Here Comes Blake

Sometimes, just to get their attention, I show lawyers I’m working with on business development the Blake speech from the film Glengarry Glen Ross. Blake is the ultimate two-fisted, hard-driving salesman in this script by David Mamet, and this speech to a group of failing salespeople may be the best work Alec Baldwin has ever done. Here’s one of the less-obscene parts of it:

Money’s out there. You pick it up, it’s yours. You don’t, I got no sympathy for you. You wanna go out on those sits tonight and close, CLOSE. It’s yours. If not you’re gonna be shining my shoes. And you know what you’ll be saying – a bunch of losers sittin’ around in a bar. ‘Oh yeah. I used to be a salesman. It’s a tough racket.’ These are the new leads. These are the Glengarry leads. And to you they’re gold, and you don’t get them. Why? Because to give them to you is just throwing them away. They’re for closers. I’d wish you good luck but you wouldn’t know what to do with it if you got it. And to answer your question, pal, why am I here? I came here because Mitch and Murray asked me to. They asked me for a favor. I said the real favor, follow my advice and fire your fucking ass because a loser is a loser.

The entire scene is here.

In the current issue of Strategies, the magazine of the LMA, there’s a piece entitled Sales Professionals in Law Firms — Are We Finally Ready?

God, I hope so. This is something I have been thinking, talking and writing about for years. One of the biggest bizdev problems law firms have is their own culture, which is resolutely anti-sales. Obviously, we’re not going to go into Blakeland anytime soon — I show the clip as a semi-joke, but also as a kind of reminder. However, this had to happen, and apparently, it finally is.

I was in bag-carrying, number-hitting field sales for three years. I know that world well. And it’s about time the salespeople got let into law firms. They are the engine, ultimately, that drives any business. They’re the people who go out there and bring in the money. They do it for a full-time living, unlike lawyers. And a good salesperson is a wonder to behold — they work incredibly hard, are absolutely results-oriented, and best of all, make things happen. According to the Strategies piece, at least two firms, Blank Rome (in Philadelphia) and Womble Carlyle (in North Carolina) actively have salespeople out working. I personally know of another here on the West Coast.

It’s about time. This is terrific news. This pushes the practice of law, finally, kicking, screaming and fighting, into the 21st century. Stay tuned.

P.S. According to the piece, one of the trickiest issues firms have with bringing in salespeople is knowing how to manage them. This is an art unto itself, and I highly recommend a wonderful book, The Sales Manager’s Mentor, by my old friend and boss, Jeff Lehman, who is the best in the business. The book isn’t written for legal salespeople, but it applies to them beautifully.