Each law firm is unique from its leadership paradigm, culture, compensation system and succession planning. But, one common attribute that makes law firms consistently successful regardless of the economy is having a culture of collaboration.
So what is a culture of collaboration? It relates to two essential elements needed to have a successful firm that can grow exponentially. This type of growth is not just about the money or how big a firm can retain greater profits. But, it’s also about large-scale client engagements that can last for decades.
These two essential elements are client relationship management and business development efforts. These two are the most critical factors you need to focus on if you want a law firm built to last, and there are various ways to improve client relationship management and drive business development efforts.
There are three critical collaborations needed inside and outside the organisation. Let’s take a look at the details of each one below.
Collaborating with Clients
Firms add value to their clients by using multiple personal connections within different levels of seniority in the client organisation. In addition, law firms provide clients with a wide range of cross-functional services to help create a stronger and more meaningful client-attorney relationship.
This is also known as the ‘zippering effect’, and this occurs when partners in the firm have healthy working relationships with other individuals within the client organisation. Having a cross-practice collaboration creates more value in the relationship.
Cross-functional collaboration is an essential factor in creating a revenue-maximising symbiotic relationship. In addition, these relationships can help solidify a client-attorney relationship by creating a barrier to switching.
For example, if a client uses a firm for more than one practice area, the firm is less likely to be viewed as a replaceable or dispensable commodity. Thus, building solid trust and loyalty between you and your clients.
Collaborating With Partners
We all know that there is power in numbers and having diversity in both demographics and perspectives allows you to solve problems quicker. You can bring partners together to share relevant information before pitches, such as:
- thinking about possible approaches on how to resolve a case
- providing ideas
- sharing contacts
Collaboration between partners is at the centre of building a successful practice. Moreover, the current technology available to help firms market their practises is phenomenal.
Taking advantage of the available technology can help save time and money. In addition, it can help streamline services and activities like client intelligence, team building and setting new targets.
However, you can only maximise technological tools to their full potential if a full partnership is involved. For example, your firm is building a CRM to gather the necessary contacts of each partner. Their willingness to provide you with their information and data to develop and populate these tools can be a factor in the success of your project.
When partners share and collaborate, they can take advantage of their cumulative knowledge. This will allow them to pursue opportunities with better insight than just doing it independently.
It’s also beneficial to collaborate when making the pitch. For example, when two partners are presenting, one partner can easily show the capabilities of the other and vice versa.
Sometimes, partners do not feel comfortable sitting alone with a prospect and telling them about their achievements in the courtroom or how beloved they are by other clients. This kind of situation can become awkward. Thus, having a partner colleague speak well of you is a better scenario.
In addition, having a partner when doing pitches will enable each one to highlight one another’s good points.
Collaborating With Marketing Professionals
Marketing requires a tremendous amount of knowledge and skill, which is why there are professionals and experts in this field. For law firms, marketing experts help firm heads create an individual, practice and firmwide strategy.
They can suggest tactics that partners can implement, and at the same time, they can also supply connections to involve them in cross-selling opportunities.
So when you collaborate with marketing experts, you must include them during the initial discussions. At the same time, they need to know your strategy and plan for lateral hiring and growth. By doing this, you get to streamline all the relevant information.
Conclusion
When you collaborate with your clients, fellow partners and marketing professionals, you are already taking the proper steps towards building a better, more robust and more functional firm.
A firm that can grow and secure long-lasting relationships is key to your business’s sustainability. So firm leaders must understand that collaborative culture in and out of the organisation is the key to success.
In establishing your own firm’s model of success and collaborative business, Necessary steps are required. If you want to know more, visit elitelawyermanagement.com for more information
