Misplaced Expectations
You would expect a large multi disciplined professional organisation to retain clients for their full range of services through the cross-referral of business - but this rarely happens - why not? Caroline explains through a story, how to break across silos using her methodology and how to improve the morale and productivity of the organisation.
It is 1996, Tony White and George Black (fictitious entrepreneurs) are building an international industrial firm, Frogmore Industrial Limited. They have been greatly assisted in their growth by Matthew Blatt and Ian Jones (fictitious lawyers) who asked White and Black if they would come with them to the law firm they were setting up Blatt & Jones.
They said yes and Blatt & Jones worked hard for Frogmore Industrial. It grew in size and profits with its assistance.
On December 21, 2002 the UK abolished the 20-member limit on traditional partnerships with the introduction of the Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2000 which allowed them to structure themselves as a Limited Liability Partnership. Blatt and Jones discussed the idea of expansion beyond the 20 partner limit. They liked the idea of protecting their clients from exposure to the services of other firms by offering a broad range of services.
Blatt and Jones wanted first to run their ideas past White and Black and so invited them to dinner. Over Claret and Beef Wellington, Blatt and Jones discussed their vision of growth to serve their clients like Frogmore Industrial, as well as White and Black’s personal interests better.
Blatt & Jones invited small firms with exceptional professionals which specialised in disciplines they did not then cover to join them. In particular they wanted firms who had a good stable of clients who could use the other disciplines in the firm.
This seemed like a great opportunity for Black and White who wholly endorsed the expansion.
Blatt & Jones made a short list of firms they wished to approach with their vision of a one stop shop for entrepreneurs and their businesses who would cross refer business across the departments.
Blatt & Jones acquired prestigious offices in the City of London which gave the right impression to clients like Black and White and it attracted the best trainee professionals. Blatt & Jones appointed a managing partner to run the expanded business as Blatt and Jones spent more time drinking Claret and eating Beef Wellington as they spread the word about their expanded firm and brought in more clients.
Over the years, however Blatt and Jones failed to notice that the expected cross-referral of business was in decline, until one day in 2025, Blatt overheard the managing partner telling the head of company commercial not to recommend the services of partners in other law firms but to cross-refer the business to the other departments. If recommendations to other firms continued he would be asked to leave.
Blatt went to see the head of human resources Joan Truman who confirmed that the firm had poor results in cross-referral. Joan said there were four factors to explain it
Insufficient information was available about the client's concerns, which another department could have addressed. There should be a greater focus on the client rather than the firm’s skill set.
There was little incentive for the cross-referral of business
Personalities were allowed to influence recommendations, and
Each department perceived itself as a mini-firm, jealously protecting its clients from other professionals who may take away the primary relationships.
This lack of cooperation within the firm had been a concern to Joan for many years, and a few lawyers were off sick, having burned out due to anxiety about their future careers in the firm.
She had therefore appointed Mary Gardiner as head of Learning and Development, who had some new ideas on how to improve the atmosphere in the firm and break down silos in a positive way.
Mary told Blatt that she wanted to work with Caroline’s Club to put together a case study to which each participating partner could record a video response. Mary liked the Client First focus at Caroline’s Club. Blatt asked Mary why she should involve an outside organisation to assist in what he suggested could be done in-house.
The benefits of working together, Mary told Blatt, were
The strength and breadth of the firm’s services would reach a wider audience
There would be less resistance to listening to the video recording of the partners in the firm if it were introduced by someone from outside of the firm,
The professionals in the firm would be more prepared to learn new ways of business development if the trainer was a professional who was engaged by other well-regarded firms and could pass on this broader knowledge to the firm
Blatt & Jones could extend the Club’s methodology to strategic networking and strategic sponsorship which Mary thought would greatly benefit the firm and the morale of the professionals.
The six steps to engage in strategic cross-referral Mary told Blatt were to
Construct a case study with the assistance of Caroline’s Club to involve six different key services of the firm
Invite the six participating partners to subscribe for membership and create a profile online.
Encourage each participating partner to create a digital presence through a podcast recording and a case study, Blatt may also like to contribute to a podcast. Mary cheekily told him.
Set a date and time for the recording of the case study as a Cluster
Ask each participating partner to share it with their clients and colleagues
Set a date for training when Caroline can discuss the benefits of Client Mapping with the other partners of the firm and present the video Clusters at the training session, not only to educate but also to demonstrate the effectiveness of the methodology.
Mary also explained that she wanted to further discuss with Caroline’s Club how she could use the digital platform to track objectively the success of each participating partner in their business development efforts.