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There are just 10 places left for our National Conference “Risky Business: Cyber Crime in the Property Transaction”, taking place in London 1 week today! 

Held at the Institution of Engineering and Technology on Thursday 23rd February 2017, this free full-day event will focus on the challenges of cyber security and how law firms can better protect themselves from a cyber-attack.

There are now just 10 places left, so please register while you can to avoid disappointment. 

Click here to register

80% of conveyancing solicitors were "definitely more worried about security and risk of fraud in 2016" compared to 2015

“Risky Business: Cyber Crime in the Property Transaction” was developed in response to recent tmgroup survey findings, which revealed that approximately 80% of conveyancing solicitors were "definitely more worried about security and risk of fraud in 2016" compared to 2015.

With this in mind, tmgroup have invited a panel of experts – including the National Police Chiefs' Council's National Cyber PROTECT Coordinator – to discuss a broad range of cyber security challenges, and ensure that all attendees leave the event in a stronger position to safeguard both themselves and their clients. 

A variety of expert speakers will address both technology and people risks

In addition to the 3 interactive roundtable discussions, a diverse panel of 5 expert speakers will be presenting on both the technology and the people risks which law firms need to be aware of in order to effectively protect their best interests.

The full Agenda of seminars features:

Mark Payne (InfoSec Cloud) – “Cyber Security – How your frontline team can help protect your firm against cyber attacks”

Mark will primarily be discussing the sophistication of modern-day phishing emails – sharing a variety of real-life examples – and explaining how to help your team recognise them before they accidentally trigger a major security incident. 

Jeremy Swinfen Green (Teiss and Mosoco) – “Cyber Security - Managing third party supplier risks”

Jeremy will be discussing how to reduce the risk of having a third party (such as a business partner, contractor, or customer) who has access to your IT systems acting as a bridge for hackers. 

Graeme McGowan (BeCyberSure) – “Cyber Security: 2017 and beyond”

Graeme will be looking at some of the current cyber security risks law firms need to be aware of, as well as explaining the huge impact the forthcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) could potentially have on law firms.

National Police Chiefs' Council's National Cyber PROTECT Coordinator – “Cyber crime – How to respond to an attack and support your team in preventing future cyber security incidents”

The speaker panel will also be joined by the National Police Chiefs' Council's National Cyber PROTECT Coordinator, who will be explaining how to respond to a cyber incident; touching on key areas such as Law Enforcement capability (national to local) and reporting to Action Fraud. 

Matthew Newton (Oosha Ltd) – “Cyber crime - Dealing with the undeniable threat”

Matthew will focus on helping attendees understand more about cyber crime; specifically looking at why increased IT complexity is good for cyber criminals, and the latest considerations relating to Professional Indemnity insurance and cloud technologies.

Event details

This free-to-attend event will be held at: Maxwell Library, Institution of Engineering and Technology, Savoy Place, London, WC2R 0BL.

However, there are now only 10 places left, so if you and your colleagues would like to join us on Thursday 23rd February 2017, please click here to register and secure your place.

CPD points will be available. 

If you have any questions, please get in touch with Gina Bolger on Gina.Bolger@tmgroup.co.uk, or 01793 714905

Are you tired of feeling compelled to lower your fees to try and keep up with your competitors?

Join us in Portsmouth on Thursday 6th October to find out how you can keep your fees and maybe even consider raising them – without losing your competitive edge!

Click here to register

tmgroup’s 2016 “Because Your Worth it” CPD programme has been running successfully across the summer, with well-attended events in Birmingham, Bristol and (most recently) Manchester.

Through a series of expert-led presentations, these structured CPD sessions have been finding solutions to some of the commercial business challenges facing the industry, including:

• Do clients really just care about the price?
• How do I convert more telephone prospects into clients?
• How do I guarantee that my clients will refer my services?

These CPD sessions have also opened the debate to attendees; and provided valuable opportunities for peer-led discussion about the trials and errors of different initiatives.

Portsmouth is your last chance this year to find out why your firm really is worth it

With our 2016 CPD programme now drawing to a close, our Portsmouth event on Thursday 6th October will be your last chance this year to find out how to increase your fees and still deliver a competitive service offering!

