Fall Business Development for Law Firms: How to Turn Year-End Intelligence Into Action
Fall is one of the busiest periods of the year for law firm business development. Clients are back from summer schedules, conferences and industry events are in full swing, companies are thinking about year-end priorities and firms are beginning to plan for the year ahead.
There’s also a lot of information moving at once. Clients announce leadership changes, companies make acquisitions and divestitures, executives move into new roles, private equity firms announce investments and industries respond to regulatory and economic developments. Lawyers return from conferences with new contacts and information while firms begin preparing client plans, budgets and business development priorities for the coming year.
All of this can help lawyers identify opportunities when firms have a way to connect developments to their clients, prospects, relationships and capabilities. That makes fall a particularly useful time to take a closer look at business development intelligence and use it to determine where lawyers can focus their attention during the final months of the year.
Start With the Clients You Already Have
Existing clients are one of the best places to begin a fall business development review. Look at what has changed since the beginning of the year and how those developments may affect the client’s legal and business needs.
Has the client made an acquisition, entered a new market, hired a new general counsel or other senior executive, raised capital, announced a restructuring or expanded internationally? Are regulatory, economic or industry developments changing the way the company operates? These developments provide useful context for conversations with clients and can help lawyers better understand their current priorities.
Then look at the firm’s relationship with the client. Which lawyers are currently working with the company? Which practices are involved? Who has relationships with key decision makers? Are there lawyers elsewhere in the firm who have relevant experience and could be useful to the client?
For example, a portfolio company acquisition may create needs involving employment, benefits, regulatory, tax, financing, intellectual property or integration issues in addition to the transaction itself. A new executive may have an existing relationship with someone else at the firm, while expansion into a new jurisdiction may make lawyers in another office or practice relevant to the client.
Looking at the client’s business activity alongside the firm’s relationships and capabilities can help identify areas that deserve further attention.
Revisit Client Plans Before Year-End
Many firms conduct formal client planning at the beginning of the year, and fall provides an opportunity to update those plans based on what has happened during the intervening months.
Review what the client has done this year, which matters the firm has handled, which lawyers have been involved and where the relationship has expanded. Compare that information with developments in the client’s business and industry and the priorities that have come up in conversations throughout the year.
This can help client teams prepare for more substantive conversations. Lawyers can go into a meeting with a clearer understanding of the company’s current priorities, recent developments and issues that may affect its business during the coming months.
A fall client review can also help identify relationships that could use more attention before year-end, especially when the firm’s connection to an important client is concentrated with one lawyer, one contact or one practice.
Pay Attention to Changes in the People Around Your Clients
Business development intelligence includes information about people as well as companies. Executives change roles, general counsel move to new organizations, longtime client contacts receive promotions and former colleagues join companies the firm may already know or want to develop.
These changes can create natural reasons to reconnect. When an important contact moves, look at the history of the relationship, including who at the firm knows that person, what work the firm has done with them and whether other lawyers have relationships with their new organization.
The same approach can be useful when a client hires a new senior executive. Before someone reaches out, determine whether that person already has relationships elsewhere in the firm. Understanding those connections can make outreach more personal and help the firm coordinate its approach.
Keeping track of people as they move throughout their careers also helps preserve relationships that may span several companies over many years.
Use Conference Intelligence More Effectively
Fall conference calendars can be crowded, and firms invest significant time and money sending lawyers to industry events. Planning before the event and capturing information afterward can help firms get more value from that investment.
Before a conference, review the speakers, sponsors and attendee information that’s available. Identify clients, prospects, portfolio companies, referral sources and other important contacts who may be there. Look at which lawyers at the firm already know those people and where an introduction or meeting could be useful.
After the conference, capture the information lawyers learned while it’s still fresh. Who did they meet? What companies came up in conversation? What business issues were people discussing? Which introductions were made and which follow-ups were promised?
Conference conversations can also provide valuable insight into the issues people in an industry are focused on. When lawyers hear similar questions or concerns repeatedly, those themes can inform future client conversations, articles, webinars, client alerts and other content.
