One of the most impactful ways to achieve profitable revenue growth is broadening the array of high-value services you deliver to existing clients. While the most common “cross-selling” approach is relationship-based, offering your closest client contacts the opportunity to learn about additional firm capabilities, the most effective approach is deeply understanding your clients’ business challenges and opportunities, and then collaborating with your strongest client contacts to devise service offerings tailored to help achieve their business goals.
By way of example, let’s say you handle U.S. commercial contracts for a European luxury retail company and work closely with the company’s U.S. General Counsel. In reading your client’s annual report, you learn that one of its strategic challenges is maintaining its competitive position in the U.S. market. You speak with your partners, Mary and Jacob, who head your firm’s intellectual property and antitrust practices respectively, and have extensive experience helping luxury brands protect their competitive advantage. They suggest ways the firm can help the client achieve its goal and agree to develop some specific recommendations for the client. They send you to some case study examples of work they have done for similar clients. Your next step is to set up a meeting with the U.S. General Counsel. Which of the following approaches do you think has the greatest likelihood of success?
Technical skills approach: “I know you have significant intellectual property and antitrust legal needs, and I would like to introduce you to my colleagues Mary and Jacob who are brilliant in this area. Could we arrange a lunch so you can meet them?”
Business solutions approach: As a luxury retail company, we know your strong U.S. brand is critical to your company’s success. I was discussing with my partners Mary and Jacob your company’s desire to further protect its competitive position in the U.S. and they have some ideas and recommendations that I think you would find valuable. Mary and Jacob have an incredible track record of protecting the competitive advantage of companies in the luxury goods space, such as (name some non-competing client examples). Would this be of interest to you?
Experience and research prove that the second approach not only generates more interest, engagement and client meetings, but also wins higher fee engagements. Why? Because instead of selling technical capabilitities you are demonstrating your knowledge of and interest in your client’s business and making your services relevant to advancing an important client business goal.
Bottom line
Deeply understanding your client(s) and devising ways to deliver value to them is well worth the effort. It builds an enduring foundation of trust and credibility that will benefit you and your firm for many years to come.