Cross-Referrals?

In large, professional, multi-disciplined organisations, silos often develop around individual departments and skill sets. While specialisation is essential to delivering high-quality professional services, it can unintentionally create barriers to collaboration. These silos are usually reinforced by internal measures of success that focus on departmental profitability rather than firm-wide outcomes. As a result, professionals can become reluctant to refer their most profitable clients to colleagues in other departments for fear of losing “ownership” of that client relationship.

I have experienced this first-hand. I once referred a client to a professional in the corporate department at Simmons & Simmons. Over time, that professional developed the primary relationship with the client. When he later left the firm to join a US law firm, the client went with him. What began as a well-intentioned internal referral ultimately resulted in the firm losing a valuable client altogether.

This experience was echoed in a conversation I had with Carol Hewson, a partner in the property litigation department at Simmons & Simmons. She could not understand why, given that most clients of the firm had offices, more work was not being referred to her department. Her frustration highlighted a broader issue: opportunities were being missed not because the work did not exist, but because departmental silos prevented professionals from seeing the client in the round.

Working in silos is therefore not good for the introducer of the client, nor is it good for the overall profitability of the firm. But the problems go deeper than lost revenue. A silo mentality fosters division rather than collaboration, protectionism rather than support. This internal hostility can be deeply damaging to morale and mental health, particularly for staff who feel under constant pressure to perform, work long hours, and prove their commitment to both clients and business owners.

Large organisations have tried numerous ways to break down this mentality. Bonding weekends, financial incentives, and even more coercive tactics such as internal competition or bullying have been deployed, often with little lasting effect. The reason is simple: these approaches treat the symptoms rather than the cause.

From my experience and research, there are more subtle and powerful influences at play behind the concept of “ownership” of a client. These influences damage not only profitability, but also morale and staff wellbeing. At the heart of the issue is where professionals place their focus. Too often, the emphasis is on individual skill sets and expertise rather than on the client themselves.

This mindset has several negative implications. It builds divisions rather than collaboration, encouraging professionals to protect their territory instead of supporting colleagues. It focuses on hours worked rather than profits made or value delivered. It encourages a sense of client ownership rather than cooperation. And it results in only weak bonds of trust and loyalty with the client, because the relationship is tied to one individual skill set rather than the firm as a whole.

A healthier and more commercially effective alternative is Client Mapping. Client Mapping shifts the focus from departments and expertise to the client and their wider needs. In practice, this involves a department identifying its ideal client and the type of work it does for that client. The team then brainstorms which other departments within the firm are likely to work with similar clients or could add value to that client relationship.

The next step is to create a realistic case study that reflects the circumstances of a client who may require the services of several departments. Professionals from across the firm are then invited to respond to this case study, typically by recording a short, three-minute video outlining how they would support the client and what value they would add.

The use of video is particularly powerful. A video recording can be linked to a professional’s digital business card, creating a permanent and easily accessible record of the expertise that exists across the firm. It can be shared internally at learning lunches, allowing colleagues to better understand what others do for their clients and how they might collaborate more effectively.

These videos can also be shared externally. When professionals share the content with their own networks, the firm’s message reaches far beyond the contacts of any one individual. Importantly, videos can be shared with clients themselves. This builds stronger relationships with the firm as a whole while preserving the role of the primary contact. As clients develop loyalty to more than one professional within the firm, they are far less likely to leave when a single individual departs.

Breaking down silos requires more than goodwill or financial incentives. It requires a shift in mindset—from protecting expertise to understanding clients, from ownership to collaboration, and from individual success to collective value. Client Mapping provides a practical and sustainable way to make that shift.