Legal Research

"Lawyers Are Natural Salespeople, But Training Can Lend a Hand"

This post was written by Tom Kane: "Actually, everyone is a salesperson. Some undoubtedly are better at it than others, but every one of us learned to sell from the moment we left our mother's womb...

Then, we come to attorneys. Lawyers learn to be effective sales people as they develop their legal skills. WHOA, you say. Okay, before I lose the rest of you, I'll explain. The fact is that lawyers sell every day to judges, opposing counsel, juries, and even clients. It's just a different type of selling from that involved in generating business. And lawyers are a bit more uncomfortable doing the latter.

That brings me to the article "Willie Loman, Esq.: How Lawyers Became Salesmen" by Gina Passarella that first appeared in The Legal Intelligencer and this week on New York Lawyer. It explains how law firms are moving more from pure marketing to selling (oops, I mean "business development"), and quoted extensively from my colleague Jim Hassett over at LegalBizDev, who has more than 20 years experience in sales training, and from current and former CMO's in the Philadelphia market.

The gist of the piece emphasizes the need for lawyers, generally, to become much more effective in terms of business development selling. Some key points include:..."

Continue reading this interesting post and reach the active links by clicking on the author's name.

Source: Legal Marketing Blog.com, 11 November 2010,  reproduced with permission of the author

Full post as published by Stark County Law Library Blawg on November 12, 2010 (boomark / email).