Winning
The Beauty
Contest
By Art Italo
The rapid increase in the number of attorneys has made it clear to prospective clients that they have a choice. When consumers realize there is a choice, they modify their purchasing strategies and review more than one supplier before making a purchase. Put simply, they shop.
Most of my clients have told me that prospective clients are openly shopping, both on the telephone and in face to face meetings. They will tell the lawyer candidly that they are considering a number of attorneys or firms, and they will not make a decision until they meet with everyone. This phenomenon is occurring at all levels, from the mass market divorce client, right up to the large corporate and institutional client.
This competition for a client's business is commonly known as a "Beauty Contest". Most lawyers are stymied and intimidated by this process, not being sure what to say to win the client. Often, a firm will have the superior qualifications, but they blow the deal by not adequately conveying these qualifications to the prospect. Even if you are the most beautiful contestant in the pageant, you will win nothing if you walk on stage wearing a burlap sack!
Understanding The Psychology Of The Buyer
To be effective at winning the beauty contest, it is important to understand how the judges score. You must understand buyer psychology and the dynamics of the decision making process. There are two key motivating factors that induce the buyer to make a transaction:
- Need - Need is a perceived deficiency in the prospect's life or business that propels the prospect into the marketplace to seek a supplier who can relieve the deficiency. Need starts the process of shopping for a supplier, but it is seldom the only motivating factor in selecting a supplier. The part of the decision that deals with need is called the practical buying decision. To the extent that need dominates the decision to buy, the prospect is likely to be price sensitive.
- Want - Want is an emotional motivator that results from the perception that value will be added in some tangible or intangible way by making the transaction with a specific supplier. Purchases that are made predominantly based upon want are called emotional buying decisions. Such decisions are price insensitive.
The Dynamics of the Buying Decision
All buying decisions will be motivated by some combination of want and need. There are some transactions that are almost purely emotional (jewelry, country club, art) and others that are almost purely practical (milk, meat, electricity, gasoline). It's clear that the luxury items above are things we really don't need, but we are willing to dish out big bucks to have them. Commodities such as the ones listed above, are the things we need the most to survive. Ironically, we are willing to pay far less for these. (This is true of course only as long as both are in ample supply. In a worldwide food shortage, just try eating those golf clubs. You would trade your entire golf bag for a decent meal.)
For the most part, the decision to hire a lawyer is an emotional purchase. Though there is a specific need to be address, the need only supplies a threshold for consideration. After you qualify as to competence in the needed practice area, the decision is mostly emotional. Thus, if you do tax work exclusively, no one is likely to hire you to handle a divorce. But faced with three divorce lawyers, the decision ceases to be practical.
Prospects seldom pick the lawyer with the best credentials because they don't know enough about what you do to make a practical decision. Instead, the prospect will almost always go for intangibles. For instance, one factor that affects the prospect profoundly is trust. The key to being successful at winning the beauty contest, therefore, is to fill the prospect with positive emotions.
There are other factors that affect the decision making process. The relative weight of need and want as motivators depends on a number of factors.
The first of these is urgency. If a deadline is close at hand, the prospect will be rushed into a decision by circumstances and will be less practical. He/she will try to make the decision on gut instinct (the consummate emotional buying decision).
The second factor is availability of cash resources. If the prospect is short on cash, this will force him/her to be more practical.
The third factor is availability of supply. The more suppliers the buyer perceives, the more practical he/she becomes. The fewer the people who do what you do, the more the client is willing to pay for it.
Benefit Selling
The selling strategy most frequently employed by lawyers is feature selling. A feature is that aspect of a supplier's service or product that the supplier assumes is attractive to most buyers. Your education is a feature. Your experience in a specific area of law is another feature. Your empathetic approach to helping your clients is a third feature.
Feature selling involves shoveling enough features against the wall hoping some of them will stick. This is not a very effective method of selling. To be effective at closing the deal, you must know the balance between emotional and practical motivation. Each prospect will have a different mix of these factors. That is why it is so important to understand each client's specific wants and needs. You should not make any assumptions. Instead you should probe for benefits.
A benefit is that aspect of a supplier's product or service that a specific buyer finds attractive. The only way to determine what benefits the prospect is to ask the prospect specific questions that determine what he/she wants and needs. Once you have a clear idea of wants and needs, you can formulate a selling strategy. The most effective selling strategy presents only those features that are perceived by the prospect to be of greatest benefit.
