As Law 360 claims “Donald J. Trump has captured the U.S. presidency and soon will send BigLaw scrambling.”. Clearly, with the current air of uncertainty, there are loads of questions and concerns that clients will like to see addressed. It will not take long till all big law firms realize the election results are a great opportunity to deliver novel high value services. How are you going to make a difference and stand out? 

 

How to stand out?

How will you stand out and be the law firm of choice when a client looks for legal advice on what actions to take after these elections?

To make sure clients find you and reach out to you first, it will pay off to invest time and explore what these clients will actually be looking. That requires a little research, or simply asking: “What are you looking for? What are your immediate needs?”?

Why is that important?

Because by asking and then responding with a new service that delivers on these needs, you ensure you are the go to resource and deliver the high value services your clients are actually looking for.

Why ask?

You may wonder, why ask. Aren’t we supposed to be the experts?

Yes and no. Yes, you are supposed to be the expert when it comes to the finding answers. However, few clients expect you to know their concerns and priorities.

Will asking your clients about their needs and concerns makes you look weak? Unlikely. Instead, your clients are probably delighted when you ask them about their priorities or most pressing concerns. While making sure to address your client’s concerns, you can in addition raise the issues you think are most pressing. Perhaps those are already covered, or weren’t thought of yet. Again, only by asking you will find out.

Time consuming?

Not necessarily.

With our training program it takes just 6 weeks to explore clients’ needs and define new business opportunities. Not just for one client, but for a range of clients with similar needs.

Not unimportantly, within that time frame we also develop the teams who can deliver on these new business opportunities.

It pays to think first and then act

Hence, it pays to think first and then act. However, such a process does require a structured new business development approach.  A structured process will help you to act swiftly, even when opportunities pop-up unexpectedly. While without a process, you likely will waste valuable time discussing how to go about tackling the opportunity.

Manufacturing firms have known this for a long time. Their new product development processes are well structured. However, that is an unfair comparison.  What makes law firms different, is that for any new service, you are dependent on available talent to make anything happen. In addition, the scale at which you operate is of an entirely different magnitude. Together, making it even more important to have a structured approached and an organized new business development process.

Contact us, if are interested to learn more about structuring your new business development process. Get ready to act swiftly on whatever opportunity may arise!

Organizing4Innovation is proud to be the first to offer new service development education and support dedicated exclusively to the professional services. For more information see www.organizing4innovation.com