Effective Business Development Activities for your Law Practice: Step-by-Step Approach

Introduction

Does a ‘Business Development’ activity actually exists for lawyers? Or is it’s just a commonly used term for a #lawfirmmarketing! - A common query which I keep justifying in every other client meeting.

As much as I’m prone to preaching about the place for business development in every law firm’s working, marketing for law firms, is the other side of the coin. No, they are not at all the same, but yes, related.

Undeniably, there exist a whole ecosystem of business development activities for lawyers, law firms, legal tech start-ups and LPOs. And it is to be taken separately for each of them. Of course, there are common pointers which works, but if your target is to stand and excel or to be a leading player standing in the market, business development activities are to be taken seriesly and strategized to the point. This is an active usual practice for foreign based law firms and almost every Tier 1 law firms in India have a dedicated team for carrying out the business development activities.

Relationship building, ‘networking’, ‘pressing the flesh’, developing new revenue streams, Cross-selling — This is the language of business development, and, much like marketing terminology, it is not familiar territory for most lawyers.

After reading this article, you will have a good idea of what business development strategies look like for lawyers/ law firms, and some practical tips on how to integrate them into your role as a lawyer and business owner.

Let’s start with basics —

What is a Business Development for lawyers?

Business Development (‘BD’) for lawyers/ law practitioners means implementing strategic and systematic methods to create regular growth opportunities for your law practice. This includes building new relationships, identifying new revenue streams and sales opportunities. Examples are cross-selling to existing clients and adding new practice areas to your firm. It might involve geographic expansion, or setting up procedures for your client onboarding team to follow up with prospects.

And yes, I personally believe that client relationship management and client feedback management is now an integral part for ensuring that your law practice grow better with time.

Before proceeding further and talking more about the BD tips, let’s understand how a BD for lawyers is different from ‘marketing’ — #LawfirmMarketing is about putting your law firm in front of a client who needs your services. It is about creating a new business out-of-the-blue option for various online and offline modes of marketing. In business development, instead of the sales-focus one-time transactions of marketing, you build bridges, processes, relationships, and revenue streams that are more sustainable and will serve you in the long run. It’s about the long game — adding revenue and sales streams, practice areas, and relationships that build your practice over time.

So what is to be taken into account to grow revenue from a big-picture perspective rather than one-time transactional decisions. It is a whole ecosystem of law firm business development which is required to be revived and organized opting a systematic approach.

This BD ecosystem for lawyers consists of — brand’s identity creation; lead generation through marketing and PR; client on-boarding processes; and, client relationships and feedback management. These areas are co-dependent and strategically interconnected, and thus required to be treated parallelly for the desired outcome.

Let’s discuss some most common approaches, any lawyer, law firms of any size can use to grow new business opportunities:

1> Check if you have a suitable brand identity

‍Whether it is your law firm or you are a solo practitioner, having the right brand identity (both online & offline) is the foremost step towards forming the right BD strategy for your growth. In case you are a #solopractitioner, ‘you’ are a brand. For lawfirms, consider both, yourself, partners and your business as a brand. Brand is nothing but an intellectual personality portraying the purpose for which it is created.

For your right branding, you need to  —

• Have an appropriate presence over social media platforms, like - LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook etc. Website showcasing your services and an active blog is equally important.
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• Keep enhancing the social media images and PR for both - partners, employees and the law firm, highlighting their expertise and experience as per the targeted practice areas for expansion.
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• Strategize right and an active blog as per the targeted practice areas. Try to have a value addition through your blogs rather than just creating contents.
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• Create the right stationeries like — like logo and a tag line for your brand, right brand pitch, firm’s brochures, email signatures, business cards etc. This will give you an edge towards creating your first impression.
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• Make sure you have a good google presence, SEO for your website.

2> Analyse the market you wish to target for creating an appropriate audience

‍Try to study your strength and weaknesses. This will help you capture the right opportunities and identify the red flags while you are trying to pitch your services. This will also help you better in identifying who is the right audience for your law practice.

