Why Better Questions Lead to Better Sales

"The kind of clients that you need to have are the kind of clients who have the courage and the emotional maturity to deal with the truth." – RJon Robins

Welcome inside the vault. This is a collection of previously unreleased lessons from eight-figure entrepreneurial mastermind RJon Robins. And in case you didn't see the warning label, this content can be explicit and is for serious entrepreneurs only.

In this lesson from How To Manage a Small Law Firm's July 2018 Live Quarterly Meeting, RJon shares the three questions he uses to help prospective clients uncover the truth about their time, money, and reputation:

 1. Where are they today?

2. Where do they want to be?

3. What is preventing them from getting there?

He also revisits the 7 Main Parts of Every Successful Law Firm to show how sales fits within the overall business ecosystem. He then connects those ideas to the foundational principles of business planning, accountability, and the kind of freedom that defines entrepreneurial law firm ownership. 

Let's go to the vault!

Claim your path to freedom and unstoppable growth at the next law firm bootcamp.

Transcript

Why Better Questions Lead to Better Sales Ep 210

Introduction

[00:00:00] Narrator: Welcome inside the vault. This is a collection of previously unreleased lessons from eight-figure entrepreneurial mastermind RJon Robins. And in case you didn't see the warning label, this content can be explicit, and it is for serious entrepreneurs only. 

If the idea of sales makes you want to break out into hives or run in the opposite direction, then RJon has the solution for you.

Get ready for some real talk. Let's go to the vault

[00:00:38] Testimonials: Working with RJon is like having a shortcut to future you. Every time I can have an opportunity to spend time with RJon, I try to take it and be a sponge. 

I thought everyone was crazy. You know, they were running to the front of the stage to see this person. RJon's wearing his crazy shirt. 

You know, he drinks tiger blood in the morning just for fun, and he's, like, breathing down my throat.

Sometimes it's terrifying to work with him. It's like he's looking into your soul, but it's, it's growth the whole way

[00:01:18] RJon Robins: I'm going to give you a five-minute lesson on sales. All right? I have personally, myself, sold into the many tens of millions of dollars of professional services. People that I have trained and worked with, probably together, if we added it all up, I mean, we could be into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

It could even be a billion dollars' worth of professional services. And I'm gonna boil it all down for you right here, because sales is very simple. 

Seven Main Parts of Every Successful Law Firm

[00:01:54] RJon Robins: First of all, for everyone who's brand new, quick reminder, there's seven main parts of every successful law firm. These are the same seven main parts of every unsuccessful law firm.

The difference is the degree to which these seven main parts are being attended to, kept in alignment, and groomed and managed, right? So once you get these seven main parts all working properly and you go to the next level, they all fall out of alignment, and you have to keep working on them. There's never a time when you get to stop paying attention to these seven main parts.

It's not like you say, "Well, I went to the gym once, and I'm done with that," right? Marketing is everything you do to bring prospective clients to the door. Sales. Sales is everything that you do when a prospective new client comes to the door and how you guide them to go from being a prospective new client to being a paying client.

Production. Production is everything that gets done to actually produce the product, the service, the experience, the value that sales has promised to the client. People. People are the people who are doing the work in your firm. Your receptionist, secretary, paralegal, associate, rainmaker, manager, chief operating officer, chief financial officer, chief executive officer, the owner of the firm.

These are all the people in your firm. Physical plant. Physical plant is all the stuff that the people use to produce the work. They use the desk. They use the chair. They use the computer. They use the software. They use the training. They use the policies. They use the procedures. They use the systems. They use the checklists.

They use the templates. They use the tools that your chief operating officer builds for them to use. Money and metrics, financial controls. If everything's working well, you're gonna have profits. You're gonna have money to deal with. Budget, budget variance report, cash flow projections, accounts receivables, work in process, cash position, financial controls, metrics, key performance indicators.

If you're not using your dashboard, you're an idiot. Who's not using the dashboard? I just said you're idiots. But they're honest. They're honest idiots. If you're not using your dashboard, it's like literally driving around with your eyes closed. Like for real, imagine going home and taking like a sweater or a blanket or something and putting it over the dashboard of your car, and you cannot see the speedometer, and you cannot see the RPM gauge, and you cannot see the, the fuel gauge, and you cannot see the blinker, and you cannot see the temperature gauge, and you cannot see the odometer, and you can't see any of those gauges on your car, how uncomfortable that would be?

You don't realize how uncomfortable it is for you to run your law firm without seeing your numbers because you've never run it with a dashboard. But once you start running your business with a dashboard, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.

And you, your financial goals, your personal goals, your professional goals. 

Sales Questions: Time, Money, Reputations

[00:05:00] RJon Robins: Sales lives in ecosystem. It's the environment that you have to create to help make sales work better. This is sales. Where are you now? Where are you now in terms of your time, your money, your reputation? Where are you now in terms of your time?

Where are you now in terms of your money? Where are you now in terms of your reputation? Where do you want to be instead of where you are now? Where do you want to be instead of where you are now in terms of your time? Where do you want to be instead of where you are now in terms of your money? Where do you want to be in the future instead of where you are now in terms of your reputation?

