I admit that I hate sales. I hate being sold and I hate selling. Further, I am not very good at it. I talk too much, explain too much, never get around to closing, and end up giving away free advice by the non-billable-hour-bucketfuls.
Fortunately, we have two sales experts here at IMS: our president, Kyle Krull and our sales director, James Campbell. These are talented, educated and practiced sales professionals … which might make you think that it all comes easy to them and they just naturally know how to initiate a conversation, move it along and close it all up with a nice, neat check.
You would be wrong.
Years ago, when I was the practice manager in Kyle’s law firm, I noticed that his closing ratio for initial consultations was creeping downward. Of course, you know how frustrating that is. So, we looked closely at the cases that were not closing to see if we could spot a trend. What we found was that Kyle’s closing ratio for simpler, straightforward cases was nearly 100 percent. When the cases were more complex and the fees higher, though, the closing ratio went down.
Kyle wanted those bigger cases and those higher fees.
So we examined the sales process – from initial contact through the intake process to the office greeting, proposal, fee presentation and closing.
It was the first time I had ever seen the sales process dissected, analyzed, criticized, revamped, restructured and relaunched. Little did I know I had been watching a master at work!
The changes we implemented put Kyle’s sales back on track and boosting the closing ratio for higher-fee cases made a tremendous impact on the firm’s bottom line. Within weeks, the firm’s monthly revenue more than doubled!
Years later, here at IMS, James hit a similar roadblock in his sales career. He drew upon his own sales education and, working with a coach, totally revamped his process. The results were equally impressive. In the first month after changing his process, he closed more revenue than he had in the previous three months.
The moral of the story is that a sales process that works today may not work tomorrow. As your practice develops and the market evolves, so must your sales process. Particularly now when so much new business comes from the internet. Digital prospects usually are not thoroughly prepped by one of your trusted referral sources.
My observation is that the number one reason attorneys fail to close their digital leads is an outdated sales process. The same process that works well for workshop or referral leads, fails miserably with the website caller.
Sales process is the single most important factor in growing your law firm’s revenue and profitability, boosting closing ratios and supporting higher fees-per-case.
And the beauty of a well-defined process is that even those of us who hate sales, whom we might describe as “sales-challenged,” can succeed by following a process. In fact, those of us who are perhaps a bit more analytical and rely less on our natural talents, can quickly learn to rely on data and adjust our processes to achieve even greater success.
How important is sales process?
The RAIN Group Center for Sales Research recently undertook a major study to determine how sales process affected sales performance. Not surprisingly, the more developed and adaptive the sales process, the higher proposal win rates, greater likelihood to grow revenue, greater likelihood to hit the organization’s sales targets, and greater likelihood to sell with strong prices.
One Day Three of The Summit, Kyle and James will show how to develop your own sales process to build trust, set up a mutually beneficial arrangement between you and your prospect, qualify prospects as ideal clients and demonstrate unique value.
The goal is to create a sales process that’s truly in the best interest of both parties. It’s about getting to the truth from the very first meeting, before wasting unnecessary time, energy and resources on a process that will eventually go nowhere. The beauty is that when done correctly, both you and your prospect understand the personal impact of dealing with – or not dealing with – the needs at hand. And getting to this point is critical to ensure that both parties are willing to take the next steps.
To get the most from this session, check these limiting beliefs at the door:
- I am a lawyer, I do not do sales.
- Sales is all about education. I must educate my prospects before they can buy.
- My closing ratio is almost 100 percent if I just get a chance to meet with people.
Don’t miss this opportunity to push your firm revenue past process-driven roadblocks to new heights.
Register before Sept. 15 to save $200.
The Summit 2017
October 18-20
Cheyenne Mountain Resort | Colorado Springs