In December, Kevin McMurdo of McMurdo Consulting presented “Brain Games: Exercise Your Business Development Training” to multiple city groups within the LMA Midwest Chapter. Kevin, former chief marketing officer at Perkins Coie, drew upon his years of experience leading marketing and business development functions at law and accounting firms in order to develop practical techniques to revive our attorney’s business development efforts.
Why is business development training a cost-effective tool for firm success?
Many of us know that business development training is important, but Kevin was able to break down why it is important:
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Links marketing to sales
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Helps develop a common language
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Is critical to a successful proposal process
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Business development is a contact sport
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Is important to every phase of a client relationship
What should be included in a business development training curriculum?
So what should be covered in business development training? “Know your product” is a key marketing tenet, so according to Kevin, product knowledge should be included in business development training. This includes information on the firm brand, facts and the strategic direction of the firm. Attorneys should also have an understanding of the firm’s client portfolio, individual and group strengths, and the firm’s business development resources.
One way to encourage lawyers to learn more about the firm and its client base is to simply quiz them on what they know, playing off of their competitive spirit. Furthermore, lawyers can learn about their colleague’s strengths by just discussing their respective practices in small, arranged groups.
Interpersonal skills, Kevin conceded, while not easily taught, can be developed through business development training. This training should focus on communication fundamentals, networking, listening, presentations and media and sales skills.
Kevin offered an interesting role-playing exercise to aid in this area. Get a small group of attorneys together and have them designate one individual as the rainmaker and another as the client. Have them play out a scenario, such as an overdue bill, and have the others observe the behaviors. Afterwards the group should discuss how the individuals related to each other, which will help reveal new techniques that can be used in similar situations.
Kevin explained the importance of listening and demonstrated a novel exercise to help our attorneys become better listeners. He showed the group a recorded client interview and asked questions about it afterwards. What are his interests? Do we have any common interests? What is the most important thing in an attorney/client relationship to him? Rich information can be uncovered through sharing recorded client interviews among an entire client team.