Some in house and private practice commercial lawyers see sales departments as a threat and a risk – all they want to do is sell products or services, get their commission and move on to the next opportunity, leaving behind risk and problems for everybody else.
I think this is completely wrong. I am a great admirer of the sales people in large IT companies. They have to work very hard to develop relationships with customers, and then when an opportunity comes along, to manage a bid for it and then (for the most professional) guide the contract negotiation process. Without them there would be no business and no IT companies.
I thought that law firms and other professional practices would by now match this professionalism in their marketing and sales. They do to some extent, and many if not most large firms now have dedicated and professional marketing teams.
However, a few weeks ago I attended a presentation which suggested that professional practices still have some way to go. When partners were asked to comply with a specific assessment and procurement process for a major organisation, some amazingly declined to participate and didn’t “get it”. When told that their relationship partner was the wrong person for this particular client - they refused to change them.
This is crazy and so unprofessional – almost arrogant. There is so much they could learn from a sales organisation in a large IT services company. They have a proper sales pipeline using CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems such as salesforce to manage and help develop sales opportunities.
They also use another really useful technique or practice which is the development of a relationship matrix showing all of the contacts with the customer categorising them in some way as to develop the sales process. Here is a definition I found that sums up the concept.
The relationship matrix diagram is a convenient method of visualizing relationships quickly and definitively. The relationship matrix diagram graphically shows relationships and allows a team or individual to systematically identify, analyze, and rate the presence and strength of relationships within a set of items or between two or more sets of information.
This could typically identify different categories of people in the potential customer – such as:
The individuals in each category can then be matched to a contact person in the professional firm, if there are any.
This article gives a more detailed view of account and sales management processes.
I suggest that these sorts of processes used in industry can offer lessons to professional practices that will help their marketing and sales process. It’s not just about buying somebody lunch (if their compliance policies permit this!) or holding breakfast seminars. Sales is or should be a professional process.
As William Edwards Deming the American engineer, described as the father of quality management, said: “If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you are doing”.
I think this is completely wrong. I am a great admirer of the sales people in large IT companies. They have to work very hard to develop relationships with customers, and then when an opportunity comes along, to manage a bid for it and then (for the most professional) guide the contract negotiation process. Without them there would be no business and no IT companies.
I thought that law firms and other professional practices would by now match this professionalism in their marketing and sales. They do to some extent, and many if not most large firms now have dedicated and professional marketing teams.
However, a few weeks ago I attended a presentation which suggested that professional practices still have some way to go. When partners were asked to comply with a specific assessment and procurement process for a major organisation, some amazingly declined to participate and didn’t “get it”. When told that their relationship partner was the wrong person for this particular client - they refused to change them.
This is crazy and so unprofessional – almost arrogant. There is so much they could learn from a sales organisation in a large IT services company. They have a proper sales pipeline using CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems such as salesforce to manage and help develop sales opportunities.
They also use another really useful technique or practice which is the development of a relationship matrix showing all of the contacts with the customer categorising them in some way as to develop the sales process. Here is a definition I found that sums up the concept.
The relationship matrix diagram is a convenient method of visualizing relationships quickly and definitively. The relationship matrix diagram graphically shows relationships and allows a team or individual to systematically identify, analyze, and rate the presence and strength of relationships within a set of items or between two or more sets of information.
This could typically identify different categories of people in the potential customer – such as:
- Senior executive
- Decision maker
- Influencers
- Contributor
- Adviser
- Use
- Enabler
- Buyer
The individuals in each category can then be matched to a contact person in the professional firm, if there are any.
This article gives a more detailed view of account and sales management processes.
I suggest that these sorts of processes used in industry can offer lessons to professional practices that will help their marketing and sales process. It’s not just about buying somebody lunch (if their compliance policies permit this!) or holding breakfast seminars. Sales is or should be a professional process.
As William Edwards Deming the American engineer, described as the father of quality management, said: “If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you are doing”.
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