BusinessLawGuy's Blog

In negotiations leverage is everything.  This applies in law, business and your personal life.  Some people think it mainly has to do with money, but it doesn’t.  But the side with the most leverage still controls the negotiation.

In my world my client may have the strongest legal and factual position, which, of course, is great leverage.  But the fact that the other party has no money and probably will file bankruptcy if my client is successful in court is strong leverage too.

And knowing the leverage each party has is important in negotiations or a mediation setting.  Otherwise, how can you strategize and plan for your negotiation or mediation.

That’s right, plan for your negotiation or mediation.  In a lawsuit it’s the most important day other than trial, and you control the outcome, not a judge or jury.  The same is true in other negotiations, such as buying a used car.  Don’t plan your strategy on offers and there is a good chance you will pay more than what earlier was your highest number.

If you want to discuss leverage and mediation, or an important upcoming negotiation, let me know.

We all have a pitch to make.  It can be to a potential client or customer, a potential investor or in a social situation involving a new potential friend, etc.  The point is that all of these situations are about conveying information to one or more people to obtain a desired result.  So how is your pitch?

Here I am thinking of the professional pitch, not personal.  I am a mentor for an event named Fast Pitch, which has a big event in Tempe tonight (http://www.socialventurepartners.org/arizona/fast-pitch/ – if you don’t know about this, you should.  Great non-profit ideas and innovations on display!).  The idea is to help executive directors of non-profits hone a three minute pitch to potential investors/donors.  Sounds easy, but it is not.

Just ask Julie Bank, the Executive Director of Ryan House (http://ryanhouse.org/ – a fantastic charity you should consider for volunteer work and donations!).  She is my mentee in Fast Pitch.  It is hard work to come up with a pitch limited to three minutes, let alone your thirty second elevator speech.  Julie did great, was open to suggestions and constructive criticism and through her hard work, made the finals of Fast Pitch.  Was it easy?  No.  Was it worth it?  Most definitely because now not only can she win awards and money for Ryan House, but has a pitch she can use in the future.

So what should you do?  Work on a pitch by thinking of your audience and the message you want to convey.  Don’t make it too long or use words people generally won’t know the meaning of, i.e. dumb it down so whoever you are speaking to, no matter their knowledge on the subject you are conveying, will understand what you are saying.  By doing so you will avoid your audience thinking about what a word meant and missing the next part of what you are saying.

And practice, practice, practice, both alone and in front of other people.  Take constructive criticism.  And then see where your new pitch can lead you!

If you want to discuss the idea of a pitch, have the pitch reviewed or need someone to practice in front, let me know.  I am willing to help you or try to connect you with a good person to work with on your new pitch.

I wrote about change being constant earlier this year, but had an experience last week that reminded me of the importance of remembering this.

We all know this, especially parents. Me, “don’t do that, you could get hurt.” Kid, “but I didn’t get hurt.” Me, “but you could.”  We all had this conversation a thousand times growing up and, if you are a parent, you are on your way to saying it a thousand times.  I know because this conversation could have happened last week when, with many family members, including my parents, I was skiing (in an aggressive manner, as I have since I was a kid), got hurt and could have been the kid in the conversation instead of the parent with my own children.

Why does this matter? Because things can and do happen, fast, and usually when you do not see it coming.  And not only to kids or related to physical injury.  This applies to business, dealing with others, customers, clients.  The contact at your best client leaves the company or is being promoted to a different position.  Your competition suddenly is closing more sales, with prior customers of yours.  You’re a lawyer and your best client hires in-house counsel.  What do you do?

Panic?  Maybe for a minute.  But you better instead adjust and think fast.  Is it having the contact at your best client introduce you to their replacement?  Is it speaking with your former customer about what has changed and what you or your company can do differently to regain a competitive edge?  Is it inquiring of that good client what work will be kept in-house, what will be sent out and how you can be a part of it?  Who knows other than you have to come up with a new strategy and deal with the change or be left behind.  No action most likely will equal no results.

And remember that change brings opportunity, but you generally have to take actions to find it.

We all know the Golden Rule, treat others how you would like to be treated. But that is relative to you and your expectations.  Your expectations may not be the same as those of your clients or customers.

Instead, you should be practicing the Platinum Rule: Treat others the way they want to be treated.  This obviously is a big difference from the Golden Rule and keeps the expectations, goals and concerns of your clients or customers in mind.

Most of us have clients or customers who are individuals or local businesses/business owners.  We know who is writing the check to pay us, in my case legal fees and costs (not that it matters or you should treat the situation differently if the check is coming from a large company).  In some cases we may know a lot about their personal life and finances, or at least understand the amounts they are paying to us matter to them.  For me, I generally know the financial burden a lawsuit or other legal matter is placing on my client’s family or business.

Even when that isn’t the case and the client or customer can well afford the expenses being incurred with you or your business, they are not looking to pay for work that doesn’t directly benefit them.  Put yourself in your clients’ or customers’ shoes and make sure to think from their perspective, and how they want to be treated regarding options in proceeding and choices that affect costs. Treat their money as if it was your own.  A great way to do this is to listen fully when speaking with them.

If you do so, you will be off to a good start on managing your clients’ or customers’ expectations, treating them how they want to be treated and not spend their money in a manner that will come back to haunt you in the future.

We all know someone who uses big words.  You may understand them, you may not, but they risk being misunderstood.  And being understood is the point of communication.  “Know your audience” is a cliché for a reason.

