#166: Law Firm Sales (Effective Sales Pitch Secrets)

​[00:01:05] Hey there, everybody. This is Heather Moulder, host of the Life & Law Podcast. And today we are talking about law firm sales pitches. Specifically, we are going to get into my top five law firm sales pitch strategies for effective sales pitches that will exponentially increase your close rate.

Now, a couple of notes and caveats.

Number one, this will make your sales pitches much, much more impactful and effective. And when I say impactful, what I mean is that you’re going to tailor it a whole lot better to your audience so that it is impactful to them, so that they get something out of it. They see the value, they see the benefit. They really enjoy it. Okay?

Which means it’s going to be more effective in that you’re going to exponentially increase your ROI, meaning you’re going to close more law firm sales pitches than ever before. A lot more.

But second note, this does not mean you’re going to win everything. Okay, sorry to break that bit of news, because sometimes maybe you’re not the best fit. Sometimes maybe politics comes into play. Sometimes maybe somebody else had an in, you didn’t.

Regardless of whether or not you win that pitch, however, I promise that if you do this, if you take these things into account, you’re going to be remembered in a good way, which means you’re going to plant seeds for potential future business growth. Because any one pitch, yes, it’s about that pitch, but it’s actually about more than that. It’s about future work as well.

The Problem We Lawyers Have When It Comes To Selling and Sales Pitches

Okay, so before we get into my five law firm sales pitch tips, let’s talk a moment about why I’m even covering this topic.

Here’s why:

I see too many ineffective sales pitches and sales tactics in my practice with new clients. Which we, of course, quickly remedy. And also, generally, when I’m at networking events talking to lawyers and this issue comes up, I often ask questions to get a sense of how their approach, you know, what their approach is, how they’ve approached a pitch, what they believe did and didn’t work, and why.

And frankly, over the years, both from my own legal practice and now as a lawyer business coach, I’ve learned that there are some gaps in how most law firm sales pitches are put together.

And it really starts from the approach at the outset around how you think about the pitch and its purpose, and also how you approach your legal practice in general.

Also, some of you are not in a position to make a sales pitch anytime soon. You might be thinking, Heather, I’m in house. So this topic does not apply to me or Heather, I’m still an associate. I don’t do sales pitches, and maybe I never will because I don’t know if I’m going to get promoted to partner, or perhaps you’re considering going another route.

I still want you to listen, because here’s what this is really about. What I’m teaching you today is a framework that you could apply to selling just about anything. Whether it’s selling the case of being promoted to partnership or in house. Whether it’s trying to convince a business division to change something for compliance purposes that you know they won’t like doing because it’s more work, energy, time. Whether it’s trying to sell something.

When we’re convincing people of our cause, our viewpoint, we’re selling. And the fact of the matter is, whether you’re selling an idea, a project, yourself, or something else, these tips are actually going to help you. I keep calling them sales pitch tips. They’re really a framework for selling.

[00:04:46] So what I want you to do is to take what I’m talking about and figure out, well, how does this apply to me in my current situation and how might it apply to me in my future? And then also bookmark it for future use. Because one day you may very well be in an actual sales pitch and you’re going to need it.

So regardless of where you are in your career, regardless of what you do, I think this is going to apply to you. So please listen up. Okay, so let’s get into my five part framework or five tips for effective law firm sales pitches.

Law Firm Sales Pitch Tip #1: Ask Questions, Be A Skeptic & Do Your Research

Number one, do your due diligence.

So do not just take the initial request as gospel and run with that before figuring out more, because you are not going to know enough. There’s nuance you’re missing. You don’t know their biases and opinions. You don’t understand how they approach to the particular issue, project, whatever it is that you’re pitching. Right?

This is something most lawyers actually do not do enough of. Which surprises me. And you might be thinking, well, duh, Heather, but ask yourself, do you really do this? And how deep do you actually go? Because in my experience, here’s what happens.

• You get asked to do a pitch, you get super excited.
• You go to your marketing department, you have them put a bunch of materials together.
• You reach out to the people you know in the area, and then you go pitch it.

That is not enough. You need to do your due diligence.

Begin by asking questions.

Ask them to tell you more so that you can gain better insight about what they’re looking for, what they think is most important, and so on, and then dive even deeper. Listen, actively. We talked about active listening a lot lately.

And if you do not know who to ask, ask whomever your contact is, and then figure out who else you can ask if they are not the right person.

Do your research – and go deep.

[00:06:43] Also go beyond that. Look up the company in the news, figure out what they care about. Figure out how they do business. Figure out how all of this plays into what it is they’re asking for. The pitch at hand, right?

When asking questions of those on the inside, be honest about why. By the way, they’re going to appreciate that you care enough, not enough lawyers do this.

Tell them that this is going to enable you to give them a more tailored pitch so that it’s actually relevant to them. Their goals, their business, the outcome they want.

Your goal is to meet their needs and their desires and their goals. Therefore, it makes sense for them to take the time to answer your questions and go find out more information on your behalf.

I’ll give you an example here. I did a workshop earlier this year for a law firm who wanted help with putting together their capital “S” story. I’ve talked about this before, storytelling we’ve talked a little bit about before.

