How to improve relationships with large clients, Part 1 of 2

Given the way the economy is going, this is a great time to improve client relationships.

When Altman Weil surveyed 126 chief legal officers at large companies a few months ago, 48% said that they had fired at least one of their law firms in the last year, or are considering firing them.  They also said that budgets are getting tighter:  26% plan to decrease their use of outside counsel in the coming year.

Many lawyers understand how important this is, but don’t know where to begin.  Harris E. Berenson, Senior Corporate Counsel at Liberty Mutual Insurance Company (and AVP/Chief Counsel of Liberty Mutual Property) recently provided some advice in a talk entitled “Developing, Maximizing and Maintaining the Inside/Outside Counsel Partnership” at the Legal Sales and Service Organization’s Raindance Conference.  (If you'd like to listen to a recording of the speech, click here.) According to Berenson, the most important word in the title of his presentation was partnership.  “At its core, a partnership is nothing more than a relationship.... The concept is simple, but the implementation can be very difficult.” 

He noted that “relationships are built on trust, support, consideration, respect, caring, and mutual responsibility.”  But he also left no doubt about who has the power in this particular relationship:  “Inside counsel can replace you much more easily than you can replace them.”

When he spoke about developing relationships, Berenson described the process of ultimately selecting outside firms (after the research and formal interviewing has been completed) as “simple, arbitrary, and subjective,” and compared it to speed dating.

I’ve written before about how lawyers like to talk too much at “pitch meetings” when they should be listening and “catching instead of pitching.”  Berenson supports this view, and notes that when he brings in law firms for interviews, “the worst thing they can do is to talk about past accomplishments... I already know about that. I want you to interview me.”  If lawyers were not experts on the substance of the law, or lacked adequate experience, they never would have been invited to the meeting in the first place.

The meeting should be a dialog, to help both sides understand what is required for a healthy relationship.  Law firms should be asking about the things they need from the potential client/corporation to assure success, such as access to key inside counsel and reasonable turnaround time.

In turn, Berenson will then ask about things like how the law firm plans to deal with conflicts, and how they will staff each matter.  If you want to compile a cheat sheet of correct answers for an interview like this, Berenson did provide one clue.  If he asks “How do you train your lawyers?” the correct answer is:  “We train them at our own expense.  You won’t see a lawyer’s name on a bill until they are ready to help.”  Liberty Mutual is probably not the only client who has thought: “I don’t want to be paying for $160,000 associates who are just starting out.”

For those who get past the first hurdle and succeed in developing a new relationship, next week’s post will talk about how to maximize and maintain the partnership.

Comments

[Edward Brown]

I've found the field of human development littered with seminars and courses designed for individuals to merely get a long. Courses like: "Effective Networking", "Customer Relations 101" and "Gaining and Maintaining Clients" share the same objective--getting customers to come to you and stay. But, do they really work? What do you really have to do to achieve client loyalty?

The best advice I ever heard on this subject came out of a strategic planning workshop I attended some years ago. The facilitator was talking about the needs of an organization and referenced his wife as an example. He said, "I know I will keep my wife happy if I do just three things: Tell her I love her regularly, 2. Come home for dinner to dine with her nightly and 3. Make love to her at least twice a week." He continued by saying his needs were met consistently, because his wife reciprocated without compunction.

The same is true with client loyalty. Find out the three core needs or high desires of a client and consistently fulfill those needs and you have a better chance at maintaining a long term professional relationship.

Edward Brown
Core Edge Image & Charisma Institute