Sales Process for Law Firms

Each company catering to clients follows a sales process, including law firms. The journey begins when a potential client discovers your firm and expresses interest. Subsequently, upon identifying a need, they reach out, explore your firm's capabilities, decide to proceed, monitor the progress, assess the results, and if satisfied, seek collaboration on further endeavours.

This sales process is what keeps your firm afloat. 

The big question is: How do you set up a strong sales process for your law firm? We've all been there - the buzz of starting a new project, only for it to fizzle out. A smarter move could involve some strategic planning. Start by nailing down clear goals and targets, build a structured process, nurture a culture around this, and set up ways to measure your progress.

Below are some ideas on how you may want to get started.

Getting your team involved 

It's super important that everyone in your firm, from the support staff to the partners, really gets how the whole process works and what each step is about. This means making sure everyone is clued in on raising awareness, doing research, finding leads, following up, pitching ideas, suggesting proposals, and nurturing client relationships. Each team member should know exactly what they're supposed to do and what their colleagues are up to. They need to be good at handling support requests, giving out tasks to the right team member, getting things done, and jotting down procedures in one central system.

If your firm has a business development team, they should take the lead on this and make sure everyone's sticking to these steps.

Capture your data. 

By documenting various scenarios encountered at different stages of the sales process, you'll create a playbook for handling situations effectively. This resource will significantly support your fee earners when unexpected circumstances arise.

Training

Lots of law firms put effort into learning and development schemes. Having a business development training programme is great as it helps match your firm's goals and keeps everyone's professional growth in check. An effective business development training programme will build a client-focused culture and nurture lawyers who can bring in new business.

The key lies in carefully crafting the BD training programme and ensuring the right individuals are in attendance.

Leadership 

Demonstrate your leadership skills by getting involved in this process. You don't have to be a sales process whizz, but having a good grasp of its different aspects is really helpful. This sets you up to lead the charge in building a business development culture within your firm. Your legal team will appreciate knowing that you get how to handle interactions with new and current clients.

Lawyer Orientation

Adding a description of the firm's sales process to the lawyer orientation programme is a fantastic way to integrate them into your firm’s culture. As they settle in and begin utilising your sales processes, these legal professionals will become adept at handling sales while they're with you.

Author: Stephen Lai

Stephen advocates for equitable access to vital tools and data across all law firms, empowering them to compete effectively in a saturated market. With more than two decades of expertise, he works closely with firms to elevate their marketing and business development through data-driven strategies.

He is dedicated to assisting law firms in crafting enduring business development and marketing strategies. This is achieved through a cost-effective approach, incorporating clear KPIs to assess ROI.

Book your free consultation here.