And then also to help each individual lawyer who was there. It was just partners. It was a small firm, and there were about ten partners there. And we went through a kind of a process where I helped pull stories from them so that they could learn how to utilize those stories within their firm marketing.

Now, in coming up with the proposal, when they reached out, I could have just said, oh, great, I know exactly what you need. Based on my own experience, you’re asking me for help with marketing and storytelling. And I could have put a proposal together, but I guarantee it wouldn’t have been very good.

What I did instead is I asked the partner who I knew there the questions and tried to figure out what it is that you’re looking for, what is your goal, etcetera. I found out there was another high level partner who had some other opinions, and then there was an in house marketing person who had some opinions.

So we got a meeting together, and I asked a bunch of questions, and then I was able to tailor my proposal to them. I got a much better idea of the time involvement. I got a much better idea about what they really wanted. They had several big picture goals, and it wasn’t just about the story. There was more to it.

They also wanted facilitation of their marketing plan for the next year. I wouldn’t have known that had I not met with them and asked the questions that I asked. 

When I gave them their proposal, it met exactly the needs and the goals that they had, and it was an easy yes.

So this is what you’re trying to do, y’all.

[00:09:13] Same thing goes for you.

You’re Not Just Researching, You’re Selling

This actually starts the selling before you give the pitch in a really good way, because it shows them how much you care. It shows them how detail oriented you are. It shows them that you’re not just gonna go off on some tangent without talking with them. It shows them that you’re collaborative. It shows them a lot of things that these companies are looking for in their lawyers.

So it starts the selling process in a good way from the get-go.

What About RFP’s?

Now, a quick note about rfps. This does not necessarily apply to rfps unless you know somebody in house that you can go talk to. Hopefully you do. Right. So try to find a way in to talk about this or ask some questions when you’re putting an RFP together, I will tell you that even if you can’t go to somebody and ask the specific questions, you can still tailor it to their needs, tailor it to their culture, tailor it to their business, but you’ve got to go do more of your own due diligence work.

So, for example, perhaps it’s a client of the firm where several partners have done other work for, and now they’re asking for something new. They’re asking for the RFP in a new area. Well, you need to go talk to those people. You need to find out, what do you know about their culture? What do you know about their style? What do you know about what they typically look for? You need to do some external research.

You have marketing people to help you do this. FYI, you don’t have to be the one doing this, but all of that is still going to be very helpful and you want to tailor it as best you can to them. Don’t just go in and answer the questions in an RFP with assumptions.

Obviously, if you can’t talk to them and try to tailor it more specifically to them, you will have to assume some things. But don’t assume everything and do as much due diligence as you can so that you can try to tailor it as best you can.

Okay, so that’s step number one, do your due diligence.

Step number two for effective law firm sales pitches? Go deeper.

And what I mean by this is treat them as though they are already a client.

[00:11:35] Given what they want, given what you’re hearing from them, given what you know about them, what else is important here?

What would you recommend to them if they were your client? This part is important to, like, really think through because you need to make sure you understand them more deeply. It’s going to maybe uncover some additional questions that you want to go back and ask, and this helps you to more specifically tailor your pitch to them.

And this is really important.

[00:12:07] Tailor to them, their goals, their needs, their style.

Some lawyers might be a perfect fit on paper, but aren’t from a style personality standpoint.

Who else could be included instead? Or maybe they do because they are the only one that can do this thing that this client needs, but they don’t present well in person. So they need to be in the pitch materials and highlighted in a particular way, but are not a good idea to be at the pitch itself.

Tailor your pitch outline, your pitch approach and the people you bring with you to them – to their desires, their goals, their needs, their style, and their culture, based on everything you know, based on all the due diligence you’ve done.

That’s your job. Your job is to meet their desires, goals, needs, and also to show them what else is important and why it’s important.

So after you do the tailoring, after you figure out kind of your approach, you need to ask those other questions. Go deeper as though they’re already your client. What else do they need to know? What questions should they be asking?

What’s important here that they haven’t mentioned or maybe glossed over? Now, this is not the time to get into an argument with them, but it’s the time to highlight why you’re including certain people, how you would approach something.

[00:13:42] It’s going to help you put together the perfect, tailored pitch.

What I often see happening and hearing from my clients, and this is when especially the clients who come to me complaining about how others have taken over, is they put some pitch together very haphazardly based on very check the box items.

Don’t just go to the people you know well. Think outside the box and figure out what will meet the needs of this client. It’s about them, not you and your relationships. And don’t underestimate the client’s personality, culture, style.

So some clients, if facing litigation, have a take no prisoners attitude. Others would prefer not to have that style. So given that, given their style, let’s say you have a couple of attorneys that fit the needs. Who’s the best fit?

Tailor your people, pitch and pitch materials to that.

So go deeper. Treat them as though they’re already your client, and tailor it, tailor it, tailor it. All right.

Law firm sales pitch strategy #3: Make the business case.

Do not just give them the legal side. They need to know why. Why you, why your firm? Why these people? Why this approach?

Make the business case. This is something that gets glossed over too often or not mentioned.

