Best Practice: 10 cross-selling tips

Asked and Answered By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Q. I am a partner in a 21-attorney firm in Northern California. Our partnership has been discussing the need to do a better job of “cross-selling” and referring clients to others in the firm for different types of matters. We have had limited success. Any ideas? A. My experience and our surveys of our clients and their clients has shown similar results. Cross-selling is talked about a lot and seldom implemented. Cross-selling can be an effective strategy - but it is not easy and it requires trust, commitment, communication, hard work, dedication and organizational alignment. Here are a few ideas for improving the odds: No. 1: Stop giving cross-selling lip service - if you are serious - put in place organizational systems that will facilitate the process. No. 2: Ensure that firm communication systems support cross-selling initiatives. No. 3: Ensure that the firm compensation system does not encourage hoarding of work and discourage a cross-selling program. No. 4: Foster a culture of "giving to get" in which professionals in the firm uphold a "firm first" attitude and are willing to invest the time and effort to foster relationship building and cross-selling efforts. No. 5: Find ways to create, foster, and support trust building in the firm. No. 6: Provide relationship management and client service training to all attorneys in the firm. No. 7: Implement a client feedback system (telephone interviews) to enhance relationships with existing top tier clients. You may wish to outsource this effort to an independent party to ensure the greatest success. No. 8: Increase the client's points of contact with the law firm. No. 9: Do whatever it takes to learn your client's business. No. 10: Meet frequently with other attorneys in the firm and learn in detail about their practices and areas of expertise. John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC, is a past chair and member of the ISBA Standing Committee on Law Office Management and Economics. For more information on law office management please direct questions to the ISBA listserver, which John and other committee members review, or view archived copies of The Bottom Line Newsletters. Contact John at jolmstead@olmsteadassoc.com.