What is your Organisation worth?

It has long been said that the value of any company or organisation is the sum of it's brands and it's people.

In recent recessionary times many companies appear to have completely forgotten this philosophy.

In the rush to cut costs, the first two budgets that have been cut are the marketing budget that creates awareness and a true differential and even worse the staff training budget that invests in the firm's most valuable assetts.

Before you make any knee jerk financial decisions, ask yourself if this is what leading companies like Apple and Google would do. I think you know the answer. Believe me, businesses of all sizes both great and small are suffering from this. Don't become another one of them.

                                               

Clough & Willis Solicitors Case Study

 

It was at a Manchester Law Society Firms Forum event last Summer that Shefali Talukdar, Managing Partner of Bury firm Clough & Willis, first met Alistair Marshall, a specialist in Professional Business Development.

Like many management teams of small and medium sized practices, Shefali and fellow partner Tim Gray had grown increasingly frustrated by the flow of work from traditional channels being in increasingly short supply. Not only that, but they were investigating significant amounts of resource, both in time and cash, without seeing the return on investment they had hoped for. There was something in the no-nonsense presentation surrounding ‘How to Attract New Clients and Win more New Business’ that made them realise it was time for a fresh approach.

Following a short meeting to decide on how the two parties might best work together, it was agreed that Alistair should undertake a thorough review over 2 or 3 days, of the existing marketing and business development budgets and processes. His first task was to find savings that would ensure that his involvement was at least cost neutral to the business.

After in depth interviews with key personnel and implementing a staff survey for both fee earners and support staff, a comprehensive plan involving dozens of measurable action points was introduced. Regular visits over 6 months has seen significant improvement in motivation and employee engagement start reaping rewards. Following appraisals to outline forward objectives, a change in attitude and behaviours has lead to an increase of Business Development activity and last month saw the highest number of new client instructions in over a year.

The measurable results gained are raised activity levels focused on building relationships with potential clients and intermediaries, the conversion of those opportunities, as target clients and partners better understand the expertise and capabilities of Clough & Willis as a firm and improved client satisfaction. Best practice in marketing the firm both on and offline via an increased number of routes to market is now in place. Partners and staff alike have been empowered to convey the ‘differential’ to potential new clients and this enables the firm to maximise results from networking and be able to better cross sell its services to existing clients via accurate database management.

Shefali describes the experience “ Alistair makes a real, practical difference. We wanted a consultant who would 'get his hands dirty' and not just sit in front of us and give us the theory. He has helped us implement the necessary measures to bring about practical change. His insight and support has been invaluable to me.”

AMC develop detailed firm wide business plans to help achieve growth goals. They help, support and train solicitors and in house marketing staff to successfully execute those plans. It’s about practical help to achieve goals, not just to envision them. A new 286 page book entitled ‘The Complete Business Development Guide for Law Firms’ will be available in the Summer.

£122 Billion opportunity for SME's

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK are losing out on up to £122 billion in sales revenue by failing to keep on top of their marketing, new research has claimed.

The research, carried out in association with the Centre for Economics and Business Research, found that despite 87 per cent of SMEs acknowledging the positive impact that marketing has on sales, many are letting it ‘slip off the radar.'

While three quarters see marketing as important to business success, a third admit to rating their efforts over the last six months at less than five out of 10. A further 11 per cent admit to doing none of the marketing they had planned.

Time (21 per cent) and money (36 per cent) were cited as the biggest barriers for SMEs achieving adequate marketing activity.

According to the research, the average business owner juggles seven different roles on a daily basis but puts buying stationery ahead of marketing. As expected, established SMEs are more likely to achieve their planned levels of marketing compared to younger SMEs.

Entrepreneur, Jo Behari, said: "This research clearly shows that when marketing drops off the radar, it costs businesses significant revenue. A small business owneralways has to be mindful of the bottom line and while it's rare to carry out a marketing plan to the letter, with just 39 per cent getting done there is room for improvement. Putting that extra effort in really will make all the difference to the profitability of your business, or even its survival."

Time for a Progress Report.

We are nearly 100 days into 2013 and so I thought I would ask some of those horrible, nasty questions that people like myself challenge business owners with. Sit down with the key players in your organisation and discuss answers to the following questions that will highlight your achievements and/or shortfalls this year to date.

What is our largest business development challenge?

How are we dealing with it?

How long have we had the problem?

What have we done to address it?

How is it impacting the organisation?

What is it costing us?

If it continues, what will the effect on the business be?

What are we good at and should do more of?

What are we poor at and must stop doing?

What will we do different Tomorrow to ensure we hit our Financial and lifestyle goals?

Do not under estimate the importance of addressing these issues. Let me know how you get on.

Mark Hovell of George Davies on why the law is like football

AM: In terms of clients, what do you think they look for from their legal provider these days? 

MH: I think that now they are looking for lawyers who will go that extra mile.  So for me it’s ones that don’t just give a range of options and then sit back and say what do you think?  It’s ones that would say if it was my money you’re doing this or you’re doing that.  They want proper advice, commercial advice.  I think they want transparency – the years of just racking up the hours and sending them bills are long gone.  Everything is now a lot more structured, you have got to quote for things; everything is done at a fixed fee.  That is the reality now. Even if you can't give a fixed fee, you have got to give a range of prices; how much you think it is going to cost, but then constant updates to say how are we doing against that quote, that target, that estimate, which again is better.

