Are you barking up the right tree?

When most people in the legal profession hear the term marketing, their default is to think 'new business'.

For some (admittedly predominantly commercial) practice areas, this isn't necessarily a problem. You know which sectors you are targeting and they can be looked up using a bit of guile and
a lot of internet.

Some practice areas, employment for example, know exactly which job titles they need to target; H.R. directors in larger businesses and the owner in smaller organisations, so again, identifying prospective clients can be done.

It's a bit different for the private client team. Your next client could literally be anyone; so how do you identify 'anyone'?

While I'm forced to agree with the sentiment behind the argument, I cannot agree to that fact it is strong enough to preclude any member of a private client team from marketing.

My counter argument is that private client professionals just need to be a bit more canny when they're marketing. One way to do that is to flip the professional service' traditional marketing model on its head.

Whether you call it marketing, business development or just plain old sales, when you pull it apart, there are really only three ways you can win
new work:

1) from new clients;

2) from your intermediaries, referrers, professional contacts; and

3) from your existing clients.

And for some reason this is, as I said, the traditional order in which they are tackled. My question is, why?

Surely (and this is the reason I'd suggest this model needs to be flipped) it is easier to sell to your existing clients? After all, these are the people who have bought into your firm, the people who trust you and already come to you as their chosen advisers when needs dictate.

I remember talking to the senior partner of a law firm some time ago who said: 'Cross-selling isn't finding the change down the back of the sofa, it's like finding £20 in a jacket pocket'. His point? Looking internally for new revenue is going to generate much more than you think, and for very little effort.

However I also remember the managing partner of another firm who told me: 'Cross-selling is something every firm knows it should be doing, it's just we don't ever get round to doing it.' Again, my question is, why?

A little bit of structure and discipline will make internal marketing simple and if you are willing to implement your internal marketing with that structure and discipline, it will generate almost instantaneous results.

What follows is a simple three-step model that should allow you to kick-start your own internal marketing model.

1. Define your 'product'

What is it you do? This sounds simple doesn't it? Surely you are a matrimonial, wills and probate, trust, childcare or personal tax specialist? Maybe you do all the family stuff or a little bit of everything to do with wills, tax and trusts?

Generalism will not sit well with your colleagues when you ask them to promote you to their clients. They want peace of mind they're referring a specialist that will do the best possible job for their valued clients.

Work out where you are strongest and use this as your lead offering. Obviously most colleagues will have a good idea of all of the things you do (they probably completed their training seat in your area in the past) and you're not going to turn things down if they're offered but, to get things going, it's always easier to start a conversation with a singular offering.

As things develop and you develop a track record of delivering high quality work, wider opportunities will begin to find you naturally.

Once you have your 'product' down on paper, take it one stage further. You need to work out the following.

How does your work fit in with the practice areas you'll be talking to?

The ability to demonstrate why your work is a required add-on is a fundamental part of persuading your colleagues, as to why they should be introducing you to their clients.

This is slightly easier for wills, tax and trusts. When you're talking to corporate, a new will is a definite requirement following a disposal and, as there's likely to be a chunk of cash floating around too, a trust may a requirement for the seller's family.

Similarly when you're talking to commercial property, a plot sale or the ownership of a development or portfolio, these should all be recorded as assets within a will, and it may be worth placing money earned from property sales into a tax structure.

And of course, everyone wants to be more tax efficient.

Family is a little trickier, but if you can just demonstrate you're ready and available if any matrimonial or childcare issues arise, that is usually enough.

How will your work actually benefit the clients you want to
be introduced to?

It may be an old sales training cliché but as with all clichés, it's only become so because its 100 per cent true; you can tell people what you have until you're blue in the face, but they'll only buy what you have when you explain how it will actually benefit them.

In general terms there are three things that benefit a client when it comes to legal or any other professional advice; the service will save them time, money or hassle. If you can explain clearly why your involvements will do one, two or better still, all three of these, your request to be introduced will be much, much stronger.

More importantly, when you do sit down with a client, both the sales and conversion process from enquiry to instruction will be much easier and much quicker. This will save you time, money and hassle.

2. Promoting your product

Once you've packaged your services and their associated benefits, you can take them to the people who can help you introduce them to a wider audience - your colleagues.

My advice would be to start with a complete round of all of the departmental meetings in your firm. Choose a different one each month and ask for a five minute slot on the meeting agenda (probably the last five minutes to make it as time efficient as possible for you) so that your attendance is a little more formalised.

