Sales doesn't have to be a dirty word

There are evidence-based ways for lawyers to sell their services, writes Jacqueline Burns.

• 16 April 2015 • SME Law

You’re out of free articles for this month

Username or Email

Password Forgot password?

Keep me signed in on this device.

First Name

Last Name

Mobile

Organisation Type

By becoming a member, I agree to receive information and promotional messages from Lawyers Weekly. I can opt out of these communications at any time. For more information, please visit our Privacy Statement.

Need help signing up? Visit the Help Centre.

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “sales”?

According to best-selling author Dan Pink, the term sales has overwhelming negative connotations. In a poll of 7,000 Americans, three-quarters of respondents offered words like yuck, sleazy, annoying, slimy, dishonest, pushy and aggressive.

Pink, as keynote speaker at this week’s 2015 Law Firm Marketing Association conference in San Diego, wanted the 1,300-strong audience (of whom only two dozen were practising lawyers) to understand why people don’t like to be sold to, and why lawyers resist being asked to sell.

The negativity associated with the act of selling stems from there being, until fairly recently, an environment of “information asymmetry”: buyers had little information, few choices and no way to talk back.

VIEW ALL

The internet fundamentally changed all that. Today, we’re informed, have an abundance of choice and have found our voice.

In effect, the internet has transitioned the marketplace from a state of “Buyer beware” to one of “Seller beware”.

Pink graduated with a degree in law, but was never cut out to be a lawyer. Still, he’s built a hugely successful career around coaching lawyers and other professionals on how to sell. For him, one of the greatest revelations was researching and accepting (after much resistance) that there are evidence-based ways to sell in today’s “Seller beware” landscape. For lawyers (and the other professional services), the ABC’s of selling are:

Attunement, meaning have the ability to see things from the other person’s perspective – and demonstrate to that person that you do.
Buoyancy, which translates as the ability to stay afloat in an “ocean of rejection”. “Lawyers have a very hard time dealing with rejection, yet rejection is endemic in marketing and sales.”
Clarity, which constitutes how well and how quickly you can curate information and identify – or, better still, anticipate – problems which you have the expertise to resolve.

Jacqueline Burns is managing director of Market Expertise, a Sydney-based agency that provides marketing, business development, communications and associated human capital services to “smart companies”, including the professional services.

She is attending the Legal Marketing Association conference as Lawyers Weekly’s media representative and with support from the Marriott Marquis.

You need to be a member to post comments. Become a member for free today!

Lawyers Weekly - legal news for Australian lawyers

SECTIONS

MORE

Sales doesn't have to be a dirty word

OUR PLATFORMS AND BRANDS

EVENTS AND SUMMITS

PODCASTS

LEARNING AND EDUCATION

MOMENTUM MARKETS NETWORK

LINKS

STAY CONNECTED