THE LAW OF THE HARVEST

 

Did you hear about the farmer who said, “as soon as I have a great crop, I’m gonna buy some fertilizer?” LB

I grew up in Southern Tennessee in a farming community. No one I knew as a youngster would have ever expected to reap an impressive harvest without taking the obvious steps toward that end, i.e. preparing the ground for planting, planting the seed, fertilizing, cultivating, keeping the weeds out, and…praying for rain. All that being done, in time, the harvest was a given, assuming the prayers for rain were answered.

It is not so different in the business of litigation support, is it?  Everyone wants a great harvest, and rightfully so.  There is, however, a price to be paid in order to reap the desired harvest.  The parallels are apparent…prospecting, phone calls, sales appointments, follow-up, and delivering work that is on time and accurate.

A manager recently told me, “April started off slow, as many months do. The thing is, there are many months that start off slow, but we usually pick up toward the end of the month and finish with decent numbers…somehow.  It just didn’t happen with April.  April started off slow, and it never changed.”

You might consider these questions as you begin to implement your business plan for the second quarter:

1. Have you had a month lately which started off slow, but you were still able to finish with solid numbers?
2. How about a month that started off slow but just never picked up; or, the results for the month were good, but if you subtracted one single project, perhaps two, the outcome would have been very different?
3. Have you, at times, felt as though you were being held hostage by one or two of your account managers hitting their numbers? 
4. Have you ever found it perplexing when an account manager was seemingly satisfied with the number of clients they have in a firm, even though they might only have a couple of buyers…at times, only one?  Yet, you know that there are several other buyers in that firm who are sending their business to your competitors.
5. Do you ever have the sense that there are not enough new tryers sending work your way; that sales calls are a fraction of what they should be…and, that follow up is sporadic after the first one or two attempts?

The harvest, i.e. next month’s numbers (outstanding, or disappointing), will always reflect the steps in the process that are being compromised.  When an account manager attempts to accomplish a goal that can only be achieved if everything falls into place, the outcome, expecting too much from too little…is predictable.  In the best of times, the business of litigation support has its challenges.  Add a downturn in the economy to the equation, and everything from hitting your revenue goals to getting your receivables paid on time gets taken to a whole new level. 

An individual who was here for training a couple of months ago sent me an email after getting back to her market.  This particular individual had no litigation sales experience at all prior to attending the training class, and had only been on board for a few weeks.  She wrote, “I just wanted to drop you a line and let you know how wonderfully everything is going. I have had my first ten appointments, and three have already begun using us.  The challenging part has been juggling all the existing accounts, and making time to sell new ones.  I have an assistant who we brought on before I left for training, and he has been a big help.  Thank you so much for all your help!”

At the time of this newsletter, her latest stats were, 53 sales appointments, resulting in 21 new tryers…so far.  

Do you know how many new tryers your account managers brought in this first quarter?  Have you given any thought to how many you would like them to add during the 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th quarters of ‘03?  If one of your goals is to significantly increase new tryers in the coming months, we can help you realize that goal through our specialized sales training.  

Our current sales training schedule for Summer/Fall 2003 is: June 23-27, July 21-25, August 25-29, and September 22-26. If you would like, take a moment to access schedule updates, review the training outline, or reada few testimonials.  Let us hear from you soon if you would like to send one or more account managers to attend one of these training classes.