6 Ways to Cross-Sell Your Firm’s Services

Many law firms that offer a multiplicity of practice areas often have difficulty cross-selling these disparate services to their roster of clients. Unfortunately, while getting a client whom you’ve provided legal services in one area to now utilize your firm for another may not be as “exciting” as obtaining a new client altogether, it nonetheless represents a viable means for increasing overall revenue. Moreover, it is usually less expensive and easier to do than seeking new clients altogether.

With that in mind, outlined below are six ways in which you can enhance your chances for successfully cross-promoting firm services:

1. Create a “Cross-Selling” Culture 
This means putting the “kabash” on attorney egos and instead rewarding/offering incentives for originating business outside of one’s own practice area. It means putting internal programs into place that allow firm attorneys to know what their colleagues are doing. And it means encouraging attorneys to look beyond the obvious in discussions with their clients. Are they thinking as an attorney looking out for his/her own interests or are they thinking as a member of a larger team?

2. Use Your Cyber “Real Estate”
Yes, your client came to your web site because they were looking for some business counsel, or a family attorney, help with a DUI, assistance on a tax matter or any of a host of a zillion other legal concerns. But that doesn’t mean they should not be exposed to the myriad of things you do. Simply having a button on your site that says “Practice Areas” is not enough – no one may ever even bother to hit or hover over that link. Find appropriate space on your home page (and other pages as well) to let site visitors know.

3. Be Smart About How You Use Your Newsletter (or E-Newsletter)
Law firms are big on getting out newsletters and e-newsletters. That’s great. Not so great are the cross-selling opportunities they waste. If your newsletter contains several articles, make sure there’s something you’ve included that alludes to some of the firm’s other practice groups. This is true even if the newsletter focuses on one particular type of law. If you typically send out material that is more akin to a client “brief” (i.e., a single article or post), look to get these out as frequently as is feasible, making sure to rotate the content (and thus each issue) around your different practice areas. Remember, in many cases (perhaps most), the recipient may not even read the content. All they may see are the headlines. If each highlights a different area of family law, why on earth would they ever even think of you when it comes to their business concerns? Note that for e-newsletters, this is particularly true. Most may go unopened. But that’s OK – if you have a compelling subject line that highlights a different area of practice every time the recipient sees your name.

4. Understand that Brochures Still Matter
We once had a client that came to us with concerns that they were leaving money on the table. Among other things, one of the tactics we suggested was to use their firm brochure to highlight its disparate practice groups. Now, there is nothing unusual about this – many firms have sales materials that describe the range of their services. The problem is however, that individuals who only see the brochure lying on the waiting room table or who peruse only one section of a multi-page sales piece may never even see all that the firm has to offer. Our solution was to create a brochure with several pages, step-cut and titled with the different practice areas so that anyone picking up the piece would have no choice but to see all the ways in which the firm might service their legal needs – just by looking at the cover of the material.

5. Use Letterhead Wisely
For all of the reasons noted above, doesn’t it make sense to find room to list your practice areas on your letterhead? It need not be in large type or take up a lot of room, but just as you might note different office locations and/or key executives, why not note your areas of focus.

6. Ask…
That’s right. Sometimes the answer is right in front of you. You don’t have to be pushy, but there is nothing wrong with asking your divorce client if he is working with anyone on his business’ legal needs; or the real estate client whether she has started to think about a succession plan; or the plaintiff in your PI case how he intends to protect his assets. All of this of course, takes us back full circle – to the importance of creating a firm culture that facilitates cross-selling.

So there you have it. Six things you can do right now.

I am sure there are others. And I’d love to hear about them. If you or your firm have come up with a brilliant cross-promotional approach idea or have a question as to how you might implement a new concept, bring it on!

The Managing Partner’s Nightmare: Leaving Money on the Table

In our over 20 years of marketing law firms, one of the most often expressed concerns by managing partners is a fear that they are leaving money on the table. By this, they are usually referring to the fact that clients are associating the firm and/or individual attorneys with specific areas of focus, rather than as a resource for resolving any of a number of legal matters. This is typically seen in the client who contracts with a law practice for one legal matter and then walks down the street to contract with another regarding a different legal concern.  

Part of this may stem from compensation arrangements that do not reward internal cross-promotion and part may simply be a function of internal politics and territoriality. 

So how does the growth-inclined law practice avoid the dreaded “’shoulda’s’ ‘woulda’s’ and coulda’s?’” 

