As the legal marketplace evolves and becomes ever more sophisticated in terms of choice and perceived commoditisation of services, clients are increasingly turning to procurement to control costs and prove value for money. The use of standardised procurement processes, common across other areas of spend, requires legal firms to understand the buying process in order to make their services stand out, increasing win rates and profitability.
Download details of our procurement and bids professional development programs
Read more about Steph Hogg, former head of legal procurement for a FTSE 100 company and now our lead procurement professional assisting law firms with this aspect of their client relationship management.
Our consultant’s considerable combined pricing and hands-on legal procurement experience makes us uniquely placed to work with firms to navigate the procurement process. Working solely with legal firms to deliver training and bespoke bid and client management consultancy, our insights, tools, and tailored collaborative approach will equip legal professionals with true insights on selection, client management and delivery of profitable commercial solutions to win.
Training
Historically, procurement’s role has been to barter down price and add little if any value to the client/firm relationship. But there is an increasingly professional, institutionalised approach to buying, common across other suppliers that the legal profession has to come to grips with rapidly.
We need to understand what modern best practice procurement is, what they do and why they do it in order to take advantage of their increasing involvement in the purchasing of legal services.
Understanding even a little of how a procurement professional operates and the relationship dynamics between the procurement manager, finance, the GC and the law firm(s) can provide valuable insights that will allow us to plan an effective relationship strategy.
We offer a range of training sessions aimed at partners, senior associates and business development teams, tailored to reflect the level of buying sophistication most regularly encountered by your firm.
The sessions provide a brief introduction to issues including...
· What does procurement actually do?
· Navigating the GC/Procurement/Finance relationship
· Panel processes, RFPs, evaluation criteria and selection – how to wow!
· How to describe ‘value’ in procurement & finance terms
· Ongoing ‘supplier management’ of law firms – what does a client need from MI and governance?
· Procurement peeves and how to avoid them!
Bid & Pitch Support
We know that bidding for work is a costly exercise and we believe that understanding typical client procurement processes, drivers, evaluation processes and selection techniques will give firms an edge when pitching to win attractive, profitable work.
Bringing together theory, proven Validatum pricing expertise and unique procurement insights from the buy-side, we offer a range of services from working alongside your business development team to entirely managing bid and pitch initiatives. We can assist on tenders for individual pieces of work and pitching for panels and panel reviews, both across the public and private sector.
Our typical engagement starts with a bid initiation workshop to understand the existing client relationship and market placement in their sector, and development of a bid strategy than mirrors the procurement process. We will then work with your team throughout the bid process, delivering a sustainable commercial client strategy.
Client Management Services
Retention of profitable clients and margins in today’s increasingly commercial marketplace is increasingly challenging; to succeed firms must have a client management strategy that delivers continuous operational and commercial review of all aspects of the client/firm relationship.
Drawing on unrivalled past experience as both buyers and sellers of legal services, Validatum works with firms to develop a client management strategy that understands client profitability, attractiveness and importance to your firm and recommends a commercial client strategy to increase profitability/revenue.
We also advise on and assist with practical elements of client management such as planning and running relationship reviews, and delivery of insightful management to enable you and your clients to truly understand and manage all aspects of your relationship. We believe that proactive, evidence based client management helps retain key clients and can increase profitability and value for both sides.
