Sales can be an off-putting word to many attorneys, but when done right, it can provide a service to clients by helping them solve problems. By shifting your perspective to look at business development from the point of view of the client, not the law firm, you can find more success in expanding your work for clients, while deepening client relationships.

If you've worked as a law firm partner in the past 15 years, chances are you've been asked to make “cross-selling” a focus at some point in your career. If you're in a leadership role, you've probably asked your marketing and business development team to come up with a way to incentivize getting relationship attorneys to expand the portfolio of work they do for their clients by cross-selling. No matter which side of the equation you're on, you've likely found it to be a frustrating experience. Here's how to shift your perspective to an approach that's much more effective.

Solve Problems That Need Solving

There's an inherent problem with any cross-selling initiative: It's firm-focused, and not based on the needs of your clients. That doesn't necessarily mean you're being selfish to attempt it—you may be driven by the deeper level of client service your firm can deliver if you represent the client in multiple areas, or by a wish to create stickier relationships that allow for long-term partnerships with clients. But, ultimately, if you're focusing on what you want to sell, rather than what a client needs to buy, you're looking through the wrong lens.

And yes, I'm using the word sales here. If the word ­connotes aggressive, pushy salespeople and bad impulse buys of the past for you, it's time to reframe your perspective. Done right, consultative sales is about solving problems that need to be solved, not trying to convince someone to buy something they don't need. That's particularly true in the professional services context, where we are hoping to create long-term ­relationships, not short-term transactional exchanges.

Think about your own experience as a buyer, whether it's in a consumer or professional services context. You've likely had an experience at one point in your life where you were talked into a purchase you later regretted. Perhaps you got caught up in the moment and let a car salesperson talk you into added features you didn't need. Or you bought a protection plan on a piece of electronics only to later realize the benefits didn't outweigh the cost. In each of those examples, you were sold something based on the salesperson's need to sell it.

Contrast that with an experience where you had a problem that needed to be solved, and a salesperson helped you do so. Perhaps the WiFi signal isn't working effectively in one section of your home. You go to a store and a sales rep listens to what you're struggling with, asks questions about budget, the layout of your house and other factors, and recommends something in your price range that immediately solves the problem. Which situation do you prefer?

What Does That Mean for Law Firms?

Consultative sales is about uncovering needs and helping clients solve problems that should be solved. If you focus on learning what challenges your clients face and actively engage in that dialogue, you can likely uncover any number of ways that you and your firm can assist them now and in the future. Ask lots of questions about the client's interaction with their own internal clients, and the specific pressures that brings to bear. Follow those leads, and you have a receptive path to engage in new work, expanded portfolios and stickier relationships with clients—the goal of all those cross-selling initiatives you've tried in the past. By shifting the perspective from you to them, you can create a buying experience for your client that solves for challenges they need to address. Here are two specific ways you can get started:

• Don't assume, ask. Whether it's a formal client feedback program or an informal approach, if you don't ask, you won't learn. Client feedback programs—whether they're done by the firm itself or an outside vendor—should be able to generate much more information than simply how positively (or not) a client views you. Make sure you're asking questions about business changes and issues, industry pressures, and the strategic goals of the organization. And if you don't have a formal program, make sure you're carving time out at least annually to check in with your key clients at a higher level. Use this time not to give a status update but to talk more broadly about the client's goals in the next six months. Sometimes simply asking, “What keeps you up at night?” can result in the exact roadmap you need to expand your work for your existing clients.
• Know your firm's offerings, or at least how to find them. Now that you're learning more about your clients' needs, you need to match that up with the right solution. Ideally, you know your firm's service offerings well enough to do that. But realistically, as so many of our firms expand and adopt new practice areas, offices and even products, that approach can be challenging. It's a worthwhile investment to spend time getting to know all your firm offers. (Your firm's external website is as helpful to you as your clients in that regard.) But don't hesitate to engage in a thoughtful needs-gathering conversation with your client because you're not confident you can provide the best answer in every situation. Instead, bring all that valuable information you gathered back to your business development team and have them help you identify the right solutions. Tell your client you want to consult with your team on a few potential approaches to solving the challenge at hand, and will circle back the following day.

A New Perspective

Now that you've (hopefully) shifted your perspective to understand the value of a consultative sales approach, you don't need to toss out your cross-selling initiative. Attorneys and business development professionals have come up with a number of clever approaches to incentivizing members of the firm to think outside of their own practice, and that work has value. Simply modify the focus: Rather than introducing a new attorney who specializes in a new area to a client because it's good for the firm, seek out those clients that have identified a need for that service. When you do, you'll see the benefit this can have for your clients—and, ultimately, for you and your firm too.

Lisa Olney leads the marketing and business development team at Littler, the world's largest management-side labor and employment firm. She can be reached at [email protected].