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If a seminar is where the professional firm invites a group of clients together and talks to them, then a reverse seminar is where the firm invites the client executive to come and talk to the members of the firm.

A typical request would go something like this

Dear Client, We are very interested in you and your business. Unfortunately, only a few of us get the chance to visit with you in the course of our work for you. Accordingly, would you be prepared to come to our offices (or a nearby location after business hours for a drink or two, and then give us a brief talk about what is going on in your world? Perhaps you might be prepared to answer a question or two from our people. We do hope you will accept, as we are keen to learn even more about you, your company, and your industry.

The benefits of this practice are many. First, most clients would be flattered to be asked to speak, and would take the invitation as what it is meant to be a sincere indication that the firm cares about its clients and wants to learn more about them. To this extent, the reverse seminar is a powerful client relationship management mechanism. Second, reverse seminars add to the knowledge base of the firm. In most firms, the individual professionals are skilled in their technical specialty, be it law, accounting, actuarial science, public relations, or whatever. However, to be a skillful advisor requires that the professionals understand not only their specialty but also the business environment in which their clients operate. Yet in few professions is any formal provision made for people to acquire general business knowledge as they progress in their careers. The reverse seminar, particularly if done on a regular basis (some of my clients hold one every two weeks, with different clients) provides the mechanism to expose the staff of the firm (juniors and seniors alike) to the thinking of business people.

A third benefit of reverse seminars is, of course, the chance to identify future business development opportunities, particularly if the audience contains not only professionals from the practice area currently working with the firm, but those in other disciplines.

Excerpted from ‘Managing the Professional Service Firm’ by David Maister, pages 64 to 65