Door-Opening Math

Determining the right number of targets

In an occasional series of posts about opening doors, we are sharing tips, gathered from mentors and from trial and error, about how to accelerate the acquisition of new clients. This post suggests ways to think about how many targets are needed to meet sales goals.

There is a metric that managing partners and other law firm leaders might consider as they evaluate how to grow the firm: number of targeted prospective clients per lawyer. Of course, the best source of new business is existing clients, but new ones are a mandatory part of the mix, because old clients depart for any number of reasons, and whole new segments of the economy appear in an instant. Without new clients, growth is constricted.

Most lawyers carry far too few targets to support their sales objectives. Asked to identify their targets, many will be able to name two or three, or at most a handful, which simply is too few to occupy even an hour per week of client development time. It’s important for firm leaders who envision robust new-client growth to get involved by encouraging (make that insisting) that each lawyer has the right number of targets, knows them well, and works the list with discipline.

Here are a couple of equations to determine the appropriate number of targets for an individual and, by extension, the firm.

The first variable in the equation is the number of hours that an individual can devote to client development each week. Start with one hour, which is a modest commitment even for the busiest professional.

The second variable is four, the number of 15-minute segments in an hour. Fifteen minutes is plenty of time to consider what is going on in a target’s world and then to forward an interesting article, send a birthday card, pass along an observation about the target’s competitor, or deliver some other relationship-advancing communication. Dreaming up these value-added touches has become easier with the advent of artificial intelligence.

The third variable is six. Some of the most experienced professional services sales consultants contend that a prospective client must be touched at least once every six weeks in order for the seller to stay near the top of that buyer’s mind and thus be in consideration for service opportunities that arise at the target.

Multiply one by four by six, and you have the number of targets needed.

Those who are just starting will not reach the proper number of targets instantly, though support from business and competitive intelligence professionals will produce the names of the right number of targets in fairly short order.

Here is another way to calculate the right quantity of targets. This time, begin with the number of new clients needed rather than with the time available. If one new engagement is the objective, and if the seller on average eventually wins work from one in six prospective clients with whom meetings have been held (the proposal success rate), and the seller can schedule a meeting with a prospective client once in every six attempts (the meeting acquisition rate), then 36 targets are needed, since six outreaches lead to one meeting and six meetings yield one new engagement.

The variables that each seller inserts into these equations will be different.

Everyone carries his or her own experience rating, and the range is wide, since, for instance, some lawyers appear to get a meeting every time they seek one and win every opportunity they pursue, while others operate well short of those numbers. An individual’s numbers are simply business facts that describe how much effort a given result will require, and they measure something quite different from that person’s value or sales talent.

We recommend that lawyers start where they are and improve what they can improve to reach their optimum experience ratings. Throughout that work, we remind them to name the right number of targets to create the results they need. And, of course, to actually do the sales work that is necessary to achieve the results.

In future posts, we’ll describe more small techniques that can dramatically improve door-opening odds. In the meantime, how have you arrived at the number of targets to carry, and what has that number produced? Is it the right number? I’d be glad to hear from you, because we all benefit from one another’s experiences and insights.

Steve Bell is a principal in the Sales, Business Development & Growth Practice of LawVision. He helps law firms develop disciplined sales processes, improve business development effectiveness, and build more predictable growth strategies, integrating AI where it strengthens human relationships. Steve is known for his career-long work in initiating and advancing new relationships. He can be reached at sbell@lawvision.com or 202.421.5988.