Why I think referrals can sometimes be bad for business
I come across many lawyers and accountants who tell me “most of their business comes from referrals”. It’s said almost as confirmation that they must be doing something right, and I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with that. But it’s my experience that I usually hear it from the people who are using it to justify not […]
Law firm partnership: the marketing dilemma
In my last blog, I looked at the future and potential demise of high street law. This time, it’s the turn of the mid-tier firms. So much lip service is paid to cross-selling. What promises to be the answer to the elusive question of how to cross-sell often degenerates into comical discussions of initiatives such […]
Losing Tenders: You’ve Already Lost the Pitch!
I was recently asked how I increased the tender success rate of a previous employer. I was also asked how I did it so quickly. The person asking was sceptical of my statistical claim. Their firm had recently lost a number of pitches, and they didn’t understand where they were going wrong. I matched this […]
Net Promoter Score for Law Firms
Law firms have always relied on professional competency to attract and retain clients. Word of mouth, referrals and recommendations have historically been the principal sources of new business. In order to drive these ‘advocacy’ behaviours, legal service levels have to go beyond client satisfaction. What is Net Promoter Score? The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is […]
Unbundling legal services – the beginning of customisation?
Often the biggest task for me as a marketer is to seek to close the enormous gap between those who buy legal services, and creating and delivering what would be necessary to entice the demand of those who don’t. The credence nature of legal services – the risk, the uncertainty and the cost – usually […]
Service quality in law firms: Sympathy for the Devil
Welcome. ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ by the Rolling Stones is lyrically in a class of its own. My desert island track, drawing inspiration from one of my favourite all-time reads, ‘The Master and Margarita’ by Mikhaíl Bulgakov. As the song’s narrator, Jagger recounts an insinuation into various historical cataclysms: the Crucifixion, the Inquisition and the […]
Law firm clients: Protect them or die!
Speaking with a personal injury lawyer from a provincial firm last week, he was obviously concerned for his future with the changes to personal injury on the horizon. Personal injury work currently amounts to over half of his firm’s income. He asked me what I as a marketer made of the situation. I explained that fundamentally, […]
Law firm mergers: cutting costs – but at what cost?
The Twitterati have been buzzing with new articles and blog posts lately regarding law firm mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the legal sphere. Deep down, it’s not something I truly enjoy reading about. There’s a notion that M&A activity is a sign of growth and health in any given sector, but personally, I think it’s […]
Social media professional services: A weapon of mass disruption
It’s hard to talk about the impact of social media without mention of the ‘disruption’ these new platforms are creating. The word ‘disruptive’ is used a lot these days. It’s almost becoming as popular as the word ‘strategy’. But for me, in the case of social media, it is being used in the true sense […]
High street law: adapt or die!
It’s a well-worn saying that ‘history repeats itself’, and I don’t mind admitting that I have more than a passing interest in historical recurrences. In particular, Mayan philosophy and their beliefs in the cyclical nature of time. It was the job of the Maya priests to interpret cycles and provide a prophetic outlook on the […]