We need to agree here that we cannot cater all providing every service. Therefore, for a pinpointing pitch, you need to decide what you want to offer as a service, followed with — to whom. This applies to a solo practitioner, lawyer at a firm and businesses. Make sure you read your competitors while deciding your niche practice areas. There is no harm in being aware about your surroundings.

‍3> Plan/ replan your Lead Generation and Conversion activities

‍Once you are clear about what you want to bring to the table, it becomes achievable to identify the potential sources for the leads to whom you want to offer your services. Take the help of social media marketing and other PR channels like - events, conferences etc to filter the targeted leads for conversion.

Once the lead source is identified, the conversion process begins which includes —strategically reaching out to the potential leads for pitching your services over calls, emails, e-meets etc., convincing them why they should be onboard with you. This is a whole other activity which will demand dedicated and more personalized approach for making a succesful conversion. Unsurprisingly, this is packaged with consistent follow-ups before a deal closure and a successful client onboarding. Make sure you would not sound desperate. All the Best!

4> Adopt efficient client onboarding activities

‍This is not just about signing an engagement letter. This begins when you make your first impression on your client. This can be an extra ticket to make an amend if making your first impression was not up to the mark for some reasons.

Having a seamless and professional experience from the moment any client engage with you until their case is closed out will definitely give you an edge over your competitors and will make a mark in your clients’ memory, compelling them to be back for another round. No if and buts here, this is tried and tested approach which has brought results. Client Onboarding is the crucial stage where the ball gets dropped due to poor client intake process. (You can read my article on right ‘Client Intake Process’ if you wish to have more insights).

5> Enhance your Client Relationship and Client Feedback Management Processes

‍The Client Relationship Management (‘CRM’) strategies have steadily become integral to businesses around the world, and the legal industry have also recognized the value of CRM, and how it can support any firm in gaining and maintaining clients. The strength of your law practice rests on the strength of your client relationships. It’s easier, and far more efficient, to receive a new clientele from a current client than from a prospect.

So how do you build client relationships to reach relationship bliss? — According to a survey conducted by BTI Consulting Group on  Law Firm Client Service Performance, there are at least five things that you as a lawyer can do to keep your clients coming back:

• Reach out with unprompted communication – like, with an update—whether it’s significant or not—is a great way to show involvement in a matter.
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• Keep a consisted regional presence where your clients’ are based at – like, by participating in community activities, or by coverage in the local news etc. This will help you build a stronger relationship.
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• Offer more than what you are offering. Clients are actually seeking lawyers that can handle their needs, not necessarily just your expertise. Make sure that you’re open to helping clients, even if it means referring or handing a client off to an appropriate source for aid.
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• Keep reminding them about your value. You need to show the client you’re actually saving them money or time or emotional grief because they’re hiring you.
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• Be Committed and Understanding. Can we go without these two words when talking about relationships. ‘Commitment’ and ‘Understanding’ is all about a ‘relationship’, even if it is about a business relationship. You need to be able to understand the client’s business. You need to be able to recognize what they’re actually seeking, focus on it, and demonstrate a commitment to help.

Conclusion

Lastly, let's not forget to have a proper feedback channel. This will help you to cater better service delivery and plan out the ways for cross marketing of services.

On a concluding note, I know it's a lot to take in a one go if you have no time for business development — like a platter served on a saucer! But it is important to systematically plan your BD activities so that you can focus on other important tasks. If you get successful in implementing just the first step, motivation for others will come automatically. Opt for ‘one step at a time approach’ if it seems cloudy.

In my upcoming articles, I’ll be categorically discussing in details the above-mentioned strategies topic wise, point-by-point. I’ll be happy to discuss any related doubts you may have till then. Please feel free to reach out.

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Originally posted on September 14, 2022 on LinkedIn.