LexisNexis: Case Study
The Situation
A leader in providing comprehensive and authoritative legal, news and business information, LexisNexis is viewed as a trusted research resource throughout the legal market. However after developing a solution that allowed law firms to store and search a law firm’s own internal documents, LexisNexis faced challenges closing sales of its new, expanded offering. While law firms were interested in the concept, very few were willing to take the next step and implement.
The Challenge
LexisNexis was looking for a vehicle to reach prospects in the sales pipeline and accelerate decisions to implement the new intra-firm research tool. It also needed a tool that could identify common obstacles to purchase and provide insights to build sales plans to overcome those obstacles.
The Action
Working with Geehan Group, LexisNexis implemented a powerful multi-city Executive Summit series that brought together prospects and customers for dialogue and information-sharing among peers. The Summit format incorporated a proven formula of real-world case studies presented by the customers themselves combined with highly relevant beak-out discussions: one for the firm executives interested in the business implications and one for the IT leaders interested in the specifications and implementation. This combination of case study and dialogue created a highly interactive environment that was “owned” by the customers and the prospects. LexisNexis facilitated the process.
The Result
LexisNexis gained significant credibility among its customers and prospects through creating a forum that was “real” and not a traditional sales event. It also uncovered valuable insights related to the law firm’s decision processes and incorporated those learnings into more effective sales actions.
In order to maintain the market excitement and sales momentum it experienced, LexisNexis has extended the initiative to include five additional Summits over the next nine months.
- Sales Cycle reduced from nine to four months
- LexisNexis closed more deals in one quarter than in previous two years
- LexisNexis established parter relationships with decision-makers (which until then, were more like vendors)
