The Strength of Weak Ties: Non-Selling Sales for Law Firms

 Recently law firms have been reflecting on the Reuters Legal article about how so many marketing dollars are wasted on what doesn't close a sale. 

That focus probably will continue to intensify as some firms begin to feel the financial hits from the deline of M&A and IPOs as well as the stuck litigation niche. An actual recession could also kick in. 

Talk of layoffs has begun. And the odds of holding onto a job tend to play out better when lawyers, both partners and associates, bring in new business. You bet, partners also can be forced out. As The Wall Street Journal documented, partnership in a law firm is no longer a job for life. Rainmaking is the platform for employment security.

LAWYERS AS CLOSERS

The takeaway on that Reuters Legal “expose” is this: There has to be a shift to concentrating on the actual sale. So, yes, back off from those “prestige” ventures such as publishing thought leadership essays and delivering keynote speeches. Instead get out there, press the flesh, call, text, give a relevant presentation in-person on ESG or in the metaverse.

PLEASE PLEASE, DON’T SELL TO ME

The rub, of course, is what the late Harvard Business School marketing professor Ted Levitt hammered: Americans like to buy but not be sold to.

So, how can members of law firms, including associates focused on becoming partner, go about actual selling?

GOING OFF-NETWORK

One approach is non-selling sales. A key strategy within that is what’s called The Strength of Weak Ties. Essentially that entails being open to developing relationships with those who are not part of lawyers’ traditional professional networks. That weak tie catapults lawyers into a whole new force field. In it prospects magically appear and closing seems to happen effortlessly.

Essentially that’s what sociologist Mark Granovetter documented in his research. That study had been published in 1973 in the American Journal of Sociology. It turned traditional network theory on its ear.

JAW WITH THE SECURITY GUARD

The unique opportunity of becoming friendly with the security guard in that trophy building, the teacher who’s a neighbor, and the politico inside the beltway is this: They operate in circles different from the usual networks lawyers are tethered to.

That means the weak ties have access to information, insight, and people lawyers don’t. What’s also key is that because they’re not competing with lawyers they will share that. One more benefit: Unlike fellow lawyers, weak ties don’t pigeonhole a lawyer into a certain category. The weak tie will clue the transactional lawyer into a litigation possibility. As we know, many lawyers do do both.

Often it’s all about the power of just being there. Often when no one else is there to compete. And often the underlying selling process goes into play which doesn't sound like, feel like, or look like selling. 

WHERE POLITICS AND NON-SELLING SALES INTERSECT

A typical example? Just consider how law firm chairpersons such as Brad Karp at Paul Weiss have developed weak ties in progressive politics.

A Bloomberg Law article explained how well connected Karp is with Inside the Beltway Democratic players. Not only is that a source of business.  Yes, Karp is there. And no one else probably is there in that moment of legal need. In addition, the connections are useful for lobbying.

At Dentons, the global chairperson Joe Andrew had been a former head of the Democratic National Committee. That intersection of politics and non-selling sales probably has become imprinted on his DNA.

As for conservative law firms, the power center for Jones Day seems to be its DC office. Its signature is assisting conservative candidates in their campaigns.

START TALKING/LISTENING MORE

No surprise, now that lawyers are traveling again, the recommendation is that they do less official work along the way and start more conversations. Along, of course, with listening.

That’s embedded in the networking strategy of taking the Amtrak from Manhattan to DC. The weak tie is in the next seat. Amazing what could happen next.

This is the first of several articles on the art of non-selling sales. Now and then Jane Genova does freelance assignments for professional services firms such as Paul Weiss. She had covered several Jones Day's trials.