CRM Success Tips Blog

The Perfect Partner/Provider The beauty of technology is that it can do so many things. The problem with technology is… it can do so many things. But for technology to succeed, it has to satisfy a need. So, it can be a mistake to fall for any type of technology too quickly.  Frequently, firms get infatuated with the latest and greatest software without fully investigating other options, or more importantly, really understanding their unique requirements. Because each firm is unique, technology selection should start with a needs assessment. Interviews should be conducted with key stakeholders to determine how the technology can really help them. It’s important to focus on people, processes and

The Right Resources   Often people make an investment in technology without considering the totality of the resources they will need to succeed. Buying the software is the first cost. To get a return on your technology investments, you also need additional resources including: Money Firms frequently underestimate the amount of financial resources required to successfully deploy marketing and business development technology. In addition to the purchase of licenses or subscriptions, success often requires additional investments in a number of areas such as: Professional services to configure and implement Integrations with other systems or technology Training of system administrators and users Ongoing annual service and support Automated and/or manual data cleansing Time

The Importance of Data Quality in #TheNewNormal While technology tools are incredibly valuable, they are only as good as the data they contain. Without good data quality you face a number of challenges including: Communication is challenging: If you can’t reach your target audiences and communicate with clients and prospects, your marketing efforts will be less effective. Events are ineffective: When invitations don’t reach the right audiences, you can’t connect with the right contacts and end up wasting time and money. Technology adoption plummets: If your systems are littered with duplicative, dated data, users won’t participate, and your technology investments will be wasted. Coordination is difficult: Unless everyone in your organization is

As states across the country consider lifting restrictions and allowing business and other activities to resume, many businesses are anticipating what operations will look like in the weeks, months and even years to come. What does #TheNewNormal mean for your own team and your clients? Here is what we are hearing from our clients, along with a few predictions of our own. It’s Not Business as Usual Firms of all sizes are instituting cost-cutting measures in the form of salary reductions, layoffs and furloughs. Some partners are also being asked to defer distributions and forego bonuses and even contribute capital. Almost every firm has imposed a hiring freeze. Many summer associate programs

While CRM systems are essential to assist in communicating effectively and coordinating your responses and outreach during this crisis, there are also a number of other supporting technologies that you can invest in and leverage to support your organization in its outreach and business development efforts at this challenging time. ERM Systems It is important to ensure that the right people in your organization are responsible for reaching out to every relevant contact. While many firms have tasked relationship or billing professionals with this outreach, these are not always the people with the most significant day-to-day interactions with some clients. Additionally, their relationships may be with people who are not the right

During a crisis, leveraging technology can help you to coordinate communication and business development efforts and more effectively engage with clients and prospects. Right now, with employees working from home, collaboration requires more thought and effort than it would under normal circumstances. It will be especially important to track and coordinate who is in charge of marketing and other outreach activities such as emails, calls, blog posts and webinars for all of your most important contacts. This will help to ensure that no relevant client or contact gets missed because everyone thought that someone else was handling the relationship. It also helps to prevent oversaturating the same contacts with too many messages

The world is drastically different than it was just a few short weeks ago, forcing all of us to try to adjust to what is being called the #TheNewNormal - which we all know is anything but. While we can\'t control the situation, which is definitely disconcerting, what we can control is our response to it. The firms that succeed will be the ones that learn to adapt. This means adopting new business development processes, practices and technology to ensure that you can stay in continuous communication with your core constituencies. The Right Approach By now, like most firms, you have probably sent at least a few (hundred) COVID-19 related emails. Of

As the COVID-19 situation is rapidly unfolding, it has never been more important to be able to effectively communicate and maintain relationships with your core constituencies – but this can be challenging. We are hearing from firms across the country that are working frantically to issue relevant guidance to clients and key contacts, but many are struggling due to the quality of their data. Having correct, current and complete contact data is essential to all businesses. But times of crisis such as these, where conditions are constantly evolving, necessitate sending time-sensitive and sustained communications as well as focused outreach to provide essential information for clients and contacts. Underpinning the success of effective

Many businesspeople and professionals have an occasional work-from-home day. But working from home exclusively - and unexpectedly - takes things to a different level and can require some effort. Now that so many shelter-in-place orders are in effect around the country, many of us find ourselves sharing our (often makeshift) home offices with family members, roommates and children (who now need a home classroom). Once an anticipated indulgence, working from home is becoming a struggle to maintain productivity while juggling distractions, limited space and resources. Our team at CLIENTSFirst Consulting has been working remotely for more than a decade. All of our employees work exclusively from home offices and, as a result,

While it may seem shocking that more than half of marriages end in divorce, what may be a more interesting statistic is that even fewer technology implementations have a happy ending. In fact, according to respected researchers, up to 70% of technology implementations fail. And while many people may take the leap and get married again, you often don\'t get a second chance at a failed marketing technology implementation, especially in a law firm. That separation is frequently final. In today’s hyper-competitive legal marketplace, where attorneys are being required to learn new skills like project management and alternative pricing, you would think that they would eagerly embrace any marketing technology that could