9 Point Checklist: How to Maximise Your CRM ROI

By Simon McNidder, CRM Headache Solver at Promptr

A CRM can be one of the most valuable tools in a law firm. Or one of the most expensive pieces of software nobody uses.

The difference usually isn’t the technology. It’s whether the system has been designed around what the firm actually wants to achieve, how lawyers actually work and what it will take to keep the data useful.

Too many firms approach CRM as a technology project. They buy a sophisticated system, load 10,000 or 100,000 contacts into it, ask lawyers to keep it updated and then wonder why adoption is poor and their return on investment never materialises.

The answer is to start with the outcome, not the software.

 

1. Be honest about what you want to achieve

Before you look at a single CRM supplier, ask yourself a simple question: What do we actually want to know? If all you want is to send newsletters, invitations and other marketing communications, you probably don’t need a CRM at all. A good email marketing or mailshot platform may do the job perfectly well.

A CRM becomes valuable when you want to understand what is happening around your firm: who knows whom, where relationships sit, which clients and contacts are active, and where potential opportunities and introductions might come from. That distinction is important. Don’t buy a CRM because everyone else has one. Buy one because you have a clear business problem that a CRM can solve.

 

2. Get your data under control first

Before investing in expensive software, pull your existing data into one place. For many firms, that means starting with a single spreadsheet. It won’t be sophisticated, but it forces you to confront the reality of your data.

• How many contacts do you actually have?
• How much duplication is there?
• How many records are out of date?
• Which information is genuinely useful?

Once you have consolidated the data, you can use a mailshot platform such as Mailchimp to manage newsletters, event invitations and other marketing communications. There are loads to choose from. You don’t need a CRM to send marketing emails.

 

3. Apply the 80:20 rule

If your objective is to understand relationships and identify opportunities, you need some sort of CRM. But don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the answer is to put every contact your firm has ever encountered into the system. It’s tempting, I'll agree. But it's time-consuming and difficult to maintain.

Instead, apply the 80:20 rule. In most firms, a relatively small proportion of clients and contacts will account for a disproportionate amount of profitable work and future growth. These are the people who really matter: your best clients, your key referrers, your work introducers and the relationships that could realistically develop into something valuable. Start there. Your CRM should help you understand and develop your most important relationships, rather than becoming a giant digital address book.

 

4. Buy for your lawyers

One of the biggest mistakes firms make is buying CRM software designed primarily around the needs of BD and marketing teams. That makes perfect sense from a marketing perspective. But lawyers are not marketers, and their requirements are very different. Let’s be honest: no lawyer gets up in the morning excited about updating a marketing database. If using the system means entering information, filling in fields and manually updating contact records, adoption is going to be a struggle.

You may not need an enormous CRM with every conceivable function. Systems such as Salesforce can be powerful, but powerful does not automatically mean appropriate. It does mean expensive. There are CRM solutions focused specifically on tracking real activity from tools lawyers already use, such as Outlook. These can cost a fraction of a large CRM while potentially delivering much greater practical value.

Your marketing team might want more functionality. That’s fine. But the system needs to work for the people who generate the relationships and the revenue.

 

5. Look for automation, not admin

There are two features that should be high on your must-have list: inbox alerts about relevant activity and Outlook integration. Why? Because nobody should have to hunt through a database to find useful information.

If something relevant happens with an important client or contact, the system should bring that information to the lawyer rather than expecting the lawyer to go looking for it. Similarly, if your CRM integrates with Outlook, lawyers shouldn’t have to manually add every email or update every contact record. The more administration you put between the lawyer and the system, the lower your adoption will be.

Be careful, too, about adding integrations simply because they sound impressive. Connecting your CRM to your PMS will add cost, complexity and implementation time. Sometimes those integrations are worthwhile. Sometimes they aren’t. The faster you can implement a useful system and start capturing meaningful activity, the faster you can start generating a return.

 

6. Make BD easier, not scarier

A database does not automatically make lawyers better at business development. In fact, if your lawyers are already nervous or uncomfortable about BD, asking them to use another system can make things worse. The trick is to make BD happen almost as a by-product of doing their normal job. A system that tracks relevant Outlook activity and sends useful email alerts can provide lawyers with valuable relationship intelligence without requiring them to become CRM experts.

Imagine a lawyer is about to walk into a meeting with an important client. Instead of expecting them to search the CRM, the system sends a brief summary of relevant recent activity: who in the firm has been in contact with the client, what has been discussed and what relationships exist elsewhere in the firm. That helps the lawyer have a better conversation, without making them feel as though they are doing marketing.

That is where CRM starts to become genuinely powerful.

 

7. Assume lawyers will find reasons not to use it

This sounds harsh, but it’s reality. Lawyers are busy. If your CRM requires them to change their behaviour significantly, they will have plenty of legitimate reasons not to use it. So don’t build your ROI model around perfect user adoption. Instead, choose technology that captures useful information without relying heavily on manual usage. The best CRM for a law firm may not be the one with the most users logging in every day. It may be the one autonomously collecting relevant information from the systems lawyers already use and turning that information into something useful. In other words, design around human behaviour rather than trying to change it.

 

8. Remember: a CRM is like a racing car

Owning a racing car doesn’t make you a racing driver. The same is true of CRM. You can spend a fortune on technology, but if nobody knows how to turn the information into better conversations, stronger relationships and more opportunities, the investment is wasted. Ask yourself whether your lawyers really need to become CRM experts. Often, the answer is no. A chauffeur-driven car might be a better analogy. Give lawyers the information they need, at the right time, without asking them to learn how the engine works. Your BD and marketing professionals can worry about the dashboard. Lawyers need to get where they are going.

 

9. Budget for ongoing data integrity

Finally, don’t make the mistake of thinking the CRM project ends when the software goes live. It doesn’t. Data decays. People change jobs and organisations. Companies merge. Duplicates appear. Without ongoing data integrity work, even the best CRM will gradually become less useful. That means budgeting for the people, processes and technology required to keep your data clean and relevant. Otherwise, you’ll eventually have an expensive database full of information nobody trusts.

 

What CRM ROI should look like

Maximising CRM ROI isn’t really about buying the most sophisticated CRM.

It’s about buying the right system for the outcome you want.

• Start by being honest about what you need
• Get your data under control
• Focus on the relationships that actually matter
• Choose technology designed around lawyers rather than marketers
• Automate wherever possible
• Minimise administration
• Deliver useful intelligence directly to the people who need it

Most importantly, don’t measure success by how many people log in. Measure it by whether your lawyers have better conversations, know more about their clients and contacts, identify more opportunities and ultimately generate more valuable work.