Most law firms responding to The Pace Partnership’s Key Client Healthcheck reported that they did not have effective ways of measuring the strength of the relationships they held with their most important clients.
For most firms the bulk of next year’s fee income should be derived from current clients. So how does a firm defend its position as incumbent adviser and therefore continue to reap the benefits derived from the flow of on-going fees?
Alternative strategies
Take two partners who happen to be the individuals responsible for the relationships with two separate clients. Both partners work in the corporate department for the same firm. Partner A works with Client A and Partner B works with Client B.
The total fee income from both clients is approximately the same although the proportion of corporate work from Client B is more substantial. In fact, in Client B corporate work constitutes nearly all of the fee income. The overall profitability of the work carried out in both clients is also roughly equivalent.
In terms of the hard measurables of client management success, Partner A and Partner B seem to be equal. Both are custodians for the same volume of fee income and profitability.
When we look below the surface of the fee income generated, we begin to uncover two different – and measurable – examples of client defence.