AM:Is the billable hour dead?

MH: It's pretty much dead I would say,but I still think it is an amazing tool to manage with.  It is a very good tool for internal use.  You actually get to see how effective and how efficient your lawyers are.  It is clocking on and clocking off isn’t it, as it used to be and there aren’t many industries where people still do that.  A timesheet is a diary of what somebody has done during a day so you can see who is working efficiently and who is not so it is a great management tool I think, but from a client point of view they don’t care.  They want a job doing and they want to know how much it is going to cost, who is going to do it and when it is going to be done by. It is all scoped out now. Lawyers have got the data to look back and say, ‘Well, did I get the quote right or wrong, how much margin am I making on these sort of jobs? Could I be more efficient next time I get a job like that?  Can I delegate/pass work down to a junior?  Can I delegate it to a computer?  How can I make the margin better? But these are things that were completely alien to firms a few years ago.  But client’s demands have driven a lot of that. 

AM: How do you train customer service or is that based on your recruitment of the right people? 

MH: Well you have got to demonstrate it haven’t you?  So you have got to live your values so to do that,we are constantly looking for new people because we are ambitious and we want to grow so yes it is important.  I interview everyone that comes in here and I never ask them a legal question because they might tell me the answer and I wouldn’t know if it was right or wrong!  It is more important to try and see if I think they will fit in. When we were in the old building, it was so poor that to be honest at times you didn’t even want to show a new recruit where they might end up working, you would wait until they had signed the contract.  So I would take them down to Starbucks and within that two minute walk you had a really good feel for somebody and it kind of talks to you at a human level, because they all thought they would come in and go straight to the meeting room, but I'd say let’s go and get a coffee and see what they are like.  Do they open the door?  Do they barge in?  Do they offer to pay?  Not that I would let them, as we are interviewing them and it is as much about them feeling comfortable with us, but just little things like that, you get amazing details from people within two minutes of meeting them that have nothing to do with their intellect or their ability to act as a lawyer, but just how they are as human beings.People who are clever enough to get a 1^st probably had to work really hard and might not have spent as much time having fun and trying to communicate with people and may struggle in a firm like ours of this size, but equally you go down to London and some of the really big firms you need to be of that intellectual level because you are writing the precedence that the rest of us buy and use.  Its horses for courses. For me it is more a cultural feel we try and get.

AM: From a Business Development perspective, how have you gone about that process of getting the  message across of this is who we are and we are good at this and better than the others?

MH: Just spending time with people, a lot of time. Many Managing Partners probably don’t like recruitment consultants.  They are like football agents, if they have got a good player why wouldn’t I want to talk to them.  If they understand your firm and where you want to get to, they are actually our front line sales people, they are going to be out there meeting the talent that is out there in Manchester that might not have heard about us because we were this best kept secret.  They are out there promoting the firm and they find the talent that you don’t know is maybe looking to move.  A lot of people don’t want to pay their fees, but if you actually spend a lot of time with them they just bring you the right people for your firm. It is the same with football.  If you say I am looking for a left back that can play with somebody who is Spanish, then you communicate with them and they will do that for you.  You could go to do all the scouting yourself and you might find the odd person, but they are part of the game.  Recruitment consultants are part of the legal industry.  Get on with it and use them to the best of your advantage.

AM: Looking to the future of the profession, do you see lots of mergers and acquisitions?

MH: If I look downstream, I don’t see a lot for us, acquisitions and mergers of smaller players.  The problem with the law is that you are taking on all the insurance risk.  You become a successful practice, you can't possibly do the due diligence you need to see whether or not there are skeletons lurking there and the cost of insurance is so high, the reality is, that when you are looking at firms, that there are probably a few good people you want and they control the majority of the clients and that is the challenge, to pull that out so it is more about lateral hires.  But those firms are desperate to get taken over because the Partners have got capital in there and the only way to get it out is if somebody takes the business on so working progress is converted into debts and bills and bills get converted into cash and that’s how the balance sheet works.  And so if they haven’t got succession, then someone has got to pay off their running cover as well so I think you are going to see a lot of blood on the carpet in the next few years of the smaller firms because why would you take them over? 

 AM: Any advice for young people entering the law?

MH: I did a course for the College of Law recently. I started off by saying well who would work at Clifford Chance?  Most of the hands went up. Who would work at George Davies?  The hands stayed up.  Who would work for the Coop?  And not one of them put their hands up.  At the end of it I think the talk was get real ‘cause the Coop are coming, they are here, they are going to be a big employer and do certain aspects of law really well so don’t think you are too good to go and work there, ‘cause it will be a good place to go and work.  Everything is changing.  It is still a good profession.  You can still have fun.  It wont be good old days that probably existed five years ago but they were too good, so if people are coming in thinking Daddy did it and he made a fortune and played golf all the time, it is not that profession anymore, but if you are interested in the law then still do it.  It is a very rewarding job, but equally it is a good place for business people now. 

The full transcript from this and all the other interviews with the leading 'Rainmakers' will be available in a book format later in the Year.