|
The Maraia Minutes Newsletter March 1998 (Feature
article: Avoid Random Acts of
Lunch)
FROM THE KEYBOARD OF MARK MARAIA This month's issue will help you avoid "Random Acts of Lunch." It will provide unit-of-one advice for busy lawyers who desire better results in their business development meetings. We all know we should "prepare" before going to business development meetings, but many of us don't know what that involves. This issue explains the three things you should do before each meeting. Thanks for reading. Mark Maraia ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mark Maraia's tip of the month: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We were born with two ears and one mouth and we ought to use them in that proportion when meeting prospective clients. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FEATURE ARTICLE - Avoid Random Acts of Lunch ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ How many billable hours and opportunities were squandered at your firm in just the past month or two by lawyers who didn't bother to prepare for their business development meetings? The typical lawyer wastes 3-5 hours each month because they head off to meetings with little or no meaningful preparation. The troubling part is most lawyers genuinely believe meetings in which they "wing it" constitute effective marketing. What a joke. These meetings are little more than "Random Acts of Lunch." When I ask members of law firm management how much time the average lawyer spends preparing for a routine business development meeting (i.e. not beauty contests) the typical answer is "none." That's ironic because many lawyers fear rejection. Yet, there is often a direct link between how well you prepare for a meeting and the likelihood of rejection. Let's start with the obvious--do your homework. I have a two page list of resources you can check as part of your preparation before your meeting. If you would like a copy of this list please hit your reply button. Given the ubiquity of company websites, I consider it "marketing malpractice" for a lawyer to head into a meeting with a potential client without first checking their website. My assumption behind this kind of preparation is that it's better to prepare thoroughly for one client meeting per month rather than "wing it" with ten prospective clients each month. Many lawyers report increased confidence when they go into meetings fully prepared. Use this newsletter as a checklist in preparing for your next business development meeting and let me know how it works. There are three things you can do to prevent having "Random Acts of Lunch." Pull out a piece of paper. Here are three things you should write out on that piece of paper before your next meeting: 1. Write out the personal and organizational needs of the person you are meeting. When I ask lawyers what they think the prospect needs, most start telling me what THEY NEED. Big mistake. The more empathy you are able to demonstrate the better the meeting. Here are some personal needs youmight write down on your blank page. "Control." "Looking good to the boss." "Minimal time spent supervising the case." "Avoiding surprises." Consult with a partner or your firm's marketing director if you are having difficulty thinking of needs. Remember the needs of general counsel are going to be different from the needs of the CEO. Many top flight lawyers get a cold shoulder from the general counsel on an idea that would have been very well received by the CEO or CFO. 2. Write out 3-4 questions you might ask during the meeting. How many of you who are litigators wrote out the questions you intended to ask at your first trial? I'll bet all of you did. That's because if you go into trial unprepared the result is losing. If you go into a business development meeting unprepared the result is rejection. The better your preparation, the less chance of rejection. This point may seem obvious, but I find too many lawyers have no idea what it means to go into a business development meeting fully prepared. The fact that most lawyers do not prepare a list of questions is a source of constant amazement to me. One lawyer I coached agreed to fax me a list of questions he intended to ask during an upcoming meeting. When I received the fax it didn't contain a single question only talking points. I asked him to convert every "point" into a question. Contrary to popular belief, telling is not selling. 3. Write down possible outcomes you'd like to see happen at the conclusion of your meeting. An unacceptable outcome might be "build the relationship" or the client says, "I'll call you." An acceptable outcome might be "I want you to meet with the president on Thursday or Friday of next week." or "I want you to meet with the general counsel when he comes to town on April 4th." If you do anything less than all three when preparing for a meeting it is, in my opinion, a "Random Act of Lunch." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IN THE NEXT ISSUE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My next issue will set forth ideas on "branding" your practice whether you're a solo practitioner or the largest firm in your region. Copyright 1998 Mark M. Maraia Associates
