TIP #1 BE A "YES" PERSON

No attorney will endear themselves to his or her clients if the standard response is "No." You can do better than that. Your client deserves more than that. Having developed a regulatory bent early on in my legal career, I better understand the pitfalls of telling clients what they can’t do. Each day I defy the urge to give my clients the easy (wrong) answer to their question (No). Each day I put myself in my client’s shoes and try to imagine what my client wants to hear. My client wants to know how to solve his or her problems (see Tip #6). So don’t throw up roadblocks. If a roadblock exists, find an alternate route around it. Find out the client’s goals, and find a way to achieve those goals in a way that keeps the client on the (relatively) safe side of the law. You want your clients to view you as the go-to person to get things done. This will help your practice grow.

TIP #2 COMMUNICATE IN PLAIN ENGLISH

Last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission passed a law (Rule 421 under the Securities Act of 1933) requiring securities offering documents (commonly known as prospectuses) be written in "plain English." The SEC even published "A Plain English Handbook: How to Create Clear SEC Disclosure Documents," which can be viewed and downloaded from the SEC’s website handbook.

This is an enlightening departure from the indoctrination given to attorneys in law school to read, speak and write in legal language from the 1800’s. The only ones who understand us are other attorneys, and not even all of them understand our legalese. Unless your client is another attorney who demands this sort of gibberish, you can achieve better results for your clients and their understanding of your legal analysis by communicating to them in plain English. This means talking and writing in everyday language using short sentences in the active voice. Be economical with your words. Avoid legal jargon or highly technical business terms. Use bullet lists or tabular presentation for complex material or ideas. Use descriptive headings and subheadings to help the delivery and digestion of your writings.

Your clients want clear, succinct guidance, not a legal brief (what an oxymoron if there ever was!). If you can tell them what you need to tell them in two pages instead of twenty pages, they will be more likely to read and follow your advice. If you can’t let go of the security blanket that a scholarly memorandum provides to you and your risk/opinion committee, then provide a two-page executive summary in plain English and append it to the front of the supporting analysis.

Obviously, not everything is distillable into two pages. However, if you can avoid lengthy legal dissertations and communicate clearly and succinctly with your clients, then your clients will value your services more. If your clients understand better what you are telling them as compared to your competition, they will turn to you for legal advice. They also will compliment you on your ability to speak and write clearly. And your clients will tell two friends, and they’ll tell two friends, and so on, and so on (as the hair commercial used to say). This will help your practice grow.

TIP #3 UTILIZE INTERNET TECHNOLOGY TO GENERATE LEADS AND DELIVER INFORMATION

Don’t rely on a website to sell your legal services; such services are too personal, unique and individualized to sell through a website. Use your website to generate leads for potential clients and provide a quick source of information to potential and existing clients about you, your company/firm, and what is new and exciting in your field of practice or within your practice.

My division within the company utilizes its website as an information delivery tool (http://www.federatedinvestors.com/mutualfund/home.html). We posted pictures of our client service teams (see Tip # 6) to personalize who we are, and to match a face with the voice over the phone. We supplement the pictures with a short biographical exposé on each of the team members’ experience and skills. We explain what our business model is, and what services and products we offer. We post our press releases and client newsletters. We provide current industry information and events, both statistical and substantive. We publicize upcoming industry conferences we will be attending. We provide a way to contact us for more information.

While this may not contribute in a significant way to growing our practice, it is not something to overlook because it certainly helps us to stay competitive with the changing dynamics of the information world. Without it, we would be left behind by our competition.

TIP #4 PUBLICIZE YOURSELF AND YOUR SKILLS

Speak. Publish. Attend industry conferences and seminars. Become known. Know all. (But take care not to cross the fine line between knowing all and being an obnoxious know-it-all.) Take self-development courses to enhance skills you think or know you need to improve. Read self-help books on personal goal setting, management skills or effective sales techniques. Alternatively, listen to the audiotape versions during your commute.

It is hard to balance the demands to deliver high quality legal services to your clients with the need to continue to develop your business and grow your practice. Unless your company or firm has a marketing department that can publicize for you (and even assuming they do publicize for you), you can still obtain a lot of mileage by being present at conferences as an attendee or speaker to network and develop client prospects as well as reinforcing existing client associations.

Recently, a strong competitor of ours did not display an exhibit booth at an industry conference. This was interpreted (whether wrongly or rightly) as a sign that the competitor was pulling back from the industry. What was the reason for the competition’s absence? I don’t know and who really cares. The real reason is irrelevant to that prospect. The impression was made and the damage was done. This prospect passed along his observation to us; who knows how many others he told. This is not how you help your practice grow. Be visible. Be known. Your clients want an expert. Develop your presence as such.

