28 tips patent and trade mark

attorneys can use to win

more work from their

clients

www.tenandahalf.co.uk

Dear Reader, Which of the following 10½ situations apply to you? 1. Your approach to client care isn’t linked to your strategy and goals 2. You want to create more value from your existing client base 3. You only receive work from one of your client’s divisions while others go elsewhere 4. You have problems getting both patent and trade mark work from your clients 5. Your client life cycle is not as long as it should be 6. You don’t have a formal client relationship management strategy 7. You don’t assess a client’s potential value at the start of a relationship 8. You have recently lost several clients to your competitors 9. You don’t analyse client trends 10. You want to know which aspects of client care work and which don’t 10½. You keep doing what you have always done, it’s easier that way! How many of these scenarios apply to you? 2, 3 or more? If you can relate to 3 or more than this report will benefit you in a number of ways

Strengthen and protect your current client relationships

Increase your ‘share of wallet’

with each of your clients

Cross-sell to your clients more effectively

Postmodern, may not be the opener you’d expect from a marketing report designed for patent and trade mark attorneys but read on and you’ll see why it works. Money makes the world go round, so keeping hold of clients is essential. Remember, that whilst new business is always good, existing clients are far more valuable than we often give them credit for. BUT - and it’s a big but - the client knows it! It used to be the case that if your TV went ‘on the blink’ you knew exactly which electrical retailer you would go to for a replacement. Or, to go even further back in time when a TV cost more than a month’s wages, where you’d take it to get it fixed. You trusted that repair business, knew their price would be competitive and the service you would receive would be top notch. Today the market is a much more elaborate labyrinth of choice and the discerning shopper no longer feels loyal to one brand or supplier.

Time to go post-modern …

You may remember Marks & Spencer suffered a few years ago by relying on their reputation as a solid brand where you could buy your basics.

If knickers and a black sweater were top of your shopping list you knew M&S would deliver the goods.

Through this reliance, however, M&S lost sight of their core customer base. Their competition instead listened to the clients’ needs, followed market demands and perked up their ideas. M&S soon found they were lagging behind. The customer had evolved whilst they had been dozing. Here’s the postmodern bit … in a nutshell. “All experiences are unique. The outcome of each is fallible and relative, not certain and universal.” Clients won’t necessarily stay with you or give you all of their work but, if you acknowledge each client is an individual and should be treated as such, your postmodern methodology will take you far! Here ends the very basic lecture … now let’s put it into practice.

1. Recognise client power Clients, customers or whatever you want to label them have the power in trading relationships. Let’s face it, without clients there wouldn’t be any business. Attorneys need clients as much as clients need attorneys. Clients are wise to the selling tricks of the trade that try to make them feel more valued, more likely to refer others and more inclined to purchase additional products and services from you. It is therefore increasingly important to provide them with the highest quality advice irrespective of whether your are protecting or prosecuting. Clients will have no loyalty if the service you provide is poor.

2. Focus on client care Everyone hears and uses this term ‘client care’, but what does it actually mean and why is it so important? Client care is one of the most over-used terms across the professional services. People talk about it, plan and train for it but does this really have an effect on the level and standard of client care that is provided?

By way of definition, client care is the provision of services to the client before, during and after a filing or an action. It is the quality of the care they receive from you and the standard of your services that will heavily influence whether they return to give you more work in the future. The care you provide is judged by each individual client. It is interwoven with the whole service you deliver. For example, if you offer your advice for a lower price, the client will probably not expect or show interest in any added value you may provide. On the other hand, if you price the advice you offer at a premium rate, the client will expect higher levels of customer service and added value as part of the buyer experience and to justify their expenditure. To understand the real importance of client care you have to look at human nature. No matter what culture, social background or society you come from, everyone shares one characteristic; they strive to experience as many things as they can which make them feel good. We also try very hard to avoid situations and experiences which cause upset and trauma. Your clients, therefore, want to: Gain security Feel valued Feel in control Develop relationships Gain trust Receive value for money (from their perspective)

From this you can see that client care is largely to do with managing each individual client’s expectations. This means finding out about their needs and requirements and not pre-judging the situation. The best way you can provide your clients with excellent service is to build a good strong working relationship, maintain that relationship over time and understand the needs of both your clients and their intellectual property. Let’s look at some key skills and approaches that are invaluable to great client care and which help to forge long-standing relationships.