Click here to register

tmgroup are continuing their mission to help conveyancers claim what is rightfully theirs, with their 2016 events programme called ‘Because You’re Worth It.’

The programme is designed to help conveyancers to ensure that their client sees the value in the service they offer, from setting up new business relationships through to demonstrating the breadth of support and knowledge you bring when helping them buy the right property.

The sessions will stress the importance of firms using their in-house expertise to maximise their customer service as well as ensuring they market their services effectively by communicating their unique values.

Just 1 in 10 home movers chose the conveyancer that quoted the cheapest fees last year, so it would appear that conveyancing clients understand what represents value for money and are certainly willing to pay for what they consider to be good service.

Indeed, in a competitive sector with many challengers, traditional law firms are in a great position to understand what clients want and how they can present themselves attractively to win more business and improve service to keep clients happy. tmgroup have created this programme to help conveyancing firms do just that.

Marketing Director at tmgroup, Ben Harris, said:

“We are passionate about making sure that conveyancers understand how to communicate their value to prospective clients and then prove this through every interaction with a client. We’re delighted to bring this exciting and unique CPD programme to conveyancers in which our experts will arm them with the tools they need to assess their current position and make the most of the opportunity.”

With experts from across the sector, the next seminars in the series will take place on Wednesday 21st September in Manchester and Thursday 6th October in Portsmouth.

Click here to learn more about our Manchester event
Click here to learn more about our Portsmouth event

Topics covered:

Know your worth

Do you know your firm’s strengths & weaknesses? What are your USPs? What do consumers want from their conveyancers? Includes results of the latest Home Moving Trends survey.

Know your market

The ever-shifting property sector contains a number of challenges and, with the onset of ABSs in recent years, competitors now come in all shapes and sizes. Do you know your market?

Educating your customers

An estate agent’s role in a property transaction is generally well known among consumers but the role of a conveyancer is often somewhat mysterious to the inexperienced. Learn how to communicate your worth.

Know your price

In a recent consumer survey, just 1 in 10 home movers chose the conveyancer that quoted the cheapest fees. Learn where to pitch your business to make the most of your value.

These sessions will be hosted by renowned industry experts:

• Allan Carton – He has been introducing law firms to innovative and more professional business development and management practices since launching Inpractice UK in 1992.
• Michael Porter – Since 2002, he has been involved with strategic business planning and implementation with a number of professional practices.
• Richard Hinton – He has spent 25 years working in strategic and business development roles in the conveyancing industry. He is also a founder member of the Conveyancing Association.

Click here for more information about our guest speakers and topics

With Richard Hinton, Pitsford Consulting Ltd.

Just how well do you know your market? Are you confident you know who you’re competing against and how well you’re doing in that competition? Which firms present threats and which present opportunities? Do you know the size of the market you’re competing for? Do you know the size of adjacent markets? How in fact do you define your market? Is it by value, by geography, by introducer? Where do your strengths lie relative to your competitors and if the grass truly is greener, just where is it?

Unhappily, the answers to these questions are becoming ever more varied and complex. Gone are the days when conveyancers always knew the firm on the other side and operated within a geography dictated by how far clients would travel to their office. Today the market has seen the rise of the direct conveyancing industry operating without any such constraints and the related emergence of the national online conveyancing offerings and panel managers who have proved themselves adept at capturing and placing conveyancing instructions.

Traditionally conveyancers have had to rely on intuition, hearsay and best guesses to answer these questions and inform their business and market planning. My personal theory is that because there’s a historical dearth of empirical data available to provide objective insight, conveyancers have tended to shy away from the whole question of planning – both for the business as a whole and its sales and marketing functions. Conveyancers are trained to minimise risk in everything they do and relying on unsubstantiated, subjective views is after all, inherently risky.

Increasingly however, forward thinking firms are starting to tackle the issue. Employing or retaining professional marketing staff represents a step change in a firm’s capabilities and the ability to project a firm and its proposition onto the consciousness of the market using traditional and modern media is to be welcomed. These same firms will be more diligent in collecting information and forming informed opinions around the market questions posed above.  Where they are not confident of the answer they will either conduct their own research or uncover suitable data sources.