TIP #5 PROVIDE HIGH QUALITY SERVICES AT AN ACCEPTABLE PRICE

There is a downward trend on pricing for services. By that, I mean that companies are asking people to do more with less. These pressures filtrate throughout the organization and the same pressures evidence themselves in the pricing negotiations these companies have with third party service/product providers.

How do you reconcile the client’s demand for continued or improved quality of your services and products with your client’s pressure to maintain or lower your prices for those services/products? There are several ways to achieve this. They all are tied to how you position yourself in the marketplace and whether you can differentiate on service rather than price.

First, you need to determine whether or not you are offering a commodity (or whether your product/service is perceived as such). By a commodity, I mean that the product or service is generic and common enough that there is no discernible difference between you and your competition. If your are in the business of selling a commodity, then the company selling it for the lowest price will win the business. If you charge the least, then you can skip the rest of this tip. If you don’t charge the least (and this will be everyone else), then here are some suggestions of how you can still compete effectively.

Utilize creative means of delivering services and billing for them. For example, if you can "package" a product or service in a cost-effective manner, then you can charge less for it and still yield an acceptable profit. For many firms, certain legal opinions have become standardized and routine. Consider charging a reduced rate for legal opinions that can be rendered without much new time and effort. What you may lose on the profit margin, you can make up by volume and by additional business from a satisfied client who benefits from the price reduction (and don’t forget to leverage this point with your client).

One way my company has utilized this concept is by negotiating a lower rate with a law firm that renders a high number of similar legal opinions on certain types of transactions. We created a form checklist for each transaction that is reviewed and completed internally and then relayed to the law firm for use in developing a standard form of opinion. The law firm charges less for these opinions because we have collectively developed a method for producing the opinions on a more cost-efficient basis. The law firm passes along these savings in the form of reduced prices. We compensate for this by sending all of this type of work to this firm. While the firm profit per transaction may decrease, its overall revenues and profits probably increase. Plus we get faster service at a lower cost. This can help your practice grow.

TIP #6 EMPLOY A SOLUTIONS-DRIVEN APPROACH TO SERVICING YOUR CLIENTS

One way to avoid the "like-for-like for less" trap (which means that you are essentially competing against yourself by cutting your price to meet your competition) often afflicting those in the business of selling a commodity, is to distinguish your services from your competitor’s. If you can demonstrate to your client that you are not providing "generic" legal services, but are adding value to your client’s business, you can negotiate up your fees.

Our company has established a new business model for delivering services that is based on a solutions-driven approach. We don’t merely provide services, but we provide solutions. And these solutions are "win-win," which means that we and our client win financially and substantively. We are able to identify and solve problems for our clients at a price that is mutually agreeable. Our client feels that the value we add to the mix justifies our price, and does not resent paying us more than what our competitors may charge for basic services. Our profit margins are maintained at a level that does not sacrifice the quality of our services or our ability to grow our business. We maintain and expand our relationship with that client. It is a "win-win" proposition for us and our client.

"How can I deliver solutions to my clients?" you may ask. This question is more easily answerable in the context of a corporate environment where the attorney’s clients are his or her internal business people. It is harder, but not impossible, to translate this in terms that apply to a law firm servicing its clients.

In developing a solutions-driven service model, we created service teams that support our clients. Our company’s relationship with its customers has traditionally been based on the premise of strategic alliances and partnerships. The service team embodies this premise. The team consists of representatives from the various disciplines within our company that service our clients: marketing, legal, business, and operations. Each team member has a specific role to fulfill because of his or her education and skill set, but all have equal voice in determining how to strategically service the team’s clients.

What is probably the most unique feature of this model, and clearly the most relevant to the audience of this presentation, is that: Attorneys are part of the service team. Attorneys are pulled into business strategy and planning sessions early on in the process so they can identify problems and issues at the onset, and assist in resolving or working around them. The attorneys generally buy in to the initiative before it proceeds too far in the development and implementation stage. This avoids the consequences many businesses face when they bring legal in at the tail-end of business initiatives. At that point, any issue the attorney raises is likely to give the business people angst. Also, the time the attorney needs to research, analyze and debate legal concerns is likely to slow down or stop the momentum of the initiative. This encourages the business people to make an end-run around the attorneys and to label the attorneys as the sales prevention department.