FROM THE KEYBOARD OF MARK MARAIA I've heard nearly every reason imaginable for refusing to undertake marketing. This month's issue is a compendium of the ones that come up most frequently. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mark Maraia's tip of the month: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ During your firm's Christmas party think of yourself as a HOST of the party rather than a GUEST. Treating everyone as if they are a guest in your home should reduce your discomfort. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FEATURE ARTICLE - Excuses for Failing to Market ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ During the past few years, I have made thousands of follow up calls to lawyers and I always hear the same predictable excuses for why they are not marketing. It's no secret that lawyers would much rather practice law than undertake marketing. Yet, they have a skewed perception of marketing. Many lawyers think of the proverbial stockbroker making cold calls or some other pejorative stereotype. Lawyers don't hate marketing, they hate their PERCEPTION of what marketing is. How does this relate to lawyers' excuses? If you think of an activity as tantamount to street begging you probably won't do much of it. Frequently, the lawyers I work with make a dramatic shift in how they think about marketing. By contrast, great performers enjoy the process and rarely make excuses. In fact, it's the predominant difference between the average lawyer and the best rainmakers. However, your firm is likely to have more of the excuse makers than the rainmakers. I have heard just about every possible excuse a lawyer might offer to throw me off the trail. Here are the three most common excuses I hear and how to respond to them. 1. "I'm too busy. The last thing I want is more work." When you hear this come right back with four questions. First ask, "Is 100% of the work you are doing totally fun?" If not, (and it never is) suggest that they become extra choosy about the work that they pursue. This allows them to go after more fun work while they have that luxury. Another question that tends to stop a certain number of lawyers in their tracks is to ask "have you raised your rates lately?" If these first two questions don't work focus on their delegation skills. Ask "how much of your work can be delegated?" The answers to this question are often telling. Many admit they should get much better at delegation, but never actually DO it. If so, spend time rehearsing how they might delegate the more routine work to an associate. In some hot practice areas like M & A work or intellectual property there are not enough qualified associates to handle the work. In those cases, they have no one to delegate to. The last question you might ask of a lawyer who claims he is too busy to market is, "Have you thought of firing your worst clients?" Many lawyers become giddy at the thought of not having to deal with some of their least profitable clients. Often they say the least profitable ones are the most difficult and demanding. Life is too short, fire them! Some lawyers are concerned that their billable hours will dip. If they do, use the extra time to go after more desirable clients. There is another tack you can take with litigators who complain of being too busy. When confronted with "I'm too busy" the marketing director of a large west coast firm asks litigators a hypothetical question, "If your biggest client handed you another major case would you take it?" If their answer is yes, then he insists they have time for marketing. Pretty crafty. Dig behind the "too busy" excuse and you are likely to hear one or both of the next excuses. 2. "I don't like selling, it's unprofessional/unethical. I'm not the pushy sales type." It surprises most lawyers when I tell them not to sell anything during the period we work together. There are plenty of misconceptions about selling which are floating around the profession. This is clearly a big one. Who said you have to be pushy? The last thing I want anyone reading this article to do is "push" themselves or their services on someone who doesn't need help. In some cases, I will enjoin the more timid lawyers I coach as follows: "Absolutely do not try to sell anything for the next 30 days!" This surprises them and takes the pressure off. It also frees them to become more natural in their approach to clients and others. What I do urge lawyers to do is become much more attuned to the needs {both personal and corporate} of their prospective client. This requires them to do more homework and preparation on whomever they have targeted. Some feel this will ruin their spontaneity. They are surprised to learn how spontaneous and natural they feel when they are thoroughly prepared. More often than not the lawyers who initially hated selling report greater enjoyment from their marketing activities when they go into meetings fully prepared. A senior associate with a large firm started our coaching session by lamenting his lack of a network and his desire to build one. Three minutes into the meeting I learned that he had been a professor at one of the local universities before going to law school. Turns out he had a list of the names of his former students--all 2000 of them! I asked him if he maintained contact with his former students. He said, "no." He believed that contacting his former students for marketing reasons was somehow unethical. When I asked him if he genuinely wanted to reconnect with his former students even if they never hired him he said, "absolutely." I suggested he go for it. I also pointed out that he was allowing his belief to keep him from doing something that he really wanted to do. In no time at all, he generated a list of more than 60 former students he wanted to contact. He embarked on a plan to call a few people each week and offer to meet with them for lunch. He went from lacking a network to having one of the largest potential networks in a firm of 500 lawyers! From that point forward, instead of dreading the thought of marketing he had incredible fun marketing. The shift of mind was all that was needed. 