Thursday, September 23, 2010

How to win by losing?


Having a view into a cross section of law firms around the world, I see that most firms are looking for more client development results from their attorneys, are operating with a lower headcount, and are dealing with longer client development cycles or all of the above. Adding to head count is one solution but developing your attorneys to focus on the best opportunities is a better way to optimize your law firm client development effectiveness.

When I was the Senior Sales Director of a multinational company, we would frequently be asked by our Managers and reps to bid on RFP’s that were sent to us unsolicited. They were clearly written by a direct competitor and we could quickly see that opportunities like those were generally a huge waste of resources. Focusing your resources on winnable opportunities, and eliminating the others quickly is the number one way to increase your win ratio. I've identified an objective method to achieve that goal.

If you are not going to win an opportunity, the best course of action is to lose it as quickly as possible to invest as little time and resources as possible. Here are some best practices to identify opportunities that you will win by “losing”:

1) Qualify Your Prospects – If the opportunity is an unsolicited RFP, ask for access to the key stakeholders in the initiative and determine why they issued the document. If you can’t get access, or identify a qualified reason to compete, why bother?

2) Assess Your Chances of Winning - Assume a low likelihood of winning the business and seek data which would cause you to increase your odds. It is important to evaluate the opportunity in light of the resources needed to pursue other opportunities that you may have uncovered yourself and have a higher likelihood of winning.

3) Three Buyer Phases - Look for clues about your standing as it relates to where your organization enters the sales/ client development process.

Phase 1 - Needs Analysis - Straw man attorneys/firms come in at the end of this phase so if all the heavy lifting has been done that’s a pretty good indication you are wasting your time. If the buyer is pressing for price and doesn’t have any questions, that’s another clue that a competitor has this opportunity wired and the buyer is just getting bids for the file.

Phase 2 - Evaluation - Look for buyers making a bona fide good faith effort in understanding your solution. If access to key executives outside of purchasing is denied, that’s another sign that the buyer is just putting your organization through the motions. Try to schedule a review during this phase to determine if the buyer will commit resources to truly evaluate your option and identify issues other than price to be addressed.

Phase 3 Commitment –During this phase, the buyer needs have already been identified and the proof of your solution has been thoroughly evaluated. If you feel that the buyer has not been thorough in evaluating your people and product, it may be an indication that the objective is to get a low price from you that they can use to negotiate with the wired attorney/firm.

Walking away from opportunities is difficult and anti-intuitive. Most law firms don’t have unlimited resources, and one characteristic of a mature, high performing client development organization is the ability to assess where best to allocate resources. Focusing your energy only on deals that can be won is a key ingredient that will pay dividends.

Please contact Andrew Wilcox, Andrew@Wilcox-legal.com, 850-893-8984

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