Statements of
Excellence
By Art Italo
When you are networking for new contacts, what you say in the initial meeting will be very important in motivating contacts to create a relationship with you and ultimately send you referrals. Most lawyers give very little thought to what they say about themselves when asked to describe their practices in a networking lunch or organizational meeting . In this article, you will learn how to prepare impact statements that will impress new contacts and increase the chances they will send you business.
Good Preparation Is the Key To A Good Presentation
Most lawyers assume they know their practice so well, they can just wing it when someone asks them to describe it. The result is a disjointed, stammering presentation that leaves out most of the most impressive information and concentrates only on the mundane.
Would you go into a trial without reviewing the file and depositions? Would you go into a negotiating meeting without preparing a strategy? Obviously you would not. Understanding what you are going to say and how you will present the information is critical to persuasive communication. The same is true in presenting your practice.
Understanding What Motivates People To Refer
Before you prepare your presentation, it is important to understand what motivates people to refer business. There are two key elements necessary before a contact will send referrals:
- Respect
- Trust
Respect - Respect can be established very quickly by a good presentation. The essential element that garners the respect of your contacts is a perception of competence. Most people will take you at your word if you tell them impressive things about yourself. They will make an evaluation of your competence and if they assess you to be highly competent, they will respect you. This perception will persist until you do something inconsistent with their positive perception. Over time, you will have an opportunity to reinforce their perception by doing excellent work for the people they send you.
Trust - Trust can be influenced by the initial presentation, but it is mostly built over time. The better a person feels they know you, the more they will tend to trust you. A good presentation can at least get you off on the right foot. The key topic on which your contacts will focus is professionalism. They will want to know that you will give excellent service to anyone they might send you. They want to believe you will behave in a way that is a good reflection on them.
Most lawyers think the key motivating factor for sending them referrals is whether they have been sending referrals to their contacts. Although this has some impact, it is secondary as a motivator. Imagine you had an important client with a matter you had to refer out. You have the choice of sending this person to a prominent lawyer whom you have only met twice but impressed you greatly each time, or a lawyer you've known for years, who has sent you dozens of referrals, but you know to be of marginal competence. To whom do you refer your client?
No contest. You can't take the risk that the marginal attorney will foul up your client's matter. That might jeopardize your relationship with the client because he could blame you for the mess made by the referred attorney. You might refer your benevolent contact other prospects whose opinion isn't that important to you (like telephone inquiries or clients you wouldn't mind losing) but you are not likely to send one of your best clients to a marginal attorney, no matter how many referrals you are sent.
Generally, the primary motivator for making a referral is a desire to help the prospective client. Helping the prospective attorney is secondary. Just about all of us want to feel the client will be well attended. If we don't, we send the referral elsewhere.
A strong presentation that shows competence and professionalism will elicit the respect and trust that will put you high on the contact's referral list.
Preparing Competence Statements
Competence statements are descriptions of your practice that indicate you have the experience and ability to handle matters effectively. You should include the following information:
- Focus of Practice
- Years in Practice
- Examples of Typical
Matters
- Professional Leadership
- Lectures and Publications
Focus of Practice - Prepare a concise statement of your practice giving
greatest emphasis to the types of matters you would most like to be working on.
Don't describe yourself as a general practitioner. Be specific. People prefer
to send referrals to specialists because they believe they are more likely to
be competent in their area of specialty. Tailor your presentation to the
listener. If you do corporate and estate planning work and the contact is an
insurance agent, emphasize the estate planning. To an accountant you would
emphasize the corporate work.
Years in Practice - This is straightforward except you should not volunteer this information if you have been practicing less than five years.
Examples of Typical Matters - These should be selected very carefully. You should choose examples of matters that show magnitude and complexity as well as a positive outcome. Tell a story. People love stories and remember the details more vividly and longer than when given a simple description of what you do. If you have an unusual story that casts you as the hero, all the better.
Professional Leadership - Present a thumbnail of your professional activities that show leadership such as bar president, committee chair, board of directors, member of a legislative committee, etc. If you don't have any of these, get some. Leadership is an important earmark of success to most people. If you are perceived as a leader, you are more likely to be perceived as being competent.