Another unique aspect of our service model is the concept that we will bring others to the table as part of a strategic alliance when the client’s needs can’t be met by our capabilities. In those cases, we act as a quarterback and coordinate the services of others to provide solutions to our clients.

Partnering attorneys with the business people is an easier translation for the corporate setting, but it can be done in a law firm setting. It involves initiative on the part of the law firm attorneys to take an interest and role in their clients’ businesses. They need to partner with these external business clients in the same fashion that an in-house attorney must partner with internal business clients. They need to develop and expand their client relationships. This will help attorneys grow their practice.

TIP #7 SERVICE YOUR CLIENTS

In terms of growing your practice, evidence supports the premise that you can grow your business with your existing customers more easily and cost-efficiently than you can by trying to grow your business by adding new clients. That means you need to focus as much time and effort (if not more) on servicing your existing clients as you do on trying to develop new business.

Following are some ideas to enhance service to your clients:

• Promptly return phone calls and respond to voice mail, e-mails and snail mail. Your clients will appreciate more your acknowledgment of their contact than your excuse for not responding right away because you (pick your choice):

• didn’t want to call back without an answer to their question
  
• didn’t want to get tied up with them
  
• only answer your calls in the order they come in
  were too busy dealing with another client’s problem or crisis. The best way to anger a client is to ignore the client.
  
• Forward articles or news on regulatory developments and industry trends of interest to your clients. Even better, provide a customized explanation of how you think the item will positively or negatively affect them, and how you can assist them in addressing this issue.
  
• Be adaptable and flexible.
  
• Change to meet the rapidly shifting business world.
  
• Remember that resisters and nay-sayers are left behind. (See Tip #1)
  
• Eliminate bureaucracies within your organization that create obstacles or slow down the process without providing any obvious benefits or advantages to you and your client.
• Take personal responsibility for your client’s success. Don’t merely deliver off-the-shelf legal advice. Add value to your legal services. Adapt it and mold it to fit the client’s needs. Make it workable and practical. Make your client’s business profitable. Stretch the envelope when possible without creating undue risk.
  
• Utilize client satisfaction surveys to obtain specific feedback on your performance. These surveys can be as informal as a periodic call to your clients to request their (dis)satisfaction with your services, or as formal as a written survey running many pages. You can solicit client feedback when you send out your monthly bill or after you complete a significant project. You can meet personally with the client to be able to see and assess body language. Think about who your client is, and which approach they are most likely to respond to, and in the most honest manner. You may have to utilize several different methods depending on your client base.
  This will grow your practice or, at a minimum, tell you where your strength and weaknesses are so you can make changes to grow your practice.

TIP #8 RESEARCH PROSPECTIVE AND EXISTING CLIENTS

When the time comes for you to market you and your company to potential new clients or to existing clients for new business, make sure you have done your homework.

First, research your prospect so you know its business as well as your own. This will help you identify its strength and weaknesses.
Second, identify the key decision-makers within a client. There is nothing more discouraging than spending time and effort selling to someone who doesn’t have decision-making authority (unless you absolutely must get that person’s approval to access the decision-maker – and even in those cases, you should strive to make one presentation to both people). Determine this through informal meetings to understand who are the key players within the prospect, what information they seek, and how best to present this information.
Third, come to your presentation prepared. Form is as important as substance.

This also will grow your practice.

TIP #9 NEVER REST ON YOUR LAURELS

This is a new world order. You can’t rest on your past accomplishments. The business world is changing daily. You need to change with it and prove yourself each day.

ACTION ITEMS

TIP # 10 SOME SUGGESTED REFERENCE RESOURCES

"Conceptual Selling: The Revolutionary System for Face-to-Face Selling Used by America’s Best Companies," by Robert B. Miller & Stephen E. Heiman (Warner Books). This book describes how to grow your business through win-win solutions.

"SPIN® Selling," "The SPIN® Selling Fieldbook: Practical Tools, Methods, Exercises, and Resources," and

"Major Account Sales Strategy," all by Neil Rackham (McGraw Hill). These books explore how to grow your business based on the acronym SPIN:

Situation - Find out the facts about buyer’s existing situation.

Problems - Ask about the buyer’s problems, difficulties, dissatisfactions with existing situation.

Implications - Ask about consequences or effects of buyer’s problems, difficulties or dissatisfactions.

Needs-payoff - Ask buyer about value or usefulness of proposed solutions. Obtain buyer’s commitment.

"Alliance Advantage: The Art of Creating Value through Partnering," by Yves L. Doz and Gary Hamel (Harvard Business School Press). This book explores how you can enhance your business by partnering with your clients.