Business Development Services

Often, individuals who are very good at being “lawyers” nonetheless need assistance in developing and retaining new and/or existing clients. In such cases, it is important that attorneys (and even support staff) be trained/educated in each of the following three areas:

Client Prospecting & Client Conversion

Client Retention/Customer Service & Cross-Selling

Ascertaining Client Satisfaction

It should also be noted that the most effective business development programs are those which dovetail with the firm’s marketing activities. Success stems from the integration of individual interpersonal skills and activities, with the firm’s communications programs.

Client Prospecting & Client Conversion
Client Prospecting covers such areas as developing a database of all of the attorney’s and/or firm’s contacts/network of associates, choosing the right organizations to join, how to approach others, proper handshaking, the 30-second “elevator speech,” and developing specific business development plans that leverage the strengths of each individual (e.g., some are very strong in their interpersonal skills, while others prefer speaking opportunities, and still others would rather write an article for publication).

Generating new leads and prospects is one thing. Turning them into clients is another. It is important that a firm’s staff members are not just strong in their interpersonal and “salesmanship” skills, but that they understand the qualities of and the time involved in the typical sales cycle (it’s different by practice area), as well as how to utilize the firm’s collateral materials.

Client Retention/Customer Service & Cross-Selling
Many times, business is not “won” by a law firm, but rather “lost” by someone else. Learning to “under promise and over deliver” is important for law practices looking to do a better job in keeping their existing clients. Learning how to listen, returning phone calls promptly, making deadlines, and maintaining regular client contact are all critical in this regard as are the little niceties of sending out thank-you and congratulatory notes. Net, net, it’s important to recognize the “extra steps” that can be taken, and then to, in fact, take them. Making sure that all of this becomes part of the firm’s culture requires a concerted internal marketing effort.

Cross-Selling is a key element in business building as it is much easier and more cost efficient to garner additional work from current clients than it is to acquire new clients. Virtually all law firms miss opportunities to generate additional revenue by failing to cross-sell existing clients on complementary or altogether different firm services. There are many reasons for this including how compensation of incentives for new work generated is structured, firm politics, and simple lack of understanding as to what colleagues in other practice areas of the firm actually do. Hence, developing the appropriate incentive programs and educating the firm’s staff are all elements that need to be considered in addressing the cross-promotion challenge. In addition, marketing materials such as the firm brochure, newsletters (and e-newsletters), articles written by firm attorneys etc., should all be developed with cross-selling objectives in mind, Finally, in this, the information age, high tech means for collecting relevant information on the business and personal contacts of each and every firm staff member can be utilized to uncover cross-promotional opportunities.

Ascertaining Client Satisfaction
Client Satisfaction Surveys serve a number of purposes of which the most obvious is ascertaining client perceptions as to the quality of the firm. But client satisfaction surveys also represent a great means for cross-promoting firm services as well as for conveying a genuine interest in the client’s well-being. Hence, it is both a research as well as a marketing tool. Among the information such surveys can provide is overall satisfaction with the counsel the client has received; awareness of the firm’s resources, its experience, and service offerings; perceptions as to customer service, attorney accessibility, fee structures and billing terms; client perceptions regarding the firm versus its competitors, how clients go about determining with which law firm(s) they will contract; what additional services they may want (but have not expressed); and what marketing activities have and have not worked in attracting them to the firm. Even for the most financially well-heeled, well-established, well-received law practices, client satisfaction surveys offer a means for pre-empting problems and client defections before they occur.