Totally Legal Blog: Cross-selling strategies for Private Client Lawyers
15 January 2012
Unlike targeting commercial clients, picking out individuals who need particular legal services is a tough task. Therefore the simplest way to start growing a private client practice is to increase the emphasis you place on cross-selling.
One partner at a leading Suffolk firm described cross-selling to me as ‘not as much finding change down the back of the sofa as finding a £20 note in an old suit jacket”. He is absolutely right but more often than not, the response from law firms tends to be “we know it’s something we need to do but it’s something we never get round to”. However the client data you have holds all of those forgotten twenties and more … and it’s waiting to be used.
When introducing cross-selling, there are two platforms upon which you can build your model - your current private clients and your commercial clients. In this post I’ll focus on ‘current private clients’, outlining two sales strategies that could be implemented immediately using no more resource than your fee earners.
The first is ‘concentric circles’. Your fee earners’ experience will tell you that if a client requires advice in one area, they’ll need advice in other related areas. An efficient yet simple way to visualise these opportunities is to draw a series of concentric circles; write the area the client initially contacted you about in the middle and the related subjects in the surrounding circles with the most relevant in the second circle, the next relevant in the third circle and so on.
Taking divorce as an example, once the divorce goes through it’s common practice to follow the Decree Absolute (at a respectable distance) with a letter explaining additional work on wills, estate and tax may be required. To many lawyers, this feels like ambulance chasing.
A cleaner way - based on your concentric circles - is to put together a helpful PDF fact sheet (and not a brochure which is obviously promotional material and will more than likely be ignored) outlining all of the interlinked services the client may require. This PDF can either be sent ahead of the first consultation or as a follow-up; either way it spares you the ignominy of having to cross-sell in person.
By having the reasons for the suggestions explained from the outset, clients are more likely to instruct your firm to carry out all the work.
The second strategy hinges on actively asking for referrals to other members of a client’s family. Offering a free consultation for any other member of the family is a good hook but remember you will need to ask for the introduction. A letter or email is too impersonal and the key here, if your request is going to appear credible, is to exercise the personal touch.
In recent years, the concept of the ‘family lawyer’ seems to have taken a back seat but it should really be a key commercial objective. Through one client you have access to an average of ten other opportunities, whether they’re your client’s spouse, children or siblings. Each opportunity is only one introduction away and that introduction will come from someone who already values your work and trusts you and, by extension, your firm.
Asking for that introduction will be tricky the first time but it will get easier – and it’s much, much easier than trying to guess which of the people walking past your office needs a lawyer.
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