The Five Magic Questions
There are five key questions you should ask of every client to get the information you need to close the deal. These questions will need to be modified depending on what type of clients you have. Naturally, you will need to ask them differently for corporate clients than mass market clients. Corporate clients tend to come to you for continual representation rather than a single matter and this should be addressed in the way you ask the question. Still, the five questions represent five topics that need to be addressed with everyone. They are:
- "What is the
matter?" - (For corporate clients you might substitute,"What
type of matters will you most frequently want us to handle for your
company?") This probes for the deficiency that triggers the
perception of need. Most lawyers ask this question and they are good at
understanding what the prospect needs. Where they err is to assume the
prospect perceives the legal need the same way the lawyer does. Though the
correct course of action may seem obvious to you, it may be completely
obscure to the prospect. If you assume the prospect will want to do the
rational thing (where rational is defined in terms of your knowledge base)
you will never cease to be surprised by clients. Remember, the prospect's
decision will be based on his/her perception of the need, and that
perception may lack certain information that you possess. Thus, some
educating of the prospect is likely to be necessary before you try to close
the deal.
It is important not to give information too soon. One of the biggest mistakes lawyers make is giving opinions too early in the initial meeting. You don't want to rush into battle until you are sure of the enemy's position (in this case the enemy is not the prospect, but rather the prospect's misperceptions). Hold your opinions until just before you close the deal. For now, just ask numerous questions and take good notes. - "What result do you want me to attain for you in this matter?" - (For corporate clients you might want to ask, "What are your guidelines for the legal work you want me to do?") This question probes for the need as the prospect understands it. The question is absolutely critical because it is here you will ascertain where the prospect's expectations depart from reality. Before you can close the deal, you have to ferret out these unrealistic expectations. If you are unaware of them, the client may dismiss you using unrealistic expectations as a basis for his/her decision. As above, you should take notes, but do not address the expectations yet. Wait for the closing presentation.
- "Have you talked with other attorneys about this matter?" - This is important because the prospect's evaluation of your presentation is going to be based in part on what other lawyers have said about the matter. You should ask the prospect if another lawyer has done work on the matter. Has he/she fired another attorney? If so, why? What did other lawyers tell him/her? Understanding the competition is important in positioning your practice so it looks better to the client. Never say anything negative about any other lawyer or firm. It is not a matter of them being bad and you being good. Present it as both being good and you being a better fit for the prospect's needs.
- "What are the things you most want in a lawyer/law firm?" - This addresses the want. Take good notes because it is here that the prospect will tell you exactly what it going to take to close the deal. You should also ask what the prospect doesn't want in a lawyer/law firm. This converse question will often reveal landmines placed by other lawyers with whom the prospect has had a bad experience. Again, take good notes but don't give any information until the closing.
- "What is the decision making process?" - Here you want to know who makes the decision. Is the prospect the sole decision maker or is there a committee? You want to know when the decision will be made. You want to know whether further steps are necessary, such as a presentation to another person. In essence, you want to know if there is anything external to this conversation that prevents the prospect from becoming your client today.
Closing The Deal
Before you attempt to close the deal, you must make sure you are talking to the decision maker and that there is nothing that prevents the prospect from becoming your client today. You will never close the deal if you are talking to someone without authority, so at this point it is good time to discuss the different types of prospects.
- The Messenger - A messenger is a person without authority to make the decision, who will report back to the real decision maker. Messengers come in two flavors:
- The Screener - These are people who will gather information and then drop out of the process completely. You want to give screeners a lot of information and then push for an appointment with the real decision maker.
- The Liaison - Liaisons are the people directly with whom you would be working if you were to land the client, yet for some reason they are not the final decision makers. This happens frequently in a closely held corporation with a hands-on president. Though you eventually will be working with the vice president sitting before you, you can't be hired until the president gives the blessing. When dealing with a Liaison, you should make an effort to establish personal rapport as well as giving information and pushing for an appointment with the decision maker. Since this is the person with whom you will be working, it is important he/she like you.
- The Committee Member - This is one of two or more people who will be equally responsible for making the decision to retain you. You will run into this more frequently with corporate and institutional clients, but don't forget that a husband and wife tandem is also a committee if one won't make the decision without consulting the other.