3. One message fits one When people purchase anything, from shoes to IP advice, the buyer looks at the product or service on sale from their OWN viewpoint. What one client/patent/product/invention requires won’t be the same for another and so forth. To make sure those desires are at the forefront of your product and service offering, put yourself in the shoes of your clients. Focus on why they buy and not how you sell. To help you, we’ll tell you a proven psychological fact: People buy from people they like

They also use their brain emotionally first and logically second in order to justify their choices. To demonstrate this we only need to glance at The UK’s Royal Family. In August 1997, the whole country was in mourning over Princess Diana’s death. Do you think the same will happen for Prince Philip? Technically, Princess Diana wasn’t at the top of the monarchy hierarchy; she wasn’t an out-going, life and soul of the party type of person either. Saying that, she still found a way to connect with people that clearly endeared her to the nation. One way of appealing to a person’s emotional side is to show understanding of their ‘norms and values’. Yes this may sound a bit ‘new age’ but it is key in appreciating each person you come across. It means knowing where to have your business meeting (a five-star restaurant or a local coffee house?). It means understanding how they will expect you to present yourself (do you dress in a suit or can you leave your tie at home?). Above all, it means your approach must be tailored to each individual client. Always remember each of your clients is an individual – don’t try to create one approach for everyone. Your clients know you are in business to make money, just as they are, so don’t just sell to them. Create a relationship

4. New clients vs. existing clients Do you need to shift the emphasis between the time you spend chasing new clients and the time you spend working on your existing client relationships? Too often we chase new business at the expense of existing clients. Depending on what data source you read, did you know that it costs approximately 8 times more to chase and gain a new client than it does to retain an existing client? The major difference between selling your services to a new prospect (versus an existing client) is that you have already captured their interest. To keep that interest - or even increase it - you need to put yourself in their shoes. So focus your time, efforts and resources to find out about your client. Learn what their business goals are and how business is changing for them. Also explore what they think are the current problems hindering them from achieving the success they want. Investing time to identify this information is worth it. It will help you to explain exactly how their intellectual property will help them achieve their desired outcomes, a process that will build trust and, over time, allow you to win more work in different areas.

The process of getting your clients to buy additional services is very much like buying a car. Often the dealer will end up selling you various additional features and products for the car you are buying. They’ll have anticipated both your requirements and desires with this purchase and will try to create more value for you. The same approach can be applied to intellectual property. A better understanding of your client will help you generate more revenue. How many of your client relationships have lapsed in the last 12 months? Now’s the time to take action because, if you don’t, you may find more clients might start looking towards your competitors.

5. Client equality It was George Orwell who wrote “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. The same is true of your clients. When you first interact with a client do you see one innovation needing protection or do you look at a bigger picture and a longer-term relationship? More specifically do you look at the potential life cycle of this new client? This means analysing how much they could be spending with you and how frequently they might require advice on their IP.

Not all of your clients will bring you equal amounts of turnover or profit. Italian economist Pareto created a principle called the ’80:20 Rule’ where in general terms 80% of a businesses’ turnover can be accounted for by 20% of total clients. If this is the case for you, it is important to identify the ‘20%’, the key clients bringing in the majority of your turnover. Having identified them, you then need to create a plan to retain, manage and – most importantly – grow your relationship with them. So evaluate every client at the first opportunity and assess how much they are likely to spend with you and over how long. Common sense says the more a client is potentially worth to you, the more you should invest in them. Having a strategy in place to manage your key clients is essential.

6. Client Relationship Management Client Relationship Management, or CRM, is often described as a firm-wide strategy designed to reduce costs and increase profitability by creating client loyalty. CRM isn’t an IT initiative; it’s much more than buying a box of software.

For CRM to be implemented effectively, information from a variety of data sources needs to be collated to give an honest view of the clients the firm has at any given time. By having this information readily available for all client-facing employees (the posh way of saying those who actually talk to your clients) your firm will enable them to be more effective in their jobs.

They will be able to make quick yet informed decisions regarding their clients on everything from cross-selling (whether that means selling across patent and trade marks or across your clients’ various divisions) to targeted marketing strategies. With this in mind, it is important to implement appropriate CRM systems which are carried out throughout the entire firm. A CRM strategy will enable you to segment all of your clients and identify which clients really are key to your business. A good way to do this is to use the ‘Curry’s Pyramid’ business model which we will look at overleaf.

