Law firms don't usually sing the praises of Peninsula Business Services which is not surprising as they are often competitors.. However, it is well worth studying their law marketing and business model as they have over 20,000 clients, high contract renewal rates and generated tens of millions of pounds in profits last year so they are definitely doing something right!
Peninsula's core service is an employment law compliance package for business and so, if you are reading this article, you probably specialise in the same technical area which means you have similar pro rata scope to build your practice but it's very likely that the market leader in compliance packages is beating you at your own game. The question is 'what can you do about it?'
Quite simply, like Peninsula, you need to offer a service which solves a problem day in day out, year in year out and then tie your clients into a long term contractual agreement for the supply of that service.
The service offering: All employment lawyers are capable of drafting contracts and policies and manning a helpline so they already have some of the key ingredients.You may be short of a web service which now comes as standard with most of the key players, such as Peninsula and Natwest Mentor but if you haven't got the resources to build and maintain your own (who has!) then you could buy-in the solution.
The 3 year deal: Usually, lawyers rely on clients contacting them for advice as and when required. They then invoice the client for the job and wait patiently until the next time they are contacted... that is if the client hasn't been poached by a competitor who has found the time to attend more networking lunches!
However if instead of relying on this ad hoc approach, you adopt a law marketing strategy that ties clients into 3 year retainer deals as standard you can be certain they will return. Your revenues will be predictable and your client base will be protected from predators.
Ironically, however, lawyers often tell me that they are proud to offer their clients one year deals rather than three year deals, and the reason they give every time is that if their clients don't like the service they can choose to go elsewhere! This is bizarre when you think about it because I haven't met a firm yet that doesn't pride itself on its quality service and, if that is the case, why on earth would a client want to go elsewhere?
I think it is simply the case that the legal industry hasn't worked on the long term retainer basis in the past and now it is resistant to change. If you tell your clients the deal is a three year minimum deal I guarantee that 9 out of 10 will never question it. They trust you. They want to work with you and they favour long term relationships that take away the pain of staff management but if you won't give them that solution, then be prepared to watch others fill the gap.
The employment law industry is waking up to the benefits of the compliance package model and some have been quicker off the mark than others but with all the competition out there, only the most optimistic firm would dismiss the model out of hand. Here are the key points to consider if you are thinking of offering an employment law compliance package to commercial clients:
Key considerations:
- Service components - what to include? what does your target market want? what are your competitors offering? How can you supply it?
- Supply and demand - defining the deal, managing client expectations, delivering a quality service
- Pricing - experiment with a few early adopters to get a feel for what your market will stand, don't sell yourself cheap (Employers will pay more for a relationship with an advisor who is already known to them, even if they won't compromise on service components.)
- Marketing - what/who is your target market? How will you get the message out there?
Next month's law marketing blog will look at these key points in more depth.
Tags: Niche Marketing, Products & Services, Law marketing
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I recently spoke with Lara King of BBC Radio Humberside on the subject of Employment Law. Click on the Play button, above, to hear the interview.