A Time To Sell? No Way!
In late January, I was one of several bloggers posting about who should be conducting client surveys and whether the surveys should be a disguised or blantant selling vehicle. Check this post for background. Jim Hassett continues this dialogue today with his post at Law Firm Business Development.
Its a very interesting post. The Director of Sales at Wombyle Carlyle takes issue with the notion that selling should not be a part of a client service survey. Jim quotes him:
"At a client service review, the lawyer and his/her client are supposed to dig in and candidly discuss what's going on at the company. It's a chance for the client to wax eloquent about problems and dreams... At least to this salesman, for a lawyer to uncover problems (or opportunities) and not to provide a solution (yes, even one that the lawyer himself can address for a fee), is the equivalent of a doctor knowing that you have heart palpitations and not doing anything about it....When a client talks about problems (or opportunities), he/she wants advice and suggestions from a lawyer every bit as much as a patient does from a doctor."
I beg to differ, and strongly. Maybe it is a matter of semantics, but there is a difference between a doctor knowing you have heart palpitations and fixing the problem with a prescription and a doctor listening to your symptoms and ordering a battery of tests to figure out what ails the patient. The latter requires investigation, analysis and listening. There is a difference between hearing what the law firm can do to improve the work it is currently doing and whether there is more work to handle. I've done north of twenty client service interviews. I know clients are savvy enough to distinguish between a discussion about how you can serve them better and how you can serve them more.