Legal CRM Strategy Corner

Einstein’s Definition of Insanity… Who Needs CRM Anyway??? (Continued)

Posted by Michael

In my last post I suggested that we forget the traditional “C” in CRM, or at least rename it to “constituency”.  It is all about Relationship Management and each constituency has different needs – from Marketing, Business Development to Client Service and IT.

I believe that law firms need “all-of-the-above”, but in distinctly different forms depending upon their proclivity to business development, firm role, interest and use of the firm’s resources.  For years I have stated, the vast majority of Lawyers need three simple things to meet their needs: 1) Relationship Intelligence; 2) Rational List Management; and 3) Data they can depend on to be accurate and deep. 

This need has continued to evolve given the highly competitive environments in which they function, both internally and externally.  Externally, if your clients do not think you know them, you are doomed in today’s law practice.  Knowing them today goes much deeper than it has in the past when sending a holiday, Christmas or birthday card defined this relationship.  Today, the expectation is as a lawyer and trusted advisor, you know their business as well as they do (more on this in future posts…) and are proactively guiding them around troubled water before they are engulfed.

Internally, Associates rarely matriculate through to partnership without a “Book of Business” with the expectation that this book is developed through osmosis; clearly competing objectives.  Aren’t they supposed to focus on becoming great lawyers as their primary focus?  Managing Partners and Practice Leaders need information to manage their business groups and steer the firm towards increasing profitability and Client Wallet Share.  Rainmakers need to make rain, calling upon a myriad of resources within the firm to support these efforts.

If your firm is not proactively engaged in anticipating and delivering the support required for each constituency, you are missing strategic and tactical opportunities to grow the firm’s business.

So, to answer to the question of “Who Needs CRM Anyway”, our strong belief is every firm whether dynamic and revolutionary, or inert and staid requires a flavor of the available tools to support their specific constituents needs, based upon an integrated platform to revolutionize their value to the users, and in the process defining and creating their own Blue Ocean Strategy - http://www.slideshare.net/jayrobinson/blue-ocean-strategy-summary - whereby your competition becomes irrelevant.

So where is your firm?  Does your firm have a vision for CRM? Does it have a strategy?  Is this strategy receiving input from just one source or is it firm-wide (the way it needs to be)… being fed by partners, marketers, client service officers as well as IT?  Let’s us know, we would love to hear from you.

Einstein’s Definition of Insanity… Who Needs CRM Anyway???

Posted by Michael

History defines Einstein as not a bad thinker -- he defined insanity in simplified terms as, “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”  This concept resonates with me as I review my experience in matrimony, child rearing and many other personal and business relationships.  In particular, this comment is striking relative to the actions I see taken by clients and prospects when defining their strategic and tactical decisions around supporting Law Firm marketing and business development efforts.

For myself personally, I have no excuses. Clearly I am a hard-headed control freak that feels everyone should have the benefit of my opinion (working on it, therapy will likely be required).  However, when it comes to the law firms, I strongly believe there are two components to the reactive nature of the decision process:  1) Few alternatives have existed; and 2) Safety in numbers… 

Safety in numbers has been the “classic” law firm technology decision-making factor…   If firm X is doing it, it must be right.  From my perspective, think Document Management in the late 80’s and early 90’s --the single most expensive and underutilized piece of technology in the history of the modern day law firm (don’t worry; we can talk about Associates Salaries in future posts… ) 

When we talk to firms, we generally are asked in the first 15 minutes; “Who else is using Microsoft CRM in Legal?” We have great answers to this and are not above shouting in the streets about our client’s success, but it always surprises me how law firms ignore what is happening outside the hallowed walls of the firm and are not impressed by the fact that Microsoft CRM is the single fasted growing piece of business application technology in the universe, with triple digit growth for the last three years and over 15,000 clients and 750,000 users globally.  Law Firms need to pay attention to this closely.  Microsoft’s dominance and “ownership” of the legal desktop and future technology direction, and the fact that the CRM product is an extension of the Microsoft Office Suite -- Hell, it is Outlook -- cannot be ignored.

So where is the Legal Industry today? and Who Needs CRM Anyway?

Well, today there are alternatives to the status quo.  With the burgeoning e-Marketing and ERM solutions, Microsoft CRM4Legal and the ability to effectively integrate these tools natively with the core applications actually used by the lawyers, a new paradigm of use, benefit and VALUE is available. 

Who Needs CRM Anyway?  Forget the traditional C in CRM, or at least rename it to “constituency”.  It is all about Relationship Management and each constituency have very different needs: 

Marketers need tools to support their database marketing, segmentation and targeting, Business Intelligence, Competitive Intelligence, Relationship Intelligence, Opportunity Management, Reporting, Managing legislative alerts and, hello – we cannot forget the foundation of this industries requirement, the Holiday or Christmas Card Process. 

If your firm is expecting the Marketing team to provide this information without a quality set of tools (that lawyers actually use), be prepared for: 1) ongoing unhappy lawyers, running around feeling unsupported and communicating this to anyone and everyone that will listen: 2) a revolving door in the marketing department, where quality folks tire of not being given what they need to do their jobs, or are summarily dismissed because of #1 above; and 3) directly related to #1 & #2, a continued reduction in market and client wallet share (not pretty);

Technologists need tools that talk to each other effectively.  For years, law firm IT leadership has supported the notion of the client centric desktop.  Envisioning a world where web enabled products are available in a single “portal” view, defined by end-users based upon their interest and needs.  A Utopian endeavor where users would sing the praises of IT and value them as a strategic value proposition in their business, generating verifiable return on investment….  Utopia no more…  Today this is a reality (and, Oh yeah Firm X is doing it!!!)

If your firm is not preparing to invest in this critical aspect of value-add technologies, prepare to be left behind by your competition and the related impact this will have on your business.

So what do you think?  Do we need Relationship Management in law firms or is it all “hype”?  Can our Holiday Card or Christmas List be handled in Excel or Word?  Does a law firm even need a Marketing or Business Development team?

To be continued . . .

The Changing Face of CRM

Posted by David

To date, Client Relationship Management (CRM) has been almost exclusively focused from the law firms point of view. The three main areas of focus have been:

• Marketing
• Business Development
• Client Service and Call Centre / HelpDesk

In all of these cases, the point of view is law firm-centric. The law firm is in charge of managing all aspects of the relationship, including gathering information about the client. This information has then been used by the law firm to achieve the following goals:

• Enable a firm to cross-sell and upsell existing clients, and for brand building (Marketing)
• Provide partners a better view into marketing and business development activities, and give lawyers access to more complete information about their clients and prospects (Business Development)
• Provide client service a better view into past clients inquiries and current client information. This information is then used to resolve the inquiry and/or, cross-sell and upsell existing clients at the point of contact (Client Service and Call Centre / HelpDesk)

However, a number of emerging IT initiatives are starting to challenge this model. CRM systems are evolving to take the client into account more aggressively, and there are an increasing number of discussions around how social networking for example can be used to bring individuals inside and outside of law firms closer together.

So...what do you think? Will emerging IT capabilities in the areas of CRM, social networking, (and even...gasp...blogging) bring about a change in the way individuals do business together, leading to an even greater voice (even understanding) of the client? Or, will these capabilities be just a blip on the radar, when viewed five years from now?