Practical ways to get partners to sell more
For a law firm to survive it needs partners to step up to the plate and sell more profitable work.
Too many partners never leave the first base; supervising and developing other-partners' clients but not building the firm. If the firm is a machine, it is stalling through lack of fuel.
The reason this fuel starvation happens is not just because partners are happiest undertaking legal work and do not see the true situation. I have been privy to the secret nightmares of too many partners - the one where you wake in the middle of the night wondering how on earth you are going to generate the work required to feed your hungry team - to doubt their deep anxiety. But anxiety without an action plan creates stress, desperation and in some cases depression. And in my experience, partners simply don't know what to do.
Well, here's a couple of things they could do:
1. Give meaning to partners' work.
Partners are ambitious, yet the annual billing cycle just creates a sense of annual Ground Hog Day, where the endless cycle of find, grind, mind, bill and collect is a deadening cadence. Firms need to set out a partner's life in bigger terms. To show them the epic journey, from young and foolish new partner through to battle-hardened equity partner. This should be a combination of structure (e.g. what do we expect a 7 year partner to differently to a newly minted one?) and story (How did others do it? How come we're currently successful? How did the old-and-bold develop such a rich patina of confidenece?). Let's call it a framework, but not reduce it to a series of boxes on a sheet of A4.
2. Provide a supportive environment.
I see law firms as brutal places, and they are becoming more so. Individual remuneration is leading to individualism. Growing strong partners, however, requires a greenhouse environment, not a Siberian winter experience. I see too many junior partner frantically trying to implement a hopelessly optimistic business plan on which they gained partnership, and a sad number of mid-level partners who never really built a firm foundation. To address this sense of loneliness a firm needs to provide planned, appropriate training and support for the partner at every each stage, not wait until a floundering partner cries out. So we should require junior partners to understand project management, so they can maximise profit from transactions. We should require senior partners to join together to wrestle with the challenges of leadership. And we mean require, not offer. To change a culture requires commitment and investment, not the occasional volunteer.
I believe that if a firm sets out the route and provides both companions and support, the epic journey becomes both achievable and dare I say it, fun.
What do you think? If you want to read a white paper setting out the detail behind my ideas, click on the button. 