Why? Why do you want to be where you want to be instead of where you are now? Why? Why do you want to be where you want to be instead of where you are now? Why? Why do you want to be where you want to be instead of where you are now? The truth usually lives about three levels deep with most people. Just giving you guys a hint, ninety-nine percent of the people you're going to talk to, I've had more thousands and thousands and thousands of sales calls than I can remember, and I'm just telling you from my experience, most of the time the truth is about three to five levels deep.

The first level is their excuses and their stories and the politically correct bullshit that they say that no one cares enough about them to call them on. No one cares enough about most people to call them on their bullshit, so they say why, they give some glib bullshit answer, and good people say, "Oh, okay," and then they walk away.

But that's usually bullshit. The first answer most people give you about why they want to be where they want to be instead of where they don't want to be, you can bet it's almost always bullshit. Why are you where you are now instead of where you want to be? This is where you are now. This is where you want to be.

Why do you want to be where you want to be? Okay, now we know why you want to be where you want to be. Hey, why are you-- why do you think you are where you are now? Pretty much the answer to this question always boils down to, "I don't understand something. I don't understand how to go from where I am now to where I want to be," or, "I don't believe enough in myself."

"I don't believe enough in myself to make a commitment to do whatever is needed to go from where I am now to where I want to be. That's why I am where I am now, 'cause I'm afraid to take action because I don't believe enough in myself to do it." Those are usually the two answers you're gonna get. Where do you not want to be?

This is where you are now. This is where you want to be. This is where-- where do you not want to be? Think about the Ghost of Christmas Future from A Christmas Carol. As good or bad as things are now, you want them to be better, and if you don't take action, usually things are probably gonna get worse.

Let's take a real honest look at what that might be if you don't take action. Understand that the status quo is a fairy tale we tell to children. There is no such thing as the status quo. Status quo is an invention. It doesn't really exist in, in reality. Because at the very least, a year from now, you're going to have one year left less of your life to live the way you want to be living if you wait a year to take action.

At the very least, one year from now, your kids will have been taught a year's worth of suffering that they might have learned a different lesson of prosperity

At least a year from now, everyone else in the world is going to keep moving forward and you'll are going to stay stuck. There is no such thing as staying still in business or in life. That is a fairy tale. It's a fiction. Why do you not want to be where you don't want to be? Why do you not want to be where you don't want to be?

Why do you not want to be where you don't want to be? If your prospective new client isn't kind of getting emotional at this point, you're probably not dealing with truth or you're dealing with like very not important issues. Do you care enough about them to help them really think this through so they can make a powerful decision?

If you do, freedom is your reward. If you don't, fuck you. On behalf of everyone you've ever hurt in a sales call, sincerely, fuck you. Because prospective new clients are coming to you looking to have a better life, and if you don't help them think this stuff through, you are misleading them. They might walk out the door and think they've actually gotten helped when they haven't been helped.

And you had the opportunity to help them and you chose not to because you wanted to protect your own ego or because you wanted to protect your own self-esteem or because you wanted to use the opportunity to show off and make yourself feel good instead of really help the person think through the reality of their situation.

So on behalf of everyone you've ever done that to, fuck you.

The Real Value Is In Their Future

[00:10:09] RJon Robins: The value of your services has got nothing to do with where you went to law school. It's got nothing to do with how hard you work. It's got nothing to do with how much you care. It's got nothing to do with what most lawyers say in their marketing they brag about.

The value of your services has got nothing to do with you. Get over it. The value of my services has got nothing to do with me. I'm over it. The value of my services to you has to do with how you value your future. The value of my services to you has to do with how much you value the difference between where you, where you wanna be versus where you don't wanna be. The value of my services is different for every single one of you in this room.

There's 350 of you in this room right now, and the value of my services to each and every one of you is completely different because you each value yourselves differently. If you value yourself highly, then the value of my services is great, and I've got members paying me $100,000 a year. If you value yourself very little, then my services are worthless, and yesterday we had eight people walk out of here and choose not to engage our services.

I don't take any of that personally 'cause it's got nothing to do with me. If the difference between where the person wants to be versus where they don't wanna be is very small, you cannot deliver a lot of value. You just can't. Right? If the difference between where they are now and where they wanna be is great, then you have the opportunity to deliver a lot of value.

Pretty straightforward, right? There it is. There's sales. There's $100 million worth of sales right there for you. That's all you need to do. 

Five-week Business Plan Bootcamp

[00:11:56] Narrator: If this episode is resonating with you, click the link in the show notes below to learn more about the upcoming five-week Business Plan Bootcamp. Yes, this is a free virtual bootcamp, which means seats are limited in order to provide personal attention and laser coaching.

Click the link below and turn this podcast episode into an actionable business plan to grow your law firm. And now, back to the show. 

Freedom Through Truth

[00:12:24] RJon Robins: If you meet me after a lifetime of bad decisions, you know, the red flags were there, and they were there before you ever met me. The decisions you made to not take responsibility for your business affairs, those decisions long preceded me. If I tell you the truth, if I show you the truth, if I ask you a bunch of questions that help you, that, that prevent you from being able to deny the truth, I'm not giving you hell, I'm giving you truth.

