Let it Rain, Let it Rain!
PART I: Winning New Clients 

Do you know what it takes to win new clients? If you don’t yet, you’ll need to. Here’s your opportunity to demonstrate another facet of your talents and increase your value to the law firm. It’s all a matter of pairing your client relation skills with the right information. And make no mistake -- the facts are every bit as important to winning clients as they are to winning cases.

The LexisNexis™ services will arm you with the essential tools for gathering the marketing information you need to develop effective rainmaking strategies. You can launch your campaign right from your desk. LexisNexis gives you access to current news, legal, business and financial sources to help you analyze the opportunities, zero in on the most desirable targets and tailor a plan to secure their business.

It’s simple. See for yourself. Part I of our series on client development focuses on identifying and winning new clients. Follow along as we step you through the process and provide specific examples.

IDENTIFY PROSPECTIVE CLIENTS
The first step in rainmaking is to develop a potential client list, which can be approached in several ways. What makes sense for you? That depends on your law firm’s plans. Maybe the firm wants to grow the business geographically or perhaps it wants to expand a specific practice area. Your objectives (and your firm’s) should drive your approach.

Search Specific Industries. You may want to search for companies in the same or similar industries as your current clients. Whether your firm plans to expand its in-state clients or open an office in another state, U.S. Company Reports is a great resource, which covers more than 10,000 public and 200,000 private companies.

PATH: Company Profiles
SOURCE: U.S. Company Reports
SEARCH: sic (2834) AND state (ny)

Look at the Issues. As an alternative, you may want to search for news about companies that are facing issues similar to those your current clients are facing, regardless of their industry or location.

PATH: News
SOURCE: News Group File, Most Recent Two Years
SEARCH: class action W/25 implant

EVALUATE POTENTIAL CANDIDATES
Once you’ve developed a “raw” list of potential clients for your business, you’ll want to make a thorough evaluation of each to determine which might have needs that best match your firm’s expertise and business objectives. LexisNexis provides you with a wide range of tools to make that evaluation.

Evaluate Business & Products. An understanding of the company’s primary lines of business and its products is crucial and LexisNexis offers several key resources to assist in your analysis.

The LexisNexis Market & Industry collection covers a multitude of relevant product topics, including product announcements and reviews, advertising, promotions and market research. Likewise, the Overview of Markets & Technology collection provides broad coverage of business and industrial environments, enabling you to learn about product sales and profits, organization history, the industry issues they face, merger and acquisition activity, even financial management.

PATH: Market & Industry > By Industry & Topic
SOURCE: Overview of Markets & Technology
SEARCH: company (monolith technologies)

Check Patents. A look at the patents assigned to your client or client’s competitors can provide a broader perspective on company activities and help you assess its leadership position in its industry. The LexisNexis collection covers more than two million patents from the U.S., Europe and Japan.

PATH: Area of Law - By Topic - Patent Law > Patents > U.S. Patents
SOURCE: Utility, Design and Plant Patents
SEARCH: date aft 1999 AND assignee (innovative technologies)

Examine Financials. Are your prospective clients on solid ground -- will they be here tomorrow, can they pay you today? With a little digging, you can get a better perspective on their financial strength.

With a search of the news, you can discover partnerships and joint ventures that might influence the competitive equation.

PATH: News
SOURCE: News Group File, Most Recent Two Years
SEARCH: hlead(joint venture) AND here today gone tomorrow

An examination of Annual Reports to Shareholders will reveal a great deal about a company’s current financial position and its outlook for the future. Be sure to look closely at the footnotes as well. They often contain useful information on changes in company financial practices.

PATH: Company & Financial > Financial Filings > U.S. Financial Filings
SOURCE: SEC Annual Reports to Shareholders
SEARCH: company (here today gone tomorrow)

Evaluate Competitive Environment. A search of Competitive Intelligence, which contains information on more than 140,000 public and private companies, can help you understand the prospective client’s environment and identify emerging companies that might pose a competitive threat to it.

PATH: Company & Financial > Company Profiles & Directories > Individual Publications
SOURCE: Competitive Intelligence
SEARCH: company (here today gone tomorrow)

CHECK FOR CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
By now, you should have a smaller, but more targeted list of potential clients whose needs parallel your firm’s interests and expertise. Your next step is to check for conflicts of interest between your firm and theirs.

In today’s dynamic business world, corporate relationships are constantly changing. So checking for conflicts is challenging but essential. LexisNexis gives you several authoritative business sources to make a thorough check. For example, you can find the institutional holders of more than 10,000 U.S. common and preferred stocks in Vickers Securities Report and Institutional Holdings.

PATH: Company & Financial > Financial Markets
SOURCE: Vickers Securities Report and Institutional Holdings
SEARCH: company (caledonian cartage)

The Directory of Corporate Affiliations is another vital source. It includes company profile and corporate linkage to the sixth level for more than 114,000 public and private companies.

PATH: Market & Industry > Directories
SOURCE: Directory of Corporate Affiliations
SEARCH: company (caledonian cartage)

IDENTIFY & PROFILE COMPANY EXECS 
Having made a thorough evaluation, you should have a highly qualified list of prospective companies on which you can focus. The question now is to whom do you target your efforts? Who are the key executives within these companies? What can you learn about them in advance of any meeting?

LexisNexis gives you several key sources for identifying and profiling the decision makers. Dun’s Decision Makers, for example, is invaluable for providing background information on senior and middle managers.

PATH: Company & Financial > Company Executives & Directors
SOURCE: Dun’s Decision Makers
SEARCH: company (byjove securities)

Once you have their names, you can then compile background information on them. LexisNexis makes it easy, drawing on a wide range of news, biographical and business-related stories.

PATH: Reference
SOURCE: Biographical Information Sources
SEARCH: name (augustus W/3 of byjove)

Similarly, if you’re looking for information on members of the company’s in-house legal department, you can look under Reference for the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, which includes Professional Biography and Practice Profile listings for corporate legal departments throughout the U.S.

RESPOND TO RFPs
Your client development efforts are paying off! One company is looking at several law firms and is asking you to respond to their Request for Proposal (RFP) to help them determine which firm will best fit their needs.

If they are already on your target client list, you’re in luck! You should be able to draw on all the information you’ve compiled on this company. If not, just revisit the steps outlined for evaluating clients. This process should provide plenty of information for building a complete profile on this new prospect.

Pay special attention to the information you gather on this prospect’s competition. It should provide you with a good perspective on the industry and the issues the company faces. With this knowledge, you should be able to demonstrate your grasp of their business and challenges, building a strong story for how your law firm can serve their needs better than any other.

LET IT RAIN, LET IT RAIN!
Client development --in today’s competitive environment, it’s essential! Hopefully, this article will get you off to a successful start. However, it only skims the surface! The resources LexisNexis offers are broad and deep. Don’t hesitate to ask your LexisNexis Applications Consultant for further resources and tools to increase the effectiveness of your rainmaking efforts.

Watch Next Month ...
In Part II of our Client Development series, learn how to identify and develop additional business among current clients. Be sure to look for it next month!