Fostering Sustainable Conveyancing Growth

1st March 2015

The fourth guest blog in our series investigating how firms could grow their conveyancing business in 2015 comes from Leadership Consultant, Victor Olowe, Managing Director of Winzest Consulting. Understanding there is no “quick fix” or “one size fits all” approach to business development is key for firms to enable them to seek out and spot opportunities and develop a plan for sustainable future growth.

It is interesting to note the growth aspirations of some conveyancing firms in 2015. Although not always explicit, it appears that those plans for growth tend to be primarily about growth in market share and/ or revenue which is a legitimate and appropriate strategic objective.

However, there are other dimensions of growth which conveyancing firms should consider which may not always accompany a market share /revenue growth strategy. In particular, an explicit focus on growth in profit margins, customer experience and organisational capability are relevant considerations.

I am not suggesting that growth in market share, revenue, profit margins and customer experience are mutually exclusive but the performance of firms in a number of other sectors that have simultaneously pursued growth strategies across a number of dimensions indicates that it is very challenging and requires an exceptionally talented team to achieve integrated outcomes.

Three possible areas of focus to underpin sustainable growth are as follows;

•  Deepening relationships with the primary sources of lead generation. For some firms this may be institutional partners such as panels whilst for others this could be existing customer relationships. This approach should enable a firm to obtain a deeper understanding of the key drivers affecting those relationships that may impact adversely on the current conveyancing pipeline or present new opportunities to exploit.Some of those drivers may include new regulatory obligations or changes in the business model of those institutional partners which provide an opportunity to reposition a firm as a more preferred supplier of conveyancing services particularly if new bundle of services can be offered. Alternatively changing consumer behaviours of the existing customer base (e.g. stronger preference for digital interactions) may present new opportunities to secure better quality of referrals.
• Identify opportunities to improve the efficiency in the conveyancing process particularly through leveraging technology. The increasing reliance on collaborative technologies in conveyancing indicates that a conveyancing firm is unlikely to achieve sustainable growth unless such technologies are exploited by firms of all sizes.
• Implement effective training and development for staff particularly for front line staff to enable the delivery of a consistent and distinctive customer experience. Embedding an effective approach to learning and development in conveyancing is also going to be crucial to attract and retain the right staff to underpin the desired growth in 2015.

Growth in 2015 may not be as spectacular relative to 2014 for a number of firms but a focus on developing deeper roots for sustainable growth in the future is still an ambitious strategic goal for 2015.

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