Legal Sales: Law Firm Cold Calling Tips, Advice on Gatekeepers

Selling to Lawyers was  founded by corporate Legal Sales Coach and Advisor
James Greenier.  For over 11 years, Mr. Greenier has assisted corporate sales divisions with increased lead generation, sales performance and increased sales efficiency. Whether you are a CEO, VP of Sales, Independent Legal Sales Representative or a salaried Legal Sales Representative, the advice and consultation we provide  will help you to generate remarkable results. Our expertise is in training, hiring, legal sales team recruitment and coaching legal sales teams in all industries including advertising, legal support services and litigation support services.  We can help your organization get more qualified leads, open more doors, deliver more proposales and close more deals resulting in an immediate influx of revenues.   Feel free to stop by our YouTube Channel Selling to Lawyers to learn how to effectively sell to lawyers and law firms.

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A very common problem lawyer sales representatives face is the unresponsive inbound lead. You call the attorney lead over and over and send email after email but they just won’t take or return your calls and emails.  This is especially disheartening when thay originally contacted you or your legal service company initially.

Roughly 30% of your inbound leads from interested attorney prospects will fall into this “Undeveloped” category. What would be the impact of your revenues and commissions if you were able to effective reach this huge grouping of missed opportunities?

So how do you effectively handle this issue?

The best way that I have found to warn up or open the dialog with unconverted leads is to send the following email, voicemail, or fax.

“Mr Jones, my name is James Green with ABC Company. You had requested that we contact you about our ___ services. I just wanted to make this final request to meet with you. It appears you have found our firm to be of benefit in the area of ________.  My number is __________ if you would like to set a side 10 minutes of your time to meet with me. Thank you.”

You would be surprised how effective this technique is to moving the ball forward. Attorneys are very busy business people and it is most likely an issue of timing that causes them to delay contacting you. By setting up the “Do or Die” email, voicemail or fax you are pretty much re-qualifying their interest. The good news is, whether they are still interested and call you back or not you will know at least where you stand with a lawyer sales lead.

If you have any questions for me please feel free to add your comments below or click here to email me directly.

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So how do you get past the gatekeeper when making cold calling law firms?

The short answer is you don’t try in the first place. In fact, the best advice I can give you, having been a top-producing, legal sales rep for over 8 years, is eliminate the word “gatekeeper” from your vocabulary altogether. Stop using that word entirely.

It is unfortunate, but all of the other sales representatives prior to your visit have trained that secretary to think that ALL sales people are unrespectful, jerks and a complete waste of their boss’ time. You have to bring that wall down first in order to be able to gain access to the attorney or office manager who will listen to your pitch.

Almost all legal sales reps are trained to think of legal secretaries or receptionists as the “gatekeeper.” This is a huge mistake and that thinking is a major obstacle to gaining access to key attorney prospects. You must eliminate this mind set if you want to have a successful legal sales career.

Have you ever met someone and you knew right away this person had a negative impression of you? It is a subtle, subconscious feel that this person doesn’t like you very much. That is what you are giving off every time you are face to face or on the phone cold calling a law firm. Let me change your approach and your career.

By changing your thinking toward legal secretaries and receptionists, you will find that they are really helpful if you treat them with respect. They will help you as long as you are genuinely respectful toward them. In order for you to convey effectively that you are genuinely respectful of her time and her position, the receptionist will trust you with her boss’ time as well.

The receptionist knows that you are here to speak with the attorney. They deal with all types of sales people everyday.  My attitude toward law firm receptionists is that they are important. They often call the shots. They are valued employees and they can make or break your sales career.

Another key point to make is: Stop trying to dodge the legal secretary or receptionist. Instead, be different. Ask them for help and you will be surprised how much more you will be able to obtain access to your prospective clients.

For example:
Gatekeeper Approach
Rep: Hi, I am James Jones here to see Bob (attorney).
Sec: Well he is busy you can leave your card and if he is interested he will call you.

My Approach:
Rep: Hi, my name is James and I was hoping you could help me.
Sec: Help you with what?
Rep: I am sorry, I didn’t catch you name.?.
Sec: Julie
Rep: Well Julie, it’s nice to meet you. I represent XYZ Company and I know I can help your boss, Mr. Davis save a lot of time and money. Could you help me with an introduction?
Sec: Sure, Have a seat and I will let him know you are here. Do you have a card?

