Time for Lawyers to Overcome Their Reluctance to Cross-Sell

Experienced business developers know that it costs five times more to sell a new service to a new client than it costs to sell an additional service to an existing client.

After all, if you do your job right, your existing clients already know, like, and trust you. With those three elements in place, the sales cycle is much shorter.

In spite of that fact, most lawyers and law firms concentrate their business development efforts and dollars on new client development. That is a big mistake.

Cross-selling is the intentional and strategic effort to broaden the types of legal services a law firm provides to an existing client.

In addition to lower costs and shorter sales cycles, benefits of cross-selling include protection of clients from "free agent" lawyers (because clients who work with more than one lawyer at a firm are less likely to leave when one of the lawyers leaves), increased competitiveness (as clients continue the trend of using fewer law firms for more of their work), a more collaborative firm culture (law firms deteriorate when lawyers and practice groups work in isolated silos), and improved morale.

Unfortunately, the mere mention of selling or cross-selling is enough to make most lawyers run for the nearest exit. Reasons include their lack of time, lack of awareness, fear of selling, distrust of colleagues, and the fact that lawyers often aren't compensated for cross-selling.

Lack of Time

When it comes to developing new business, most lawyers say they barely have time to market their own practices, says Kathy Holmes, business consultant and executive coach at Holmes Communications at a recent educational program presented by the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Legal Marketing Association in Denver.