Strategic investment: directories or client listening?

Every year, law firms invest an extraordinary amount of time, money and partner attention into legal directories.

Matter descriptions, referee lists, interview prep, interviews, follow-ups, spreadsheets... the process is well established and, for many firms, submission is simply accepted as “the way it is”.

As we approach budgeting season, however, perhaps it is time to question it as a strategic investment.

For a smaller firm, the true cost of participating in the directories can easily run into tens of thousands once you factor in partner and fee-earner time. For larger firms, it can run into hundreds of thousands, with some international firms reaching seven figures.

Time and money are the natural resources of any law firm, so what are firms actually doing with them?

They are taking some of their most interesting, innovative and forward-thinking work and squeezing it into someone else’s template, explaining why they are different, why their clients value them and why their work deserves recognition.

Then, having spent all that time talking about their work, they connect junior researchers with some of their most important relationships. Access that most businesses would die for, given freely and eagerly. Firms then ask their partners to ask their clients to say nice things about them.

This isn't about bashing the directories or criticising the seniority of the researchers. The researchers are doing the job they are there to do, and the directories have their place. It is simply worth stepping back and looking at what is actually happening.

You have taken one of your most valuable assets – access to your clients – and used it to help someone else assess how good you are.

In return, you get a ranking, a short write-up and a handful of quotes. Quotes which, when you look across the market, often sound remarkably similar. Everyone has responsive lawyers. Everyone has commercially minded lawyers. Everyone has trusted advisers. Everyone has lawyers who understand their clients’ businesses. If you want something more insightful, you have to pay the directories more...

Then, having gone through the process, firms use those rankings and quotes to play back to their own clients how good they are... the same clients they asked to say nice things about them in the first place...and who provided those quotes...

There has to be a better use of that investment.

What if, instead of spending all that time telling someone else how good you are, you spent a fraction of it actually finding out what your clients think?

Not simply asking whether they are happy with the service, but really listening to them. Understanding what is happening in their businesses, where they are trying to go, what is keeping them awake at night and what opportunities they see ahead. Understanding what they value about your relationship, where you genuinely help and, perhaps more importantly, where you don't.

Those conversations can tell you things a directory submission never will.

They can reveal unmet needs, emerging opportunities and gaps in your proposition. They can help you understand where your clients are going next and whether your business has the capability to go there with them. Most importantly, because you are having those conversations directly, they strengthen the relationship at the same time.

You will still get the quotes and you can still use them in your marketing. The difference is that they become a by-product of something much more valuable: genuine client insight.

That insight can translate into action - better relationships, new opportunities, new mandates, better propositions and new capabilities - ultimately, more growth.

You might not get a shiny directory ranking at the end of it, but you will get something considerably more valuable.

The point isn't that legal directories are bad or that firms should abandon them. They clearly have a role to play. The question is whether the time, money and senior attention invested in them is delivering the best possible return.

Every hour spent completing a submission is an hour that could have been spent understanding a client. Every partner hour spent preparing for a directory interview is an hour that could have been spent developing a relationship. Every pound invested in the process has an alternative use.

That is the opportunity cost.

So this year the strategic question isn't, “How do we get a better directory ranking?” but instead, “What could we learn about our clients if we invested that time, effort, and money in listening to them instead?”

So as budget season approaches, take a step back and ask yourselves where the best ROI will come from.

Cut out the middleman - talk to your clients, listen to them, understand them.

Then use what they tell you to grow.