There has been a strong push from the Big Four into the legal market over the last decade, and recently we are seeing law firms pushing their way into the consultancy space. MinterEllisons chief executive Annette Kimmitt says this is because clients are increasingly wanting a "one-stop shop" for legal and consulting. 

Obviously having the expertise is the first step to being a successful "one-stop shop" so assuming this is in place,  the next step is to make sure your clients know what you have on offer. Cross-selling is a key goal for most professional services and when done well it can generate more revenue and deepen relationships with important clients. Obviously, nobody wants to hear "We didn't know you could help with that" from a client, who has just gone down the road for a service you could have covered! To ensure this doesn't happen, make it as easy as possible for your clients to be aware of what you do.

Effective internal knowledge sharing is key. Having a simple way to share knowledge internally between departments or niche areas is vital. It means individuals are up to date with the specialties and capabilities of the rest of the firm.  This makes it far easier to introduce a colleague from another team to solve a client's problem.

A great way to communicate the breadth of your firm's knowledge is for the relationship-holders (the one working directly with a client) to communicate client issues to other subject-matter experts within the firm for them to comment on. That way, a library of highly-relevant expert content can be created. Then when a lawyer is asked a question about a different area of expertise, they have a heap of resources, and all they have to do is be helpful.  An excellent way to do this is to send a nice piece of timely, client relevant, expert-led content that addresses the client's need. In turn, this provides an solid platform upon which it is easy to introduce the person within the firm who can help them.

Here at Passle we talk to experts every day and we recommend the following process:

• Listen to your clients and the market to establish their challenges or pain points
• Create useful insights that add value and offer solutions to your client's challenges
• Engage with the wider firm, share relevant knowledge insights with colleagues, and share their relevant insights with your clients and network. 

As a lawyer or advisor, you can do all three of the above or just one or two of them to open the door to a wider relationship.