Economic Stimulus Package

The new President and Congress must take inventory of all practicable resources. What buttons should be pushed? Where should they invest? We face the same great task – what should a Law Firm Economic Stimulus Package look like in this unprecedented economic environment?

In the months and years ahead, leadership will be fundamentally defined by the capacity to generate revenue. No matter what happens on Wall Street or Main Street, your sustained growth depends on your ability to identify what you have to sell and how best to sell it.

It is not about reinventing the wheel or flavors of the month. Instead, proactive leaders will utilize the tools they already have at hand. Such leaders will uncover dormant resources and unleash the power of revenue-focused leadership, planning, training, and implementation.

A Three-Pronged Economic Stimulus Plan

An effective Law Firm Economic Stimulus Package requires the intelligent and judicious use of time and resources to get the best results. Firms that successfully navigate through this environment will have powerfully integrated three major areas, and they will do so in an economic environment where such integration is more important than ever:

1) Turning leaders into revenue-focused leaders
It starts with “Revenue-Focused Leadership,” an approach that transforms crisis into opportunity. Such leadership is practical and bottom-line focused at every turn. Revenue-focused leaders motivate and inspire group members to go out and get more work from a variety of sources. Some of the stimulus tools used by revenue-focused leaders include:

• Leadership training and coaching
  
• Culture Xray®
  
• Planning/retreat sessions
  
• Client service training
  
• Cross-selling workshops
  
• Client team development
  

2) Turning lawyers into business development machines
Many lawyers are not operating at full capacity when it comes to finding and keeping excellent clients. Savvy leaders work with those members of the firm whose business development potential best justifies the effort. Strategic firms make wise investments in top and emerging talent by providing:

• Business development training and coaching
  
• Personal business plan development
  

3) Maximizing the impact of new laterals in the firm
Laterals bring an infusion of revenue into a firm, but often their potential is largely unrealized. Revenue-focused leaders provide time and resources to integrate laterals and help them capitalize on the work they can give to, and receive from, others in the firm. One effective leadership device is to provide:

• Custom-designed business development training and coaching specifically tailored to the unique opportunities that laterals represent

Generate More With Less

The Law Firm Economic Stimulus Package recognizes that, today, there is no time for mistakes. You must act decisively while also being more judicious about expenditures. In short, you must figure out how to generate more while spending less. In our methodology, we:

• De-emphasize nice-to-have marketing collateral in favor of need-to-have business development and client relations skills training
  
• Provide approaches that reduce per-lawyer training costs
  
• Work with those who have the greatest impact on others in the firm
  
• Ignite cross-selling at the firm, group, and individual levels to optimize returns from current clients and prospects
  
• Show client service techniques that allow firms to “out-relationship” the competition
  
• Motivate underproductive lawyers with new tools and approaches for success
  
• Utilize the Culture Xray®, an internal survey tool that allows firms to efficiently pinpoint specific initiatives that will have the greatest impact on business development
  

The Stimulus Package Toolkit

The Law Firm Economic Stimulus Package jump-starts new revenue generation with deliverables that are direct, practical, and designed for fast results. The economic drivers at our disposal include:

• Revenue-focused leadership training and coaching for group leaders
  
• Revenue-focused firm-wide planning retreats along with practice group planning/retreats
  
• Accelerated cross-selling workshops
  
• Exceptional client service workshops
  
• Business development training and coaching for key lawyers and new laterals
  
• High performance client teams
  
• Culture Xray® to identify key internal issues and opportunities
  
• Revenue-focused training and coaching for marketing departments
  

Ongoing Follow-Up

For maximum results, it’s not enough to impose desired behaviors. These behaviors must be kept top-of-mind on an ongoing basis. Business development skills must turn into business development instincts. To that end, we provide refresher and reminder programs to ensure that the leadership, client service, and cross-selling skills we inculcate endure beyond the first wave of new revenue generation.

No two firms are alike. A well-designed Law Firm Economic Stimulus Package must be tailored to meet your needs, your culture, your history, and your goals. There is no room for boilerplate, ever. Feel free to call and together we can develop a customized approach that fits the particular needs of your firm.