Leverage and Grow Your Team

I recently spoke with a client, Alexandra, who is a tax partner at a large international law firm. Alexandra shared with me an interesting challenge at work. One of her clients asked for help related to an IP matter. Alexandra graciously offered to help by finding someone at her firm in their IP group. One of the advantages of working at a large firm. The challenge for her became finding someone. She didn’t have any relationships with her IP colleagues which made the task of finding someone much more arduous and time-consuming.

After a day and half of searching for the right colleague, she eventually found someone who could help. Alexandra scored bonus points in helping her client, yet it was at a cost – several nonbillable hours trying to track someone down. If she had established a relationship with someone in the IP group in advance, she would have saved time and frustration during her search. It could have been as easy as one email or phone call.

Fortunately, in this case, the client need was not time-sensitive, however if it was urgent, the client might have gone with another firm instead of waiting for Alexandra’s response.

This is just one of many reasons why it is important for professionals to expand their relationships with others outside of their practice area. Whether it is connecting with colleagues in their own firm, or getting to know professionals outside of their firm, it is important to establish one’s network in advance to respond to client needs outside of their own practice area in a timely manner.

For those working for mid- to large-sized firms, the benefits extend beyond being able to track down colleagues in a timely manner. For starters, connecting with colleagues in other practice areas is an excellent way to learn more what the firm has to offer. This allows one to answer most all client questions on the fly even if it is just at the 30k foot level.

The biggest benefit from expanding one’s network comes from building a robust referral stream of business. Whether it is from colleagues in other practice areas, professionals at other firms, or even competitors, building trusting relationships with others can account for a large percentage of lead sources.

When I ran the business development meetings on the West Coast for Deloitte, we noted that over 50% of our leads came from internal colleagues in other practice areas. That didn’t even account for leads we surfaced from competitors who would conflict out of matters. Building a new relationship with someone on your same team is a lot easier than building a relationship with a prospective client.

Business development does not need to be as difficult as we often make it. Start thinking about investing more time in building your network of contacts who can not only save you time with client needs outside of your area of expertise but who can also be a part of your “sales team.”

In Alexandra’s case, she learned an invaluable lesson in proactively establishing a strong network of colleagues. She mentioned to me that her new objective is to meet one new colleague a week for an indefinite period. The time she invests in this new initiative will pay huge dividends to her revenue growth in the years ahead.