Almost fifty managing partners, practice group leaders and law firm marketers from Australian law firms attended the workshop I presented yesterday, “Mastering the Client Development (aka Sales) Process for Lawyers and Law Firms™,” at the ALPMA Annual Summit in Melbourne, Australia. Most attendees were from mid-tier and smaller law firms, and a handful were from major global law firms. Prior to and during the workshop, I polled the attendees on key issues, and some of the findings are summarized below.
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Julie Savarino of Business Development Inc. @juliesavarino with Andrew Barnes of Sladen Legal/Harwood Andrews and current President of ALMPA @AndrewBarnes_AU in Melbourne Australia
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Almost fifty managing partners, practice group leaders and law firm marketers from Australian law firms attended the workshop I presented yesterday, “Mastering the Client Development (aka Sales) Process for Lawyers and Law Firms™,” at the ALPMA Annual Summit in Melbourne, Australia. Most attendees were from mid-tier and smaller law firms, and a handful were from major global law firms. Prior to and during the workshop, I polled the attendees on key issues, and some of the findings are summarized below.
§ In terms of effective client development/selling - Australian law firms are ahead of their United States counterparts in a few key ways:
o
They populate their firms’ CRM databases
completely with all Outlook contacts. There is no opt-in option; it is a
requirement upon arrival at the firm;
o
They pre-clear conflicts - both explicit legal
conflicts and potential business conflicts - more thoroughly before engaging in
outreach/communications with clients and/or potential clients for new work; and
o
They do not receive nor send/forward case alerts
to let parties know they have been sued and to ask them for the business (which
clients undoubtedly appreciate, since in most cases they already know they have
been sued and have a short list of outside counsel already in mind, and not
sending/forwarding these “you have been sued” alerts also saves the Australian
law firms from the common and unknowing embarrassment of having numerous firm
lawyers send/forward the same case alert to the same client repeatedly and
redundantly - which is an almost daily occurrence in the United States).
§
While about half of attendees indicated their
law firms have coordinated, firm-wide Strategic Development Plans in place,
most of these plans still focus mainly on activities, mistaking activities (doing
seminars, writing articles/blogs, attending conferences) for productivity (i.e.,
actual measurable new business), and do not have much coordination and/or ties
to their remuneration/compensation and/or planning processes.
§
Only about half of the Australian law firms in
attendance conduct an Annual Firm-Wide Strategic Assessment, and only half
require and use Annual Business/Business Development Plans for all firm lawyers.
§
None of the Australian law firms in attendance have
a formal, firm-wide Sales/Client Development Process or Pipeline in place
within their firms. The majority of client development/sales activity is still conducted
individually by Partners, although about a third use, organize and track basic sales
pipelines at the practice/industry group level. The problem, however, is that these
activities are still mistaken for productivity (actual new business) because
the majority of attendees indicated that their lawyers are not converting enough
networking opportunities/contacts into actual new clients/cases/matters.
§
Only the major global law firms in attendance
have an organized, formal, firm-wide, ongoing Sales/Client Development Training
and Coaching curricula in place for all lawyers by years of practice, level of
interest and/or practice group. Instead, most Australian law firms - like their
counterparts in the United States - offer only one-off sales training/coaching sessions
periodically - most of which are not tied to actual new revenue results.
§
Very few Australian law firms have a formal,
ongoing Client Review program and/or process in place, even though numerous
studies show that client satisfaction and service ratings and changes over time
are the main drivers of profitability and also leading indicators of potential
demise.
§
Although Australia now allows ABSs (Alternative
Business Structures), including non-lawyer ownership of law firms, very few law
firms have adopted them as business development strategies. The main hurdle is
the cost of insuring these structures. The major accounting firms and new
alternative law firms are the main firms taking advantage of these new
structures and are taking/absorbing significant client and market share from
traditional law firms.
§
Misaligned and/or unrealistic expectations
remain a major hurdle to effective and efficient business/client development
for Australian law firms. For example, the majority of law firm leaders still
expect all partners in their firms to develop new business from external
sources, and as a result, most internal law firm marketing/bus dev support
staff spend the majority of their time responding to a myriad of activity-/task-based
requests from any/every lawyer, with little time for tracking or proactive
strategic support.
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