Riskin on Eggplants
Posted By Rob Millard - 0 Comments -
Gerry Riskin is a good friend and colleague in Edge International so I'm probably not dispassionate enough to make the statement absolutely objectively, but I truly believe that he is the uber-guru of all gurus when it comes to helping lawyers and law firms build client relationships. I've seen him in action in this area with accountants too, equally effectively. In short, he's astounding!
I don't mean what is usually called "marketing." In other words, the also important but different business development activities that professionals hire others to do, often while muttering the old refrain: "If I'd wanted to be a salesperson, I'd have become a salesperson." What I do mean is empowering the lawyers themselves to build strategically important, deep, valuable, bulletproof, highly profitable relationships with their key clients.
Which, of course, is something that it is CRITICAL to have firmly front-and-centre in any sensible strategy.
There are good reasons why selling does sit comfortably with most professionals (not only lawyers.) But .... there are equally good reasons why it is relatively easy to become good at it. It is largely skills-based and the skills are not difficult to learn. Finally, it MUST be done by the lawyers themselves.
Gerry has just posted a piece on his blog likening selling services to selling eggplant (courtesy of a similar posting by the inimitable Seth Godin.) Eggplant is not something that most people buy intuitively. It needs to be sold. But once bought, most people are pleased that somebody took the trouble to sell it to them. So it is with many professional services that are seldom asked for but often needed. Two sound-bytes from Gerry's posting:
"I believe that clients love being sold what is genuinely beneficial to them, provided with integrity and offered for a fee that represents good value."
and
"Salespeople who sell properly sell stuff people wish they would have bought in the first place. It's a huge service... I'm pretty sure we need more good salespeople, not less."
Well worth a read. It should take < 1 minute, which even at a galactic hourly rate will still yield a very decent return on investment!
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