You will hear many times throughout your career from other attorneys, “I did not go to law school be a salesperson.” You may even utter these words yourself.

Guess what?

If you go into private practice and want to succeed at any level, the ability to get and service clients will be an important part of the job - a huge part. This is the little secret that nobody tells you early on, and it is in your best interest to accept this fact as soon as you can. The good news is that sales and selling need not frighten you, as they are really no big deal. However, to be effective, you will need to learn and develop the necessary skills. It is not hard to learn and master the needed skills to succeed at selling.

Do not wait until firm management calls you into a meeting, eight years from now, and says, “We really like you and think you are an excellent lawyer. However, we do not feel you are ready for partnership because you have not demonstrated the ability to build a book of business. By the way, we are increasing your billing rate by 10%, so you may see a decrease in assignments from the other firm’s attorneys. This is your year to turn it around and prove yourself, or you may want to consider finding another job.“

Good luck finding another job with tens years of experience and no clients. If you do, expect a drastic pay cut.

In private practice, the only way a firm or an individual attorney can survive and prosper is to get and keep clients. Selling, or being able to communicate how you can help solve the clients’ problems, is the tool required. In short, you need to be able to sell your product which is yourself. Therefore, you must be able to build relationships, build your reputation, be able to communicate what value you bring to the table, how your approach works better than other alternatives and that the client will not be disappointed by his or her choice of hiring you. Of course, you will also need to have the necessary technical legal skills, background and experience to do the job. Most other attorneys will have the same ballpark technical skills and experience as you, so don‘t purely rely on being the best lawyer in your particular field. You must be able to communicate why you are better equipped to meet the clients’ needs than the competition.

Start building these needed skills right now as they take a lifetime to master.