A blueprint to boost your firm’s profitability
Osprey Approach offers top tips fundamental for sustainable success — use your pricing strategy to say ‘no’ more, charge more per case, and put your technology and data to good use
Industry experts and legal leaders share their best practices on Osprey Approach’s Empowering Law Firm Leaders podcast. Below are four strategies to boost profitability and help you win business from the competition, from experts who have been there and done it!
1. Say ‘no’ more
“Your pricing strategy is a way of saying ‘no’ to clients that you don’t want at your firm.” —Simon McCrum, former managing partner of ‘the fastest growing UK law firm’ Darbys Solicitors
Cashflow guru Simon McCrum’s best practice is to say ‘no’ more often! His top priorities for maintaining competitive advantage and priorities are: manage price against the service you offer, and say ‘no’ more often.
Reflecting on his time as managing partner, he was proud of the service he provided but didn’t charge correctly for it — offering a Bentley service for a Ford price.
He explains that your pricing strategy is a way of saying ‘no’ to clients. You can’t serve all clients and grant their every wish, and so your pricing helps to qualify whether the client is a good fit for your firm.
McCrum also highlights the importance of saying ‘no’ to areas of work you’re not experts in (increasing risk, which can be costly) and to employees’ ideas that aren’t aligned to the firm’s goals and values.
2. Charge more per case
“It’s worth spending the time getting to know your client because your strike rate will improve, and when your strike rate is better, you will make more money and can charge more. And when you can charge more, you can do less work for a higher value, and you get a better work-life balance.” — Shaun Jardine, author of Ditch the Billable Hour!
Value based-pricing guru Shaun Jardine’s best practice for boosting profitability is to charge more per case.
Stressing the importance of spending more time upfront with a client to scope the case better, he recommends asking more questions of the client in the initial stages to truly get to know them, discover what they value and to be curious. This then enables you to communicate value effectively and the associated price based on what will resonate with them.
He tells the story of winning work over a competitor because of the type of proposal he’s put together compared to the competitor’s standard letter and price — the client felt he’d really considered his needs and understood what he required.
3. Use tech to standardise operations
“Create robust, repeatable processes that are easy for staff to follow.” — Sophie Holdsworth, operations manager at Farnworth Rose
Holdsworth encourages other SMEs to spend time using their case management system to build workflows that standardise processes. This creates robust, repeatable processes that are easy for staff to follow, improving efficiencies and reducing errors, and also improving client experience.
She ensures her firm is adopting digital solutions that help streamline operations and capture the right data to improve internal functions and, crucially, positively impact the client.
4. Leverage your data
“Technology should be an enabler, but many issues with tech implementations come down to the data that’s inputted into them.” — CJ Anderson, founder of Iron Carrot
Anderson’s best practice for boosting profitability is to leverage data.
Tying in with the previous point, she is an advocate for legal tech as it helps to take away the mental calorie load — but she stresses the importance of inputting cleansed data so the tech and your team can make the most from it.
Having a data governance framework informs what you can and can’t do with the data, who needs access to it, what should and shouldn’t be used in each system, and how they connect.
Many innovation projects start with ‘wouldn’t it be great if we could…’ — having the right data can help to advance innovation and initiatives.
More key ingredients for sustainable success
Our experts’ other best practices are:
5. Empower decision makers
6. Close more deals
7. Build an aligned culture
8. Prioritise an operational role
A clear strategy, an aligned culture and the right tech will boost the profitability of your law firm.
None of these best practices are overnight successes. They require a clear business strategy, business development strategy, an aligned culture, and time.
It’s about the brand you build that will make a difference to your long-term success. Your brand is how your employees and clients feel about your business, which involves more than simply cutting operational costs or increasing pricing.
Discover more information on the final best practices for boosting profitability in the full article. You’ll hear from leadership coach Simon Tupman, business development coach Scott Simmons, Eaton-Evans & Morris CEO Sarah Charlton, and Burlington Media Group’s co-CEO Rupert Collins-White.