People like to be helpful and feel valued. Change your thinking about legal receptionists and change your career.

Here is a video I found after writing this post. Different approach but helpful.

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So what is the secret to getting to “yes” with lawyers?  I will tell you in the 10 plus years that I have sold services to lawyers the two key responses I am working hard to hear is: “James, I like you” and “James, I trust you.”   Once I hear thsose two phrases it is time to close the deal and have your prospective client sign on the dotted line. Fortunately, I am very interested in ensuring my clients success so that their trust is well placed.

People buy from people they respect and trust as well as from sales representatives they like.  It is that simple. To prospects, all products are the same. There really is not distinction between you and your competitors. 99.9% of the people who buy, make the purchase because they like you and they trust you. Think about the people you have bought from. You probably liked them and trusted the recommendations they offered up to you.

So how do you get your prospects to like you and trust you?  Well, that is the tricky part because everyone has different personalities. It would be important for me to understand a little more about you before I can give you the specifics about what you can do to build trust and admiration between you and your prospective clients. So here is some basic strategies you can use to build likability and trust.

To be like-able:

1. Show geneniune interest in helping your prospective clients be more successful.
2. Use self depricating humor.
3. Use humor when overcoming objections.
4. Be personable.
5. Have a friendly smile and positive attitude.
6. Ask quality and relevent questions about their needs.
7. Talk slowly and pause before you answer questions.

To build trust

1. Do everything you said you would do.
2. Demonstrate your knowledge of their business and your product application.
3. Briefly discuss your credentials.
4. Have a personal Articulated Sales Argument.
5. Have all the answers.
6. Know ahead of time which concessions you can give and which ones you cannot.
7. Be the trusted advisor by making relevant recommendations.

Personality in sales goes a long way.  If you focus your efforts on building like-ability and trust with your prospective clients, they will buy.  People really do buy from those they like and trust. Post a comment if you have any specific questions about this post.

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Selling is an attitude pure and simple. When you are all stressed about getting the next sale, when your worried about money because your last commission check didn’t cover all of your expenses, and if your just ready to get the day over with, than please call in sick!

Because you are! You have a sickness that will cause you much harm to your career and success.

Seriously. In fact, I recommend to sales managers to tell under performing to go home and spend time with the family or do something to take your mind off of the job and personal stress. I know you are probably thinking. “OK James,  you totally are nuts or don’t have a clue about running a sales force.”

Well think about it like this. How productive can you be at selling your product or services to an attorney when you are in the “loser zone.” Lawyers buy because of one or more of the following reasons.

a) They like you or your legal sales rep.
b) They see the confidence you or your sales rep has in the product.
c) They buy because they see a measure of financial success in you or your sales rep.

So let us think about this again. Do you think it is a good idea for you or your legal sales representatives to be out in the field making calls while they are over eager, desperate, beat down emotionally and lacking the confidence in themselves or worse in the product?

Will you or your sales team be productive with a defeatist attitude?

It is a fact that when you are down, stressed out and have a negative attitude you will naturally go in to a downward spiral. Your calls will be completely ineffective. Thoughts like “Yeah, no one wants this product” or “No one wants to buy our product because they don’t even know who we are” or “It is a bad economy no one is going to buy our service.” It is human nature to start blaming the company, the product or even worse the potential clients for your lack of sales performance. In many cases, legal sales representatives will begin a dangerous and destructive process of justifying their mind why it is not their fault for poor sales performance.

The best way to get your personal or sales team’s sales numbers up is through attitude. When I headed up several legal sales organizations, I made it a habit to pump up my legal sales reps. My job was to be their biggest cheerleader and help divert them from self destructive attitudes. I would take a rep out to lunch and discuss all the previous success they had in the past. We would discuss their sales success stories and help guide them back to what made them successful.

It isn’t time for hard nose sales management and/or threats. It is way too expensive to hire and train a new sales rep these days. Invest in some training, invest some personal time and be the coach you were hired to be.

This works every time and with every sales rep who has a proven track record. As long as they have had previous success it is easy to help guide them through the poor sales performance cycles. Let’s face it, we ALL have had a bad month or two in our legal sales careers. It happens. Just like death and taxes.

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The days of cold calling law firms? The answer is Yes and No.

The days of smile and dial are over.  The growth in sales is minimal, sales turn over is high, the training costs are too high and this approach is not highly scalable.

