How Law Firms Can Build a More Useful Client Intelligence Program
Law firms have access to an extraordinary amount of information about their clients and prospects. News services, company websites, public filings, social media, CRM systems, experience databases and industry publications can all help lawyers and business development teams understand what’s happening inside a company.
A well-designed client intelligence program brings this information together and gives relationship partners a manageable way to stay current. It can help a lawyer prepare for a client call, give a client team more context for an account-planning discussion and alert the firm to a company development that may warrant a thoughtful conversation.
The value comes from connecting each development with the client relationship. A leadership change, acquisition, financing or expansion becomes more useful when the relationship team can see how it relates to the client’s priorities, the firm’s experience and the people who may need to know about it.
Begin with a focused group of priority clients
A practical client intelligence program can begin with a selected group of clients and prospects that are especially important to the firm. These may include the firm’s largest clients, relationships with significant growth potential, companies connected to an industry initiative and prospects the firm has made a deliberate decision to pursue.
Revenue will be one factor in selecting the accounts, along with the depth of the relationship, the number of practices involved, the client’s growth trajectory and the firm’s ability to provide additional value. A prospect may belong on the list because the firm has relevant experience, strong relationships and a clear reason to develop the account.
A focused group gives the business development team enough time to learn about each company and speak with the lawyers who know the relationship. It also makes it easier to refine the program based on the feedback people provide.
Each account should have an identifiable audience for the intelligence. That group may include a relationship partner, lawyers serving the client, a client development professional and someone supporting research or competitive intelligence. Naming the recipients at the beginning helps the team choose the right subjects, level of detail and delivery schedule.
Ask the client team what it wants to know
Different companies will require different types of monitoring. A private equity firm, public technology company and healthcare organization will have different priorities, business models and legal considerations.
The relationship partner and client development professional can help identify the developments that are most likely to matter. For one company, the team may want to monitor acquisitions, financing activity and changes across the portfolio. Another account may require more attention to regulatory developments, litigation, product announcements or leadership changes.
The account plan can provide additional direction. If the firm wants to expand its relationship across several jurisdictions, international business developments may deserve more attention. If the client team is focused on strengthening its connection with the legal department, changes involving the general counsel, deputy general counsel and other senior leaders may be especially relevant.
This conversation also helps the marketing or BD professional understand how the relationship partner thinks about the client. One partner may want a short weekly summary, while another may prefer a monthly discussion that combines company developments with an update on matters, relationships and follow-up.
Explain why each development may matter
A useful client intelligence update provides enough context to help the recipient understand the significance of a development. It can explain what happened, how it connects with the company’s strategy and which issues the client team may want to consider.
Suppose a priority client announces plans to enter two new international markets. The update could identify the markets, timing and business rationale, then explain the possible relevance to the company’s employment, regulatory, privacy and contracting needs. The relationship partner can decide whether the development belongs in an upcoming conversation, should be shared with another colleague or should remain on the team’s radar.
The same approach can be used for acquisitions, financing, executive appointments, restructuring, litigation, partnerships, product launches and public statements about strategy. Each item should give the recipient enough context to understand its possible connection to the client relationship.
The suggested response will vary. The client team may want to add the development to its next meeting, identify a lawyer with relevant experience, prepare a question for an upcoming call or continue following the situation. Providing several possible responses gives the relationship partner room to choose the one that fits the relationship and timing.
Combine company developments with the firm’s knowledge
External information becomes more valuable when it’s connected with what the firm already knows about the company.
If a priority client announces an acquisition, the client team may want to know whether the firm is involved, which lawyers know the acquired company and whether the firm has advised either organization previously. The announcement may also connect with experience in employment, tax, regulatory, finance, intellectual property or another practice.
A client intelligence update can include internal context such as:
- Current and previous matters
- Pitch and proposal history
- Lawyers with relevant relationships
- Recent client meetings
- Alumni working at the company
- Client feedback
- Relevant firm experience
- Other practices serving the client
- Known client priorities
- Follow-up already underway
Bringing these details together gives the relationship partner a broader picture of the account. It can also help the client development team identify areas where the firm’s relationship information needs to be updated.
Much of this knowledge comes from lawyers. Encouraging them to record meetings, relationships and follow-up gives the marketing and BD team stronger information for future briefings and account discussions.
Create an update people can review quickly
A weekly client intelligence summary works best when it respects the recipient’s time. For each account, the update may contain a few developments accompanied by a short explanation of their relevance, the source and a possible internal action.
A practical format could include:
- What happened
- Why it may be relevant
- Who inside the firm may want to know
- A question the client team could consider
- A possible internal next step
- A link to the source
The amount of information can vary from week to week. A company may have several meaningful developments during one period and very little activity during another. The consistency should come from the quality and format of the update, with the length reflecting what actually happened.
