...marketing and business development professionals can drive initiatives to get closer to clients and grow relationships

2023 is here. It is safe to say that client service is one of the critical, few differentiators to be found in a crowded legal marketplace – and, related, the latest trend to receive a great deal visibility and attention in firms is client teams.

However, regardless of whether your firm has a functioning client team or not, marketing and business development professionals can drive initiatives to get closer to clients and grow relationships. Doing so, you can position yourself as a revenue generator, helping attorneys prioritize time spent time on off-the-clock investments in client relationships.

In this article, we provide examples to do just that – dividing these client service activities by low to high investment.

It doesn’t have to start with top-down mandates by a managing partner or executive committee. You can drive this.

First, block off two one-hour meetings in your calendar to dedicate time to your program – the results of which will include deepening client relationships and business growth.

Next, find one or two partners who are open to the concept and secure a client from each.

Then, ask yourself: How are we helping the client’s business? Do we understand the client’s strategic goals and direction?

If the partners you have chosen to work with on this cannot articulate the client’s strategy, then try reviewing annual reports, investor calls, or subscribe to your client’s PR/media distribution list. You will quickly gather the intelligence you need to begin compiling a client briefing book.

...your client briefing book should also include financials.

In addition to background on the client’s business, recent news and details regarding direction, your client briefing book should also include financials. Your financial research may include:

• Revenue History (3 – 5 years recommended)
• Revenue by office, geography, practice group, and/or industry group (3 – 5 years recommended)
• Hours billed (3 – 5 years recommended)
• Open matter velocity (3 – 5 years recommended)
• Diversity and Inclusion stats (3 – 5 years recommended)
• Rates (standard, contingent, discounted, flat, other AFAs)
• Realization
• Profitability (different than realization)

Note: The most effective way to take client engagement to the next level is by conducting client feedback interviews. The insights gleaned shine a light on the good and the bad, providing real opportunities for growth in the relationship.

This article is geared towards those firms who are not yet able to conduct these interviews but wish to make incremental advancements to their client relationships.

The types of Investment Time below fall into three categories: Tactical, Moderate and Strategic.

1. Tactical

Social Media Interaction

By following, congratulating, and highlighting your client’s good work, you help them spread the word about their products and services. Keep track of the activity and provide your client with an unprompted annual update on your social media engagement.

Onsite Visits

We strongly suggest this low-cost activity. Offer to visit your client’s office, plant, facility, or headquarters. Fill your day by meeting with people you don’t normally interact with and ask lots of questions. You and the partner will inevitably walk away from the day with actionable insights.

Email Marketing Communications

This might be marketing 101, but it bears repeating. Ensuring that the key contacts at priority clients receive your firm’s thought leadership is an important pillar of client communications. The beginning of the year is the perfect time to conduct an audit of relationships to make sure those individuals have opted into and are receiving relevant firm communications. Bonus points go to firms where attorneys are responsible for forwarding those alerts with a personalized note, highlighting why the information is important for their business.

Offering Office Space to Client

Post pandemic, more and more executives work from home. At least two times a year, proactively offer your clients conference room space for executive committee/board meetings or if they are visiting cities in which your law firm has offices, offer them visiting attorney offices.

2. Moderate

Attend Board/Investor/Civic Meetings

Depending on your current partnership level, it may prove relevant and even beneficial to invest time in attending your client’s business meetings – or those meetings that may impact your client’s business (i.e. city council, zoning boards, etc.). By doing so, attorneys will be better positioned to advise their clients on a variety of business issues now that they understand the full picture.

Introductions to Other Clients/Service Providers

Is your key client in the manufacturing industry? Do you have another client that specializes in widgets for manufacturers and your client has just mentioned this is a pain point for them? Keep your ears open for those kinds of opportunities and offer to make introductions.

Training (CLE)

Year over year, in-house counsel rank complimentary trainings – especially Continuing Legal Education – as their #1 value-add. With that in mind, do poll your client’s general counsel to see if there is something their teams are running into that they may benefit from training on. For clients with no in-house counsel, ask their CEO what legal issues they are worried about – employment and privacy are typically top of mind – and offer to do a training for their business teams.

Annual Off the Clock

This is the best time of the year to suggest an off-the-clock meeting with your key clients. The purpose of this meeting is to uncover your client’s goals and priorities for the year. Simply starting with those questions will provide amazing insights into how you could help them to achieve those goals in 2023. Your marketing department can help you prep for the meeting by compiling a research memo and providing other thought-provoking questions to pepper into the conversation.

3. Strategic

End of Matter Debriefs

An official debrief allows the client to be heard and your firm to uncover ways to improve client service. When a matter is concluded, reach out with a request to receive feedback. When a client shares what went well, what could be improved and what they want in the future – you are solidifying your services and future with the client.

Executive Briefings

There are trends, new regulations, and legal precedents being set every year. Offer up your subject matter expert to meet with the C-team, Board, or Executives to brief them on new and trending issues. It shows that you interested in their business and industry.

Financial Reporting

Clients receive bills on regularly scheduled basis, but when was the last time the client saw a 3-to-5-year overview of their legal spend from their lawyers? Creating such transparency opens dialog about where the client can save money, spend more, or where a firm can be more efficient.

Eighty percent of a firm’s revenue typically comes from 20% of its clients. The goal with the above initiatives is to grow your clients legal spend with you. As we head into an uncertain year, cementing relationships with good clients is paramount.

We hope these suggestions create opportunities to further develop and grow these relationships. Let us know what you implemented by connecting with us on LinkedIn.

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Rebecca Edwards is Senior Marketing and Business Development Manager at Williams Mullen. Beth Cuzzone is the Global Practice Group Leader at Intapp. Click to connect with each on LinkedIn.