Talking Heads
Bad news for most businesses is often good news for law firms. However, the professions are facing greater competition and rigorous procurement, requiring a systematic, data-driven approach to business development. Andy Robinson and Ben Kent review a recent PSMG workshop held at the offices of Ropes & Gray that looked at the challenges and reviewed what can be learned from other sectors.
Q. Industries and sectors tend to be quite insular and professional services is no different. What was your starting point in running this session and what made you so interested in the topic?
BK: At Meridian West, we work with professional services firms but also other B2B sector such as tech, wealth management and private equity (PE). I was interested that other B2B sectors take a different and much more commercial approach to marketing and business development (M&BD), and I feel over time the professions will become a lot more like other B2B sectors. That was one reason for the interest. The other was because Meridian West was transforming from being a classic consultancy to developing and selling technology products (namely MeridianAI). This was requiring us to embrace things like digital marketing, social media, and packaged products. It has been a real learning journey.
AR: Having spent many years leading sales and marketing functions outside the legal industry and then recently joining Simmons, I thought it would be beneficial to share my “view from the bridge”. Simmons has one of the best commercially focused M&BD functions in the market and I have been extremely impressed by how knowledgeable and dedicated our team is to revenue generating activity. However, the way most law firms approach M&BD is quite different from other sectors. I genuinely believe there’s a huge opportunity in adopting a more rigorous sales approach and encouraging more business services professionals to be involved in the client journey.
Q. Was there a sense in your preparation that professional services has traditionally felt immune to the sort of commercial, fiscal and geo-political challenges now facing every sector?
AR: Bad news for most businesses is often good news for law firms. It’s an exciting time to be in the sector with so much change afoot. Horizon scanning is a big topic for our clients, and we remain committed to keeping them updated with what is coming down the track. We’ve even created a subscription based digital product named ‘Searchlight’ to help clients manage upcoming changes and the associated business impact.
BK: The professions have been in a privileged place. Growth and margins have been good – and they’ve relied on reputation and personal relationships. Now they are having to face up to more competition, more rigorous procurement, and formal pitches. This requires a more systematic, data-driven approach to business development.
Q. And, of course, disruption continues as new players come to the market?
BK: Yes, there is more PE money coming into the market. They are buying accountants, consultants (e.g. Azets) and even law firms. The divisions between the professions are breaking down – the Big Four are competing with law firms and technology companies like Accenture; law firms are offering consultancy services. Technology means in-house legal and finance departments can do more work in-house. The biggest competition many firms face is from internal departments.
AR: There will always be disrupters but this is good for the sector. I’m fortunate enough to be working in an innovative firm which is constantly evaluating, designing and developing new approaches. For example, our ‘Solutions’ business offers clients more efficient and cost-effective options including the use of AI to streamline processes. There are several AI initiatives going on at Simmons and our learnings are helping clients. Where we see efficiencies, we’re using that time to focus on other value-added services and delivering excellent client service.
Q. What were the biggest learnings from other sectors? And was there anything that surprised you and those participating in the workshop?
AR: The biggest surprise for me, across the sector, was the lack of firms engaging with pipeline management and M&BD data. Whilst I acknowledge there are reasons for this - both cultural and political - there is an enormous opportunity for the firms which are open to implementing this process.
BK: I think the professions will gradually move to the right on this diagram (below). Especially more digital, automated marketing, specialised roles, and focus on KPIs.
“The professions have been in a privileged place. Growth and margins have been good – and they’ve relied on reputation and personal relationships. Now they are having to face up to more competition, more rigorous procurement, and formal pitches. This requires a more systematic, data-driven approach to business development.”
Q. Was there a business sector from which you felt professional services marketing, sales, BD and comms could learn?
AR: Technology
BK: Wealth management, technology SaSS, corporate banking.
Q. Do roles that come under the ‘sales’ banner, differ greatly outside of the professional services sphere, especially when it comes to pipeline management?
BK: There are more specialist sales roles that lead the business development activities. In the professions, the partners still do much of the selling. The salespeople in investment and corporate banks are high status and can command the respect of the rest of the organisation.
AR: The s-word remains something with which many firms feel uncomfortable - and there are very few job titles which contain the word sales. But, more to the point, most law firms are not actively managing pipeline. The accounting and consulting world seems to be slightly ahead but there is a huge opportunity for law firms who are open to the idea of using pipeline data to their advantage.
Q. Similarly, what about data?
BK: Law firms have traditionally focussed on a handful of internal, financial metrics, (chargeable hours, write off etc). There is an ambition to look at a wider selection of more client-focused metrics (loyalty, market share, brand strength, cross-selling). Now firms are in the trenches of updating systems, creating APIs and developing dashboards. It’s a lot of hard work but, once those dashboards are in place, firms will be much more responsive to market changes, and be more scientific about service improvements.
AR: The legal sector has historically been behind when it comes to data. But it’s encouraging to see this is starting to shift. In my opinion, law firms who can connect data from different systems such as finance, HR, CRM and knowledge will become stronger on pitching. This will empower them to make data driven decisions, put their best foot forward and become more profitable.
Q. Finally, if you each had to pick one significant takeaway what would it be?
AR: Getting tighter on pipeline management is key for law firms. Some of the benefits include improved forecasting, productivity, visibility, and accountability, understanding market trends and yes, better client relationships. A clear view of pipeline will also help with data driven decisions, such as the ability to see which areas are performing and where to focus efforts moving forwards.
BK: Don’t just network with your peers from the profession. Learn from the other B2B sectors - or hire them into your teams.
About Meridian AI MeridianAI is a platform developed by Meridian West and Rubiklab transforming how professional services firms analyse client interviews and qualitative data. It combines advanced AI capabilities including automated transcription, executive summaries, thematic analysis, and natural language querying. Unlike typical generative AI tools, it employs sophisticated natural language processing and statistical models to ensure outputs are grounded in actual data rather than generating potentially inaccurate content. The key benefits include significant time savings (reducing a three-hour manual process to 15-20 minutes) with 95% transcription accuracy, the ability to scale analysis across larger datasets to build a cumulative knowledge base, and comprehensive analysis for human cognitive biases. The platform can compress three weeks of manual analysis into just two days.