litsupport summary for the week ending on 10/19/08

A lot of important and useful information is posted to litsupport each week. The following is a distilled summary, in the form of questions and answers.

Q. What litigation support professionals (LSP) see as the best way(s) for a vendor to make first contact and follow up?
A. Not strictly a technical question, but one that inspired discussion:

1. LSPs are very busy and have no time to talk to vendors. When they need information, they get it from the Internet. Therefore, LSPs likely won't see vendors until they are in need of specific information, if they are an old friend of vendor, if you have previous employment ties or ties through other organizations. Attending or sponsoring CLE is one possible way;
2. If you want to have success, be honest about your abilities, provide exceptional service, both before and after the "sale," and do business with the clients like you are the client. Spend more time listening to them about what they need, not what you are trying to sell them;
3. Give the option of dealing directly with a tech and bypassing the salesman;
4. Be honest. If you can't do something, just say so. If you can't do something and tell the LSP so, but also tell that you know who can do it, the LSP will be more inclined to take your advice and guidance. Knowing the technical aspects of the project is much more important. You have to be able to "walk the walk." Always take notes during project meetings. Missing information in a project spec. is not a good sign;
5. Send news about products/services/prices by email rather than phone;
6. PLEASE stop spamming attorneys with the same information you've given to LSPs. The attorneys simply forward the information to the team responsible for vetting vendors (LSPs) and vendor looks like attempting to circumvent the process;
7. People were of two minds regarding cookies supplied by vendors;
8. Vendor is a bad term, should be replaced with something nicer.
   

This summary from the Litsupport Group postings created by the wonderful and talented members of the group has been culled by Mark Kerzner (mkerzner@top8.biz) and edited by Aline Bernstein (aline.bernstein@gmail.com).