How to increase results by planning sales advances

Many lawyers increase results by adapting the concept of “advances” from Neil Rackham’s system of SPIN Selling, based on the most systematic research ever conducted on the sales process.

One basic idea from SPIN Selling is that if you measure the success of a sales meeting by whether or not you close a sale, you won’t see much success.  Only about 10% of the sales meetings that Rackham studied led to a decision, pro or con.  Instead, success should be measured by whether you are able to move the relationship forward, or achieve a behavioral advance.

Lawyers love this idea because it is backed by evidence, logical, useful, and easy to implement.  One implication is that you should prepare for every meeting and call by planning the advance you would like to achieve.  Another is that you can measure your short term business development success by the number of advances you are able to achieve.

An advance is a specific action taken by either party that moves the sale forward.  This could mean scheduling a meeting, getting introduced to a decision maker, or being asked to provide a summary of past experience.

One big mistake that novices often make is they try to push for too much, too soon. The best sales people are experts at judging what advance can realistically be achieved at any stage, and getting it. Which creates a natural progression to actually getting new business.

Successful rainmakers often plan the advance they hope to achieve at each meeting.  The trick is to predict the largest possible advance that is realistic, and to also have a second easier “backup advance,” in case it is not possible to achieve the first choice.

There is no generic solution to this problem; specific advances must be defined for every client and every situation.  Sales professionals spend a significant amount of time with their managers brainstorming these situations, and lawyers can be more productive if they too brainstorm with colleagues and coaches before key meetings.  Here are two examples for lawyers.

Example 1, in the table below, shows possible advances for an intellectual property lawyer who is doing about fifty percent of the patent work for a client, and would like to increase the percentage.

The advance (specific action that moves the sale forward)	Moves sale forward?	Easy to achieve?	Choice
Get a meeting with the new technical person who may be involved with patents.	A little	Easy
Bring new team associate to next meeting; stress this is strictly to intro­duce her—no charge for her time.	A little	Very easy	2nd  choice
Schedule satis­fac­tion review, to in­clude questions about how your legal services compare to other firms.	A lot	Hard	1st  choice
Provide progress review of patent work at the next meeting of the client’s board of directors.	A lot	Very hard

 Example 2 came from a brainstorming session with a lawyer whose firm had recently been added to an approved vendors list.  He expected to see his primary contact at a conference, and was trying to figure out what he should try to achieve.

The advance (specific action that moves the sale forward)	Moves sale forward?	Easy to achieve?	Choice
Request clarification on the step by step process for beginning a new engagement, after an assignment is made.	A little	Very easy	2nd  choice
Meet with the General Counsel (the decision maker).	A lot	Very hard
Meet with other in-house staff (who influence decisions).	Moderate amount	Hard	1st  choice
Get an assignment for the first engagement under the new contract.	A lot	Very hard
Discuss the specifics of several recent engagements that went to other firms, to get a sense of how decisions are made in this organization.	Moderate amount	Hard

This post was adapted from The LegalBizDev Success Kit™, a multimedia reference tool for lawyers who want to increase new business by building stronger relationships.