Breaking silos and stereotypes

In 1984, I suggested to a group of solicitors that they could make much better use of the captive sales opportunity offered by their office reception areas, where the only marketing material available consisted of miscellaneous charity leaflets. That was in the days when solicitors felt constrained by the prohibition against ‘touting’ and, predictably, the suggestion fell on deaf ears.

Now the aversion to sales-related activity remains. But this must change if solicitors are to compete successfully against the professional marketers who are entering the legal services market.

Before solicitors can consider how to market their services they need to choose their business proposition on a firm-by-firm basis. They need a marketing plan, in the same way as the Solicitors Regulation Authority now requires evidence of a compliance plan. This may need to be innovative. Consumers often associate legal services with the negatives of death, divorce, litigation and moving house, so market repositioning may need to be considered.

The example of the new entrants to the market is instructive. Most regard legal services as an adjunct to their existing mainstream activity. The Co-op, AA and Saga have all followed this route, and the accountants seem set to do likewise by complementing tax services with a probate offering.

Scottish solicitors have successfully demonstrated the commerciality of the combined legal plus estate agency model, whereas In-Deed abandoned its newly formed alternative business structure (ABS) vehicle after concluding that its conveyancing service was no longer sustainable as a stand-alone activity.

Trusted source

One of solicitors’ main strengths is having the respect of clients. This positions them well to assume the role of trusted advisers, taking a holistic view of clients’ professional needs and bringing to bear their knowledge and experience to coordinate the various required inputs, whether internal or external. Not least because of the Legal Services Act, the barriers that have separated the professions are breaking down, and even the Legal Services Board is considering “activities-based” regulation.

A major operational issue that may need to be addressed when creating the marketing plan is the over-dependence of solicitors’ traditional business models on transactions, with too little attention paid to fostering ongoing client relationships.

Related to this is the failure to capture detailed client information and to make this available for firm-wide marketing. This reflects the silo mentality evident in many firms, created both by the unhealthily possessive attitude on the part of some partners towards what they regard as their personal clientele, and the focus of legal IT systems on case management rather than database management.

So, marketing issues and operational issues converge, and if firms are to make best use of their client banks they may need to consider differentiating their proposition, both from the stereotype and from their competitors, by diversifying into related areas of business, particularly those that are relevant to the role of trusted adviser.

Team spirit

Notably, many firms have entered into joint ventures with independent financial advisers (IFAs), and there are already a number of legal plus financial ABS models. In both cases, solicitors can benefit financially and delegate responsibility for FCA compliance.

More importantly, money matters pervade many areas of legal advice and necessitate ongoing client contact, which is facilitated by IFAs’ comprehensive client databases. Consequently, linking with financial advisers provides diversification and addresses the problems of over-dependence on transactions and lack of client data.

IFAs have become adept at applying client data for marketing purposes and segmenting them by, for example, age, wealth, location or need. With clients’ consent, IFAs can share this information with referring solicitors to seed their own databases and participate in the joined-up marketing of the trusted adviser service.

The usual marketing media of literature, websites and newsletters can be harnessed so solicitors can share with clients their excitement at having broken the mould and become new-generation professional services providers.

Ian Muirhead is director of SIFA