PCA_are you barking up the right tree

SEPTEMBER 2015

VOLUME 20 ISSUE 9

www.privateclientadviser.co.uk

An amicable farmland succession continues to elude

Battle bound

SOFIA TAYTON

CLIENTS NEED TO BE

PROTECTED FROM

THEIR FAMILY 34

DIVORCE

WHEN SHOULD

TRUSTEES BECOME

INVOLVED? 24

MARKETING

YOUR FIRM’S

STRATEGY IS THE

WRONG WAY UP 20

20 www.privateclientadviser.co.uk

LEGAL SERVICESFEATURE

Are you barking up the right tree?

Private client firms and solicitors have been getting their marketing strategy all wrong. The traditional model must be turned on its head, argues Douglas McPherson

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

P20_PCA_Vol20_Iss9_Feature_2.indd 20 8/4/2015 12:51:11 PM

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

21September 2015 Volume 20 Issue 9

Generalism will not sit well with

your colleagues when you ask them to promote you to their clients


23

LEGAL SERVICESFEATURE

September 2015 Volume 20 Issue 9

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.

Douglas McPherson is a director

at Size 10½ Boots

(www.tenandahalf.co.uk)half.co.uk)


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