Winning new work is one of the most critical skills for law firm partners in today's highly competitive market.  Competitive engagements -- also known as "beauty contests" -- have become a frequent challenge for most firms. Yet most written proposals actually disqualify law firms from further consideration, rather than convince a prospective client.  The proposals that succeed frequently result in losses, rather than profits.

No magic, just a few practical skills

Some people believe that writing a successful, profitable proposal is a mystic art knowable only to a chosen few.  We respectfully respond, "Rubbish!" 

Designing, selling, and managing a profitable engagement involves a few practical business skills that any lawyer can master.

The first step in the Profitable Proposals service is a six-hour business meeting at your firm that will:

• Establish a common level of knowledge and understanding about how to design and prepare proposals for profitable engagements for the service lines and practice areas of your firm or practice group, as well as for your firm's client base.

• Identify practice areas, service lines, and client sectors in your firm that are your highest business-development priorities.

• Define measurable goals for individuals, practice groups, and the firm

We discuss tools and methods grouped in three clusters, each of which addresses a critical – and frequently missing – aspect of a successful proposal.

 1.  Responding to decisive client needs

Clients make decisions based on a number of factors that can vary considerably depending on the nature of the legal work and related underlying goals in the client's business.  This cluster presents tools and methods to enable law firm partners to identify, define, and respond to decisive client needs in a manner that is persuasive to the individual client. A successful proposal must speak to a specific client.

2.  Understanding the work 

The number-one cause of unprofitable engagements is a failure to fully understand the full extent and intricacy of the legal services that the client will require and the full cost to the firm of providing those services.  Sadly, for most law firms, the proposed fee is too frequently little more than a guess. 

This cluster of tools and methods enable partners to develop detailed analyses of the potential costs to the firm of an engagement, including factors that may never appear on a profit-and-loss statement but which can undermine profitability of an engagement.  This cluster also introduces risk management tools to minimize the business risk to the firm inherent in any engagement, but especially those for new clients.

 3.  Advocating the firm's competitive advantage

"With so many good firms with excellent lawyers to choose from, why should we engage your firm for this work?" 

Unfortunately, most law firm proposals never answer this question.  They force clients to guess at the firm's competitive advantages over its competitors.  The third cluster of our program presents tools and methods to identify and articulate the firm's competitive advantages.  A profitable proposal should be a finely-crafted piece of advocacy.

Ensuring the best results for each person

The most important learning takes place outside a classroom. Walker Clark helps each participant in our Profitable Proposals developmental program to apply the knowledge, tools, skills, and methods to real-life challenges and opportunities in his or her practice.  We accomplish this through an individual coaching service that is unique in legal management consulting.  A Walker Clark coach-- usually one of our most experienced principals --  will be assigned to each participant.  Walker Clark will provide four hours of one-on-one coaching for each participant in the program. 

These sessions will help each participant to apply the tools and methods to the special characteristics of his or her practice area and client base.  They will include individualized goals and strategies to improve the quality of each participant’s proposals, with special emphasis on competitive, but profitable, fee quotations. In addition, within the first six months after the Profitable Proposals meeting, each participant may have Walker Clark review and provide written recommendations concerning one of his or her proposals before it is submitted to the prospective client. 

Who needs to participate?

This program is intended for senior lawyers, usually at the partner level or shareholder level.  Our basic strategy is to provide the tools and methods to those most likely to be responsible for the preparation of proposals for major engagements, and to help them to apply this knowledge to real-world opportunities in their respective practices. 

Next steps

To plan a Profitable Proposals skills development program for your firm, contact us by email or by telephone at 1.239.466.8370.

Click here to learn about other Walker Clark Core Business Skills development programs.