Why? It is too expensive and severely unproductive. Having your legal sales representatives spend 95% of their day cold calling law firms produces very little results because attorneys and their law firm receptionists have been programmed to have an anti-phone solicitation mentality. They are already programmed to shut you down without even listening to your offer regardless how valuable your service may be. Keep in mind, most attorneys receive several of these solicitations every single day.

Let’s do the math.

If  your inside sales legal sales rep is making 100 calls per day on average they will speak to about 8-10 attorneys per day. Out of  those 8-10 attorney interviews they are likely to produce 1-2 qualified leads. This will also vary from day to day. The cost per lead based on a $24,000 annual salary is approximately $75. So if you or your sales rep close about 20% of these qualified leads on average, than they will make about 2-4 sales per week depending on the rep’s selling skills.

So what should you as a legal sales representative or legal support company do instead?You must turn your sales people into sales closers instead of sales cold callers. 90% of your sales activity should be spent on closing inbound leads. The other 10% of your sales activity should be spent on following up with open proposals.  By focusing sales activity solely on closing business with interested prospects your sales will skyrocket.

So how do we create inbound leads from interested prospects?

This is where having a dedicate lead generation or marketing person comes in.  Through by focusing your marketing strategy to deliver the  right sales message to the right prospect you will generate phone calls from highly qualified and interested prospects. These inbound leads are far superior leads because they have listened or read your message, they have an interest in your services and they have taken the initiative to take action.

This approach keeps your sales reps focused on closing the business which generates far better sales success for your company and the cost per lead drops from $75 to about $7 per lead.

If you have any questions about creating an inbound sales lead campaign simply post your comment or click here to submit your contact details for a follow up.

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Everyone in legal sales knows that the best way to sell a product is to have the prospective attorney buyer like you. People do business with people they like and respect. So how do you replicate that on every sales call to generate a “real” selling opportunity?

The answer is confidence, expertise and genuine interest in your clients’ success. When I cold call law firms, I always keep a note pad and pen in front of me at all times. When the attorney says something interesting I pick up my pad of paper and make notes. I am showing that I am attentive and interested in what my client has to say.

This builds rapport. It shows that I am geniunely interested in what the attorney has to say. It disarms the prospective client because I am thinking and absorbing what he ot she is saying. I am not looking to start blabbing about how great my product is.

Attorneys that I have polled have all said the number one thing they dread about sales people is that we do not listen to them. By taking notes and listening to your prospective clients and asking relevent questions you will find that building rapport with potential attorney customers is easy and natural.

Remember, before you can sell a man the World, you must know first understand why he wants to buy it.

James

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Whenever I cold call law firms I always make sure that I don’t waste the call. I make sure every call matters and moves the ball forward to a sale.

If you are unable to gain access to the key decision maker then always make that call count by asking for business cards, emails, fax numbers, contacts and the secretary’s name.

How do you do this? By simply asking the following two questions.

Rep: OK Sally, I understand Mr. Lawyer is really busy today. Can you help me? Is it better if I email him to see if he is interested in a meet?

Sec: Yeah, he always reads his email.

I get this 20 times a day or more. But! I now have permission to email the attorney from his secretary. Over time you can build a huge list to offer tips to your prospects about saving time, saving money, making money or whatever your product can do for them.

Huge sales strategy that takes very little effort and makes every cold call to a lawyer one that has value!

Ask me a question through our comments box.

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There is so much sales noise out there. The average person receives 1,000s of sales messages every single day.

So ask yourself this: Do I enjoy swimming upstream everyday? If so, keep doing what you and every other legal sales rep that sells services to lawyers does.

If that sounds like a bad idea, which it is, then you need to find your company genius and your voice for that company genius.

To put it another way, you must be an expert. If you selling billing software to lawyers, then become an online expert about billable hours.

Becoming an expert positions you as a highly credible and knowledgable expert. You automatically change from just another legal sales representative into a trusted advisor.

Trusted advisors receive referrals, they have a high lcose rate, their customers seek them out and last but not least they make a lot more money. Same job, diffeent approach.

Now, figure out how you can be an expert at what you do. Then promote your expertisie online through articles, websites, video and more and as you continue to build traffic you will eventually hit pay dirt and drive a ton of leads into your office.

It is a heck of a lot easier marketing and selling ideas than it is selling a legal product or service.

Post any questions you have and I will reply.

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