Practice Management

Concentration Pays Off For Law Firms

By Tom Collins

Now that he is retired, Tom Collins is working on improving his golf game. Rather that working on all aspects of the sport at the same time he is concentrating on his short game starting with chip shots.  With the importance of concentration of his mind he sent me the following post.

Time passes remarkably fast and any business, including a law firm, has momentum all its own. In other words, things are happing to fill available time. So if you want to accomplish something new or better, pick just a few things to concentrate on.  Pick a lot of things and you are likely to accomplish none of them 

For example, don?t plan to cross-sell everything; plan to cross-sell one thing to one category of clients. Now decide how you are going to cross-sell that one thing to that one category of clients. 

What is your value proposition?lowest price, proven track record, political contacts, higher responsiveness (quality service), advanced technology, delivering cost predictability, etc?

How are we going to win the business?  What key strategy or tactic is likely to produce the best result?one-on-one attorney visits, a team approach, group selling sessions, recommendations by third party, etc.?

What marketing materials or tools do you need to support the strategy?

What is the goal? Who is going to make it happen? What do they have to do to make it happen?  What are the milestones for those involved?  How are you going to measure results and communicate them?  How are those involved going to be held accountable for their milestones and individual goals?

You can repeat the above process two to three (or even five) more times depending on the size and organization of your law firm, but concentrating your resources is the key to success.  Keep in mind the Rule of the Fewest. The Rule of the Fewest is an important business concept.  It arises out of the understanding that resources are always limited.  ?Things? not only represent a direct allocation of resources, they also indirectly impact unassigned resources.  In business, concentration means the fewest of everything at any point in time?customers, products, distribution channels, transactions, etc.  Concentration is ?Management Candy? at work, doing the Main (fewest) things with the Minimum (fewest) necessary resources to achieve the objective.

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Full post as published by More Partner Income on January 04, 2008 (boomark / email).