The person had an attractive face.

All the chicks will dig you if you have a 10 inch monster in your pants!

Soft Sales Techniques for Specialty Law Firms

Lock Horns and Hobnob

Make use of past opponents for long-term business development and network development.

The world of specialty law is a small one. Throughout your career, you will encounter the same attorneys you have once argued against. By using the proper techniques, you can maintain good relationships with other lawyers in your field, whether they are your allies or your opponents. Take advantage of prime opportunities to get on friendly terms with an attorney you observed to be a good advocate for his or her client.

Also, note which executives participated in the case; they can also be very good sources of future legal business and networking opportunities.

Don't Lose Touch

After an acceptable time has passed and your opponent has had a chance to lick his or her wounds (or vise versa), reach out to them. Congratulate the fellow attorney for a stellar representation of his or her client, them invite them out for coffee or lunch.

Keep in touch by email. Send the acquaintance copies of articles that you think they might be interested in. Inquire about upcoming conferences or seminars you might both attend.

Keep in mind that future new business opportunities may come from referrals, even referrals from former opponents.

As I mentioned, business executives are also good contacts for networking. Try a more subtle approach to continual law firm marketing. If you service a company on a project basis, such as a merger, invite the inside counsel and executives in direct contact with you out for social events or to a conferences to deepen (and perhaps solidify) the business relationship.

Allan Colman is an expert in the field of business development and client retention for law firms. His law firm marketing strategies have generated millions of dollars in new business for law firms across the United States.

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Spare Parts - Segmenting Personality for Sales Persuasion

What is a part? If I say, a part of me wants this and a part of me wants that, what am I talking about? What are those things? Well, for one thing, it's a way of talking about our experience.

However, consider from here on out that words are things, they are real, they exist, as surely as the computer I'm looking at right now and the keyboard I am typing on and the books I can see in my peripheral vision.

Words are things and when someone says, 'A part of me. . . ' this or that, they are fragmenting/segmenting themselves, making a part, in other words, a fractionalized subsection of themselves, that has responsibilities for and energy to accomplish certain things, not the least of which is to tell you no, or object to you and the products or services you are selling.

Whenever I hear a person saying they have a 'part', I pretty well darn near jump for joy because I know that they are fractionated inside and I can seize control of one or many of those parts and make it do whatever I want for the most part.

The minute I hear part, or any reference to another name, an alternate name, my unconscious, a deeper part of who I am, my psyche, my ego, id, any words that indicate a part, I'm thrilled because immediately in my mind, I'm thinking, that part and I are going to be really good friends.

One of the nice things about parts is, they are very outside of people's awareness. When they do surface, it's only a bit of a surface of that part you can extend it, elaborate upon it, and give it more power, power that the person never intended for it to have, and maneuver it to your advantage.

To the same end, you must be careful that you don't split yourself into lots and lots of parts or you risk running the same things on yourself.

A part is really a frame, a frame that lives autonomously to the individual who calls it, who says it. So how can you create a part in someone? Well, by naming it and identifying it, you create it. Naming and identifying is key here. If we name a part, we give that part power. And if we frame that part through the way in which we talk about it, we're in control of that part to a large extent.

Parts give us leverage. We can assign an objection to a part and then we can assign another part to overcome it. We can assign a part that overcomes an objection with a part that objects, and we can blend the parts, watering down the part that has the objection.

We can pit parts against each other. We can have senior parts, we can have junior parts, we have an all knowing part, a part that connects directly to God, we can have parts that resolve things, we can have negotiator parts, we can have all kinds of parts, we can have persuader parts.

I have a part of me that really kicks butt in persuasion. I hope you will too soon if you don't already.

Kenrick Cleveland teaches techniques to sell to affluent clients using persuasion strategies. He runs unique public and private seminars and offers home study courses, audio/visual learning tools, and coaching programs in persuasion techniques. Find more free articles at http://www.MAXpersuasion.com/blog . Be sure to sign up for his free report entitled "Yes! Persuasion."

