The Partnership Yardstick: Vendors Getting it Right, Part 2
Last week I looked at two legaltech companies who exemplify key vendor-firm partnership capabilities. The purpose of examining the leadership, sales, marketing and tech approaches of those vendors was to identify themes that can be extracted and used as a yardstick by both vendors and firms to better understand what firms should be looking for in potential vendor partners, and, for vendors, what is required these days to be considered true partner material.
Traditionally in a law firm or a corporate legal department, if you are looking for tech to fill a specific discrete need, it’s a fairly straight-forward process. You start with a use case. You build out requirements. You identify key vendors in the relevant space. You line up a range of demos. You evaluate the tech, its applicability for the particular use case and for use within your environment. And you select the tech that is the best fit. Your requirements probably include customer service and so you take into account the hours of service provided, you likely seek industry references, and you make sure the vendor you’re dealing with has integrity. But it’s unlikely that you look too much further than that into the way the vendor runs their business.
If, on the other hand, you are looking to reduce the number of vendors in your stable, to focus on those that play nice with each other and offer a range of solutions both now and on an ongoing basis, with whom you can partner to develop new functionality that addresses issues as and when they arise, or to undertake a joint mission to future-proof your firm – well, that is an entirely different matter. A simple demo won’t do it. A review of current tech, whilst insightful, is not necessarily illustrative of the quality or range of further tech that may be developed by the same company. Similarly, a roadmap provides some insight into the trajectory of a company but does not guarantee it is headed where you want it to be. And neither current nor future tech is indicative of what this vendor will be like to work with on a forward-facing basis, as roles change and the company develops.
So if you are looking for true partners, you will have to look at the organization as a whole – its potential longevity, its ability to provide true value over the course of many years, beyond what the current roadmap indicates. You need to be looking for a particular set of values.
Based on what we are seeing in the current market, the qualities below are what you should be looking for. And vendors, here is what you should be driving towards to ensure longevity.
People
Firms: Any vendor can have one or two great people – in fact, most will. Look for consistency in the excellence of a vendor’s people. Ask to meet more of them. Meet them in your firm environment but also outside of it. Bring along team members and even attorneys at various levels of the hierarchy. Have lunch with them, coffee, dinner. Look up their booths at conferences and see who is manning those booths - do those representatives know enough to answer your tech questions? Would you put them in front of lawyers at your firm? Would you want to chat with them on a plane? Look for relatability and authenticity across the board. Your desired partner companies should have a plethora of trustworthy people on staff to whom you would happily turn with a problem.
Vendors: Hire the right people. Invest in a recruiter who has empathy and understands the culture of your company sufficiently to hire people who will fit and enhance that culture. As well as looking for the right qualifications and a particular skill-set, hire people who relate to other people, who are authentic and curious and collaborative. Hire these types of people even for sales positions – especially for sales positions. Veer away from the slick salespeople who are solely after a commission, even if they are good at closing the deal. Instead, hire those who understand how to build relationships, who appear genuinely interested in doing so, who are personally fulfilled through their connections to other people.
User-centric
Firms: Look for companies who work to hear you, who strive to listen. You want to work with partners that successfully seek to understand how your firm works, how your practice groups are set up, how you operate within the firm, those who ask what role tech and process serves within the firm, how well set up the firm is to imbibe that tech. Look for those who ask to speak to you about what you need, what your users need, who propose user-centric methods of collaborative problem-solving and use those methods internally. Look for those who want to meet with you regularly to understand how your specific environment gives rise to the needs you have of their technology, and who follow through on that request and actually meet with you.
Vendors: If you haven’t already done so, re-focus your development on user needs. Don’t assume that you know anything, even if you have lawyers on your staff. Needs will differ even between firms and practice groups that, from the outside, appear similar. Perhaps you feel it is intrusive to seek deep feedback from your client firms - but if you are explicit about the reasons you are doing so, the intrusion will be welcome. Go to your users, ask to speak to them, understand their use cases, develop accordingly. Let your clients know this is what you are doing and why.
Broad Industry Focus
Firms: Look for vendors who know about more than their own tech. Although it seems counter-intuitive, look for those who can be positive about other vendors whose tech is effective, who are doing their bit to transform the industry. Look for organizations who have taken the initiative to understand a broader landscape, to integrate with other vendors whose technology is compatible where that would make sense to users. Take note of which companies open up their APIs and encourage further implementation and development. Seek vendors who are conversant in the themes of change in the legal industry, who care about making things better for lawyers, and by extension, for their clients. Your job is to make things better for lawyers and their clients. Seek to partner with organizations who patently share that mission.
Vendors: It is not enough to stay focused inward. If you’re small, you may not be able to sponsor events or develop an entire awards regime or host parties. That’s fine. It is not necessary. But show in other ways that you care about the industry and positive change. Host webinars. Join the broader conversation on social media. Attend events where you can hear what people have to say. Learn from that. You are part of an ecosystem. Give back to it and you will reap the rewards
Innovative and Forward-Thinking
Firms: Look for vendors who want to engage you in their development. As part of a design session, as testers of iterative development. Look at the way they run their shop internally. Are they agile? How is that working? Are they willing to pivot on current tech, even if they are a well established company? How does their sales department get on with their marketing team? Do their product development teams get on? Do they seem like real teams, with mentorship and coaching and diversity and the right skill sets? Are people promoted through the organization, or is there high turn-over? Is it clear that funds are being re-invested to pay for future-looking innovation, is there a commitment to continued development and dedicated customer support ? Is there a roadmap that allows for flexible growth based on user feedback, are there exciting ideas for development?
Vendors: Tech alone is not innovation. Show that you understand true innovation. Put money into continuing to experiment. Tell us how your experiments are conducted for purposes that serve firms and their lawyers and clients. Show that you are ok with failing and pivoting and moving on. Tell us about that. Tell us about how you manage and run your development teams, how you have changed and matured and grown resilient since inception. Show that your ability to be nimble and adaptive will pay dividends in the future. Show that you are excited and curious and interested in developing around your customer’s use cases, even predicting your customer’s use cases based on your deep knowledge of the industry.
Creative Marketing
Firms: Look for vendors whose marketing collateral is actually useful. Find vendors who have put out thought leadership pieces that will help you make an internal business case for their technology. Or who develop webinars that you want your team to watch, because they are interesting and educational. Look for marketing that is representative of the vibe of the company, and assess whether that vibe is one that resonates with the culture of your firm.
Vendors: Be aware that there are more avenues to promote your company than through a presence at the usual industry conferences and websites. There is nothing wrong with those traditional avenues, but look beyond them. It may be both cheaper and more effective to forgo the cost of a booth in the vendor hall and instead present on a panel that socializes the core capability of your tool. Network at functions and meet people. Host a happy hour or breakfast around a popular event. Talk to attendees and join in discussions that make the right people take note of your company. Look at the messaging you want your brand to convey. Is it collaborative? Does it indicate through the very medium that you wish to work with firms and to help them in their own success?
Sales is a Dirty Word
Firms: Finally, this likely goes without saying but the vendor who cold calls and hasn’t identified your role or taken the trouble to understand the primary practice areas and business drivers of your firm ahead of time hasn’t earned a long-term opportunity. If you are looking for true partnership, you need more than superficial approaches, no matter how smooth.
Vendors: This is where you scroll back up to people. Think of revenue opportunities in a different way. Even though I personally dislike the word, I appreciate the effort certain vendors have taken to reimagine sales as “evangelism”. It indicates a departure from the commission-driven approach of old, an effort to bring the focus back to a passionate representation of what the vendor can do for its end users. It brings it back to relationships, which, in the end, is what this is all about.
