Why lawyers are bad salespeople
Too many lawyers believe that they’re special, and cannot sell themselves as others do. They believe that the combination of their expert knowledge and the specific needs of their clients makes them unique.
This is rubbish.
The lawyer is no more special than the consultant, accountant, actuary or surveyor. All provide applied expert knowledge to enable the client to achieve their business' goals. All need a good understanding of the clients’ businesses to offer high-value advice, and all are “expensive”. In fact all professions suffer from the same challenges when selling. Why is that?
The first challenge is that the typical professional has few of the characteristics you would look for in a salesman: optimistic, risk-embracing, goal-oriented, numbers-driven, socially adept and not taking rejection personally. Those who do are the exception to the rule.
The second challenge is more prevalent in law firms than in the other firms: lawyers aren’t very teachable. They look for an intellectual way to sell, look for logical loopholes in the process, look for the reasons why they cannot sell – in fact do anything rather than develop the skill of selling.
Which is a shame, because any firm could be successful if its lawyers were willing to learn to sell.
All the research I've seen shows that clients value the disciplines that good salesmen offer - incisive questions to identify problems, excellent listening, client understanding, tailoring the services to needs and building a long-term relationship.
The market is still wide-open for the firm whose partners and solicitors are willing to learn.