What Sales Enablement Looks Like in a Small to Mid-Size Law Firm

Lawyers are made for the courtroom. They sway juries, dedicate themselves to the craft, and help clients navigate the rocky road that is the justice system. Before lawyers can close the case, they must first close the initial deal. This can be the hang-up for most firms, as team members were mainly trained to represent clients, not sell them on their services.  

 

However, by placing the right tools in their hands and training them correctly, you could have your team booking more cases than you thought was possible, and it all starts with empowering them with everything they need to succeed.

 

What is Sales Enablement? 

 

Sales enablement is exactly how it sounds, enabling your team to do their best work—in other words, you’re giving them everything they need in order to close sales. This could be engaging content, training, and data that ensures those in client-facing roles bring the most value to clients.  

 

 

 

 

Recent stats have shown the need and relevance of sales enablement strategies—and although there has been a 343% increase in the adoption of sales enablement over the past five years, the principles of this strategy are not necessarily new. 

 

However, new tech has made this the cornerstone of a successful sales approach. By giving clients what they need, when they need it, they’ll go from a lukewarm lead to a red-hot deal in no time. But how? 

 

How Does it Help Businesses? 

 

With the benefits of sales enablement, it’s no wonder so many companies are chomping at the bit to adopt this strategy and bolster their revenue. Sales enablement helps by: 

 

• Providing your team with the content clients find valuable and storing that content in an easily accessible place 

 

• Teaching your team to be versatile in how they present content to clients so that it adds value and addresses their most common concerns 

 

• Reporting data that tracks key performance metrics to find out what works and what doesn’t, which helps adjust the content strategy or overall sales approach 

 

• Empower your team with the training and guidance they need to thrive.

 

Effective sales training has improved win rates by as much as 29%. 

 

Okay. So, How Does This Help a Firm? 

 

We understand you went to law school—not business school. And you probably don’t have a designated “sales team.” However, to put that hard-earned education to practice, you need to put on your sales hat before your attorney hat.

 

Adopting a sales enablement strategy can teach you and your team the right way to approach sales. 

 

Having a competent, well-trained team on the phone at all times with potential clients provides unmatched value and gives you a leg up on the competition since most firms might not be this forward-thinking. 

 

Additionally, your clients have a unique journey that must be considered and agreed on to ensure your marketing team (or yourself) gives clients the right content that helps close the deal. 

 

What Does Sales Enablement Look Like in the Law Biz? 

 

You now know why you need sales enablement, but what does it look like at your firm? It can look like many things depending on the size of your team and your practice area. Therefore, we’ll just give you the broad strokes and a general overview of the basic principles to consider.  

 

Your strategy might include the following: 

 

Analyzing Current Sales Procedures 

 

Before you can start any new strategy, you need to get a pulse of your current sales process. This will help to highlight your main weak spots and what areas to improve on.  

 

For example, if the content your team is using doesn’t help close the deal, reviewing all your client materials might be a good idea to see why they’re not bringing value to prospects.

 

You may find that your content is great, but team members aren’t able to easily access it—team members spend an average of 440 hours searching for the right content to share with prospects.  

 

Or, team members may genuinely feel unprepared to deal with client inquiries and, as a result, fail to provide value to clients. This is crucial since approximately 74% of buyers chose the company that was first to add value. Whatever is hurting your sales performance, a thorough audit will bring it to the surface, which will allow you to put your focus on giving your team what they need.  

 

Training Your Team  

 

A well-trained team is a critical pillar in the sales enablement process. Failing to offer proper training is like sending a soldier to the front line of battle without any armour or a weapon.

 

They need more tools in their belt than Batman to be ready for any client inquiry that comes their way.  

 

Your team must consider your client’s buying situations, which differ depending on your practice area. What that means is the training must be unique, and team should train for those real-life experiences.

 

For example, someone needing estate planning has a different buyer’s journey than someone charged with 1st-degree murder.  

 

An estate planning case involves someone taking the time to plan for the future, whereas a criminal case demands immediate assistance. If you’re not familiar with each buyer’s journey, you won’t provide value to them, and they’ll go elsewhere. 

 

 

Providing Your Team the Right Content 

 

Now, we’ve talked a lot about content so far. Content is any material you provide clients that could influence their buying decision or further inform them about your service. This could be case studies, testimonials, price sheets, or relevant blog and page content on your website you can direct them to for more information.  

 

Yet, having the right content is only half the battle. Effectively distributing your content to clients is a whole other animal. The best way to do this is to ensure your content is easily accessible through an online repository.  

 

This gives your team a place to access the right content when they need it. To start producing the right content, audit what you already have. You may just have to reorganize it and put it all in one place.  

 

Reporting on Your Successes & Making Tweaks

 

Another vital aspect of sales enablement is performance tracking. After all, wouldn’t you like to know if all that content and training you spent time on paid off?  

 

Failing to track performances is like throwing darts blindfolded—which wastes time and money. If you’re producing a lot of content and clients are still not converting, reconsider your content strategy and collaborate with your team to find out why clients aren’t finding it valuable to them.  

 

Collaborating Across Departments 

 

To have a thriving firm or any business, all departments must work as a team. This couldn’t be more true when enforcing a new sales enablement strategy. For this to work, your sales and marketing teams must be married together. As most of us know, to have a happy marriage, you’ll need to talk to one another to have a healthy relationship. 

 

That means having you or your attorneys inform those in marketing on what content clients find most valuable. At the same time, you and your attorneys must commit to your training and put what you learned into action.  

 

Many companies have seen drastic losses from sales and marketing misalignment—costing them around $1 trillion per year in decreased sales productivity and wasted marketing efforts. That’s trillion with a T. 

 

Sales Enablement Tools for Success 

 

Nowadays, there are a plethora of tools at your disposal to encourage your team to thrive, including: 

 

• CRM – Or customer relationship management. This tool allows you to track customers by placing them in one database, accessible by all departments. This makes it easy for your team to organize clients and build strong relationships with them.  

 

• Content Management System – Keeping all your content in one place allows your team members to search for valuable material to give to clients. In fact, some forms of content management use an algorithm to automatically produce the right content at the right time and for the right situation. Pretty cool, huh? 

 

 

 

• Onboarding – Many companies expect it to take a while to get your team up to speed on the sales process. An iron-clad sales training plan ensures that new hires quickly adopt principles and start closing deals for the firm. 

 

• Ongoing Training – Studies show that 84% of sales teams forget their training in the first three months. Reinforcing sales enablement best practices through virtual or in-person training keeps information fresh in your team's minds, so their knowledge doesn’t diminish.  

 

• Performance Data – This helps you track key metrics in your sales process and allows you to look for ways to improve your overall performance.  

 

Empower Your Team Through Sales Enablement 

 

An attorney’s job is two-fold: part lawyer, part entrepreneur. Tapping into your entrepreneurial side is an often-forgotten aspect of running a firm. However, it can be the difference between success and failure.  

 

As a responsible business owner, you want to make sure your team has everything they need to get the job done. Sales enablement helps your team book cases for your firm, so you can do what you do best,  help with their legal problems. 

 

This piece was penned by the incredible team at Postali. Postali is a full-service marketing agency serving the unique needs of attorneys and law firms.