With the committee member you will want to try to get an appointment to make a presentation to the full committee if possible. Sometimes this will not be possible and other times it will be a requirement of the screening process for the finalists. Don't make any assumptions. Ask for the presentation. If that isn't possible, say you would be interested in meeting other members of the committee to address their individual concerns. This is often well received, especially if the organization is less formal in their approach. Just keep in mind, the more people you impress before they sit down together, the better your chances of closing the deal.
- The Decision Maker - This is the person with the authority to write you a retainer check. The decision maker can retain you without consulting anyone else. This is the person to whom you make your closing presentation.
The Closing Presentation
The closing presentation has two purposes. The first and most obvious is to close the deal. The second purpose is to elicit objections from the prospect. You want to get as many of the prospect's misgivings out in the open before you are retained. If you don't, they will surely surface later when the prospect is a client. Also, after hearing the prospect's objections, you may decide you don't want him/her as a client.
The key components of your closing presentation are:
Describing Your Competence - The closing presentation should begin by reassuring the prospect that you have the technical capabilities to handle his/her needs. Discuss matters you have handled that have given you the requisite experience. Be specific whenever possible.
Defining The Need - You should state your understanding of the need. This should include your explanation of legal aspects of the matter that the prospect might not perceive. This is where it is really important to educate the prospect. If you are not on the same page here, the whole presentation will collapse.
Clearing Unrealistic Expectations - You should state clearly what you feel is possible, unlikely and illegal. You need to have a reality session with prospects before they become clients. If they can't adjust their perceptions, you are better off refusing them as clients. It is a law of nature that clients only get less reasonable as time goes on. Anyone who is unreasonable as a prospect will be intractable as a client.
Outlining Your Course Of Action - This is the cornerstone of your presentation. Here you tell the prospect exactly how you intend to fill the need. Be sure to point out how your course of action gets the prospect as close as possible to the desired result. Include examples of how your approach contrasts with that of other beauty contestants mentioned by the prospect.
Addressing The Prospect's Wants - This is where you turn the corner. Go down the laundry list the prospect gave you that describes the lawyer he/she wants to be working with and explain why you are that person. Give specific examples whenever possible. Stress your commitment to excellent service, responsiveness and professionalism. I've never met a client who didn't want these things (see The 7 C's of Good Service).
Closing The Deal - Finish with some variation of the following closing statement: "I'm interested in taking this matter (or "I'm interested in having you as a client"). My retainer for this matter will be $3000.00, and my hourly rate is $150.00 an hour. I can begin preparing your file immediately upon signing the retainer agreement and receipt of the retainer. Are you prepared to begin today?"
Overcoming Objections
If you've done everything correctly, the prospect should whip out his/her checkbook and write you a sizzling hot retainer check. But what if he/she doesn't? What then? If the prospect doesn't become a client, he/she has an objection. Your next challenge is to overcome that objection.
There are only two categories of objections. The two reasons for hesitation are that the prospect is:
- Not sure he/she needs you
- Not sure he/she wants you
Need Objections - Need objections arise for two reasons:
- The prospect doesn't believe you have the skills necessary to do the job.
- The prospect isn't sure he/she wants to go forward with the matter.
Want Objections - Want objections arise for two reasons:
- The prospect isn't connecting with you personally.
- The prospect believes your fee is wrong because:
- He/she believes your fee is more than your service is worth.
- He/she believes your fee is more than he/she is able to afford.
If you are talking with the decision maker, all objections fall into one of the above categories. Your job is to find out which one and clear the objection so you can close the deal.
The most common objection is, "I want to think about it." If you had been effective at getting the prospect emotionally positive about you and convinced that you could handle the matter, you would have closed the deal. If the prospect has to think about it, there is an objection he/she is not telling you. You must probe to find it.
Your first question to the prospect is:
"What is causing you to hesitate? Is it that you are not sure you want to go forward with the matter or are you not sure you want to use me as your attorney?"
This question gets to the crux of the matter very quickly. If the prospect is not sure he/she wants to go forward with the matter, the only recourse you have is to tell him/her why you believe it would be in his/her best interest to move forward. Actually, except for matters like divorce and other civil suits where the prospect is not sure he/she wants to press the matter, this is seldom the objection.
The usual answer will be that the prospect is not sure he/she wants to use you as the attorney. If the prospect admits that then your next question is:
"Is your hesitation about me related to my skills and experience, or are you having trouble with the fee?"
This is where you are most likely to get the real objection. If it is your skill and experience, you need to bridge the gap by asking:
"What is it about my experience that you feel is lacking?"