Certainly more and more data is becoming available that lifts the veil on just how a market is structured. The Land Registry for example publishes datasets on house prices, transaction volumes and conveyancer activity levels and new tools are emerging that refine this data and present it to conveyancers in a readily digestible format.

Being certain you know your market is the most important baseline component of a successful business plan and the execution of such a plan will normally be stronger because of the compelling logic that underpins it.

Richard Hinton from Pitsford Consulting will be presenting ‘Know Your Market’ at tmgroup’s upcoming unique conveyancing CPD ‘Because You’re Worth It’ in Birmingham on Wednesday 22nd June and in Bristol on Thursday 23rd June. It's completely free to attend and lunch will be provided - book your free tickets now.

About Richard

Richard Hinton has spent 25 years working in strategic and business development roles in the conveyancing industry, first with a 12 year stint as Business Development Director of Shoosmiths solicitors then as Head of Residential Property for LexisNexis Visualfiles and most recently as Head of Business Strategy for DIIG. He has owned and operated Pitsford Consulting for the last 3 years and is a founding member of the Conveyancing Association.

tmgroup has announced 'Because You're Worth it' - a programme of unique CPD sessions designed to give conveyancers the confidence and knowledge they need to market and price themselves effectively.

Half of conveyancing firms have increased their fees over the past 6 months, a tmgroup survey has revealed.

The survey, conducted throughout the first part of 2016 by leading property and data provider tmgroup, asked conveyancers: “When was the last time your firm increased your conveyancing fees?”

It was revealed that 50% of firms surveyed had increased their fees within the previous 6 months and 80% had done so within the previous 2 years.

However, for 17% of firms it had been more than 2 years since they last increased their conveyancing fees and 3% said they had reduced them instead.

The subject of pricing is something of a hot topic in the conveyancing industry at the moment so tmgroup are on a mission to help conveyancing firms claim what is rightfully theirs in this respect, with a new events programme called ‘Because You’re Worth It’. The free events aim to help you analyse your firm from the ground up before rebuilding your approach to marketing so you can harness the potential that lies within and set your fees at the correct level.

Sales & marketing director at tmgroup, Ben Harris said:
“We are really pleased to announce these special events which will help conveyancers understand how to communicate their unique selling points better. With a really interesting selection of topics and a range of expert speakers to be announced shortly, we know that this programme is going to give conveyancers the confidence and knowledge they need to market - and price - themselves the way they should.”

Book your place

Because You’re Worth It | Conveyancing CPD

Birmingham – Wednesday 22nd June
Bristol – 23rd June

tmgroup have announced a unique CPD series that aims to help conveyancers understand why 'they're worth it'. Register >

tmgroup are on a mission to help conveyancers claim what is rightfully theirs, with a new events programme called ‘Because You’re Worth It.’

The programme is designed to help conveyancers to ensure that their client sees the value in the service they offer, from setting up new business relationships through to demonstrating the breadth of support and knowledge you bring when helping them buy the right property.

The sessions will stress the importance of firms using their in-house expertise to maximise their customer service as well as ensuring they market their services effectively by communicating their unique values. Just 1 in 10 home movers chose the conveyancer that quoted the cheapest fees last year, so it would appear that conveyancing clients understand what represents value for money and are certainly willing to pay for what they consider to be good service.

Indeed, in a competitive sector with many challengers, traditional law firms are in a great position to understand what clients want and how they can present themselves attractively to win more business and improve service to keep clients happy and tmgroup have created this programme to help conveyancing firms do just that.

Sales & marketing director at tmgroup, Ben Harris said:
“We are passionate about making sure that conveyancers understand how to communicate their value to prospective clients and then prove this through every interaction with a client. We’re delighted to bring this exciting and unique CPD programme to conveyancers in which our experts will arm them with the tools they need to assess their current position and make the most of the opportunity.”

With experts from across the sector, the first seminars will take place on June 22nd and 23rd in Birmingham and Bristol with more to follow later in the year.

Learn more and register

TM Group has begun its programme of regional conveyancing CPD sessions around the UK, featuring a range of expert industry speakers.

