Law firms have become more competitive than ever before,. The key drivers are the increasing demand from customers for personalized services and the changing market trends. Amidst all this, business sustainability is quite an achievement for law firms, followed by business development. Only when you leverage growth opportunities can you gain an edge over competitors?
Today, business development is not just about having more billable hours; it is all about marketing and branding. So, let’s get started and shed light on the same!
Challenges Faced by Lawyers with Possible Solutions:
1. Leaving Behind Traditional Marketing Methods
Most law firms face the challenge of getting over traditional marketing mindsets. Law firms continue relying on old marketing tactics that no longer produce strong results. This is why lawyers often commit common mistakes by investing in brochures, ads, networking, etc.
One should focus on targeting prospective customers and not a broad audience with traditional marketing methods. For this, adopting modern digital marketing services is ideal. With digitalization, digital marketing can help your law firm acquire and retain clients like never before.
Read: How is Case Management Software Better for Attorneys Than Traditional Methods?
2. Lack of Time
Lawyers often fall short of time since they have a number of clients to deal with. At the same time, they must manage billable hours and provide high-quality solutions. Their majority of time is spent on activities that support the sustainability of their law firms. This leaves them with hardly any time to focus on growth and development.
Lawyers attend seminars, conferences, and engage in physical communications wherever possible. Hence, you need to devise a proper strategy that not only acquire clients but also support the current clients. This is because quality service delivery is crucial, and your clients should come back to you repeatedly. Lawyers can work on maintaining relationships with previous clients to improve their reputation.
3. Achieving 100% Client Satisfaction
Today, it is all about clients and their demands. In this digital era, clients have become more informed and educated than before. Hence, they need personalized solutions from every business, and law firms are no exception.
Law firm owners need to understand this and train their employees to ensure 100% client satisfaction. Physical communication requires time and effort, and one might have to seek external support since employees are already burdened with work responsibilities.
A separate team should be in place to address the grievances of customers efficiently, and this team should leave no stone unturned in providing solutions promptly, leading to enhanced brand acceptance and recognition.
4. Converting Prospects into Clients
Most law firms now recognize the need to have a proper sales team that elevates their brand because of the competition from other law firms. This team should focus on getting leads through organic and paid channels leads such as regular contributions of blogs, press releases, articles, educational videos, and more.
However, the problem lies in converting these leads into clients since lawyers have little to no time to track, follow , and communicate with leads and convert them successfully. They need to develop an annual plan that clearly lists the number of lead targets and includes allocating sufficient time and resources by planning ahead.
If they won’t be able to dedicate enough time or are unsure of their availability, they can set up a sales team that can help them get the job done easily.
5. Employing CREs and Requiring KPIs
This solution helps address many of the above concerns but brings its own challenges. Law firms are now employing qualified in-house CREs (Client Relationship Executives) with titles like chief growth officer, client executive, account manager, chief client officer, client development executive, director of relations or and client services, and relationship manager.
These positions are generally filled by lawyers who are not practicing at the moment or those who have industry and professional contacts. Some law firms that have adopted this practice include Mintz, Morgan Lewis, Ropes & Gray, Cooley, DLA Piper, Goulston & Storrs, Baker Donelson, Orrick, Ballard Spahr, Womble Bond Dickinson, and more.
The common responsibilities of these CREs include generating qualified leads, strategic account management, providing lawyers with appropriate sales coaching, forming new relationships, converting qualified leads into clients, assisting and handling the entire follow-up procedure, reporting results to law firm leaders, and more.
The quarterly CRE reports constitute Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) classified and defined based on both the CRE-contributed value and the lead type.
Leads are often categorized as:
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Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs): Qualified leads from an attendee/client/person through marketing efforts like events, publications, articles, seminars, alerts, etc.
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Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs): Individual lead generation by the sales team who possess lead information in the form of targets.
Three MQLs and SQLs Tracking Levels:
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Level 1 Lead: Completely new lead generation by CREs’ efforts
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Level 2 Lead: Converting existing in-house lawyer referrals into actual leads
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Level 3 Lead: Lead generation through the assistance of CREs in Level 2 leads and other efforts that lead to new opportunities
Conclusion
Indeed, it is clear that law firms are facing fierce competition from their peers, and this is the biggest hindrance to their business development. However, with proper growth strategies and streamlined in-house operations, law firms can certainly eliminate such hurdles and enhance business development at a steady pace.
Now, the problem persists when lawyers do not have sufficient funds to invest in a marketing/sales team or CREs, and even if they have funds, they fall short of time to supervise them. However, there is a definite solution to this.
By outsourcing their non-core legal back-office tasks to a renowned outsourcing firm, they can free themselves and instead focus on investing their time in business development activities. If you are looking for a reputed legal process outsourcing company, you may contact Legal Support World. It has been an established outsourcing firm providing proficient legal support services to law firms worldwide since 2008. You may assess its potential by starting its free trial!
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