7. Client segmentation: Curry’s Pyramid Curry’s Pyramid provides you with the mechanism to be able to segment your clients so that you are able to visualise and analyse client behaviour, loyalty and value within each segment. By investing time to: Identify your key clients Keep them interested you will be able to significantly increase the fees each generates for you.

Curry’s Pyramid shows that if your CRM initiative focuses on implementing client-centric strategies for getting, growing and keeping clients, the resulting revenue and profit will provide you with very high returns on your investment.

8. Invest in your clients Do you really know your clients, not just their birthdays and anniversaries? Investing time in your clients is critical to your success. David Maister, the ex-Harvard professor who trains and writes on professional service firm management, says:

"Clients don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." Listening to your clients carefully and then demonstrating you have heard them will prove to them how much you care. So, find out about their lives, hopes, goals and desired outcomes – be it at work or, even better, in a social setting.

It is not essential to know all of this information for every client you do business with. As your relationship progresses with your key clients, however, do continue to ask questions to encourage a deeper sense of shared understanding.

9. Relationships We have talked about how important it is to form relationships but how do we do it? Have a think about your non-professional relationships. How did you woo your partner or spouse? What makes that one special friend stand out from all of the others? Everything (well almost everything) you put into your non-professional relationships can be applied to your business ones. But first you have to form these relationships.

10. … Go first Entering into a relationship can be very daunting. The idea of going first and making an investment in the relationship in order to earn and deserve friendship is not an easy task. There’s always the fear of rejection or that the investment in time and energy will be wasted.

Yes it may seem scary but you need to take a risk in order to succeed.

11. Make the first impression positive When we meet someone for the first time (rightly or wrongly) we make a snapshot judgement. This impression can be very hard to change. Relationships in both our personal and business lives can be very fragile. They can easily be destroyed by our behaviours and actions – however unintentional these are. You need to create an effective relationship where respect, trust and understanding are felt by both parties. How well you listen is very important here, as it enables you to fully understand and find out what is important to the other person. This ultimately builds more successful chemistry between the two of you. To create a lasting positive impression on a client, you need to make sure you: 1. Dress the part (does your image make you stand out from your competition in a good way?) 2. Deliver on all the promises you make 3. Are efficient and effective in what you do 4. Create energy and enthusiasm in those around you 5. And above all else, be yourself!

12. Establish rapport In order to develop a great working relationship, you need to establish rapport and gain your clients’ trust. As a general rule, we tend to gravitate towards the people we consider to have similar characteristics to ourselves. Rapport features in all areas of our lives - in our friendships, in our relationships and in a familiar social setting where there is a common interest. Now it needs to be transferred into the business setting so successful communication can take place. Rapport will help you find out what makes your client ‘tick’. The more you know about your clients, the more you can advise and develop innovative IP strategies that will help move their business forward. By doing this you will make them see their business is important to you; it’s a relationship of equals and mutual discussions. Rapport puts both parties at ease and creates mutual acceptance. This in turn provides a quality relationship that can become lifelong and prosperous. Let’s now look at some key skills and activities that can help.

13. Use compliments We human beings love positive feedback (although we are also keen to judge if it’s sincere). Consider what compliments you could make. What could you say to make your clients that little bit more comfortable in your company? If you know your client has worked hard to perfect a new product line or launch some new technology, make sure you take time out to call, email, text or write a ‘well done’ message. Equally as powerful as compliments in the relationship-building process is the use of the phrase ‘thank you’. Always thank the client for the work they pass your way, any time they invest in you and any referrals they make. Compliments and ‘thank yous’ will help to bring you closer together and continue to build vital trust.

14. Build trust “Firm belief in reliability, honesty, veracity, justice strength of a person” This is how The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines trust. It is probably not the first time trust has been mentioned in a marketing report for patent and trade mark attorneys and I’m certain it won’t be the last.

Trust is one of the most fundamentally important attributes in a relationship; it takes years to build and only seconds to destroy. People don't just buy from anyone; they buy from people they can trust – especially when it comes to the protection of something as valuable as their intellectual property. Your clients purchase your services to make sure the building blocks of their business aren’t stolen. Whether it’s the filing of a patent or a trade mark, monitoring misuse of those same patents or trade marks or taking decisive action to prosecute an infringement against them, the purchase of your services is never taken lightly. Your clients typically want to avoid commercial and/or financial loss as a result of their purchase. They also want to deal with someone they trust during the process. When starting a working relationship, what we really want is someone who understands our interests, not someone who puts theirs ahead of ours whilst working for us. Clients want someone they can trust and have total confidence in. Trust is crucial to the prolonged lifetime value of a client but it must be earned and deserved. This means you must demonstrate to them that you are a trustworthy firm to work with. This will in turn influence their decision to appoint you to work with them.