It’s forgotten by a lot of lawyers. This is a must-have for an effective pitch, y’all, because guess what? This is a big spend for them. Regardless of what the budget is, it’s a big spend for them. They need to understand why.

Why your approach, why the style? How will all of this come together and impact their business goals and objectives?

Make the business case.

This will make you stand out so much. The tailoring and the making the business case, huge differentiation. It makes for a very different pitch than just focusing on the legal, the win.

#4: Show your value to them.

So you’re going to want to highlight your strengths. That is, the firms and the people who matter to this client. But then you need to go beyond that. Why does that matter to them?

Again, this is tailoring it to their vision, their goals, their needs, their wants, their business. Part of this gets to the basics of, like, how do you communicate, how do you operate, how do you bill and so on. But a large piece of this is your approach.

What is your strength here, and why does this matter? And when I say your, I mean not just you, but the team’s, the firm’s, right? This could include knowledge, experience, connections, novel ways of approaching the issues at hand, style and so on.

And understand, this has nothing to do with you. It’s about them. Again, it’s about them.

It’s about why this is important to them, not why you need to be in. There is, there’s nuance here. If you go in with the approach to them, and this really does connect to their business case as well, you’re going to do a much better job of connecting the dots as to why you’re so important to them and the outcome they ultimately want.

This is also not about just telling them that you do something, but showing them how you do it. Give examples, be specific, tell a story.

Show your strengths and values more clearly through that story.

This will help make it about them and not you. Because, again, your pitch, it’s not about you, it’s about them and the result that they want.

Step number five, you’ve made the pitch, you’ve done your due diligence, you’ve gone deeper and treated them as though they’re already a client. You’ve tailored it very specifically to them. You’ve made the business case, you’ve shown your value and highlighted why that’s important to them, and you’ve done that in all of your materials and who you’ve picked for your team and in the in person pitch itself. Now it’s done. You’re in a waiting game.

You need to follow up.

Assuming you can, you want to follow up with them pretty quickly. So there is an art to this, I’m going to note here. I’m not telling you to email and or call them every day or two to find out the result that’ll drive them insane.

Instead, what I’m telling you to do is, first off, send an email later that day or the next day as a follow up, letting them know you are available to answer questions as they analyze and discuss internally, maybe getting them any more materials that you had promised them or reattaching what you gave them in person in case they want to forward it on. That kind of a thing.

Now, this is going to depend on the pitch itself, on the timeline that was given to you, on the expectations.

What I would say is try to talk through when you’re giving the pitch and afterwards, hey, what’s the timeline for this? What can we expect? How would you like us to reach out? That kind of a thing.

That’s part of your closing of your pitch and it’s kind of follow-up. I put it into that realm of follow up because although it’s done, when you’re there, it’s what sets up the follow up. So get a basic understanding, but do not assume that you, if you haven’t heard a week or two later that it means you didn’t get it. Because people get busy.

Often people tell you deadlines that they can’t themselves keep to because things get busy.

So do follow up. If they say, we’re going to know within a week or two weeks, then if you know five days later, you want to follow up and say, hey, I know you still might be in the process, but I just wanted to check in really quickly and see if there’s anything you need from us. That’s it. 

And then the day after they were supposed to get back with you, if you haven’t heard, you follow up, again. If it’s a longer burn, you don’t follow up that quickly, necessarily. There is an art to this, and this is something I help my clients with, and it’s very tailored to that client again.

So ask the questions, understand the timeline, do not assume, do follow up. And just note, take into account the personality of the individual you’re following up with and your past correspondence. That matters. This is not rocket science, y’all. What it requires is some attention and thought.

So, attention, asking questions, and then giving some thought before reaching out. But whatever you do, do not just go to a pitch and be done and never follow up. Because here’s the deal. There might have been two great pitches that both sold themselves well, yours being one of them.

And they may go with the other firm for a variety of reasons that really has no bearing on you or your firm or how well your pitch was.

But you have planted a seed that they will remember even if you don’t get the work. So keep that relationship going even after hearing that you aren’t getting hired. Stay in touch. Offer value to them as you can.

Because my final thought is, a no is almost never a no forever. It’s a no for now, a no for this time. Remember that.

You would be surprised how utilizing these five law firm sales pitch tips for more impactful sales pitches and treating a no, it’s just a no for now, will get you a lot more business into the future. I’m telling you, this works. I’ve seen it firsthand in my own practice, in my own current business, and in my clients as well.

Now, sales pitches are just one small part of business development. Right?

To grow your law practice, you need a targeted, strengths-based business development plan that actually works for you. One that is strategically targeted to bring in the right clients, leveraging your strengths in a way that feels good so that you can be consistent and you can attract the right people to you.

Which is exactly what ELEVATE, my attorney business development mastermind, was designed for.

Doors to elevate officially open to the public next month, y’all, and you can get early access by joining the waitlist right now.

What this does is it gives you more access to me without having to pay anything extra. This is the last week to join the waitlist and get early access, so if this sounds at all interesting to you, see the show notes. Go to the link for elevate to learn more and join the waitlist now. Alright, that’s it for this week. We’ll be talking again next week. Bye for now.