You’re good at what you do. Perhaps very good. You’ve won a lot of cases, helped a lot of clients get great outcomes, and, objectively speaking, you are a damn fine lawyer.

Keep that to yourself.

Yes, you should be proud of your accomplishments, and you certainly want the world to know about them. But they shouldn’t hear about them from you.

Because saying these things makes you look bad.

You sound like you’re bragging, and nobody likes that, even if it’s true. Or you sound weak and needy, and that’s even worse.

You want your clients and prospective clients and professional contacts to know you are the best of the best. But they should hear it from other people.

Let them hear about your prowess via testimonials, endorsements, reviews, and world of mouth. Let them find out about your awards and glorious victories via third party articles about you and introductions of you prior to your presentations and interviews.

You can (and should) post everything on your website, but never utter the words yourself.

If you ever find yourself inclined to share your greatness with anyone, let it be in the form of a story—about your client or the case. You’re “in the picture,” of course, and it’s obvious that you were the facilitator of the win, but be the narrator, not the protagonist.

Capice?

I’ve had two physicians say to me, “I’m really good at (the procedure they were trying to convince me to get)”. I rejected both of them, not because of what they were selling but because they were selling.

People like to buy but they don’t like being sold.

The best way to sell a client on your abilities is to have the client sell themselves. And that’s best done before the appointment.

Which is why we post everything on our website and equip our clients and contacts with information so they can do the selling for us.

When you’re speaking to anyone, the only selling you should do about yourself should be done by how you comport yourself.

Show the client you understand their situation. Restate the facts, explain the law, point out their risks and their options. If any of those options are risky or expensive, clearly explain the what and why and how.

Be clear and thorough. Most of all, be confident.

Because your confidence tells the client you’re good at what you do. And because if you’re confident, they will be confident. And they won’t need you to tell them you’re good at your job.

Prospective clients want to know what you can do to solve their problem or achieve their goal. What they don’t want is for you to make the conversation all about yourself.

Put yourself in the shoes of a prospective client. You’re talking to an attorney about your legal matter. Would you want to hear how successful the attorney is, or would you be more interested in hearing what they can do for you?

Many attorneys rely on telling prospective clients about their experience and capabilities and try to impress them with what they’ve done for others. Experience and capabilities are important, but when you make that the focus of your conversation, prospects eventually tune out.

They want to talk about themselves, so let them. Encourage them to do that. Ask questions and let them do most of the talking.

Even when you understand their situation and are ready to present a solution, let them continue to vent and share their pain and frustrations.

And then, ask more questions.

Look for secondary problems caused by their legal situation–a loss of revenue or sleepless nights, for example, that may have caused their business or family to suffer.

Get them to tell you all about it, and listen to every word.

You listen to learn the facts, of course, but listening also shows the prospect that you care about them and truly want to help.

Show them you are listening by making eye contact, asking follow-up questions, repeating back to them what you heard and understand, and letting them see you take lots of notes.

Then, give them their options and tell them what you recommend. Follow that by describing the specific steps you will take to solve their problem and alleviate their pain.

When you let them do most of the talking, they’ll tell you what you need to say and do to get them to choose you as their attorney.

If you do it right, you may not need to talk about your experience and capabilities.

What do you suppose is the most valuable skill for marketing and building a law practice?

If you said, “salesmanship,” you are right.

Learning how to sell your services makes you better at prospecting and lead generation, qualifying prospective clients, presenting, handling objections, and closing.

When you know how to sell, you get more clients and better clients, with less cost and less effort.

Learning how to sell also makes you more effective in the courtroom and the boardroom. You’ll win more cases and close more deals.

Sales skills also help you to write more effective articles and blog posts, driving more traffic to your web pages and sales pages. You’ll get more people contacting you to ask questions or make an appointment.

More people will trust you and want to work with you. More people will want to tell others about you.

When someone questions your capabilities or balks at your fees, you’ll know what to say and do to make them happy and ready to proceed.

When a client has a complaint or questions your judgment, you’ll know how to show them that they are in good hands.

When you speak or network or do an interview, you’ll be more confident, more persuasive, and more attractive to prospects and fellow professionals.

Sales is the uber-skill every attorney needs to learn. So, why do so few attorneys learn it?

Probably because they’re afraid they’ll appear too aggressive, manipulative or hungry for business. They think they’ll come off as less professional or less successful.

“I didn’t go to law school to be a sales person,” they often tell me. But learning how to sell doesn’t make you a sales person. It makes you better at your job.

When I began practicing, I found it difficult to bring in clients and I struggled to pay my bills. Everything changed when I studied marketing and sales and starting using what I had learned.

I encourage you to do the same.

How to use email to sell more of your services