We are honored for the second year in a row to sponsor the Legal Sales and Service Organization (LSSO) awards. For information on the amazing accomplishments of this year’s award winners (Carolyn Rumpf Sandano and Michael Mellor for Sales Executive of the Year and Honorable Mention respectively; and Eversheds Sutherland and Womble Bond Dickson for Sales Team of the Year and Honorable Mention respectively) please visit the LSSO Award page.
After announcing the 2020 Sales & Service Award winners on Monday, June 8th, we held a virtual roundtable discussion with:
- Carolyn Sandano, Business Development Manager at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan;
- Mike Mellor, Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer at Pryor Cashman;
- Steven Boehm, Partner and Head of Capital Markets & Investments at Eversheds Sutherland;
- Stephanie Hinrichs, Senior Director of Sales at Womble Bond Dickinson; and
- Samantha McKenna, Founder of #samsales Consulting.
Content is a tool to grease attorneys “selling activity.”
I moderated and our discussion centered on three key issues: content, culture, and Covid-19. Here were our main takeaways.
Content: What role/value does content play in your sales activities?
Go to the lawyer who may not be the rainmaker, but who is really jazzed about what they are doing content wise and get to understand what drives them because they are the fuel for a lot of what the rainmakers will go out and do. – Carolyn Sandano
What I learned early on is that you want to get your name out there anytime you can. You want to get as much content on the internet as possible. One of the things we did is create a website, publiclytradedprivateequity.com, and it’s become the industry source for information on Business Development Companies (BDCs). – Steve Boehm
Content is about advancing the conversation through different stages of the sales funnel. – Mike Mellor
Generating content and providing others with the opportunity to create it helped us further relationships. We had a crew doing podcast interviews at the Association of Corporate Counsel annual meeting, which is the watering hole for buyers of legal services… It had a great shelf life and provided the opportunity to engage with potential buyers after the conference. – Stephanie Hinrichs
Content is about sharing useful information and analysis (thought leadership) and going to market with something that highlights our attorneys and their knowledge of the client’s issues. – Stephanie Hinrichs
Content is a tool to grease attorneys “selling activity.” While it can be generic and expensive to produce at the top of the funnel (for that elusive market “awareness”), it can be very strategic and valuable at the bottom – as a selling tool. For instance, if you have an opportunity to create a bylined article, you should reach out to clients and prospects and invite them to co-author it with you. You’ll be extra lucky if you are able to connect with 9 people – and invite them to coffee and otherwise learn what they’ve recently been up to or where they’re going – before the 10th says yes… – John Hellerman
Consider how to share content meaningfully. It needs to be short, concise, prove value, and show your subject matter expertise. – Samantha McKenna *Here is a link to Sam’s great tip on LinkedIn last week about how to properly share articles of interest with connections.
Culture: How important is culture to a successful sales initiative and how do you instill it?
Everything comes back to a systematic process you put in place. Business development is a skill to be deployed and not just a series of random acts. – McKenna
It’s not just about how you grow your position within the market, but how you help the market grow. Then, your position and share in the market grows as the market grows. That’s a lost component of some of the sales we do. Part of our job needs to be helping attorneys evangelize the industries they are selling into. – Hellerman
You need to develop a culture of empowerment to make people want to go out and market themselves. Not everybody is a natural rainmaker, but you can empower people to do their best. What I’ve tried to do with my team is to make people (associates and partners) feel ownership. If people feel like owners of the business, they will work hard to increase the business. – Boehm
Think about your own network and how you can connect your attorneys. Something I’ve done is expose attorneys to the sales process. Everybody learns differently and sometimes it’s helpful to bring them along and show them first-hand. – Hinrichs
Taking young lawyers around to meet their counterparts as clients is critically important because people want to deal with their peers. I tell my younger associates: 10 years from now, the people you’re meeting today will be your clients or your regulators. – Boehm
Covid-19: How has Covid-19 (and the recent protests) affected your sales efforts?
Folks are a lot more receptive. We’ve been able to accelerate a process around the new normal. We were able to develop speed rounds and give clients and prospects 50 minutes of what they need to know across practices. But, you can’t be the jack of all industries. – Mellor
How do we conduct business the way it used to be? We can’t; it won’t be the same. We have to adapt to our buyers. Referral sources and partnerships will be incredibly important moving forward. – Hinrichs
I am surprised by the different stressors people have in home life and how that impacts what they can produce. Ask questions, don’t assume anything, and find out how people are doing personally and professionally. – Sandano
This really isn’t anything new. Our attorneys should’ve been connecting virtually all along. – McKenna
- So, use content to engage with clients and prospects in a comfortable, flattering, productive manner;
- Make sure your culture nurtures and rewards your professionals for their efforts; and
- Ramp-up relationship building via the many online tools that make it easy to connect, and when you do connect, really listen.