Thought leader

By Roger Jones, consultant at Success Talks Ltd

Research shows it can cost twenty times more to win a new client than develop an existing one. This fact is important because too many law firms ignore their key clients or mismanage these relationships. So before you spend another penny trying to attract new clients, start to think how you can keep and develop more business from your existing key clients.

Let’s take a look at seven steps you must follow to profit from this rich source of business:

1. Define your key clients – remember eight per cent of your fee revenue probably comes from 20 per cent of your clients. However, also include those clients of strategic importance to your firm – those, for example, that have the ability to grow or allow your firm to be associated with industry leaders;

2. Find out how you are perceived – this can be extremely revealing. Do your key clients think of your firm as the provider of a ‘commodity’ service or as a ‘business partner’, where they will come to for your thoughts on business matters in general? If they think of you as a ‘commodity’ provider, you are on a slippery downward slope;

3. Get the right skills in place – those responsible for developing key clients need a different skill and mindset from lawyers. At minimum they must be able to influence when they do not have authority, be a detective and seek out opportunities in your client’s firm for new business, and, importantly, talk your client’s language;

4. Stop selling – key clients don’t want you to sell your services. Instead they want you to solve their problems – this too, entails a change in mindset. You need to analyse their business environment and think where you can add value;

5. Develop a relationship-management plan – the purpose of this is to increase your influence within your client organisation. You must find out ‘who’s who’ in the decision-making process and understand the internal politics. A network of contacts needs to be nurtured within your client organisation;

6. Stay top-of-mind – initiate a marketing-communications programme that builds a widespread awareness of your services throughout your key clients. To do this, you must define the messages you wish to communicate and select the best communication tools;

7. Don’t be a loner – anyone who thinks they can develop a key client on their own is doomed to failure. Key client development is about team work. For example, you need to ensure that junior and senior staff develop strong client relationships and that people within your firm understand the importance of your client to your business.

Developing a professional client-development programme provides long-term benefits for everybody. However, a word of caution: when initiating a key client-development programme in your firm you need to get buy-in from all partners and recognition of its importance even when time spent actively developing key clients is not billable.