Ballard Consulting has more than 20 years in advising professional services firms, both large and small. In that time, we’ve worked for many prestigious firms including:
- Arthur Andersen
- The Cochran Firm (Johnnie Cochran)
- Diehl Evans & Co. CPAs (now White Nelson Diehl Evans)
- Fair Anderson & Langerman, CPAs
- G.C. Wallace Engineers
- Harrison, Kemp & Jones
- Innova Technologies (Civil Engineering)
- JMA Architecture Studios
- Jones Vargas
- Kummer Kaempfer Bonner & Renshaw
- Mainor & Harris
- Mainor Eglet & Cottle
- McGladrey & Pullen
- Pyatt & Eglet
- Swisher & Hall
- Woodburn & Wedge
Here are a few of our success stories in working with professional services firms.
Major Law Firm Uses Coaching and PD Meetings to Grow Firm
For several years, a mid-sized Las Vegas-based law firm with more than 20 attorneys used Ballard professionals to coach select senior associates. The managing partner felt an “outside” voice that had significant experience with lawyers and law firm marketing would complement the internal professional development of the firm for these ambitious attorneys.
Each attorney committed to work with our team for three to six months. We planned individual sessions, complemented with group training using our signature “Path to Partner” program. We helped each attorney create a customized plan to partnership based on his or her desires, strengths and weaknesses.
During the firm’s monthly practice development meetings, program participants briefed the management team on his or her prospecting experiences, studied interactive lectures on better networking processes, participated in role playing sessions to practice the skills taught and reported on marketing activity.
The program was highly successful. Each year, the firm saw approximately two-thirds of the attorneys closing more than twice the new business than they had before starting the program. The firm attributed this entirely to our coaching, training and marketing activities.
Regional CPA Firm Develops Industry Teams, Acquires Prominent Clients
A regional CPA firm had gone through a merger and had grown quickly in its major market. One of the major rainmakers in the firm had left and growth had plateaued. The firm also seemed to be on the losing end of several high profile engagement opportunities that it thought it could have won. New management felt the need to make some bold changes.
Ballard Consulting was retained to help with the process. We surveyed partners, key staff and major clients and used that info to create a business development plan. We developed and facilitated industry teams, initiated issue-specific practice development training, coached practice leaders and created communication campaigns to share key messages to the targeted customers.
Over an 18-month period, the firm grew by $500,000 in fees, most of which was recurring revenue work. As part of that, the firm secured four high profile clients in the targeted industries and the company felt it had established itself as the leading service providers in its two targeted industries.
Young Law Firm Scores Major PR And Secures Hundreds Of Clients
Three attorneys had just left a statewide firm and started their own litigation practice. They were involved in major litigation at their prior firm, but wanted establish their new firm’s identity quickly through a signature matter with the potential to be very high profile.
An opportunity presented itself with an upcoming ruling from an Alabama federal judge on silicone breast implants. The firm knew it could garner many new clients if its lead attorney became the chief spokesman on what the Alabama judge’s ruling meant for potential Nevada claimants.
The firm retained the Ballard team to help it accomplish two primary goals:
- Position the firm as a leader in mass torts.
- Attract potential clients.
We quickly went into action preparing materials and developing media lists of reporters who would likely be interested in reporting on the judge’s action. Within a few weeks, the client called to tell us the judge had made his ruling and it was time to execute our plan.
The Ballard team secured television interviews at three of the four major stations in Las Vegas and major coverage in all major newspapers throughout the state.
The effects to the firm were rapid. New business calls began almost immediately. By end of business the very next day, several hundred appointments were set with potential claimants. The firm needed to hire three more attorneys. Within two weeks, the firm had received more than 1,600 calls. It referred several prospective clients to other firms due to the volume of calls.
The media coverage on this issue put this firm on the map very quickly. The firm has worked with the Ballard team many times since and has become a highly respected litigation boutique group of trusted trial lawyers. They are now well entrenched as one of the best litigation firms for product defects, catastrophic injuries and complex commercial cases.
Accounting Firm Acquires Public Company Clients
An accounting firm wanted to secure more clients for its securities and auditing practices. The firm had several public company clients, large and small, and had helped many of them go public.
The firm engaged Ballard Consulting to create and execute a plan to accomplish this goal. We helped prepare a brochure and some related web-based materials, coordinated a “Take Your Private Company Public” seminar with a local law firm, coordinated a direct response campaign, built a media relations campaign and scheduled several speaking engagements to appropriate groups.
Ballard Consulting was able to secure significant media attention, had more than 20 companies at the seminar, and gained exposure before more than 300 non-client companies. The firm picked up two clients in the first 90 days from the seminar that generated more than $120,000 in fees. One of the two clients became an annual audit client. The lifetime value of the new clients was more than $500,000.