LEGALBIZDEV™
COACHING GUIDE
Revised December 20, 2007
The big picture .................................................................................................................... 3
LegalBizDev philosophy .................................................................................................... 3
Who can become a LegalBizDev coach?............................................................................ 4
How coaching certification works ...................................................................................... 5
Time commitment required................................................................................................. 6
Attachment A: Coach’s Guide to LegalBizDev Desk Reference ... Error! Bookmark not
defined.
This is a living document to help LegalBizDev coaches assure that every client in the
eight week coaching program is very very happy. It will be revised regularly based upon
feedback from clients and coaches.
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The big picture
As the company grows, we will refine formal and systematic procedures to certify every
new coach. For now, with the first few coaches, the challenge is to bring people up to
speed as quickly as possible. We must preserve the elements which are responsible for
success to date, but not make the process so constricting that I try to make everybody like
me. (I am old enough to know that making people like me is a losing battle, and my wife
would tell you it’s a questionable goal in any case.) We are sure to hit some bumps, but
with this team, we are also sure to win.
All of the public details of the process appear in The LegalBizDev Desk Reference
beginning on page 172. See especially the call agendas that begin on page 175.
This document addresses some “behind the curtain” issues for internal discussion.
LegalBizDev philosophy
The LegalBizDev philosophy is to always:
 Measure results
 Adjust actions quickly to increase both business results and client satisfaction
 Above all else, make sure that every client is very very happy
We will be working on a number of systems to measure and track quality, including
asking every lawyer at the end of coaching to rate the program from 1 to 10, and send
comments directly to LegalBizDev.
There are many issues that make it a challenge to train lawyers. I think the two biggest
are time, and personality traits.
Above everything else, lawyers are busy. And when you bill $300 per hour, one minute
spent chatting costs $5.
So LegalBizDev coaches take time very seriously, and make a show of doing so.
Before each new coach begins their first assignment, I will send them a digital timer, to
make sure 30 minute calls do not take 31 minutes (unless the client requests it). When I
give speeches, I make a show of starting the timer when I begin talking, and telling
people that I can guarantee one thing about every talk: I shall end exactly on time. When
I do, I point to my timer.
Similarly, we should make a show about our devotion to time in the weekly calls:
starting each call at the exact scheduled moment, confirming at the beginning of each
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weekly scheduled calls whether today is still a good time (even though they selected it),
and asking whether they have 30 minutes, or we should go faster today.
We also address lawyers’ lack of time by getting a commitment to a certain number of
business development hours per week during the 8 week coaching program, and then
doing everything possible to maximize results within that time frame.
Again, I am not sure which elements of this are critical. But I do know Tom and I are
getting better results than any other legal coach, so I want to insure that if in doubt, we
keep doing what’s worked.
Personality traits are a bigger challenge. Lawyers are highly intelligent and often
argumentative. What’s worse, they are trained to think first and act second, avoiding risk
wherever possible. These traits are the antithesis of selling.
Some lawyers tend to over-analyze sales options. They need to be prodded to get out of
the office and see what works.
To some extent, the LegalBizDev process is a kind of selling. We are trying to sell
lawyers on doing the right thing to bring in new business. And the way to do that is the
same way you would sell anything else.
“In successful sales calls, it is the buyer who does most of the talking…[To be
successful, you must] get the buyer to tell you about the benefits your solution
offers, rather than… [explaining] the benefits to the buyer… By getting buyers to
talk about the benefits you offer, you can have a greater impact, while sounding a
lot less pushy…”
--- From The Spin Selling Fieldbook, by Neil Rackham, p. 9 and p. 21
Lawyers argue. Sales people smile and agree. We need to model the correct behavior by
smiling and appearing to agree even when we don’t, and constantly pushing them, ever so
slowly, in the right direction.
It’s like teaching people to dance, without leading in an obvious way. The lawyers lead,
the coaches follow. But we try to guide the leader in the right direction, as much as
possible.
The LegalBizDev process has been designed to assure that lawyers quickly identify the
best activities that they are willing to work on. It aims to get these ideas quickly into
action and build on the sales success that will inevitably result.
Who can become a LegalBizDev coach?
Theoretically, anyone who is highly intelligent and willing to learn can become a
LegalBizDev coach. But the more background you have, the faster it will go. At this
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time we will work only with people who have a strong understanding of basic sales
concepts that apply in law firms. We prefer people who have experience with law firms,
but I believe this is less important than understanding how to sell. We’ll test this theory
over the next few months.
How coaching certification works
Tom and I are working on formal systems to make this standard and straightforward. At
some point, Tom may take over training and certifying coaches. I want to get out of the
loop as fast as I can so I can concentrate on selling and on product development. But I
am also maniacal about verifying that client satisfaction and business results will be the
same for all coaches, so quality control systems will continue to be an important focus for
me as we scale up. My own personal priority list starts with assuring that every
LegalBizDev client is a raving fan, and if it takes 100% of my time to do that, so be it.
The certification process must be competed before the first lawyer is coached, including:

Becoming familiar with the contents of the Success Kit, especially the Desk
Reference coaching section, and the contents of the Desk Reference, to the point
where you can refer people to the sections that apply to them. The sections
lawyers must be referred to most often are:
p. 13 Advances
p. 30 Checklist of best practices for current clients
p. 33 Step by step instructions for finding new clients
p. 88 Questions to improve listening

Listening to recordings of role plays of coaching sessions at
http://www.legalbizdev.com/TrainTheTrainer



Conducting a 30-45 minute role play of a first coaching call, with Jim acting as
trainer, and you acting as lawyer. (This will be recorded and placed on for use in
training future trainers.)
Conducting another 30-45 minute role play of a first coaching call, with the roles
reversed: Jim acting as lawyer, and you acting as trainer. (This too will be
recorded, and may or may not be posted to the same site.)
Jim will assess performance based on that call and create an individual training
and testing plan, based on a diagnosis of strengths and weaknesses in ten key
areas:
The first five proficiency factors measure activity during the coaching sessions:
1. Provides many suggestions for lawyers to choose from, based on best practices.
2. Guides lawyers to the best solution they will accept, never argues.
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3. Suggests appropriate job aids from the Workbook and Guide
4. Organizes all details in weekly reports.
5. Urges experimentation, not analysis.
The remaining five concern the way coaches are perceived by the lawyers:
6. Extremely efficient in using lawyers’ time.
7. Respectful and deferential.
8. Legally sophisticated.
9. Always happy to go the extra mile.
10. Upbeat and optimistic.
Time commitment required
The time required for certification will be extremely variable, based upon which of the
ten proficiency factors each person needs to concentrate on, and how willing they are to
abandon old habits that don’t fit this new model. Some people will find that the basic
certification goes quickly, as Tom did. But others may have a much longer road. And
when I propose a process to a client for certifying their internal staff, I emphasize that
some people may find they are not well suited for this approach, and may never complete
the certification process.
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