To sell or not to sell — that is the question

This item continues the discussion of selling in client satisfaction interviews. It was written by Gerry Riskin at 39,000 feet, on his way back from Sweden:

What is the purpose of client visits? Is it as I was quoted saying “to listen and learn, not to sell” or as Steven Bell, Director of Sales at Womble Carlyle was quoted as saying: “At a client service review… the lawyer and his/her client are supposed to dig in and candidly discuss what's going on at the company. It’s a chance for the client to wax eloquent about problems and dreams… At least to this salesman, for a lawyer to uncover problems (or opportunities) and not to provide a solution (yes, even one that the lawyer himself can address for a fee), is the equivalent of a doctor knowing that you have heart palpitations and not doing anything about it…. When a client talks about problems (or opportunities), he/she wants advice and suggestions from a lawyer every bit as much as a patient does from a doctor.”

Based on a conversation with Steven, I don’t think his views and mine actually differ as much as you might think, although we may put emphasis on different syllables.

Both of us are well aware that top rainmakers in blue chip law firms report that they rarely visit a client’s place of business without growing existing work or getting new work. Both of us agree that this is a desirable consequence of client visitations. The key issue is whether selling ought to be the focus of the visit.

I believe that both Steven and I view the primary purpose of a client visit as an opportunity to ensure that there is a high level of client satisfaction and to reduce the probability that the client might migrate to a different law firm. This is achieved through listening and learning. Few lawyers understand their clients’ businesses or industries as well as the clients would like and we agree that this is a critical objective for the visit. It follows that this is a key ingredient of the training of lawyers require to make such visits.

The delicate question is this: What is the appropriate reaction in a client visitation when it becomes obvious that there is a legal need that your firm is not currently fulfilling. My view is that the primary purpose of the visit must not be abandoned (or appear to be abandoned). At the same time I agree completely with Steven Bell that the doctor must help the patient. I don’t believe that Steven is advocating throwing the patient onto the gurney and tossing our note pads into the trash. I used the word “delicate” because there is some judgment to be exercised here.

How can we be appropriately responsive to the need without being unfaithful to the primary purpose of the visit. I can think of several possibilities:
Briefly defer the discussion of the legal matter to a follow up with the lawyer(s) who are best equipped to attract the work and do it with quality.
With the client’s blessing, allow a digression from the meeting’s agenda to address the problem or opportunity at hand but be disciplined enough to return to the original agenda.
There may be different and perhaps unforeseeable options which make sense in the context of a particular meeting. The visiting lawyer(s) must have the discretion to exercise appropriate judgment and make the best choices in the circumstances.

In preparing lawyers for client visits, I stress that the purpose of client visits is not selling, to help lawyers avoid the temptation to conduct the visit in sales mode.

Perhaps what I have described here is indeed selling at the highest level and that is why I think references to Steven Bell and myself if they appear different are mostly semantic except for one. Steven agrees that in a perfect world lawyers would make separate visits for different reasons. He is concerned that lawyers on the client team will not take the requisite time to conduct all the visits they should. If they have only one opportunity, Steven does not want to ignore the sales opportunity.

In my opinion, the bottom line is discipline. If the client team has it, and conduct the requisite visits, they can accomplish both bulletproofing existing clients and growing their business.