---
call_id: "demo_legal_tech_20250102"
date: "2025-01-02T10:00:00Z"
duration_seconds: 1800
rep_name: "Sarah Chen"
prospect_name: "Sandra Mitchell"
prospect_company: "Legal Tech Solutions"
prospect_title: "Chief Revenue Officer"
deal_stage: "Discovery"
deal_value: 350000
disposition: "Demo Scheduled"
tags: ["enterprise", "legal-tech", "procurement", "change-management", "law-firms"]
key_themes:
- "Law firm adoption challenges"
- "Procurement complexity"
- "Change management"
---
# Customer Interview: Legal Tech Solutions
## Interview Summary
Sandra Mitchell is the CRO of Legal Tech Solutions, a $180M ARR company selling practice management software to law firms. The conversation focused on the unique challenges of selling to law firms, including partner dynamics, procurement evolution, and change management.
## Transcript
**[00:00:20] Sarah Chen:**
Sandra, thank you for taking the time. I've been looking forward to learning more about Legal Tech Solutions' sales motion. What's top of mind for you right now?
**[00:00:38] Sandra Mitchell:**
Sarah, honestly, it's adoption. We can close deals - that's not the hard part. It's getting law firms to actually use what they've bought. Partner resistance to change is legendary in this industry.
**[00:01:05] Sarah Chen:**
Tell me more about that resistance. What does it look like in practice?
**[00:01:15] Sandra Mitchell:**
Law firms are incredibly hierarchical. Partners are the rainmakers, and they run their practices like individual fiefdoms. When we sell a firm-wide solution, we might have buy-in from the managing partner, but individual practice groups can just... not use it. And there's no consequence because the partners bring in the revenue.
**[00:01:55] Sarah Chen:**
How does that impact your deals? Are you seeing churn, or is it more of a utilization problem?
**[00:02:10] Sandra Mitchell:**
Both, actually. We've got clients paying for 500 licenses where maybe 200 people actively use the system. That's a renewal risk because someone eventually asks, "Why are we paying for this?" But the bigger issue is that low utilization means low advocacy. We're not getting referrals from happy users because half the firm doesn't even know they have access.
**[00:02:50] Sarah Chen:**
What about procurement? How has that changed for you?
**[00:03:05] Sandra Mitchell:**
Five years ago, procurement didn't even exist in these conversations. We'd talk to the managing partner, maybe a COO, and they'd make a decision. Now, every firm with more than $100 million in revenue has a formal procurement process. It's added 30-45 days to our average sales cycle and introduced stakeholders who don't care about the product - they care about terms, security, and price.
**[00:03:45] Sarah Chen:**
Are you seeing specific procurement requirements that are blocking deals?
**[00:04:00] Sandra Mitchell:**
Data security is the big one. Law firms handle incredibly sensitive client information. We get asked about SOC 2, ISO 27001, data residency, breach notification procedures. Some firms want us to carry $10 million in cyber liability insurance. These aren't unreasonable requests, but they've transformed every enterprise deal into a compliance exercise.
**[00:04:40] Sarah Chen:**
How are you handling the change management challenge when it comes to helping firms actually adopt?
**[00:04:55] Sandra Mitchell:**
We've invested heavily in customer success. We have dedicated CSMs for our enterprise accounts, and they run training sessions, create adoption scorecards, and meet regularly with firm leadership. But it's expensive. Our CS team is 40 people now, and I'm not sure we're seeing proportional returns.
**[00:05:30] Sarah Chen:**
What would help you get better visibility into which accounts are at risk?
**[00:05:45] Sandra Mitchell:**
Usage data helps, but it's a lagging indicator. By the time usage drops, the renewal conversation is already awkward. What I'd love is insight from conversations - are partners mentioning competitive products? Are they talking about budget constraints in their practices? That kind of intelligence would let us get ahead of problems.
**[00:06:20] Sarah Chen:**
What's your current forecast accuracy like?
**[00:06:30] Sandra Mitchell:**
We're at about 70% for new business, maybe 85% for renewals. The renewals are more predictable because we have usage data. New business is harder because of the procurement variable - a deal can look done and then sit in legal review for weeks.
## Key Takeaways
1. **Partner Dynamics**: Individual practice groups can resist adoption despite firm-wide purchases
2. **Procurement Evolution**: Formal procurement has added 30-45 days to sales cycles
3. **Compliance Requirements**: SOC 2, data residency, and cyber insurance are now table stakes
4. **Change Management Cost**: Heavy CS investment with unclear ROI