This approach allows the value of a conference to extend beyond the event itself and become part of the firm’s broader business development efforts.
Pay Attention to Company News and Business Signals
Company news creates a steady stream of information that can provide useful context for business development. Acquisitions, financings, executive appointments, new products, geographic expansion, regulatory developments, litigation, restructurings and strategic partnerships can all signal changes in a company’s priorities.
The next step is determining which developments are relevant to the firm’s clients and prospects. A news item becomes more useful when it can be connected to an existing relationship, a relevant practice and a logical reason for someone at the firm to pay attention.
For example, news that a client has hired a new executive may be useful to the relationship partner along with information about whether anyone at the firm already knows that person. An acquisition announcement may be relevant to several practices, while a regulatory development affecting a client’s industry may provide context for a timely conversation.
This is where business development intelligence becomes especially valuable. Lawyers have limited time, so providing relevant information with context can help them understand why a development matters and determine whether there’s an appropriate next step.
Review Private Equity and Portfolio Company Relationships
For firms with significant private equity practices, fall is also a useful time to review relationships with sponsors and their portfolio companies.
Look at which sponsors have been active during the year, which portfolio companies have completed transactions and where the firm already has relationships across the portfolio. Then compare that information with the work the firm is currently handling.
This analysis may show that a firm has a strong relationship with a sponsor and limited work across its portfolio companies, or that it advises a portfolio company in one area while other relevant practices have had little involvement. It may also reveal sponsors for which the firm handles fund work but has limited transactional or portfolio company activity.
Mapping these relationships gives lawyers and business development teams a clearer picture of where the firm is already connected and where there may be opportunities for additional conversations or introductions based on actual client needs.
Turn Everyday Client Conversations Into Intelligence
Some of the most useful business development information comes directly from conversations with clients and contacts. A client may mention that the company is expanding into another market, an executive may talk about hiring plans or a general counsel may discuss an issue that has been taking up more of the legal department’s time.
Private equity professionals may talk about the types of investments they’re pursuing, while executives at portfolio companies may share information about growth plans, operational priorities or upcoming initiatives. These details can help lawyers understand where a client is heading and what may matter in the months ahead.
Capturing useful information after client meetings, conferences and other conversations allows the firm to develop a more complete understanding of its relationships. Even a short note about a client’s priorities or upcoming initiatives can become valuable when it’s combined with company developments, relationship information and the firm’s experience.
These conversations can also inform content strategy. When the same questions or themes come up across several client conversations, firms can use those insights to develop articles, webinars, client alerts and other resources that address issues clients are actively thinking about.
Identify Relationships to Strengthen Before the Holidays
The final months of the year provide a natural opportunity to review important relationships and decide where additional contact would be useful. Look at clients who haven’t heard from the firm recently, important contacts who haven’t had meaningful interaction with their relationship partner, prospects that have become quieter and referral sources with whom the firm wants to stay connected.
Once those relationships are identified, business development teams can help lawyers find relevant reasons to reach out. That might involve sharing an article related to the person’s business, congratulating them on company news, inviting them to an event, making an introduction or scheduling time to catch up before year-end.
Using intelligence to inform outreach makes these interactions more personal because the lawyer has context for the conversation and a better understanding of what may be relevant to the person receiving the message.
Look Across Practices for Relevant Client Needs
Fall client reviews can also help firms identify opportunities for greater collaboration across practices. Start with what’s happening in the client’s business and then look at the work the firm is already handling and the relationships it has across the organization.
If a client is entering a new market, completing acquisitions, hiring employees, raising capital, developing new products or responding to regulatory changes, several areas of the firm may have relevant experience. Business development teams can help connect those developments with the lawyers who understand the issues involved.
The client’s needs provide the basis for the conversation. When lawyers understand what the client is doing and where the business is heading, they can make thoughtful introductions to colleagues whose experience may be useful.
This also gives firms an opportunity to build broader relationships with clients by connecting the right people around issues the client is already focused on.