Entitled ‘Driving & Adapting to Change’, the series of five regional events showcases content from TM Group’s national conveyancing conference of the same name, which took place in April 2015 at RIBA in central London.

The first two events of the roadshow, in Maidstone & Nottingham, boasted a 100% recommendation rate from delegates and the remaining 3 events promise equally informative and engaging sessions, with each focussing on the small changes that conveyancers can make that will have a big impact on their businesses.

The expert guest speakers are charged with providing three useful tips in quick-fire sessions designed to help time-poor conveyancers get the most out of their CPD.

What sets these events apart is that delegates get to set the agenda. With interactive roundtable sessions, conveyancers ask the questions that they want answered and can get their voices heard in small peer groups.

With practicality in mind, opportunities for downtime spaced strategically throughout the day, give conveyancers the chance to digest information or catch up on emails over a coffee.

Topics covered:
• How to stay responsive to changes in legislation
• Managing risk
• Dealing with ever-more demanding consumers
• Reputation management
• New business conversion
• Attracting and retaining the best talent.

Next stop is in Bristol at the Radisson Blu Hotel on Thursday 22nd October.

Click on the links below to register:

Bristol - 22nd Oct
Bradford - 28th Oct
Chester - 29th Oct

TM Group has announced a programme of regional conveyancing CPD sessions around the UK, featuring a range of expert industry speakers. 

Entitled ‘Driving & Adapting to Change’, the series of five regional events showcases content from TM Group’s national conveyancing conference of the same name, that took place in April 2015 at RIBA in central London. (see video below)

The conference in April formed part of TM Group’s continuing commitment to conveyancers’ professional development and was particularly well received, with more than 96% of delegates stating that they would recommend the training to a friend or colleague.

Now being brought to conveyancers in five different regions, each event focuses on the small changes that conveyancers can make that will have a big impact on their businesses. The expert guest speakers are charged with providing three useful tips in quick-fire sessions designed to help time-poor conveyancers get the most out of their CPD sessions.

Comprising two different approaches to managing the constantly-evolving property transaction, the format also helps shed light onto the inherent risks and opportunities in a conveyance.

The first session seeks to inform conveyancers how they can adapt to changes in legislation, continue to satisfy the ever increasing demands of the consumer and remain responsive to new risks as they present themselves.

In the second session, the speakers will show conveyancers how they can take a more proactive approach to change by embracing new ideas and technology to get ahead of the competition.

This session will include talks on reputation management, new business conversion, and attracting and retaining the best conveyancing talent.

One of the unique aspects of these events is that each one will feature interactive roundtables to be held at the end of both sessions. The roundtables offer delegates the chance to build upon the speakers’ talks, gaining a better understanding of the issues and having a platform to exchange views and experiences with their peers.

Expert speakers from across the property industry include: Ray Fox (Bottom Line Consultancy), Nicky Stevenson (Property Academy), Victor Olowe (Winzest Consulting), Chris Harris (Today's Conveyancer), Clare Yates (Lifetime Legal) and more.

Click on the links below to reserve your free place...

Maidstone
Thursday 24th September
Mercure Maidstone Great Danes Hotel

Nottingham
Thursday 8th October
Colwick Hall Hotel

Bristol
Thursday 22nd October
Radisson Blu Hotel

Bradford
Wednesday 28th October
Cedar Court Hotel

Chester
Thursday 29th October
Thornton Hall Hotel & Spa

Last week, TM Group's national CPD conference for conveyancers, Driving & Adapting to Change, sought to identify small changes that could add up to big differences for law firms across the country.

Hosted at RIBA in central London, the day was separated into 3 sessions. The first focused on changes that conveyancers need to adapt to in order to remain competitive whilst the second session revealed ways in which forward-thinking conveyancers could drive change within their firm to get ahead of the competition.

Finally, the day was rounded off with a panel discussion on the use of technology in the legal profession. Throughout the day, delegates took to social media to spread the word and comment on the sessions as they happened.

Take a look at the day (in tweets)...

 Our speakers were keen to get started!

We're committed to your training and development - keep an eye out for future TM Group CPD events over the coming months.