Sales training for legal marketers.

• Author: Coulter, Silvia

At one point in time, the word "sales" was not uttered inside law firms. Much has changed in the last two decades, and now sales and sales strategy is at the forefront of every firm's strategic initiative. Once, it was nice for marketers to know about sales--now, sales are need to know. To be truly effective as a legal marketer, it is critical to understand the sales process and how a specific marketing role integrates with that process. Further, the more that marketing activities and strategies are tied to revenue, the better the job security for those positions.

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Invest in yourself with education and learning! Here are some resources which anyone in legal marketing today may find useful (and arguably, necessary) to help reach the full potential of your role in the firm and how it ties to helping the firm retain and grow clients and build new business.

Process Management, Process Improvement and Pricing Models

Understanding process management will be critical in helping you, your team and the marketing department support the future growth of the firm. Change is coming and it's driven in part by the clients. Get on board and learn everything you can to help meet the challenges and the opportunities for improving firm processes. Here are some useful Web sites and programming information:

* Association of Corporate Counsel Web Site (www.ACC.com)

The Association of Corporate Counsel's Value Challenge initiative is strong and taking on greater strength as it grows. The association's Web site has a lot of information about the relationship between today's law firms and their clients. You will also find tools that will directly help with budgeting and other important parts of the pricing and process models now becoming part of everyday business in the legal industry.

* West Paces Consulting (www.westpacesconsulting.com)

Leonardo Inghilleri, the former Ritz Carlton leader who helped the Ritz win not one but two Baldrige Awards, is now at his new firm with former Ritz founder Horst Schulte. Long known for his prowess with process improvement and service excellence, Inghilleri has helped bridge the concepts from the Ritz to the law firm and is a great speaker for any marketing department off-site meeting or a firm retreat.

* The LSSO Yellow Belt Program (www.legalsales.org)

Whether it's a group session or one run at your firm, don't miss out on the ability to learn about process management and process improvement in a forum...