3. "The firm provides no incentives for marketing, all they want is billable hours." Or stated positively, "The firm needs to give us credits or pay us to market." Maybe so, but that's a copout most of the time. What at least half the population means by that statement is, "I really don't like marketing." What's really stopping many lawyers from marketing is fear. If that describes you, welcome to the club. That describes all of us. The title of a self help book is often what I tell lawyers: "feel the fear and do it anyway." What most rainmakers realize is if they wait for the fear to subside before they undertake marketing they'll wait forever. If you're coaching lawyers consumed by fear of marketing get them focused on a course of action that moves them slightly outside their comfort zone. Every person's discomfort level is different so listen carefully for clues that you pushed them too far. One way to check fear levels is to ask: "Is this too far outside your zone of comfort?" If they say "yes" then scale back the action plan. The greater the fear, the smaller the movement they will take. If they say "no," give them reassurance that you believe they can do it. And be sure to follow up. To the other half of the population it's more a statement about their priorities. Help those who continually neglect marketing to examine their priorities. Frequently, marketing has unconsciously fallen to their lowest priority task. After becoming consciously aware of this, many lawyers move marketing much higher on their list of priorities. Most of the lawyers I work with focus on capturing one client during the period of time we work together. So I know I'm not overloading them with a heavy time commitment. Yet, there are plenty of times when they still don't make the one phone call they agreed to make. In those instances, I will ask them how much time it will take them to make the call. They realize it's only a few minutes. I sometimes ask them if pursuit of the target client is still a priority. If they say "yes" I watch their behavior. If a deadline they set comes and goes several more times I will ask them to help me reconcile their behavior with their words. Don't make the mistake of thinking that you need to TELL a lawyer that they must make marketing a high priority. That approach rarely works. It's much more effective to have THEM tell YOU that it's a priority. How else can you get them to move it up on their list of priorities? Make the activity fun. Urge lawyers to undertake marketing activities that they genuinely enjoy. Those activities may not always yield the best results, but so what. At least they get in motion. Once they get in motion they develop a sense of momentum. With that comes a willingness to try other ideas that are more likely to bear fruit. If the lawyers you are coaching have a huge mental block about selling then refocus their efforts on the less aggressive activity of networking. Most lawyers make the fundamental error of thinking that networking is about what you can GET from someone when it's the exact opposite. What can you GIVE someone is the mindset of great networkers. It's also the mindset of lawyers who are having fun networking. [For more on networking see my February issue: Networking With A Purpose.] The senior partner in one Los Angeles firm put it succinctly, "I used to think of myself as a supplicant. Now I view myself as someone who has lots of valuable advice (both legal and non legal) to give to people in my network." Lawyers will move marketing higher on their list of priorities if it provides immediate gratification. A young partner in a large firm came up to me during a break in one of my workshops. He said he had helped someone get a job as in-house counsel for one of his clients. He then went on to lament the fact that marketing does not provide for immediate gratification. I asked him if helping his client without expecting anything in return felt good. He agreed that it did. I said, "that sounds like instant gratification to me." I added, "do that every day and you'll be a great rainmaker in no time." You could see the light bulb go on above his head. As a leader, be alert to the excuses you hear for not marketing. Rarely should the excuses tossed at you be accepted at face value. Instead probe deeper and you'll find they need help getting past their psychological barriers to marketing. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IN THE NEXT ISSUE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our next issue will be a 1999 Planning Guide For Lawyers. Copyright 1998 Mark M. Maraia Associates Maraia
& Associates, Inc. * Phone
303-791-1042 || Why Relationship
Development Coaching || Programs
for Lawyers || Testimonials
|| |
March,
1998 (Vol. 1 Issue 3)