And what they’re leaving on the table because of it.
By Brad Hawley, Head of Client Engagement | 6 min read
As law firms grow and consolidate, they typically hire teams to oversee accounting, finance, IT, and marketing. But very few consider hiring individuals who are dedicated to — and compensated for — securing new clients and matters. Simply put, they don’t hire salespeople.
Don’t get me wrong — law firms do sell. I’ve just never met an attorney who wants to admit it. But that’s exactly what it is. Do you have rainmakers in your firm? Attorneys who focus on originations? They are salespeople. And let’s define what a law firm really is: a professional services vendor.
Consider other professional services companies: Deloitte, PwC, McKinsey, Gartner, Accenture, Paychex, ManpowerGroup. Search any of their names with “sales jobs” and you’ll find that every one of them has a dedicated and substantial sales force.
So why should law firms be any different?
There are real reasons the legal industry has resisted building a revenue generation strategy beyond a small marketing department and reliance on partners to originate business:
Solicitation has long been seen as unprofessional in the legal world. Most firms have relied on referrals and reputation — a model that worked when competition was thinner.
Complex matters require specialized expertise. The focus has always been on trust-based relationships, not revenue maximization — even though that’s the undertone of every client relationship.
Attorneys are compensated for billing hours — a concrete, immediate reward. Business development is speculative by comparison. Existing clients always win the priority battle over prospecting.
“Selling” feels incompatible with a profession rooted in expertise and trust. Many attorneys simply don’t view sales as a genuine profession that is both art and science.
Most firms rely on a combination of reactive marketing, networking, and client retention. Strong originators solicit referrals from existing clients. Essentially, law firms have relied on subtlety and reputation to draw prospective clients to them.
The problem? This approach leaves enormous revenue on the table.
From prospecting to lead generation to opening an opportunity to closing it — this is a time-consuming process that requires attention to detail, organization, and the ability to diagnose pain points, understand why they exist, and articulate what solving them would mean. That is exactly why professional salespeople exist.
Companies in every other industry understand that selling is a job in itself — especially once you start maintaining a healthy pipeline of opportunities. Leaving revenue generation to the same people who are executing the services you offer creates a fundamental gap.
Attorneys simply don’t have the bandwidth to perform both jobs. And when they try — which most partners and aspiring partners do — one side falls short. That’s usually the sales side.
Hunters
Find new clients. Open new relationships. Build new pipeline.
Gatherers
Manage existing clients. Deepen relationships. Expand share of wallet.
Law firms should embrace what every other professional services organization has already figured out: build a sales team. Or, at minimum, expand the role of business development. Find client-facing individuals who can manage existing accounts and open new ones.
In the sales world, these are called hunters and gatherers. A law firm can build a much stronger bridge to the market by including both sides of revenue generation. Even better is finding an individual or team that can do both.
The firms that figure this out first will have a decisive competitive advantage — not just in revenue, but in the ability to strategically grow into new practice areas, markets, and client segments while their attorneys focus on what they do best: practicing law.
Talnted helps law firms identify and hire the right sales and business development professionals — people with the profile to build relationships in the legal industry.
Get in Touch✓ Law firms are professional services vendors — every other professional services firm has a dedicated sales force.
✓ Rainmakers and originating partners are already selling — they just don’t call it that.
✓ The billable hour model directly conflicts with the time investment business development requires.
✓ Attorneys don’t have the bandwidth to practice law and generate new business at full capacity.
✓ Firms that build dedicated revenue teams — hunters and gatherers — will have a decisive competitive edge.