A Templeton Finn Coaching Case Study:

SOLICITORS NEEDED MORE FOCUS ON FEES

What did they want?

They wanted to earn more money and spend less time at the office.

When we discussed with the partners of this firm of solicitors what they wanted from coaching, it was to earn more money and spend less time at the office. (Fairly typical ambitions!)

However, they didn't think their clients would tolerate any price increases.

We challenged that basic assumption and the firm started looking in more detail into which clients were profitable and also which they liked to work with.

Some clients take all the time and don't bring in much money!

The clients who were intolerant of fee increases were the least profitable and most unpleasant!

As usual in these situations, the clients which were felt to be intolerant of fee increases were already unprofitable! Also they were the ones nobody liked working with (the "heart sink" clients!)

The firm made a decision to risk losing this business by putting up certain client's fees quite significantly.

Most stayed!

Most of the difficult clients stayed, although some grumbled. A few went elsewhere but these were the clients who were completely unprofitable anyway.

The net result was that fee income went up and stress went down!

This seems really obvious but how often do we make the time to do this kind of analysis?