Much appreciated, my friend!