You created your own hell. Maybe I'm the only person who cares enough about you to help show you that hell so we can make some decisions together and make a plan to get you out of that hell. I didn't build How To MANAGE a Small Law Firm to have a bunch of you. I have all of you so that I can create my better version of the truth. I have all of you so that we can have a community of happy, successful law firm owners.

Law firm owners who live in freedom, law firm owners who make choices based on what they really want and don't live a life of excuses. I have all of you so that we as a community can make the point that I wanna make for my own personal messed up reasons to the American Bar Association, the legal community in general, about the Doctrine of Sacrifice.

That's why I built this business. So that together we can build successful businesses and make a positive example so that I can make my point to the world. So that I can go from where I was to where I want to be, which is having the ability to make these points that are important to me. That's freedom.

How many of you are building a business to have clients? How many of you have clients so you can build whatever it is you're building? How many of you even know what the hell you're building? How many of you are really clear on your financial goals, really clear on your personal goals, really clear on your professional goals, really clear on the dent you're trying to make in this universe during your lifetime, and building your business as a tool to help you make that impact?

Because when you're clear about that, then you know what kinds of clients you need to have and what kind of clients are no use to you. And the kind of clients that you need to have are the kind of clients who have the courage and the emotional maturity to deal with their truth. And the people that don't have the courage or the emotional maturity to deal with their truth, you've got no use for them.

Build the Team and Plan

[00:15:25] RJon Robins: I wish you well, but this is not the right place for you. What I have to do in order to build what I want to build for my own personal reasons is I have to help all of you face your truth. And the truth is, from my perspective, I could be wrong. But from my perspective, having worked with, it's a documented fact, tens of thousands of lawyers. My studied observation of the truth is that you will never be happy and you will never be free as long as you remain a slave to your law firm.

My studied observation of the truth is you will never be happy and you will never be free until you get your law firm to work for you. My studied observation of the truth is that the only way to get your law firm to work for you is to have a business plan, a plan for how the business is supposed to work. And then to execute on that business plan.

And my studied observation, having worked with thousands of lawyers, is that the only way most of you are ever gonna execute on your business plan is if you have accountability. And when I said 'you', I could have said 'us', 'cause I'm right there with you. I have to have a coach. I have to have a CEO. I have to have a COO.

I have to have a CFO. None of your law firms are ever gonna reach your full potential and give you the freedom that you deserve unless your law firm has a CEO. Doesn't have to be a CEO from How To MANAGE a Small Law Firm, but you better have a CEO. You better have a COO, and you better have a CFO. And they don't have to be called a CEO, and they don't have to be called a COO, and they don't have to be called a CFO, but they better be doing what a CEO is supposed to do for a law firm, or it's not gonna work.

And if it doesn't work, you will be a slave to your law firm, and you will not have freedom. And we see it happening every year. About 25% of you, look around, about 25% of you in the next 12 months are going to quit on yourselves. You're going to quit and give up, and you're gonna turn your back on your full potential.

You're gonna turn your back on your freedom, and you're gonna go right back to bondage. I don't know which the 25% of you it's gonna be, but I know 25% of you are gonna do that. And when that happens, it is pathetic. Because you've got freedom almost in your hand. This is not a call to engaging the services of How To MANAGE a Small Law Firm forever.

In fact, you're supposed to outgrow How To MANAGE a Small Law Firm. You're supposed to get to about a million and a half dollars in revenue, and you're supposed to hire a professional, full-time, in-house chief operating officer. You're probably gonna spend somewhere between $100,000 and $150,000 a year for that person, and that person is supposed to replace us as your outside fractional temporary chief operating officer.

Then you're supposed to get to around $3 million in revenue, and you're supposed to hire a full-time, in-house professional chief financial officer, and that person's probably gonna cost you about 150 to $200,000 a year, and that person is supposed to replace us as your fractional outside chief financial officer.

And then you're supposed to get to about $5 million in revenue, and you're supposed to then take over as the CEO of your own business. And then you don't need us to be the CEO of your own business for you. And I will celebrate that day probably as much or more than you will. It'll mean more to me than it means to you.

Because remember, I'm building this business to make a point. Now, some of you have no aspirations to have a $5 million firm, and that's fine. And some of you have no aspirations to have a $3 million firm, and that's fine. And some of you have no aspirations to have a million and a half dollar firm, and that's fine.

There's nothing wrong with not having aspirations to have a $5 million, $3 million, $1.5 million, or even a million dollar law firm. I'm not here to tell you what you should order for dinner. But as long as you plan to have a successful law firm, a law firm that serves you financially, serves you personally, and serves you professionally, you're going to need someone to do what we do for you.

So as long as you're with us, you might as well let us help you. Instead of running away and hiding and making excuses and returning yourself to bondage. When you live in truth, you have freedom. You got nothing to apologize for. You got nothing to be embarrassed about. Life becomes so simple when you just live in truth.

[00:20:42] Narrator: Thanks for listening. Tune in next week for more lessons From The Vault.