Client Relationships

Cross-Marketing: Superb Principle, Tricky Practice

Cross-marketing.  Something we marketers love to talk about. Something firm leadership loves to push.  But it almost never happens with the ease and frequency it should.  Why is that? Origination credit can create as many obstacles as incentives. Time and time again, we hear that many partners want to share, but their colleagues are disinclined to work as service […]

The Dog Didn’t Eat Your Homework

I sat in on a meeting recently with a professional services firm and its new client.  To say I was floored by the firm’s abject lack of preparation would be a serious understatement.  Most of what was covered in that two hour meeting was available on the client’s website. An hour or two of basic preparation would […]

When Opportunity Knocks, Will You Know?

This week, Altman Weil released its fifth annual Law Firms in Transition Survey, which raises some serious issues about how law firms are responding to changes in the client marketplace. Survey respondents – a sizable bunch, 238 firms with 34% coming from the Am Law 200 – were in agreement that pricing competition is here […]

Lessons From ESPN

Some of the most valuable things we do for clients aren’t billable. Take the news, for instance.  When we read or watch the news, oftentimes we do so as people, not as client developers.  The former entails reaction, the latter inspires action. The wires and waves have been inundated over the last 24 hours with […]

Defiance at Work: Have Conversations, Not Interviews

I had two hours in between meetings yesterday, too far from the office to schlep back and too busy to schedule a coffee date on the fly.  So I found a snazzy little bistro and sat down to work.  At a table nearby, the restaurant owner conducted interview after interview, apparently seeking a new GM […]