The Pulse

Marketing and business development (BD) teams rose to the challenge and came into their own in the last two years. They displayed tremendous ability to think out of the box and adapt, even though BD was hard hit—referrals were far and few; bread-and-butter activities such as in-person meetings, conferences, and trade shows simply weren’t an option. And yet, it wasn’t all doom and gloom! Many firms did better than they could have ever imagined—not only did the majority survive, many also thrived.

As part of Covid-19-led re-organisation, many law firms, including Linklaters and Clifford Chance are reducing or evaluating the PA, legal secretarial and support function in their organisations and how they can make the most of this valuable resource.

Some marketing and business development (BD) teams struggle to engage with the fee earners in their firms in a meaningful way.

With market conditions remaining challenging in the legal sector, considerable M&A activity is expected among law firms in the next few years.

Of course, data management is important to ensure the quality and integrity of the database that resides in a CRM system.

Often, CRM adoption isn’t a success in firms, not because of the technology system in use, but because users don’t appreciate the value the discipline can provide them. Time and again, I hear about firms wanting to ‘change’ their CRM system. What they need to do is ‘change’ the perception and positioning of the discipline so that it becomes relevant to the organisation.

The CRM market in the legal sector has seen some significant changes this year. Technology vendors are taking different approaches – from launching new products and expanding into new niches to engaging in M&A activity to strengthen their presence.

Typically, the deployment of CRM systems in law firms is driven by the marketing and business development (BD) departments. It makes sense – a CRM system is an indispensable tool for these functions, holding all the intelligence the professionals need to foster and harness relationships for the business.

CRM is widely regarded as being fundamental to building relationships, driven by business development and marketing goals.

Data driven decision-making is the latest buzzword in the business world and for good reason.