This is the first in a series of posts based on my talk Six facts every lawyer must know to develop new business. Fact 1 is "There are many ways to sell."
According to traditional stereotypes, some people are born to sell, and “a good salesperson can sell anything.” That good salesperson was probably on the football team in high school, now plays golf, is fun to go out drinking with, mixes easily at networking events, and can quickly become anyone’s new best friend. For all people who do not fit this profile (including most lawyers and me), the logical implication is that we were not born to sell, so we should not waste our time trying.
But when the Gallup organization studied 250,000 sales representatives over 40 years, they found that the “sales person who could sell anything” was a myth. In fact, top producers in one industry often perform poorly in another, because different types of selling require different skills. As Benson Smith and Tony Rutigliano put it in Discover Your Sales Strengths (p. 12): “The strengths that make someone an excellent pharmaceutical salesperson are different from those required to excel in selling real estate, or jet engines, or strategic consulting.” Just as Michael Jordan found that basketball skills did not help him get to first base, a sales star in one industry may do poorly in another.
Gallup also found that each successful salesperson develops a unique selling style based upon their particular personality strengths. In their surveys, one of the items best correlated to sales success is the statement: “At work I get to do what I do best every day.” High agreement links to job satisfaction, effective performance, profitability, and customer loyalty. And the more strongly you agree with this statement, the more productive you are likely to be.
Think about the the top legal rainmakers you know. Chances are, some of them have succeeded through public speaking, some through community involvement, some by becoming active in professional groups, and some by playing golf. Each has found how to apply their personal strengths
If you buy your own copy of Smith and Rutiglian’s book, you’ll get a code you can use to take a personality test on their web site and diagnose your own top strengths. To a psychologist, the quality of the conclusions lies somewhere below what my colleagues on the BU faculty would call validity, but well above the kind of self-test you see in the Sunday newspaper. More importantly, it’s a lot of fun.
When I took the test, my top strength was responsibility. “You take psychological ownership for anything you commit to, and whether it is large or small, you feel emotionally bound to follow it through to completion. Your good name depends on it.” (p. 235) This is not a surprise to anyone who knows me, but I like the way it sounds. If you take the test, you may sound even better, since there are 34 “signature strengths” and they cover the range from Activator to Adaptability and Competition to Connectedness. In this test, there are no weaknesses.
The most important point for lawyers is that everyone can sell. You just need to find the tactics that fit your clients and your personality.
Next week, Fact 2: You must start with current clients.
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