Positive selling points will develop from trust and will create revenue year on year, simply because your client knows: 1. You will deliver what you promised 2. You will give value for money 3. You are always reliable 4. They don’t have to ‘keep looking’ With trust in place it makes the decision to use you again much easier. Knowing they don’t have to ‘keep the receipt’ pays dividends. Whilst this is going on in the foreground the client can be assured you will be keeping an eye on developments in the background. They can rely on you to bring future benefits to their door without them having to worry they are ‘keeping one step ahead of the Jones’. Trust is crucial if you want your clients to use you again and again.

15. Be interesting For your conversations with clients to be interesting, you have to be interesting yourself. But what does this mean? Being interesting is surely a subjective thing. Well actually no, it is a simple thing to achieve. Simply being up-to-date is one way to be interesting.

People respect someone who has something substantial to say because he or she is aware of what is happening around the world. So make sure that you keep abreast of current events. Watch TV, read the newspapers and root out relevant information on the internet.

16. Communication There are a multitude of ways you can present information, ideas and feelings you want to communicate to another person. Effective communication exists between two people when the receiver interprets and understands the sender’s message in the same way the sender intended it. When good communication is missing, you will find it hard to unearth important information about the client - information that could lead to an opportunity. A great skill to help communication is the ability to listen.

17. Listen You want to create an effective relationship where respect, trust and understanding are felt by both parties. Listening is the key to this.

Making a conscious effort to listen is very important. It enables you to fully understand and find out what is important to the other person, which ultimately makes for a more successful professional connection. Top Tips for being a good listener are: 1. Give them your full attention 2. Keep your mind focused on the conversation 3. Let the speaker finish what they are going to say before you begin to speak 4. Listen to main themes of the conversation 5. Ask questions to gather further insight

18. Say what you mean Ambiguity does not only come from your clients. We are also culprits of this crime. So when talking to clients ensure that your message is clear and what you intended to say about was heard loudly and clearly. When having a conversation with someone, the most common form of communication breakdown comes from misunderstanding. This in turn can ruin the trust that you have created. Try and make sure that both parties understand what has been said and what the deliverables need to be. Check that understanding by clarifying key points back to the client or asking the client’s about their view of certain points in the discussion.

19. Face-to-face

As technology evolves it is becoming more and more common that you, the communicator, are hidden from sight. Emails, texts and blogs all impose a certain amount of anonymity on our relationships. Yet we continually read that ‘people do business with people’, so is this just a weird, outdated notion in our world of virtual (My) spaces, (Face) books and LinkedIn? Are prospective and current clients feeling elated by this bombardment of faceless information or are they craving a bit of eye to eye contact? We’re not discrediting the new generation of bloggers; after all it’s a challenge to create a relationship with people you can’t see. But isn’t it interesting how ultimately most virtual forums end up having a face-to-face meeting further down the line? For Tenandahalf the message is clear, having seen the success of the ‘traditional methods’ we firmly believe that face-to-face is still the winner when it comes to ‘doing business’.

20. Don’t be late ... for anything We all live in a hectic world with too much to do and too little time to do it. It’s the same for you as an attorney as it is for your clients. Your time is as precious as theirs. So it follows that good time keeping and punctuality are an essential part of the contract between you both.

You should be there for them when you say you will and out of the way when you aren’t offering them advice, solutions or services. Whether it’s a meeting, a review, a response to a query or a renewal, don’t be late. Your client will not remain loyal if they have to chase you for anything. Even better, really stand out and be early.

21. Time saving tips

We're all busy people who have the need to juggle multiple commitments . Following these time saving tips could enable you to leave on time or as the point before suggests... arrive early. Prioritise: Every evening spend 10 minutes to plan for the next day’s tasks. It is said that people spend 80% of their time completing 20% of their tasks (no wonder people are late). Achievable: Keep your daily ‘to do’ list realistic in order to achieve more and deliver on promises. Up to date: Keep that list up to date so you don’t forget anything and have to let clients down. Right the first time: By spending that extra care and attention your clients will not be disappointed. “Just say no”: Get in the habit of delegating tasks.