The most useful information should appear near the beginning. Relationship partners can scan the summary, understand the important points and decide where they’d like additional detail. Client development professionals can use the fuller version to prepare for account meetings and coordinate activity across practices.
Deliver the intelligence through familiar channels
The format and delivery method should reflect how the client team already works. Some teams may prefer a weekly email, while others may want the information added to an account-planning document, CRM record or collaboration platform.
Client team meetings provide another useful opportunity. The client development professional can select several developments for discussion and connect them with relationship goals, upcoming meetings and follow-up already underway.
Different recipients may need different versions. A relationship partner may want a concise summary of the developments most likely to affect the next client conversation. The client development professional may need a wider view across several accounts so they can identify patterns and coordinate across the firm.
Creating a few defined formats can support these preferences while keeping the program manageable. A weekly relationship-partner summary, monthly account update and event-driven alert can each serve a different purpose.
Give recipients an easy way to respond
Client intelligence becomes more useful when recipients can quickly share their reactions and decisions. The relationship partner might ask the team to add a development to the next client meeting, identify a colleague with relevant experience or continue tracking the subject.
Their responses may include:
- Add this to our next client team meeting.
- Please identify who knows the new executive.
- I’m meeting with the client next week and will ask about this.
- Share this with the finance team.
- Please continue monitoring the development.
- Add this information to the account plan.
These reactions help the marketing or BD team learn what the lawyers consider relevant. The team can refine the subjects, sources and level of detail based on actual use.
The responses also help maintain momentum. If a lawyer plans to discuss the development with the client, the client development professional can record the action and follow up after the conversation. If another practice needs to be involved, someone can coordinate the internal introduction.
Connect intelligence with account planning
Client intelligence can keep an account plan current throughout the year. A new executive may change the relationship map, an acquisition may introduce additional business units and decision makers and a strategic announcement may affect the client’s priorities.
The client development professional can update the account plan as these developments occur. When the client team meets, it will have a current view of the company’s activity, the firm’s relationships and the areas that need attention.
Regular updates also give the team a reason to discuss the account between annual planning sessions. The group can review recent developments, relationship activity, upcoming meetings and agreed next steps during the same conversation.
Over time, this creates a fuller history of the relationship. Future briefings can include what the firm learned during earlier meetings, which developments prompted action and how the client’s priorities have evolved.
Use technology to support the research and organization
Monitoring several priority accounts can require considerable research, especially when a business development team supports many relationships. Technology can help gather company developments, organize the information and prepare regular summaries more efficiently.
I recently spoke with the team behind Gatsby about Gatsby Aware, which was developed to help firms monitor selected clients, prospects and companies. It brings relevant developments into a regular summary so relationship partners and client teams can see what’s changed and consider whether anything requires attention.
The product can be configured around named accounts, approved information sources and the subjects the firm wants to follow. Marketing and business development professionals can then review the output, add internal relationship context and prepare it for the people responsible for the account.
A firm considering this type of technology could begin with several priority accounts and a small group of engaged recipients. The team can agree on the developments it wants to follow, how often updates should be delivered and how recipients will provide feedback.
This type of evaluation gives the firm an opportunity to compare the technology-supported process with its current approach. It can assess the relevance of the updates, time involved, quality of the sources and actions the intelligence supports.
Measure how the information is used
A client intelligence program can be evaluated by looking at the decisions and conversations it supports. Open rates provide one piece of information, while feedback from the client team shows how the intelligence contributed to the relationship.
The firm may want to track:
- Developments recipients considered useful
- Subjects discussed during client team meetings
- Questions raised with clients
- Internal introductions
- Follow-up completed
- Changes made to account plans
- Time spent preparing updates
- New relationships identified
- Opportunities connected to the intelligence
- Subjects recipients want to follow more closely
Qualitative examples can be especially helpful. A relationship partner may explain that an update helped them ask a better question during a client call. A client development professional may identify a relationship the team hadn’t previously known about. Another lawyer may suggest a new category of information that would support their work.
These examples show how the program is contributing to client development and help the team improve it over time.
Build the program from what people find useful
A client intelligence program can begin with a few priority accounts, clearly identified recipients and a shared understanding of what the client team wants to know. The marketing or business development team can prepare concise updates, explain the relevance of each development and give recipients an easy way to respond.
The feedback from those first accounts can guide the next phase. The firm can refine its formats, expand the range of information and introduce additional clients after it has a process that people are using.
Law firms already have access to valuable information about their clients and prospects. A focused client intelligence program helps relationship partners and business development teams connect that information with the firm’s knowledge, account priorities and upcoming conversations.