Source: Book Legal Marketing: from a competent law firm to a competitive one. How to achieve it
Sales make the world go around. Sales are what drive the economy and the leading companies in all sectors of the economy are those that know how to sell better. The leading law firms are those that sell better.
In life, everything is sales. All interaction aimed at teaching, educating, influencing, or persuading is an act of sale. Paradoxically, we aren’t taught to sell or to be better prepared not to fall victim to the influence that some ethically questionable companies (or companies that create needs where none exist) have over us. Knowing how to sell is really an essential skill.
“Knowing how to sell” means helping a client to hire, to choose our firm, without pressuring them and based on our ability to help him resolve or avoid a problem. We also need to be experts in the hiring process. To achieve this, we must know how to actively observe and listen, how to properly handle objections and communicate benefits, because each benefit for the potential client is one more reason for him to hire us.
How can we properly handle objections?
When faced with an objection, like “your fees seem high,” for example, a lawyer usually justifies himself. And what happens when we justify ourselves? We lose power with respect to the potential client. To sell, it is important to ask.
He who asks questions dominates the relationship, even though most people think it is the person who talks the most. It is important to talk about what we have in common and to brush over, or ignore, that which distances us from the client. Out of everything the client says, good or bad, we need to focus on the positive things and avoid arguing by asking questions.
For example, if the client says other firms are less expensive, but that ours seems to be the most innovative, then we should focus on the latter. We should ask him about this aspect, focusing on what unites us. Unfortunately, most lawyers don’t sell; they don’t help the client to hire them—they simply provide information.
© Francesc Dominguez, legal marketing and personal branding consultant, www.francescdominguez.com. Article published on The Impact Lawyers.
