Business Development Goes Mainstream
Sales in law firms, which was considered a radical idea in 2002 (see Law Firms Now Employing Directors of Sales) is now an established and accepted part of law firm practice development.
The 130 attendees at the Raindance Conference of the Legal Sales and Service Organization (LSSO) are proof of this. Organized by Silvia L. Coulter of Coulter Consulting Group (formerly of Dorsey & Whitney) and Catherine Alman MacDonagh of Day, Berry the three-day annual meeting is going on right now is Boston.
The list of law firms that are here is impressive. It's not the firms that run wild-eyed Yellow Pages ads or promise millions on highway billboards. The firms are the major, brand-name firms of the U.S. and Canada:
- King & Spalding
- Dorsey & Whitney
- Goodwin Procter
- Thomson Hine
- Goulston & Storrs
- Day, Berry & Howard
- Jones Day
- Womble Carlyle (which was the first to hire a business developer in 2002).
- Drinker Biddle & Reath
- Graydon Head & Ritchey
- Preston Gates & Ellis
- Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal
- Latham & Watkins
- Duane Morris
- Morgan Lewis
- Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
- DLA Piper Rudnick
- Holland Knight
- Nixon Peabody
- Nutter McClennen & Fish
- Dorsey & Whitney
- Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr
- Kirkpatrick & Lockhart
- Borden Ladner Gervais
- Wolf Greenfield
- Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner
- Palmer & dodge
- Morgan Lewis & Bockius
A sampling of the vendors and sponsors also reflects the sales orientation of these law firms. They include Legal Insight Media, Inc. (Flash movies for your WEb site), Thomson's Firm360 (competitive intelligence database), Sales Results Inc. (sales training), ALM Research (market research and intelligence), BTI (market research), ContactEase (CRM relationship management). Also included at Hubbard One (web sites), Marketing Resources Group (executive recruiting), Corporate Legal Times (news magazine) and Clockwork Design Group, Inc. (branding and design).
Monica Bay is here too, and she blogged a presentation by Keith Ferrazzi, who said the way to build business relatioinships is by:
- Making intimacy the basis of any business relationship.
- Being generous, and first focusing on making everyone around you successful. This will make them trust you and help you be successful.
No one is here to talk about brochures, seminars, newsletters or basic marketing (which is the foundation for sales). They're here to talk about how to get new business.
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