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To Pitch or Present?

Have you ever wondered why the word "pitch" has become the term for selling? The salesperson makes a pitch; the words they use are a pitch; the listener is being pitched. Why is the word "pitch" - loaded with negative feelings and expectations - universally accepted as the term that accurately describes what's happening? At thesaurus.com there are 53 various definitions for the word "pitch." They range from - to set up, to the angle of a slope, to stumbling, to the plunging of the bow of a ship, to helping out.

We don't know about you but these don't have any bearing, at least not any immediately obvious connection, with a high pressure sales talk - which was one entry in the list. In another category "pitch"means a dark, thick, very sticky substance. Maybe this is where the negative connotation for "a sales pitch" comes from. You can't get the stuff off.

Think about a time you felt like you were being pitched. Just writing this last sentence brings back a rush of sense memories of what it felt like. Barraged. Unseen. Lied to - even if what the sales guy was saying was the total truth. It felt like a lie. Why?

Because his intention was inauthentic. He kept telling us how much he wanted to help, but whenever we had a question, instead of taking an interest in our concern, he'd answer by telling us about some feature of his product and just what it was going to do for us. And, of course, when we said we wanted to wait, he pulled out the old scarcity tactic. He could only offer me the "special price" if we acted immediately - i.e. accept his offer now.

Do you really believe that if we walked out and returned the next day, check in hand, he would say - "No. No. Sorry. That price was good only yesterday?"

As far as we see it, a pitch is when you get everything thrown at you for the explicit purpose of the salesperson getting your check right then and there. It is a scarcity, failure mentality that operates on desperation, and works to make you, the buyer, desperate as well.

In contrast, bring to mind an instance when a salesperson genuinely helped you to accomplish what you set out to do. What was that like? One thing sure - it wasn't a pitch.

And if the salesperson was really artful - yes, there is a genuine and sincere art to helping someone make a decision to buy - what he or she did was more of a presentation with your best interest at heart. Heart. Not Mind. Heart. A connection. An emotional connection, because, as we said in our last post - "The Truth about Emotions - A Soft Sell Confirmation!" -

The heart is an evaluation center, based in feeling. It's the center of connection, emotional connection. Heart-based marketing is emotion-based marketing. You can collect a mountain of facts and statistics about your product, and you need to, so you can assure your customer you know what you're talking about, but then your customer must still leap to faith. That leap is a leap of the heart . . . a leap based in emotional evaluation

How best can you help your customer make that leap of faith? One way is to make a presentation instead of a pitch. Because, again according to thesarus.com, here's what "to present" means and what it feels like: To furnish or endow with a gift; to offer, or give; to introduce; to show or exhibit; to offer for consideration.

How do you feel reading this last line? Gift. Offer. Introduce. Consideration. Doesn't it feel like you're actually being included in the presentation with your best interest at heart? And doesn't it make the prospect of offering something for sale more attractive?

The very best sales people, the artists, do just that. They know they have the responsibility of leading the customer to a buying decision, so, by making a presentation, they set up a buying environment instead of a selling one. They go into a partnership with their customer instead of seeing the transaction as a one-way street - from your wallet to theirs.

Remember, your customer is a person who has a life filled with hopes, fears, dreams, expectations, disappointments, and, just like you, they are entrusted with making their life as meaningful and as fulfilling as they can.

If your offer - your presentation - can facilitate and support their trust, you not only make a sale, you can make a long-term customer, someone who returns to you, because, with you, they know that the benefits they receive always reach well beyond just a product-for-money transaction.

So, if you're a soft sell marketer who prefers a more inclusive, emotionally connected, business relationship with your prospects and customers - you're invited to register for our "Bridging Heart and Marketing" Internet conference that takes place February 22, 23, 24 at the Westin Los Angeles Airport. We'll be sharing our spiritual approach and the soft sell wisdom of world-class Internet marketers. Just click on http://www.bridgingheartandmarketing.com/invitation - and join us.