TRP 344: Cross-Selling in Professional Services Firms with Rebecca Hnatowski

Most law firms say they want to cross-sell. Few have the internal foundation to actually make it happen.

Rebecca Hnatowski is the founder of Edwards Advisory and a specialist in cross-selling strategy and lateral integration for law firms and professional services organizations. In this episode, she joins Scott Love to break down why cross-selling initiatives stall — and exactly what has to be in place before the first client conversation ever happens.

What you'll learn:

Why "let's cross-sell" without internal groundwork almost always fails

The trust problem at the root of most cross-selling breakdowns — and how to fix it

Why partners refuse to share clients (and how origination credit structures make it worse)

How to build a manageable cross-sell target list from data your firm already has

A gap analysis framework: how to identify which clients have unmet legal needs in other practice areas

How to use AI (including Claude and ChatGPT) to research target clients and identify opportunities in minutes

When to bring in an external consultant vs. handle cross-selling initiatives internally

How a post-merger integration timeline affects cross-selling readiness — and when to wait

How to turn a target list into actual client strategy conversations (including the perfect year-end ask)