Use Fall Intelligence to Improve Next Year’s Business Development Plans
The information gathered during the fall can make annual business development planning more specific and useful. Firms can enter the new year with a clearer picture of which clients are growing, which industries are active, where relationships have changed, which practices have opportunities to collaborate and which prospects have shown meaningful business signals.
Lawyers can use this information to build plans around specific clients, prospects and relationships. Business development teams can also look across the firm for broader patterns that may point to opportunities for coordinated outreach, content, events or cross-practice collaboration.
If several clients are dealing with the same issue, for example, that may suggest a webinar or client program. If several partners are developing relationships with companies in the same sector, the firm may benefit from coordinating those efforts. If one practice has strong relationships with a group of clients and another relevant practice has limited involvement, that information can inform future client planning.
Starting this work during the fall gives firms more time to understand where they want to focus in the coming year and what information will help lawyers pursue those priorities.
Create a Fall Business Development Intelligence Checklist
A fall business development review can include recent news involving priority clients and prospects, leadership and executive changes, M&A and financing activity, private equity investments, regulatory and industry developments and changes involving important client contacts.
It can also include the firm’s own relationship information, such as which lawyers know key decision makers, where clients have limited cross-practice engagement, which important contacts have changed companies, which conferences lawyers are attending and what follow-up opportunities came from recent events.
Finally, look at the information coming directly from clients. Recurring topics in client conversations, new priorities, planned initiatives and organizational changes can all help firms understand where lawyers may be able to provide useful insight or assistance.
Bringing these different sources of information together creates a more complete picture of the client or prospect and gives lawyers context for deciding where to spend their time.
How Gatsby Helps Turn Business Development Intelligence Into Action
Law firms already have access to enormous amounts of information about their clients, prospects, relationships and markets. The challenge is making that information useful to the lawyers and business development professionals who need it.
Gatsby helps law firms bring company, people and business development intelligence together so teams can more easily understand what’s changing around important clients and prospects. That context can help firms identify relevant developments, prepare for client conversations, research companies and people, build prospect lists and recognize opportunities across existing relationships.
Fall is an especially useful time to put that intelligence to work because firms are simultaneously managing active client relationships, attending conferences and preparing for the year ahead. Connecting what’s happening in the market with what the firm already knows about its clients, contacts and relationships can help business development teams focus their efforts and give lawyers information they can use.
The work firms do during these final months of the year can also strengthen their planning for the year ahead. A clearer understanding of clients, prospects, relationships and market activity gives firms a stronger foundation for deciding where to focus their business development efforts and which relationships deserve continued attention.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is fall an important time for law firm business development?
Fall brings increased client activity, conferences, company developments and year-end planning into the same period. Law firms can use these months to review client relationships, reconnect with important contacts, identify relevant business developments and begin preparing business development priorities for the coming year.
What business development intelligence should law firms monitor?
Useful intelligence can include company news, leadership changes, transactions, investments, regulatory developments, relationship information, client activity, conference participation and insights gathered directly from client conversations. Combining these sources provides more context than looking at any one source by itself.
How can law firms turn company news into business development opportunities?
Start by determining whether the development affects a priority client or prospect and identifying lawyers with relevant relationships or experience. From there, the firm can determine whether the development creates a useful reason for outreach, an introduction, a client conversation or another business development action.
How can law firms use intelligence to expand existing client relationships?
Review what’s happening in the client’s business alongside the work the firm already handles and the relationships it has across the organization. This can help identify additional client needs, relevant lawyers in other practices and opportunities to build relationships with more people at the client.
How can law firms use conference intelligence for business development?
Before an event, firms can research speakers, sponsors and attendees and identify existing relationships. Afterward, lawyers and business development teams can capture new contacts, discussion topics, promised follow-ups and recurring industry issues that may inform future outreach and content.
How can Gatsby support law firm business development?
Gatsby helps law firms connect intelligence about companies, people and relationships with business development activity. This can help lawyers and business development teams prepare for meetings, research clients and prospects, identify relevant developments and focus their attention on opportunities connected to the firm’s relationships and experience.