David Lee: A funny thing happened on the way to the bar

Nick Davies uses comedy to train lawyers – but his points are deadly serious, David Lee discovers

WHEN is a spoof not a spoof? In Nick Davies’s case, when he stands up in front of lawyers to describe how legal firms sell themselves. “I talk about ‘a full-service, commercially-focused, partner-led firm with strength in depth across a range of specialised areas offering bespoke solutions to meet clients’ needs’ Then there are the obligatory brackets - ‘and we’re fun to work with’ or ‘we’re not like other law firms’.

“They laugh and say ‘So you’ve read our website then?’ – and I reply, ‘I didn’t need to, that’s what you all say.”

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Davies, who runs the modestly-titled Really Great Training Company, continues: “Do they understand the ridiculousness of saying they are client-focused? What’s the alternative – we are neither client-focused nor proactive; we hate clients and we are trainee-led.

“You don’t need to say you are client-focused or proactive – they are just what you do. I don’t tell people I am client-focused or fun to work with – the way I communicate tells them that. Virgin Airlines and Ryanair don’t say ‘We are different from other airlines’, they just are.

“Law firms try to be all things to all people – they don’t want to upset anybody – and can end up being nothing to anybody. In this tailored, bespoke world, you have to stand out. That’s a brave thing to do for lawyers, who are naturally conservative.”

Davies is very specific about how he wants lawyers to stand out: “I want lawyers to be conservative in giving me legal advice – but when they are out winning business, they have to be creative. Does that mean not everyone will like your message? Yes – but that’s OK. Does everyone like the letters I send out? No, but they get a great feeling of who Nick Davies is and what he will be like.”

Davies cites companies like Ryanair and legal firm Slaughter and May as examples of firms with attitude, who state clearly what they do – and don’t worry too much if not everyone likes them. “I was with two partners in a law firm, arguing about price,” recalls Davies. “One said, ‘It’s all about price’. The other said ‘It’s not – look at Slaughter and May. It’s true – they are expensive but they believe in what they do – and clients pay for the kudos of working with them.”

In his own business, Davies takes a similar approach. He is a rare creature – The Really Great Training Company is Nick Davies – and if you don’t like his brutal honesty, biting wit and flat northern vowels, well… ‘that’s too bad’ is one way of putting it.

His style is summed up in his book, How To Be Great At The Stuff You Hate. Most of his clients are law firms and his goal is to make them better at all aspects of business development – networking, pitching, selling and closing deals.

Lawyers are very receptive to messages on selling and I give them a four-step process for doing it - target, connect, meet and ask. The hardest thing for them is asking for the business - simply coming out and saying ‘We would like to work for you’. Lawyers are great at wooing but no good at going for the snog at the end of the night - ultimately they are scared of rejection.”

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“They also find it hard to answer the killer question ‘Why you?’ I was speaking to a senior partner in Scotland who recently won a big pitch. When asked ‘Why should we use your firm?’ he had the balls to look them in the eye and say ‘Why wouldn’t you?’ The clients laughed – and gave him the work.”

So what does he answer when legal firms ask him the same question – why you?

“I say because your people will learn loads of useful, practical stuff and have a good time while doing it. I’m entertaining.”

Those who have seen Davies hosting the Scottish Legal Awards several times would probably agree, and he also does stand-up comedy: “There is no more exhilarating experience than having 150 people laughing their heads off on a Saturday night.”

Stand-up and Davies’s approach to training are not so different: “What I do is me and I am very fortunate in that. I always wanted to be self-employed but I was 32 when I realised I wanted to make my living standing in front of people speaking. Once you have a goal, a destination, it is much easier to make decisions – something takes you closer or moves you further away.”

The Davies journey has not been linear. At school, he was determined to start a business but a couple of ventures failed – including a sandwich business – before he worked for Russell & Bromley in Manchester, selling shoes to such customers as David Beckham, Ryan Giggs and almost the entire cast of Coronation Street. While at the shoe shop, he did a part-time LLB at Manchester Metropolitan University, then a full-time Bar Vocational Course at the same place.

What did he learn in those years about the law? “Nothing really – on the first course, 130 started and 23 graduated. I felt like Woody Allen – when asked to what he attributed his success, he said ‘I just turned up’.”

And what did he learn from the BVC? “Criminal evidence is difficult – and don’t have your first child in the last six months of a course like that. Afterwards, I didn’t get a pupillage – all I had was a Desmond (2:2) from MMU and I didn’t fit the pupil profile for a barrister’s chambers.”

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After an ‘Oh s**t, what now?’ moment, Davies remembered a solicitor who had been a shoe shop regular. Despite knowing nothing about him he tracked him down. The solicitor was Mike Shepherd, a founding equity partner in Hammond Suddards. “I wrote him an irreverent letter, met him and said I had hit a brick wall and could he help. We talked for 45 minutes about shoes, a bit about law and he said ‘I think we can work together’. That’s how I got my break – now, I tell lawyers to stop messing about and go route one. Don’t go through the normal channels; that’s what everybody does.”

After only six months in contentious health and safety law with Hammond Suddards, Davies’s legal career was over: “I love lawyers and find law fascinating, but it just wasn’t for me.”

It was early 2000 when he moved to Scotland to join his sister’s recruitment business with a brief to work in the legal sector and do some training – and he jumped: “Suddenly it was a no-brainer to up sticks with a 14-month-old boy and come to Scotland. I thought ‘This will take me nearer to my goal’ and that’s how it worked out.”

Six years in recruitment and training was followed by a spell with Kissing With Confidence before Davies established the Really Great Training Company. Most of his work is with lawyers, who he describes as “some of the nicest, most decent and intelligent people you could wish to work with.

“They are conservative; they want to provide the very best professional service, but they are a bit embarrassed to tell people how good they are, never mind charge for it.”

Davies has strong feelings about pricing: “There is a misapprehension that if you reduce your price, you sell more. It becomes obsessive. My biggest lesson from selling sandwiches as a kid was that we didn’t charge enough. Pret A Manger started the same year and they did a bit better. You need clients to value what you do.”

Law firms need to provide certainty of pricing, he insists: “I can’t say ‘Here is my fee, plus preparation, plus travel, plus expenses’ – people need certainty of cost. Add-ons p*** people off.”

Davies is more nuanced than you might expect on the problems with the partnership model in law: “On the surface, there is a lot wrong with the partnership model – but there needn’t be – if partners talk to each other more and stop being like schoolkids putting their hands over their work. They need to share clients with each other more and there has to be a free flow if communication. People sit 5-10ft apart in an open plan office emailing each other and then wonder why they are not cross-selling.

“I’d say that changing that mindset was a bit like turning round a supertanker – but I once heard a supertanker captain said it actually only took eight minutes.”

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