The City of London Law Society
Learn about the importance of building your internal network, the benefits of it and some thoughts on how to go about it!
We are all told that networking and building a strong network is a key part of becoming successful and winning work. There is no doubt that knowing how to network (effectively!), building a brand, raising your profile and creating a work giving/winning network is crucial to business growth, however, it’s only part of the puzzle and tends to only focus on one kind of networking – outside of your own organisation.
Equally important, but less spoken about and perhaps less widely acknowledged as being valuable, is the need to build and foster a strong internal network. The rewards of “working” your internal market can be well worth the time and effort invested.
‘Fundamentally and at least initially, networking is about building connections and relationships based on trust, common interests and mutual engagement. The “sell” can come later’.
Younger professionals who don’t have much experience of networking can sometimes be daunted by the thought of it. This article seeks to demystify the process by breaking down the possible benefits of internal marketing and suggesting ways of going about it.
What are the benefits of internal networking? As with marketing outside of your organisation, internal networking takes time to build strong bonds. Despite that, and although it requires thought, effort and commitment, there are several benefits to creating those internal links.
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Finding opportunities: Ultimately, one of the main aims of building an internal network is for it to become a source of opportunities for you. For that source to be able to deliver, you need to put in the time and effort to understand what other parts of the business are doing, who to get to know, where you can fit in and how and what other service lines you might be able to cross-sell. By no means exhaustive and in no particular order, the below is a list of some of the possible opportunities that could flow from working on your internal market:
(i) Cross-selling: Understanding what other parts of the firm do and for what type of client is important to enable you to identify possible opportunities to cross-sell. For example, and where relevant, could you be doing any joint marketing or is there work that you could be pitching for together? Being alive to cross-selling opportunities could result in work coming into the business through you (for which you should get credit in some way) and could also allow you to make introductions of those other teams to your clients (further credit!). This works the other way too – ensuring that other parts of the business know what you and your team do so that if an opportunity arises, they are able to make those same introductions for you and your service offering;
(ii) Support other teams and become their first port of call: being the “go-to” person in your team for others across the firm could result in internal work winning/referrals (again, credit…). It could be that the first few times someone in another team contacts you, it’s to check a point or ask a question which they don’t want to ask someone more senior. That third or fourth time that they then contact you could become a request for you to jump on a call with a client with the potential for that to turn into work; and/or
(iii) To collaborate and share knowledge: what can you learn from other teams? What trends are they seeing which could be relevant to your clients? Could you do a joint webinar to mutual clients? Is there a case update that could be relevant to two different teams such that it would be worthwhile creating an alert? All, again, ultimately with the aim of finding opportunities to reach out to clients and be of relevance to them.
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Peer support and mentoring: We all need support throughout our careers so finding people internally who are willing and able to be those supporters, mentors or even allies can be hugely beneficial and uplifting. Finding people in other teams who can offer a different perspective or getting peer support to chat through issues can also help to alleviate moments of stress or uncertainty throughout your career.
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Raising your own profile: As you start to focus on moving up the rungs of the corporate ladder, having someone champion you from outside your own team can have significant impact around the promotion decision-making table. Getting people talking about you (for the right reasons..!) internally can help to move the dial. If people outside of your own core team (who have a vested interest in your promotion) are able to speak genuinely about your collaborative efforts to cross-sell, support they have received from you or indeed anything else you have been doing internally to raise your profile, it all goes towards cementing you as a committed individual who is proactively seeking ways to engage different parts of the business (in turn showing business acumen and commercial awareness).
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Creating better working relationships: There is no doubt that internal networking and relationship building also helps, more generally, to build a more collaborative and cohesive organisation with people working better together. Being able to work seamlessly with other teams, especially in time- sensitive or otherwise difficult and stressful circumstances, can make such a difference with everyone working together and pulling in the same direction to deliver a service. To either support other teams or be supported yourself to help you deliver to your own client on an ongoing matter is priceless and goes a long way to conveying a “one firm” mentality to the client which is appreciated and valued by them.
How to work on building an internal network
So, having taken on board the possible benefits of internal marketing, how do you actually go about doing it? The below are some suggested pro-active steps you could take to start to foster the relationships you are seeking to build. Once you start, the connections will start to grow which in turn should give you the confidence and motivation to keep going and trying new things. The possible benefits highlighted above won’t be immediate or obvious in the first instance, but staying committed to the process and with your antennae always up for those opportunities, they will come.
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Identify relevant teams/departments that complement your practice: Put some time into identifying which of the other teams within the firm can open up work opportunities for you. What other teams and departments do you support (and they rely on that support)? Are there teams that you could be doing more work with but don’t currently? Why is that and what steps can you take to change that? Where are you missing a trick? Have you looked at your clients on the internal client database to see who else knows them across the business? Can you join the dots with the client with those internal connections and widen the relationship? Ultimately, understanding synergies and cross over between teams and departments and how you can help each other is crucial to unlocking potential for growth.
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Find allies within those teams/departments: having understood which teams and departments are most aligned to you and your practice area, identify key contacts within them to become your “go to”. This could be someone at your level that you feel comfortable picking up the phone to for example and that you will continue to rise up with through the business. Catch up with them informally on a regular basis to find out what’s going on in their teams – what work are they doing? Who are they acting for? What trends are they seeing? Not only will you build a close relationship with that “go-to”, you will also be better placed to spot possible cross-selling, and therefore work winning, opportunities.
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Raise your profile: This can take many forms, and can be both formal and informal in nature. Ultimately, it is about becoming more visible internally so that your name is cropping up across the business, possibly in different guises/contexts. There are several ways of going about raising your profile such as: (i) attending another team’s weekly/monthly meeting and delivering a short 5/10min pitch on your team and the work you do and areas for possible collaboration; (ii) engaging with office social events and other firmwide initiatives: all firms will have networks, charitable initiatives, mentoring schemes and a whole host of other events that you can get involved with. Taking the time to attend social events put on by the firm not only gives you time and space to let your hair down a little (all the while remembering it is a professional work event!), but it allows you to meet new people, hear about other things going on around the firm and, again, makes you more visible. Attendance at events like these is noted – who is getting involved and who isn’t. Who is getting stuck into firm culture and who isn’t; (iii) put your hand up for internal committee roles: again, showing commitment to the firm more generally and what it is seeking to achieve around values/culture.
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Keep up to date with firmwide communications: to be able to sell other parts of the firm to your clients or to spot opportunities, you need to know what people around the firm are doing!
So, what are the firm’s latest initiatives – these could also relate to things such as ED&I or environmental issues for example and not just deals – and can you drop those into conversation with clients where relevant and likely to be of interest to them. Separately, what deals has the firm recently completed? Are they in a specialised sector that highlights your firm’s expertise in that sector? Is there anything of particular note – deal size, jurisdiction, turnaround time, etc. What trends is the firm talking about – any horizon scanning that could be worth relaying to your clients or speaking to other teams about? Has the firm been recognised in any awards recently that are worth shouting about? With this knowledge, you are looking for opportunities to widen the relationship with clients by bringing something useful to them (new contacts or knowledge) and growing your network internally by making connections around mutual interests/target clients/service offering.
There are opportunities there for the taking, so be brave and take those first few proactive steps, possibly outside of your comfort zone, in identifying where collaboration is most likely to be mutually beneficial and hopefully the rewards will follow. With each relationship forged, you will get more confident in your ability to spot opportunities and make connections and will find it easier and easier to build your profile internally.
Kanika Kitchlu-Connolly
(former City law firm partner, now an accredited career coach and mentor)