It may not be big words, but the words of your profession or trade.  It could be me talking about equitable subrogation (yes it’s a real term, and no, most of you have no need to know what it means) or a mechanic talking about your car’s camshaft or a doctor explaining a medical condition.  In the right situation I may start with using the term equitable subrogation, but I am going to make sure I go on to explain it in terms my client can understand.

And if your lawyer, mechanic or doctor talks in a way you don’t understand, ask what they are saying.  Make sure you understand.  No one wants to act like they don’t understand what they have been told. But the goal of the speaker is to be understood and the goal of the listener should be to come away understanding what they heard.

If the person you are speaking with doesn’t understand what you said or vice versa, both parties to the conversation lose.  If you remember to communicate to be understood, hopefully this won’t happen to you.

So I was watching the Olympic coverage last night and saw the women’s snowboard halfpipe competition.  First, these women are fearless, flying into the air on 22 foot high walls, spinning and flipping and making it all look easy. Second, as the final runs were happening and medal positions were being determined seemingly on each run, all of the women in medal contention were supporting each other and congratulating each other. No sour grapes (whether they felt that way inside or not).

Now this is a solo event aside from the idea of women from the same country being on the same “team.”  But whether they were from the United States, Australia or China, the support and camaraderie was apparent.

On her gold medal winning run, Kaitlyn Farrington of the United States, threw down one great trick after another.  When the television announcer said of her run “That was a machine gun of awesomeness,” my first reaction, and that of my family, was to laugh. But upon reflection all of us can have our own machine gun of awesomeness.

I have two partners finishing a four week jury trial.  How cool will it be if they can look back next week and say that the run of presenting their witnesses and cross-examining adverse witnesses was a machine gun of awesomeness? Or if that gal you know who has been working to land the big deal described the work she did to land it and the results as a machine gun of awesomeness?  The point is that any of us can work hard to achieve a goal or have a great result that is worthy of an entertaining catch phrase.

And when that happens, and you have your own machine gun of awesomeness, remember it usually takes more than just you, so remember who you need to thank for their support.  Or when you miss out on your machine gun of awesomeness, whether by a hair or more, provide support and good words to your “team” and honest congratulations to whoever deserves it.

Her is link to a short AP video on the women’s snowboard halfpipe competition:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QaZH6yTJf8

Winners know this. What do I mean?  Being able to adjust on the fly is important.  In my world it can mean abandoning the entire oral argument you spent hours preparing because of a question or statement by the judge.  Or a position taken by my opposing counsel or a client question.  The ability to shift gears on the fly allows you to be focused on the prize, whatever it may be.

Many times the change or adjustment does not need to be a split second decision.  What if you plan a new business initiative, spend hundreds of hours on it and then learn something has changed or you missed a piece of information that makes it more challenging to succeed?  Change is needed. Is it to scrap everything in the face of adversity?  Is it to rethink and tweak your plan?  Of course the true answer is that it depends on the situation.  But once you acknowledge change is needed you have taken the first step.

And this matters in your professional life.  Don’t become stagnant.  To be on the top of your game you have to know when to adjust.  Stay up to date on what you need to know to do what you do.  Information is power.  Information lets you know when you have to change or adjust.

Life is both a gift and a challenge in which we all can do a better job of doing our best for our customers and clients, as well as ourselves.  So pay attention!  And look for when you have to make adjustments and be open to change.

What do people remember?  Think of a favorite song.  What about it makes you listen?  Probably a distinctive element like a catchy riff or lyric.  It sticks in your head.

Making your case to a judge or jury, a pitch to a potential client or that short time you have when making your elevator speech is the same except the distinctive riff is an easy to remember sentence or phrase that sums up what you want people to remember.  Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Depends on the situation and the audience, but you can always come up with one.

Some are easier to come up with than others.  What if what you are trying to convey is more complex?  You can still do it.  Break down the concepts or message like you have to spoon feed them to a two year old.  That’s right!  Simplifying the important parts of your message helps you educate your audience.  Even if your conversation, presentation or even oral argument are longer, you tie it together by starting and finishing with your catch-phrase or one sentence summary you want remembered.

One way too come up with the sentence or catch-phrase is to really think about the message you want to convey, your audience, how much time you have.  If you do, odds are you will get your message across.  The simpler the better, which is easier for your audience remember.  And that’s the point.

Its mid-January 2014.  Hopefully you have had a good start to your year.  And maybe, if you made any, you are sticking to your resolutions.  Either way, you should now resolve to do at least one thing new or different.  The cliché “If things stay the same, they stay the same” exists because it is true.

For example, starting this blog was one of the ‘different’ things I did last year.  And there are many reasons why I have enjoyed doing it and continue to do it.  That doesn’t mean if you try something new or different you have to keep doing it.  If it isn’t enjoyable or doesn’t move you towards one of your goals for the year, stop (Yes, you should have goals, and write them down; This is a topic for another post…).  Then think of something else and set it in motion.

It is better if you come up with the ideas for something new or different because odds are it will be something you are interested in doing.  But, for instance, no matter your business or profession, we all benefit from meeting new people or exposure.  Does this mean joining a group, attending events, marketing activities or advertising?  Depends on you, your profession, business or company.  Or it may mean a combination of some of these ideas, and others.

It is easier to do nothing.  It saves you time and allows you to stay with what you know and like.  But in most cases it causes you to become stagnant and not progress how you would like to.  So if staying exactly the same works for you, you can do nothing.  Otherwise, start out 2014 right by trying some new and different things in your professional life.  And this works in your personal life too.

If you do try something new or different and have success or not, I am interested to hear about it and your experience.  If you are looking for ideas and want to bounce around ideas about new or different things you can try, please feel free to email or call me.