Use these 3 quick and easy tips to improve your skills as a salesperson!
Knowing how to sell is an essential skill for any Lawyer. But for those of us who don’t have much experience in selling, or who may be more technical rather than business minded, it might seem like something you just have to be born with.
Almost no one pursues a professional degree to become a salesman.
For many lawyers, there’s something about selling that even feels unethical about selling. Like it’s beneath the profession.
The reality is that almost anyone can get better at sales by understanding what separates the best salespeople from everyone else.
Here are a few basic techniques that you can follow to quickly improve your sales skills.
1. Build Trust and Rapport
People want to buy things from people that they like. It’s that simple. To do that, you need to build rapport with leads before trying to close the deal. The key to building a relationship with someone by understanding and relating to them.
Rapport building starts to happen when your lead first interacts with you. This can be through a phone call or at the first consultation. The rapport building process will continue to develop as the conversation progresses. Essentially take time during your first interaction to get to know them on a personal level.
2. Ask questions
Here’s a little secret, leads don’t care about all the great features or credentials that your firm might have, they only care about whether you can help them or not. If you understand this simple truth, then your job is now to display why your firm is the best solution to their problem.
Get started by asking questions to find out about their motivations. Why did they decide to take a call or meet with you? Are they meeting with anyone else? By seeking to understand both their personal and professional motivations, you show that you really care about their needs and aren’t just trying to sell them something.
Another pro tip: Don’t accept one-word answers like yes or no. Instead, ask “why not?” or “can you elaborate on that?” The deeper you dig, the higher the likelihood that you’ll uncover the person’s true motivations. Just try not to sound too pushy.
3. Confidence is Key
Learn how to sound more confident, even if you’re really not.
We put on a brave face in front of clients, adversaries and judges. But many lawyers, especially those new to solo practice, are riddled with self-doubt.
From the outside, you look confident, capable and in charge. On the inside, you might be falling apart. It’s a common mountain that everyone has to scale. Some lawyers even say they feel like a fraud or impostor, at least in the early career stages.
One way to help build confidence is to practice your sales pitch. Practice in the mirror, the shower, on the train, wherever you want! You only need to practice the short, 30-second delivery because your goal is not only to pitch but to understand the lead’s problem and follow up with a question.
Another simple way to sound more confident is to listen. Don’t talk too much. Just because the other person took a pause doesn’t mean you have to fill the void of the silence. Sometimes if you let the silence happen the lead will sometimes share information that you didn’t even ask for.
Finally, remember, nobody is perfect. Your mom probably told you that – and it’s true. Every peer whom you admire has professional and personal insecurities. Psychologists say that, often, the ones who exude extreme confidence struggle most with insecurities.
Perfection isn’t possible. The sooner you come to terms with that, the quicker your confidence will grow and you will begin impressing your new leads.
Following these three basic steps will not only help you have better conversations with your potential clients, but it will also make it much easier for them to retain you when the time comes!