The answer lies first in creating a culture in which the firm moves from a practice area orientation to a problem-solving one. Such an orientation often requires re-educating personnel that the firm’s major focus really is on just helping people. Administrative and human resource matters should be approached with that mindset and compensation should, in large part, be based on each attorney’s capacity to do just that. That means rewarding individuals not just for the work they bring in or the work that they do, but also for the work, internal or external, that they can bring to another member of the firm’s staff. Further, in some cases, an interdisciplinary team approach to client problem-solving should be considered. And processes should be put into place that allow firm attorneys to regularly be made aware of the legal matters in which their brethren are involved. 

Second, law firms must do a better job of educating both prospects and clients as to the full range of their legal services. This means developing the kinds of materials – both online and off, which easily convey the many ways in which the firm can be of service. Specific areas of the firm’s legal expertise that are buried deep inside a firm brochure or web site do little in communicating how the firm can help an individual or business in more ways than they might have otherwise thought. Instead, law practices – particularly those with disparate areas of focus, should consider development of collateral materials that highlight its portfolio of services upfront. Ditto for the firm web site. Often, it is not enough for such content to be placed under some “Practice Area” button. That’s because the individual looking for assistance on a family law matter may never even bother to see whether the firm can also help him on his pending bankruptcy. The same holds true for the corporation seeking help with transactional matters, but not knowing (or bothering to find out) that the firm can also handle matters of litigation as well. 

One way in which we have seen law firms address such issues is through the development and dissemination of e-newsletters. Here, what matters most is not the actual content (though it should still be well thought-out and well-written), but rather the subject line on the address and the title of the main article. Recipients may never actually even read the content, but even in rejecting it, will nonetheless still be exposed to other services the firm provides. The goal here is not to drum up business immediately (though its been known to happen), but to plant the seeds among the firm’s database for that day when the need for a particular service does arise. 

Finally, in an age where everyone is (or should be) self-publishing, it is easy to communicate the individual skill sets of specific attorneys. What is mandated however, is ensuring that the ways in which such messages are disseminated, show a consistent regard for the firm at large. This means incorporating the firm’s logo, tag line, contact information (and possibly even practice areas) into individual online communications. Ultimately, it is the sum of all communications that serves as the face (and even the essence) of the organization.

Looking for More Revenue From Clients & Referrals?

Consider E-newsletters.

While they may not be for generating quick hits or fast leads, does that mean they’re not for generating revenue?

Hardly.

E-newsletters have very specific purposes -- namely keeping the firm name top-of-mind among clients, referral sources and prospects, highlighting very specific areas of expertise and cross-selling firm services. And while, as stated, they may not be for generating an immediate slew of new business leads (particularly if they’re being sent to the firm’s own database), they are for steadily increasing interest in the firm. And of course, more interest means more business – from both current as well as new clients.

Armed with an understanding of what e-newsletters can do, legal marketers are wise to implement such programs based upon some very basic concepts.  First, keep each issue short – preferably to one topic. Almost anyone you meet will tell you they’re “very busy,” (even if that term has different thresholds for different people). We are besieged by hundreds of communications each day, so make yours short, sweet and standout.

Second, keep the content to that which affects your target recipients. Again, as with all good marketing endeavors, the message is not about you.  It’s about the individual reading it.

For this reason, a third imperative is to use your database wisely. Segment your target lists as deemed necessary, perhaps by practice area, perhaps by B2B vs. B2C, or perhaps even by current versus potential clients.

Fourth, if yours is a firm with multiple practice areas, be sure to explore ways in which clients from one practice area can be made aware of services they might utilize in another practice area.

Fifth, and this may almost sound heretical – you should fret a lot more about the subject line under which you will send the e-newsletter than about the content of the e-newsletter itself. That is not to say you don’t want your e-newsletter to be of the highest quality possible, just that you need to recognize that the majority of recipients will either never even open the email or if they do, they may never bother to read the material. Hence, that subject line is the only opportunity you may have to convey your message. Make it count. Let the recipient see the knowledge you have about a very specific subject, about a service that may be applicable to them or a warning about the impact a new legislation may have.

Finally, be consistent in creating and disseminating firm e-newsletters. We all get very busy at times (hmmm, seems I’ve said that before) and the temptation is there to let such initiatives go for a while. Resist that temptation, because it’s the consistency and continuity that gives merit to e-newsletters. You’re staying in your clients’ and prospects’ faces – but doing so in a very nice way.

Different marketing tools serve very distinct purposes and this is true for e-newsletters as well. But one advantage e-newsletters hold over many other marketing options is that are darn inexpensive to create and disseminate.