These five minutes are for your pitch, so it has to hit with impact.
Try to break it down into three parts:

• the type of work you do;

• the type of work that's most relevant to that department's clients and why (i.e. the opportunities they should be looking out for on your behalf); and

• the type of work they want and the opportunities you should be looking out for on their behalf.

Better still, if you can sketch out the bullet points around these three sections, you will have a sheet you can leave with the audience to act as a reminder, something that can also be added to your intranet.

The one thing that you need to remember is that this has to be more than a one-off exercise, because continued results demand consistency. To make this work, you will need to adopt a Forth Road Bridge strategy.

Once you've gone through all of the departmental meetings, you will need to start again at the top of the list. Don't think of this as onerous or time consuming because if you stick to the five minute slots, it won't be.

Once your foundations are laid (and these will strengthen quicker in some areas than others because of a combination of professional and personal fit) try to move your conversation on to discussing the following.

External marketing communications

When I say external marketing communications, I don't mean running off a template letter to stick in an envelope when someone writes to conclude a matter. I mean something a bit more creative that utilises all of the work you've done, and showcases the benefits and relevance associated with your services.

Written communications, whether they're in hard copy or electronic, can be a thorny issue. Many solicitors think that any promotional information they send out will be received as a nagging irritant, and do more harm than good.

This is definitely not the case and when I'm presented with this argument, the example I always use is of an old friend from my Lloyd's of London days. He bought a house in Surrey, used a local firm and in his words, they were 'all over him' during the transaction. However once it was done, that was it.

The irony was that, being the bright chap he was, he recognised his and his wife's lives had moved on and he needed a new will, and probably some tax planning advice too as his family was nearing university age.

However as his conveyancers hadn't bothered to keep in touch, he felt they actually weren't interested in him, just the fees for his purchase, so he went elsewhere. In his words: 'If they'd even bothered to keep me on the mailing list and sent me a Christmas card, they'd have got much more work.'

That is the power of marketing communications. Just make sure yours has all of the required opt-outs.

The other questions that often arise when discussing external communications is what do you send your clients, and how often do you send it. The answers (respectively) are something that will be relevant and interesting (keep it fresh, don't just send out the same invite for a free will review) and as often as you are comfortable with. Although probably no more than three times a year is best, especially if you're also running client seminars.

The format is also your choice, but make sure you are satisfied that once it arrives, it will stand out from the other circulars and marketing material your envelope will share the doormat with.

Joint initiatives

Things like 'wills weeks' and family law drop-in clinics for the major employers within your commercial client base, are proven to work.

Similarly piggy-backing on workshops and seminars to provide the 'service for individuals' perspective alongside your colleagues' 'services for businesses perspective' will also give you a broader audience, even more so if those events are being run with a third party.

3. Make your promotion a little more personal

As human beings, there will always be people who we get on with better than others. The good news for professional advisers is that clients tend to be more comfortable taking advice from the advisers they get on with best. This means that the colleagues with whom you get on best will probably have the clients that you are likely get on well with too.

In addition to attending the departmental meetings, try to seek out two or three of the colleagues you get on with the most and meet up for coffee to discuss potential opportunities. Discuss individual clients from both of your practices, and where you see an opportunity to make introductions for each other.

In the best of all possible worlds, these introductions will almost immediately lead to work (going back to new wills following a corporate disposal or setting up a trust for the seller's family) but it may also be a case that you'll have to wait a while and stay visible by using the firm's social events, seminars and the external marketing communications you have discussed at a departmental level.

However don't discount the secondhand marketing opportunities. All of the people you meet will have families, friends and business contacts and if they like you (and there's every reason they will as that's the thinking behind getting introductions from handpicked colleagues) they'll refer you.

And the choosing of those you work with doesn't have to be restricted to your firm. Exactly the same principles applies with your professional contacts; in the same way as the colleagues you work with best will have the clients that you're likely to work with best, so will the IFAs, tax advisers, accountants and wealth managers you know.

Once you have given it a try with your colleagues, short list the external referrers you prefer to work with and repeat the process. If it is successful, the chances are you can also repeat the marketing communications and joint initiative conversations.

As time progresses the combination of these three activities will continue to boost your profile to an increasing number of potential clients, who again will all have families, friends and business contacts they can refer you on to. n

Douglas McPherson is a director
at Size 10½ Boots