Business development through litigation data – Some lessons learned

Solomonic’s close and careful monitoring of litigation claims activity means we can generate valuable market intelligence and actionable data for our customers including private practice lawyers, in-house lawyers, insurers and litigation funders. A daily update on the latest claims issued is very useful as a dataset and relevant to many participants in the sector, not least because often the defendant is unaware that a claim has been issued. The availability of that information is vital for staying on the front foot, both for the litigant, their insurers where relevant and for a litigator seeking to build their touch points with the client or a prospect. 

As a business leader, I am struck by just how much utility this data has for building a powerful and sustained flow of business development opportunities. Whilst many of our users jump on the data directly to look for possible new instructions, this is only the start. It misses the chance to use the intelligence to build a sustainable, smarter and far more successful business development strategy. Too often, data like this is seen only as a form of ammunition for the law firm partner to go out and prospect with. However, smarter firms are already using the information as an opportunity to plant the seeds of a sustainable data-informed relationship which, carefully sown and watered, turn into an abundant crop of opportunity. 

Here’s what a smart strategy looks like: 

Segregate the information into the following three groups: 

1.     immediate opportunities 

You can pick up the phone right now to someone directly involved and educate them as to how you can assist them. I am frequently told by users that our data alerted them to a significant action against their client that neither they, nor their client was aware of. 

What if they are already a client?   

Having spoken to a number of in-house users and clients, what is striking is how often they are not aware of either the dispute or that it has been issued. In other words, if they are your client let them know, ASAP! 

To motivate you, think about the other 4,000 Solomonic users who have the same information, some of whom may very well be attempting to reach out to your clients.  

2.     Tender nurturing 

If you know the firm or party involved but don’t know them well enough to contact immediately, put them in a second group – this is the group you are going to “nurture”. Nurturing means devising a plan for how you are going to move the relationship to one receptive to immediate opportunity approaches. If the volume of prospects is manageable, you can have a plan for each one. If there are too many in this nurturing group, you can categorise them by actions you will take. For example, one group might be those to whom you personally send a confidential briefing paper. Another group might be invited to a small seminar on Zoom or at a dinner. Even better, see if anyone in this nurturing target group has a relationship with someone else you know and use your network to get close to them. LinkedIn is your friend here and can be very valuable.

Alternately, identify some insight or information from the Solomonic platform that you think will get their attention and frame the approach with that insight – often it doesn’t need to be a vast exercise, just a piece of usable information. For example: “Did you know that defendants in your industry sector typically settle their cases 15% more frequently than you do?” They may very well be interested in what their peers are up to – you could use Solomonic data to give them some insight about their sector. 

The key to this group is regular, but not too regular, communication. A couple of times a month is usually the maximum. 

3.     Educate with an action plan 

If you don’t know anyone at the organisation (i.e. those who don’t fit into the nurturing category), then you need to do some more basic education and engagement. If you have a marketing team to help you, send them your target list for education and awareness raising. Get your BD or marketing team to suggest ways to educate them and attract their interest. Your webinars and other thought leadership will be useful.  

But the goal is to move them into your nurturing group, so you want them to sign up to something. That’s your key measure as to whether the plan is working. Make sure anything you do in this stage drives an action to sign up, follow you on LinkedIn or Twitter or subscribe to your podcast. Again, Solomonic’s claims updates are useful sources of market intelligence to build your content around. Which in-house lawyer or litigant doesn’t want to gain better insight on trends in their market sector when it is backed up with real data?  

Once you start doing this, the secret is to keep doing it systematically. Once you have planted seeds you need to water them regularly and it is the same here. Tend to your pipeline like a gardener to their roses. Keep working on it. You’ll get an updated list of new claims every day or week. Be sure to keep feeding that intelligence to your marketing or BD team to advance your target list. Monitor the flow of prospects from one group up to the next. If something works to move an individual up, do more of it. If it makes no difference, stop. 

Finally, to make this work, it needs to be a habit, a few minutes each day and reviewed quickly each week. 

There are a few things you certainly shouldn’t be doing: 

1. Don’t call everyone. This is a waste of your valuable time and as you know yourself is often counter-productive. No-one enjoys getting cold calls and in the increasingly unlikely event that you actually get through to them, you face a challenging conversation from someone who didn’t want to take your call. Instead, invest the time in creating material they will want to receive and their perception of you will grow rather than be undermined. 

2.  Don’t skip the nurturing. It’s  typical professional services behaviour – perhaps typical human behaviour - to focus on the immediate opportunities and ignore the rest. But focusing on your larger nurturing group  will return the most value in the long term. Nurturing is the bridge between cold prospects and hot ones and it works because you draw them in, building trust and value as you go. And if you aren’t doing so, chances are someone else is working to build that trust with data-informed insights.  

3.  Don’t treat all of the nurturing group the same. Be smart and tailor your approach. Put yourself in the shoes of the group and listen to any feedback you get. Not everyone will respond to the same tactics so vary them.  

Marketing used to be about building face to face relationships in physical meetings, lubricated with coffee or a good lunch. But a new paradigm is already on us – time poor decision-makers, working remotely, want insight, actionable data, tailored to their business and delivered in real time. Perhaps it’s time to log on to Solomonic to see how the platform can help you help your client

Author: Edward Bird, CEO, Solomonic