22. Give them something of value Have you read a book or an article recently you think will be of benefit to a client? Have you a contact who you could recommend to them? Send the recommendation, or better still, the book. Make the phone call to facilitate a meeting. You will find that there is no better way to show that you value this person. At Size 10½ Boots we actively seek opportunities to share valuable information and to make connections for our clients over and beyond our brief.

23. Lighten up We come across too many attorneys who, on first encounter, seem deadly serious and even a little stand-offish. Remember people buy people … even when it comes to advice on their IP! If you are trying to win the business of a dynamic entrepreneur, do you really think that they’ll opt for you if you come across as uninteresting and boring? Lighten up, relax and bring out some of your personality. You don’t have to mirror your client’s personality completely but you should try to understand the type of person they’d prefer to engage with and endeavour to push these traits to the fore.

24. Underpromise, overdeliver In life there are no guarantees. It is therefore better to err on the side of caution and be modest in your promises. It is tempting to promise whatever the client requests without consulting a schedule or asking if it is doable. So be careful how you estimate what you are able to do for your client, because if you don’t deliver you won’t impress anyone! If you fall short it may be no reflection of personal under-performance but what will be remembered is simply that you did not deliver. It therefore makes sense to manage your client's expectations and be realistic about what you can help them achieve. When I started working in the professional services I was a keen Marketing Director at Eversheds and eager to impress. I recall setting about my new role with gusto. I could see what needed to be fixed and excitedly announced to senior partners the route I was going to take. However, it was at this point that I learnt a valuable lesson in ‘expectation management’. A wise partner at the firm took me to one side and suggested that I slow down. The advice that he gave me then was to ‘under promise and over deliver’. Don’t give your clients any need to doubt your ability to fulfil their needs.

25. Always stay in touch with clients

By keeping in touch with your clients you can also keep up to speed with any changes in their firm and the market in which they operate. These changes may have a bearing on the work that you’re doing for them now and in the future. Interestingly, the attorneys and firms who kept in close touch with their clients in the recession were the ones who quickly spotted changes in personnel and forged relationships with new decision-makers. They tended to hang on to more of their client relationships. If you stay in touch with your clients you not only keep abreast of their organisation, you might also unearth ways to add some of that extra ‘value’ that clients are always seeking to generate from patent and trade mark advice. 26. Earn the right to offer advice Just because you are an experienced attorney, this doesn’t give you an automatic right to rush in with advice. The client will want to feel that you fully understand their situation first. They will want to see evidence that you have been listening, you have asked pertinent questions and you come across as both interesting and interested. Only then will you start to gain their trust. When you have that trust, that is the time to mapping out how to design and fulfil an effective IP strategy.

27. Really understand the advice that is being sought After earning the right to give advice, it is important to know how to deliver it. But before you do, it’s worth double-checking you know what is being asked of you. Again this requires you to listen carefully to the whole situation before jumping in with solutions. If you assume you know what they are talking about before they have had chance to fully explain, you are more likely to come across ill-informed and the client is unlikely to ask for your help with other areas.

28. “Manners maketh man” A common theme amongst those who have passed their fortieth birthday seems to be the lament for a life where people believed this sentiment of William of Wykeham. We grumble excessively about the lack of basic courtesy around. Ironically ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ are often the first words we learn in a foreign language yet they are the last we use in our own. When looking after your clients you can differentiate yourself simply by employing better manners.

If we’ve given you food for thought and you’d like to discuss how your firm could be winning more work from your existing clients please choose one of the following 3 options …

call Steven on 0115 969 9817 to arrange

your free 45 minute consultancy

email douglas@tenandahalf.co.uk to ask for the next 10 tips on how to improve your client

management

phone Bernard on 07771 897772 to ask how your attorneys could look after their clients in a way

that will win new work

“Tenandahalf’s great strength is the ability to demystify marketing, helping us to channel our marketing efforts more effectively while avoiding blind alleys.” Simon Bentley, Partner, Abel & Imray “Having contracted Tenandahalf to undertake a root and branch review of our marketing goals and strategy in year one, we are now well into year two of what we expect will be a long-term relationship.” David Bush, Practice Manager, WJ IP “For our Partner’s Retreat programme we wanted a facilitator who would engage, motivate and inspire our partners. We were impressed with Size 10½ Boots professional and enthusiastic approach and their thorough understanding of our sector which added immense value and direction to the session. The Partners went away with the confidence and practical tools to retain and grow existing relationships and win new business for the firm.” Patrick Lloyd, Partner, Reddie & Grose