ILTA WHITE PAPER: MAY 2015 WWW.ILTANET.ORG
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TALK THE TALK TO GAIN PROFESSIONAL MOBILITY
AS LONG AS I DON'T HAVE TO SELL
ANYTHING
A career in consulting is a career in sales.
The two disciplines are never mutually
exclusive. Most seasoned and successful
legal technology consultants will admit
they spend anywhere between 20 and
80 percent of their time doing
business development.
For a consultant, the greatest skill
is the power of persuasion. That ability
is usually coupled with a subject-matter
expertise, but not always. Business is
often developed through a relationship.
Other times, being able to compete
on price is enough to capture revenue.
Sales techniques are not limited to
vendors looking to close business with
law firms and corporations. Reverse this
assumption: Use sales techniques to
gain internal buy-in from your client, i.e.,
your attorneys, in-house counsel, C-level
executives, board of directors, etc.
FIND YOUR VOICE
Actively developing the ability to talk about what you do professionally is essential to move up within any organization. The greatest increases in compensation come
from an individual's ability to express themselves with clarity and business savvy. That maturation comes with time, but also with practice. Legal technology professionals
must take stock of their faculties and rehearse talking about their expertise, so they can always talk the talk and walk the walk.
Here are some popular contemporary sales books with ideologies and methodologies that apply to any
legal professional looking to improve their marketability:
The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation
by Matthew Dixon & Brent Adamson
What's the secret to sales success? If you're like most business leaders, you'd say it's about relationships — and
you'd be wrong. The best salespeople don't just build relationships with customers, they challenge them.
Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time
by Keith Ferrazzi
This is the best-selling business classic on the power of relationships, updated with in-depth advice for making
connections in the digital world. Keith Ferrazzi says the secret is in contacting others. As he discovered early in life,
what distinguishes highly successful people is the way they use the power of relationships — so everyone wins.
The Art of Persuasion: Winning Without Intimidation
by Bob Burg
After studying some of the most successful men and women in modern history, author Bob Burg noticed how many
common characteristics these people have — notably that they were all persuasive. Winning principles described by
Burg include: making people feel important, everything is negotiable, dealing with difficult people, persuasion in
action and what sets you apart from the rest.