The most common reason for this objection is that the prospect thinks he/she wants a big firm. The way to overcome this objection is to stress the fact that you provide big firm service at small firm prices. You should emphasize your ability to handle the matter in ways a big firm lawyer cannot. Include among your arguments:
- "I can be more efficient than a large firm because I have less overhead."
- "I will be hands-on in handling your matter whereas partners at large law firms tend to have associates handling the details making them less familiar with the matter."
- "I have a network of excellent attorneys I can associate on your matters if there are issues that fall outside my area of expertise."
Naturally, if you are in a big firm, you will be selling the opposite point of view. You have reputation, a proven track record of excellence, you hire only the best and brightest, and of course you should indicate to the prospect that he/she gets what he/she pays for.
The other possible problem is that you didn't create good rapport with the prospect. For most professionals, this is rare. The worst you will probably do is to create a neutral impression. If the prospect doesn't like you, he/she will probably never tell you anyway, so probing for this objection is pointless. All I can say is if the prospect doesn't hire you because you didn't click, it is probably for the best.
The only objection left (and the most common one) is the money objection. My attitude about price objections is that any prospect who has a problem with the price now, will have a problem with the invoice later. You should never negotiate your hourly rate because it shows the prospect you are afraid to lose him/her. When that individual becomes a client, he/she then knows he/she has leverage and will complain about every invoice, knowing you will cut the bill. This is a problem you don't want to have.
If you are unable to make the prospect emotional enough to put aside practical considerations, you are probably facing a needs based buyer. For such price sensitive buyers, nothing you do will ever be good enough or cheap enough. Anything you charge them is too much and they will always come up with some justification for not paying you. Save yourself a huge headache; let the price sensitive prospect go.
The correct way to handle price objections is to explain why you are worth far more than what you charge. Do not to succumb to the prospect's demand for a lower rate. If the prospect can't accept that, forget it and move on to something more productive.
Most money objections are over the retainer rather than the rate. I strongly urge you to hold the line on your retainer. The retainer is your hedge against clients who will take advantage of your services and then not pay you. Any client who can't afford your retainer cannot afford your full fee. Better to lose the prospect now than get stuck doing involuntary pro bono work.
Unless the prospect has momentary cash flow problems that will be over shortly, and you are sure you can count on good cash flow in the future, let the prospect walk. The time you would have spent working on matters for which you wouldn't have been paid will be much better spent marketing for good clients.
Follow-Up
For various reasons, you will have situations where you are unable to close the deal on the first meeting. The most common of these is that the prospect is shopping and refuses to make a decision until he/she has had a meeting with everyone. When this happens it is critical that you follow-up.
There are two key steps to following up with prospects. The first is to send a letter that outlines the discussion or makes a proposal (include with this letter a practice profile or brochure that outlines your qualifications). The second is to make a follow-up call to the prospect.
I am constantly amazed at how little follow-up attorneys do with prospects who could be excellent clients. Don't sit around waiting and hoping. Take the initiative. Clients will be impressed by your professionalism in writing the letter and your assertiveness in making the call.
Upon concluding the meeting with the prospect you should say:
"I understand you still have a few lawyers to talk to, but I am very interested in your business. I will draw up a letter outlining this discussion and send it to your attention. Shall I copy Mr. Decisionmaker as well?"
Then you put the next move in your hands:
"I will follow-up with you by phone next Friday to see if you have any further questions before you make your decision."
This puts you in a strong position to follow up without having to wait for the client. It also gives you one last opportunity to make contact before the decision is made. This is very important. Whenever possible you want to be the last lawyer with whom the prospect talks . If you are last you have an edge because you might be able to coax the fence sitter over to your side just before the decision is made.
Conclusion
The increase in competition in the legal profession will increasingly put you in beauty contests. The better the client, the more intense the competition will be. Understanding what motivates prospects to retain you and using good closing techniques will improve your closing ratio dramatically.
Copyright © Art Italo, 1996. All Rights Reserved
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Art Italo is a consultant working exclusively with attorneys in the areas
of business development and strategic planning. He speaks internationally on
legal marketing and strategic planning.
He has developed and refined the concept of Leveraged Networking after
over 15,000 hours of individual consultations with attorneys. He has personally consulted with over 250
attorneys in
For on-line help with your marketing questions, e-mail Art Italo at
italco@mindspring.com or contact Art
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Marietta, GA 30068
(770) 859-0600
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