Many cringe when the topic of selling, or sales, comes up. If I told you that you’re in the position of selling every day of your life, does that make your stomach turn?
If you would also like to listen to my 2-minute, 46-second episode of Legal Marketing Moments where this blog post originated, you can either click the green play button below or click here if you are reading this via email. If you prefer to read this via blog post, I have rewritten and expanded upon the podcast as a blog post below for you. If that’s you, keep scrolling.
Does Your Livelihood Depend On Others?
It’s true. If you are an attorney whose livelihood depends on clients spending money for your services, you are in the business of selling.
I’ve Been Right There With You
My first jobs out of college were in sales, so I’ve been right there with you.
I’ve been through some of the best sales training in the world with a company that used to be called L M Berry. I believe now it’s called The Berry Company. I was sent out of town for two weeks of group and individual sales training before I was ever allowed out “on the streets” for what was, in retrospect, one of the most difficult products to sell, Yellow Pages advertising. No wise cracks from those of you who have never heard of them, okay?
I also sold real estate in a city I had just moved to, Indianapolis, which was incredibly ambitious, don’t you think? Sometimes being young and unaware is a good thing because we learn how to do things we might never have done if we had a few years under our belts and knew enough to question our sanity.
In a related field, I also sold title insurance. I sold to the same people I met while selling real estate, so it was fun. Both of those experiences taught me just enough to be dangerous several years later when we sold our house on our own in only 2 weeks. Yay, me!
You and I Will Always Be In Sales
The truth is, I’m in sales again as I run my own company because I need to talk to you about what I offer and what I suggest for you every day of my life, or at least every day of my life that I’m working. Okay, in reality, most weeks that is 7 days. I’m not bragging, I just tend to use those “in-between moments” that I talk about often, which are those moments when I communicate with others while I’m waiting for something else to happen.
Back to you and back to sales. Even when you aren’t talking to clients and potential clients, you are still selling because your thoughts, attitudes, the way you like to do things, the way you wish others in your life did things, where you want to go to dinner, where you want to hang a painting, what color you want to paint your walls, and so much more often involve making your case to another person. That, my friend, also calls upon your sales skills.
Sales Is Unavoidable, So Let’s Make It Easy, Okay?
We can’t avoid sales, so why don’t we just make it a little bit easier? In fact, I am going to make it A LOT easier. If we’ve been around each other very long, you might have heard me say that I consider it my job to make the complex simple, so here goes.
Knowing you can’t get away from sales, and also knowing that it is your responsibility to be good at sales, let’s talk about how you can do it so that it’s not so intimidating.
How To Sell? The Bottom Line.
Here it is. This is the bottom line right here.
The key to selling is to stop selling.
What do I mean by stop selling? I mean you can stop worrying about how “selling” yourself and your services, and learn how to ask good questions that you genuinely want to know the answers to. These are not just questions that you’ve been taught because someone told you to ask them, or taught you the proper order in which they should be asked, but natural questions that help you learn what the other person’s business is all about. These are questions that will help you learn what they do every day to make their product, sell their services, or keep their virtual or physical doors open.
Be Inquisitive
If you use this approach, which is very natural and conversational, you might find yourself asking:
- How they started their company
- How they got to where they are today
- Where do they want to go
- What’s working for them
- What’s not working for them
- What worries them the most
- What excites them the most about going to work every day
- …and so much more. I think you get the idea.
I can’t tell you exactly what to ask, or in what order. That comes when you become inquisitive, and when you concentrate on listening to every word that is being spoken, vs. worrying about making sure the next words out of your mouth are words that you came to say. That will come if you have listened first and are committed to taking care of and serving your clients.
Maybe You Aren’t The Best Lawyer For Them
When you stop selling and start listening, only then you can adequately even begin to think about what you have to offer that might be remotely interesting or necessary to that other person.
You might even learn that you’re not the best solution, and you have the opportunity to suggest another path, another person, or maybe even another solution. When you do that, that makes you an extremely valuable advisor. It also earns you a great deal of respect because you have put the other person first. Who doesn’t love knowing their advisor has their best interest at heart? I know I do.
The key word there is advisor, which is infinitely more memorable than someone who tries to convince everyone that their solution or their service or their practice area is the only one to choose. That kind of advice often comes back around when that person refers someone else to you down the road, along with a strong recommendation about how you have their best interest at heart.
Bottom Line
The key to selling is to stop selling and start listening.
Be an advisor.
Your time will come.
Additional Sales and Business Development Posts You Might Find Helpful:
Lawyers, This Is How Potential Clients Want You To Approach Meetings With Them
Lawyers, The Competition That Kills You Might Not Look Like You
Sales Is Not A Dirty Word
