PERCEPTION vs. REALITY

The legal services market is constantly changing. It is shifting right beneath our feet. Unless service providers choose to change with the market, they will be increasingly marginalized as a provider; they will continue to experience difficulty in maintaining their market share; they will lose projects from their clients when their clients, in fact, use a competitor only out of necessity.

There was a time when you did not have to worry about some competitor calmly telling your buyers that you weren’t up to the task, but not anymore. You can be assured that the leading providers of technology services in your market, whoever they may be, are engaged in a strategic campaign to get the message out to your clients that you can’t meet their need. What they are suggesting to your buyers is that they could continue to use your company for the “basics” if they want to, but that they should turn to them anytime they have a technology-based need such as imaging, coding, e-discovery, or web-based repositories/on-line review.

Their objective is to cause your client to view you as a good provider of basic litigation support services…copy, Bates, trial boards, oversize, binding, etc., but, “wisely” turn to them anytime their projects involve technology. The major technology providers in your market want your clients to see you as a “wannabe” in the technology space!

In an effort to respond to changes in the marketplace, certain companies are changing their identity in order to be perceived as significant to today’s evolving technology needs, i.e. some companies have changed their name to more accurately communicate their capability for providing technology related services such as imaging, coding, OCR, e-discovery, etc. Numerous companies have upgraded their websites to portray their capability to match that of the best; exceed that of many.

Companies can upgrade their equipment and invest heavily in the infrastructure of their operational capability, but unless companies also invest in one of the greatest assets their company has, i.e. their people, the return they actually get on their investment in all the other upgrades in their capability may turn out to be considerably less than it could have been.

In today’s market, account managers need to speak from a base of knowledge regarding their company’s capacity to deliver on the technology service needs of their clients. When an account manager sits down with a prospect to deliver a sales presentation or respond to a client’s concern, they can only use the tools they have in their “tool kit.” Just because a company bought the software and equipment does not mean the skill level of their account managers has changed. Just because the account managers have upgraded brochures to hand out, and a new and improved website backing them up, does not necessarily mean the perception of their company has changed in the mind a potential buyer.

Companies are having to change because the market is changing. We have been providing specialized sales training for over a decade, and we, too, have had to change. The course content covered in our weeklong professional sales training course has been significantly changed in order to address the changes in the litigation support services marketplace. If you would like to review an outline of the course, you can click on the following link, Professional Training, or visit our website, www.thebeckhamgroup.com, and click on “Professional Training.”

Don’t just invest in new equipment, brochures, or an upgraded website without investing in your messengers. If you take steps to change your account managers’ level of knowledge, skill, and confidence…you will have increased the likelihood that your company will maximize the return on the investment you are making. It is possible to equip your account managers with the skills to ferret out new buyers, to engage a potential buyer in a conversation about your technology service offering, and be able to ask the kind of questions that only someone who is authoritative would know to ask.

If you’ve taken the step into the technology space with an investment in software and/or equipment, we can get your account managers up to speed quickly. We can equip them with the knowledge, skill, and confidence to aggressively go after the technology related service needs in your market, whether the project involves imaging, coding, OCR, EDD, or web-based repositories.

Our class schedule for the coming months is posted on our website under Training Schedule. Let us know if you have account managers you would like to register to attend one of the upcoming classes.

If you have any questions about the sales training, or if you would like more information regarding training fees, please give us a call at 1-800-929-8740.