In today’s rapidly evolving legal landscape, staying ahead of client expectations and industry trends is more critical than ever. A Client Advisory Board (CAB) offers law firms a powerful way to foster meaningful engagement...more
What difference does a decade make? In the legal industry, which has often been voted ‘Most Resistant to Change,’ a lot and not much all at once. Ten years ago – almost to the day – I wrote a blog titled Law Firm Client...more
Retaining and growing existing client relationships and building new business. That’s basically the business development strategy on which most firms are, or at least should be, focused. It is a sound strategy indeed, but...more
Driving client engagement is important. With demand for services remaining almost flat, firms are grabbing share of wallet from one another. Not sure what to ask clients? How to build long-lasting trusted advisor...more
“I’ve been a marketing/communications professional for years and – given this economy – I am feeling the need to demonstrate value. Sales professionals have revenue metrics to show value, but I don’t know how I can do the...more
Over the last two decades there has been a proliferation of practice groups at most firms. Some are practice-specific, fewer are industry-focused, and some exist to garner budget money. While practice groups are a meaningful...more
Elise, a partner in a Midwest-based global litigation firm, seemed somewhat desperate when I spoke with her. In the past five months she lost two significant clients. Billings for these clients averaged $2 million to $2.5...more
Creating a sales forecast (aka pipeline report) is an essential element of business development. With a sales forecast, it will be much easier to keep focused on active pursuits, revenue goals, and where to invest limited...more
A number of factors continue to transform the legal industry, including: a more sophisticated legal services buyer as experienced partners switch sides to corporate law departments, rates creeping up without added value being...more
These are words every lawyer planning prospective and existing client visits needs to take under advisement. Busy lawyers tend to run from meeting to meeting, many ‘winging it’ when it comes to building relationships to win...more
Recent interviews with several firm leaders (business professionals and lawyers) unveil that when it comes to success metrics, especially for the key client teams (aka strategic accounts), revenue matters most. We don’t argue...more
Excerpted from “SAM-Legal: Turning Key Clients Into Strategic Accounts, a Guide to Law firm Strategic Account Management” by Steve Bell and Silvia Coulter. This excerpt, from an early chapter in the book, provides guidance on...more
Business research and analysis is one of the core competencies that law firms need to have on board as they seek to build out relationships with important existing clients and to…...more
Below are suggestions for consideration when choosing clients to include in your firm’s client feedback program. When considering these criteria, it is also useful to examine clients/referral sources over a five-year...more
The best use of any sales coaching investment is with the individuals at the firm who are both interested in continuing to build their business development skills and who are already successful at business development. This...more
Protecting your firm’s hold on its important clients and talent is more critical now than ever before. Three key areas to focus on: talent, business retention and growth. First, every firm is reaching out to clients and good...more
Ask your clients for a copy of their strategic plan, or at the very least, a copy of the executive summary of the strategic plan. No client has ever said “No” when we’ve asked them if they would be willing to share this...more
Second of two blog posts by LawVision’s Steve Bell, Silvia Coulter and Yvonne Nath In our previous blog post, we noted the emergence in the public accounting sector (and hopefully in the legal profession) of a new era of law...more
A multi-million dollar revenue-generating client deserves a strategic account manager. This is someone who day to day is building relationships across the client organization, helps the lawyers with introductions to C-level...more
Firms are leaner than ever. After having gone through several years of cost-cutting and layoffs, firms are operationally strong and beginning to hire again. One area that seemed to make it to the final rounds at most firms,...more
Excited about launching a new client team program, an 800-lawyer firm had everything in place. Leadership from the top and key stakeholders were strongly supporting the focus. They appointed five partners who had significant...more