What Is Relationship Intelligence? A Q&A for Law Firm Business Development Teams

Relationship intelligence is becoming a more important part of law firm business development, but the term itself may be unfamiliar to many lawyers and BD professionals.

The idea behind it is straightforward: law firms have enormous professional networks spread across partners, associates, practices and offices. Relationship intelligence can help firms better understand those connections and use them when preparing for pitches, developing clients, researching prospects, integrating lateral partners and pursuing other business development opportunities.

Here are some of the questions law firm business development teams may have as they begin exploring relationship intelligence.

What Is Relationship Intelligence?

At a law firm, relationship intelligence helps people understand who knows whom across the organization and provides context around those connections.

Consider a firm with hundreds or thousands of lawyers. A partner in one office may have a strong relationship with the general counsel of a company another practice is pursuing. An associate may have worked with an executive at a previous company. A lateral partner may know several people at an existing firm client.

Those relationships can be valuable for business development, but first the people working on the opportunity need to know they exist. Relationship intelligence helps make more of that collective network visible.

How Is Relationship Intelligence Different From CRM?

CRM and relationship intelligence can work together, but they provide different kinds of information.

A CRM can contain valuable information about clients, prospects, contacts and interactions. Relationship intelligence helps firms understand the connections among those people and provides additional context around who may know someone.

For example, a CRM may tell a BD professional that a particular executive is a contact at a prospective company. Relationship intelligence can help the team understand whether lawyers elsewhere in the firm have connections to that executive.

That additional information can help the BD team determine the best way to approach the opportunity.

Why Does Relationship Intelligence Matter if Lawyers Already Know Their Contacts?

Lawyers generally know their own professional networks well. The larger opportunity comes from understanding relationships beyond an individual lawyer's immediate network.

In a large law firm, one person cannot know every relationship held by colleagues across other practices, offices and geographies.

A lawyer preparing for a prospect meeting may not know that a colleague in another office worked closely with one of the executives attending. A client relationship partner may not realize that several other lawyers have connections to senior leaders elsewhere in the client organization.

Greater visibility into those relationships can help the firm use more of the network it has already built.

How Can Relationship Intelligence Help With Pitches?

Pitch preparation often includes determining who at the firm knows the company and the people involved in the selection process.

BD teams may search CRM records, review previous matters and pitches, look at LinkedIn and contact lawyers across the firm. When relationship information is difficult to access, this research can take significant time. Relationship intelligence can provide another starting point.

Once relevant connections are identified, the BD team can speak with the lawyers involved and learn more about the relationships. Is the connection current? Have they worked together? Would the lawyer be comfortable making an introduction? Is there useful background that could help the pitch team prepare?

The relationship information supports the research. The lawyers and BD professionals determine how to use it.

How Can It Help With Prospecting?

Start with a group of companies the firm would like to develop. Before beginning outreach, look at the people within those organizations and the relationships that may already exist across the firm. A partner may know the CEO from a previous company. Another lawyer may have worked with the general counsel. Someone else may know an investor, board member or other person connected to the business.

Those relationships can help the BD team prioritize prospects and determine where there may be a natural path to a conversation. They can also give lawyers more context before outreach begins.

Can Relationship Intelligence Help With Existing Clients?

Yes. Some of the most useful relationship intelligence work can happen around clients the firm already serves.

Take an important client and look beyond the primary relationship partner. Which other lawyers know people within the organization? Are there relationships with the deputy general counsel, business executives, board members or other leaders? Have lawyers elsewhere in the firm worked with those individuals at previous companies?

Mapping those relationships can give a client team a broader picture of the firm's connections to the organization.

That information can support client planning, relationship development, cross-practice collaboration and succession planning.

How Can It Help With Lateral Partner Integration?

A lateral partner brings an established network into a firm that already has a large network of its own. Business development teams can look for overlap between the two.

A lateral may have a relationship with an executive at an existing firm client. Several partners may know people at one of the lateral's target companies. A referral source important to the lateral may already have relationships with lawyers elsewhere in the firm.

Finding those connections early can make internal introductions more purposeful and give the lateral and BD team specific business development opportunities to explore during the first several months.

Does Relationship Intelligence Replace Business Development Judgment?

Relationship information is most useful when someone knows what to do with it. Finding out that a partner knows a prospective client's general counsel is valuable information, but there are still important questions to answer. How well do they know each other? When did they last communicate? Would an introduction make sense? Is there a reason to reach out now? This is where business development professionals can add significant value.

Instead of spending most of their time trying to find the connection, they can use the information as the starting point for a more productive conversation with the lawyer about the appropriate next step.

Where Should a Law Firm Start?

Choose one real business development situation.

It could be an upcoming pitch, an important prospect, a client team meeting, a conference or a recently hired lateral partner.

Then look at how relationship information is gathered today. Where does the team search? How many people need to be contacted? How long does it take? What information is easy to find? What requires additional research? Have useful connections ever been discovered after an opportunity has already passed?

That exercise can help the firm understand where greater relationship visibility would be most useful before evaluating technology or changing its processes.

Where Does Gatsby Fit?

Gatsby is a business development intelligence platform for law firms. It helps firms make better use of company and relationship information that can support prospecting, client development, meeting preparation and other business development activities.

Gatsby Intel helps firms research companies and identify information that may be relevant to business development. Gatsby Aware focuses on relationship intelligence and helps firms better understand connections across their organization.

Used together, they can help BD teams answer two practical questions when an opportunity arises: what is happening with the company, and who at the firm may already have a relevant relationship?

The next step is where the experience of the lawyer and business development professional comes in. They can use that information to decide whether to make an introduction, reconnect with someone, prepare for a meeting, involve another practice or pursue an opportunity in another way.