Lectures and Publications - Mention the ones you are most proud of. This shouldn't be an exhaustive list. You can say, "I lecture and publish frequently and recently I presented a continuing legal education class on guardianship and adoption for the state bar." People admire people who lecture and publish. Less than 30% of all lawyers have published since law school and less than 50% have given a single lecture. If you have not been active in this area, I advise you to get started. You should give two lectures per year (they don't have to be huge seminars, a chamber luncheon will do) and publish at least once a year (it doesn't have to be law review, a short article for a targeted newsletter or industry publication will probably get you more business).
Preparing Philosophy Statements
In addition to your competence statements, you should make statements about your service philosophy. Showing contacts that you are very concerned with providing good legal services in a highly professional manner will earn you a higher level of trust. Before you prepare your philosophy statements, you should have prepared your Code of Conduct. If you have not done so, read my articles on The 7 C's of Good Service and Establishing Your Personal Code Of Professional Conduct. This will prepare you to develop good philosophy statments.
When describing your service philosophy, I recommed a three part contrasting statment:
- State Your Philosophy (eg. "I believe responsiveness is one of the most important elements of a good client relationship")
- Contrast It With The Public Perception Of Attorneys (eg. "Unfortunately, lawyers have a bad reputation for not returning their clients' telephone calls.")
- State Your Code Of Conduct (eg. "That's why I take special care to make sure all client calls are answered within 24 hours.)
This seems like a lot of rigmarole, but it creates a better effect than just telling the contact you return your calls. The effect of the three statements is as follows:
Stating Your Philosophy - Stating your philosophy makes you sound like a visionary. People are very attracted to those with lofty goals and ideals, probably because most people have become jaded after having made numerous concessions in life. Philosophies are also somewhat personal. Revealing them shows both courage and trust that they won't be ridiculed. Stating your philosophies will make the contact naturally trust you more.
Contrasting Statements - We need to face the fact that the public does not hold the legal profession in high regard. You can turn this negative into a positive if you are effective at differentiating yourself and your firm from the generally held negative perception. Making the contrasting statement acknowledges the fact that the profession is not highly esteemed in the area you have selected. It sets you up to differentiate yourself in the next statement.
Stating Your Code Of Conduct - Stating your code of conduct tells the contact you are dedicated not just to high ideals, but acting on those ideals. After having pointed out that the profession is not particularly good in the area you selected, you tell the contact how you are different by specifying how you handle matters more professionally. This immediately elevates you in the contact's mind above the average attorney or firm.
Putting It All Together
After you have written down your competence statements and philosophy statements, you should practice your delivery. You should rehearse your presentation at least five times using a video recorder or dictaphone. Notice how believable you look and sound. Make your presentation eloquent and articulate, without stammering and long pauses.
Don't forget the intangibles. Practice good body language. Sit straight but relaxed. Don't cross your arms. Make eye contact about 60%-70% of the time (too much eye contact makes people uncomfortable, too little makes them suspicious).
Speak three dimensionally. By this I mean use inflection to make certain important words stand out. This gets your point across with greater impact and avoids making you sound monotonous. Don't drone your accomplishments out like you are reading a laundry list. Speak in short concise sentences that end on a strong downbeat. Most importantly show enthusiasm. If you sound like you hate what you do, what is the likelihood contact will believe the client will like it any better?
When giving your Philosophy Statements, you needn't roll out fifteen of them. Just two or so will do the trick. Try to get a feeling for which of your philosophies will be best received by the contact. Many times the contact will ask you a direct question that will lead you right into a Philosophy Statement.
After you have mastered your presentation skills, take your pitch on the road. A good person to practice with is a contact whom you know casually, but who might be a good referral source with a little cultivation. Setting up lunch with this person will be easy because you are already acquainted. There will be much less awkwardness in the meeting as well. This kind of situation will make you less self conscious, while giving you valuable practice in making a live presentation.
With practice and a few meetings, you will become a pro at impressing your contacts, and reap the benefit of additional referral business.
Copyright © Art Italo, 1996. All Rights Reserved
Select
this link to see Art Italo’s Practice Profile
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
Italo at:
Italo Consulting®
P.O. Box 680474
Marietta, GA 30068
(770) 859-0600
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