You've reached the right people in the law firm or legal department. You did a demo to all the right people. You demonstrated value and they loved the product. Your contact even said that it’s a YES and you are in the pipeline.
Of course, there are internal processes that need to be followed and there are some priority projects ahead of you in the queue. But it’s happening. Great job. Your CEO announces the news at the next team huddle that it’s a yes from the big account, and congrats all round.
And the clock starts ticking…
Your CEO starts to ‘check in’ on where they are with the contract. You reply that they have a process and you are in it. You will keep checking in with your contact. They tell you the same thing. For months…
“I don’ t understand what the hold up is. They know we will save them time and money. They said so themselves. Why haven’t they signed the contract?” asks your now-exasperated CEO.
It’s not enough at this stage to tell them that this is how the buying process works. You need to shorten the sales cycle.
Every firm or legal department has a queue of solutions that they need to evaluate, choose, buy and implement. Your marketing and sales efforts have gotten them to choose you, but you are in business to make money, and that doesn’t happen until they buy.
So, work your way up the queue.
Sure, you can start with managing expectations with your bosses. If they don’t understand that sales cycles in large law and corporate legal can be years long, you can educate. But what matters is revenue, so let’s focus on how to get to the buy stage faster.
- Understand Their Buying Process
At the large or enterprise level, we know it isn’t as simple as convincing a decision-maker. There are likely multiple steps in the buying process, including clearing various hurdles. Hopefully you’ve got an internal champion like an innovation leader who is helping to sell you internally. Ask them for details on the process. Who needs to approve? Is there an infosec hurdle? Where are you in the queue?
- Make it Easier for Them to Buy
Once you know the process, you can anticipate requirements and have them prepared. At Legaltech Hub, we have even built a series of evaluation frameworks and requirements templates to help decision-makers. You as a vendor should use resources like these to answer questions before they are asked. If you know what infosec, IT, finance and operations need to sign-off, remove a potential chokepoint by proactively giving it to them.
- Offer Resources
Very few solutions are simple plug-and-play. Offer your own IT resources for integration and implementation, your own customer success and marketing teams for training, adoption and comms.
- Quantify Urgency
Tread carefully here, as you don’t want to apply too much pressure and sour the relationship. But a subtle piece of content around how much time/resources/revenue is lost when your solution is not being used can remind the client of how valuable you are. Knowing that your product saves X hours per week of non-billable time, for example, will at least bring you back to the attention of the stakeholders at the firm.
Your pipeline needs to be full enough that you hopefully have multiple opportunities that can convert to reach revenue goals. Rule of thumb is that your pipeline should have 5x the revenue potential of your actual sales goal. It is always beneficial to have smaller-medium opportunities that can also have a shorter sales cycle to fill gaps as well.
