Legal Technology Journal

Addleshaw Goddard has become one of the first firms in the UK to purchase the Elite Business Development Suite (EBD) from Hubbard One.

Lance Sapsford, head of business development for Addleshaw Goddard, says that the decision to implement the EBD suite fits into the firm’s overall desire to deliver an experience for clients and targets alike that sets it apart from the crowd. ‘Differentiating a law firm is a difficult thing to achieve.

Awareness of what individual law firms stand for is generally low. Addleshaw Goddard is working hard to deliver a very different experience to our clients and prospective clients through everything we do,’ Sapsford says. Addleshaw Goddard has a strong culture and a distinct set of values – a significant part of this is a commitment to making its clients, not its own people or the firm itself, look good, says
Sapsford. It places an emphasis on investing considerable resources early on in a client relationship in order to develop a platform which the client can use to foster real business improvements. This, in turn, pays dividends through not only the reward it brings but in the stronger, deeper relationships this approach fosters.

‘This philosophy, and the hard account planning and client business analysis that goes with it, changes the traditional way we have engaged with clients and prospects,’ says Sapsford. ‘We work hard to create a different experience for the recipient when we‘re pitching as well. This takes into account every aspect of the pitch process from conversations before a tender is received to the follow up and de-brief after a hopefully creative and different presentation.’

In a situation where there is one chance only to get this right, a major plank in being successful is Addleshaw Goddard’s commitment to embodying everything it is trying to achieve in the document it presents to prospects. ‘It is for that reason, amongst others, that we took the decision to invest in Hubbard One’s Proposal Generator and Experience Manager suite of products. It is a high-quality system that allows us to concentrate on presenting ourselves to the best advantage and getting across what the experience of working with us will be like.’

Thinking in the ‘me-to-you’ way described above goes to suppliers  as well as prospects and clients. ‘We chose Hubbard One partly because they understood what we were trying to do and the way we were thinking. We were keen to develop a partnership approach and the language and behaviour of Hubbard One has reinforced the impression that they want that too. A key requirement was that the solution would be future-proofed. This means that the systems needed to be versatile enough to handle a whole range of media which may come into play in the future.’

About Hubbard One

Sapsford says the firm’s thinking about how business development needs may change was progressive. ‘Ultimately, the primary output for a pitch may not be a document. It may be a website, an online or ‘e’ bid or a video production that features key personnel talking to camera. Hubbard One understands and is anticipating these types of developments.’

Addleshaw’s also liked EBD as it integrates tightly with the firm’s existing Elite practice and financial management system, says Sapsford, and because the Hubbard One team had similar ideas about the long-term potential of the EBD suite. ‘The ability to link matters with deals databases – the databases with the website, the website with CVS, CVS with proposal documents, etc – is just what we need to make our lives easier and our marketing and business development operations slick and constantly up to date.’

To meet the firm’s ambitious growth objectives, Addleshaw Goddard looked at its overall capability to deal with pitching and tendering and began the Perfect Pitch project – an umbrella project aimed at upping their game across all facets of its pitching operations. This is where the purchase of the EBD suite will provide crucial advantage, says Sapsford.

‘The end game is to have a smooth and efficient process, which will reap time, cost and quality improvements. Culturally we don’t want the technology that Hubbard One implements to be seen as a marketing toy, or a ‘cut-and-paste’ tool. We are doing a lot of work around embedding the system and the processes surrounding it within the firm to ensure we get the most out of our investment.

‘When we tackle big ticket, firm-wide pitches and need to draw information from multiple practice areas, other functions like HR or accounts and do so quickly, the EBD platform will be invaluable. The big win for business development is that, through using Hubbard One’s systems we can spend a lot less time searching for, managing and duplicating data and content and a lot more time thinking strategically about how we get our messages across to our prospects and clients. This drives up the quality of our offering and ultimately increases our hit rate.’

All law firms are under pressure continually to enhance their business development capabilities. Addleshaw Goddard says it wants its business development team to be able to clearly articulate the experience they are creating for their clients at that crucial time – the pitch. ‘We’re delighted to be working with Hubbard one,’ says Sapsford, ‘they get what we’re trying to do and what we do seems to be working.’