Find out if a CRM system will help your law firm

A Client Relationship Management (CRM) system for law firms will be more beneficial than their cost in a number of ways.?

Firstly, a summary of typical headaches that a law firm CRM will solve.

1. You have marketing lists all over the place
2. You have no idea who is referring work to you
3. You are struggling to keep track of what your firm is doing
4. You want to improve communication with clients, like event invites
5. You want to streamline your workflow of new leads?
6. You want to track your bid performance
7. You want to know who knows whom
8. You’d rather like to know if key work referrers are being forgotten
9. You want to know what BD is happening

Now in a bit more detail…?

You have marketing lists all over the place

Lists all over the place makes marketing really hard. For instance, if you have a golf invite spreadsheet list, a breakfast seminar spreadsheet list, and a Christmas card spreadsheet list you have no joined-up thinking ability. If you have one law firm CRM, you have one contact with multiple lists.

You have no idea who is referring work to you/you to them

A CRM system in your law firm can pull together all of your referrals, reciprocity or work introductions into one central pot that is easily viewed. So long as someone logs them when they happen.

You are struggling to keep track of what your firm is doing with your clients

Do you know who is having a coffee with whom? Do you know who is emailing whom? Do you know who is meeting whom? A law firm CRM system can pull all this information together for anyone in your firm to see.

You want to improve communication with clients, like event invites or articles, alerts and insights

The most basic part of law firm CRM system is being able to send out communications to your clients and business contacts. You will be able to see who is clicking on what article, who is coming to each event, and who is completely ignoring you.

You want to streamline your workflow of new leads or processes?

What happens when a contact fills in a form on your website and resulting alert arrives in your law firm? A CRM system enables you to set up a process, so you can set it to do clever things when an inquiry, lead or newsletter signup comes in.?

You want to track your bid and pitch performance

You may have a list of the bids and pitches you have submitted in a Word document, excel list or post-it notes on the back of your door. If everyone in your firm operates like this, nobody is helping the other - and can't inform each other about issues that might crop up with the organisation you are targeting. A law firm CRM system will simply pull all this together without even trying very hard. you just have to look in it.

You want to know who knows whom

A CRM system is the ONLY route to finding out which of your staff know which contact. Nothing else comes close. You can't do this in excel, word, rollerdex, post-it notes, or even a round-robin style email to everyone in your firm.

You’d rather like to know if any key clients or work referrers are being forgotten and at risk of leaving you

How would you know if a contact in one of your key clients is being under-communicated with? The same goes for key work introducers. Good law firm CRM systems not only tell you what is happening with contacts, but where your gaps are. For instance, which key client hasn't been contacted in the last six months that is in need of a follow-up email / call / cuppa / lunch / theatre ticket / golf day / super-yatch experience / Moon on a stick, etc.

You want to know what BD is happening by your firm

A CRM system is the only route to centralising the knowledge about your law firm’s BD activity. When I’ve done user surveys, this is in the top three benefits mentioned by users. For example; what bids are we doing, what events have we got on (and who is coming), who is referring work to whom, who has had a coffee with whom, which contacts are clicking mailshot links, and who is on the Christmas card list. All in one central pot.

If any of this resonates with you, a law firm CRM is going to be useful.?

BUT ONLY if your staff use it and it costs less than the work it helps you to generate. And don't forget, once you have bought one, you have to support it.?Which is never ending.

Even after your shiny new law firm CRM has faded in the sun.

Hope that helped,

Simon

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