Salesforce Optimization
Cutting $250K in Waste and Driving Adoption in a Law Firm
- Client
- Mid-sized multi-practice law firm
- Industry
- Legal Services
- Service
- Salesforce license optimization|Usage audit & consolidation|Workflow automation|Adoption enablement|Executive dashboards
Overview
A mid-sized U.S. law firm with seven regional offices had grown rapidly through lateral hires and acquisitions, but its business development and client relationship processes lagged behind. The firm had adopted Salesforce three years earlier to unify BD efforts across practice groups — but usage had collapsed.
Fewer than 20% of licensed users were logging in monthly, while most attorneys and BD staff had reverted to spreadsheets and email threads to track prospects and referrals. The firm was paying for 180 Salesforce Enterprise licenses (at ~$1,300 per user annually) and was approaching a three-year renewal.
Facing escalating costs, fragmented data, and frustrated partners, the firm engaged Sphere to right-size its Salesforce footprint, streamline BD workflows, and restore confidence in the platform.
Challenges
- Poor Adoption by BD Teams: BD staff maintained shadow pipelines in Excel because the Salesforce UI was slow and confusing. Attorneys resisted logging activities, fearing it “added no value” to their billable time. No automated reminders for follow-ups or renewals existed.
- License Bloat and Wasted Spend: 180 Salesforce Enterprise licenses were active, but only 32 had logged in in the past month. Many seats were still assigned to former attorneys, paralegals, and contractors. Renewal would lock the firm into a $230K+ annual spend.
- Inaccurate Pipeline and Forecasting: Fragmented data and inconsistent activity logging made pipeline reports unreliable, undermining executive decision-making.
- Heavy Admin Burden: Manual reporting consumed days each quarter, slowing leadership’s ability to respond to revenue trends.
Our Solution
Sphere led a 12-week engagement, focusing first on cost savings before tackling adoption and reporting.
Phase 1: Usage Audit & License Right-Sizing
- Analyzed Salesforce and SSO login data to identify inactive accounts.
- Cross-checked license assignments with HR rosters to remove departed users.
- Reduced active licenses from 180 to 78, reassigning 20 light-use roles (finance, marketing) to lower-cost Salesforce Platform licenses.
Impact: $250K+ in savings over the next 3 years, achieved before contract renewal.
Phase 2: BD Workflow Automation & UX Redesign
- Interviewed 15 BD coordinators, attorneys, and practice group leaders to map friction points.
- Implemented automated creation of follow-up tasks for new prospects, email-to-Salesforce logging for Outlook users, and Slack/Teams alerts for upcoming client check-ins.
- Rebuilt the Salesforce UI with Lightning App Builder: simple pipeline views by practice area, one-click referral logging form.
- Integrated DocuSign for engagement letters and NDAs.
Impact: Active weekly users tripled within 6 weeks; attorneys began logging client touches directly.
Phase 3: Leadership Dashboards & Data Governance
- Created dashboards showing pipeline by practice area and geography, referral source ROI, and client touch frequency vs. revenue growth.
- Set data validation rules (mandatory fields, duplicate detection).
- Trained BD and marketing leads to monitor data hygiene.
Impact: Forecast accuracy improved by 40%; reporting time dropped from 3 days to 2 hours.
Why We Chose This Approach
- Savings before change: Immediate cost reduction built partner trust before asking for workflow changes.
- Incremental adoption: Focused on BD staff and coordinators first, then brought attorneys onboard once workflows were simplified.
- No rip-and-replace: Preserved Salesforce investment and focused on practical UX fixes, not major system change.
- Governance from the start: Introduced rules and training to stop data decay and prevent a return to spreadsheets.
Key Achievements
- in saved license costs over 3 years.
- Increase in weekly active users.
- Improved forecast accuracy.
- Cut quarterly reporting time.
Result
Within three months, the firm turned Salesforce from a costly underused tool into a core part of its business development process. BD teams abandoned spreadsheets, attorneys began logging client interactions, and practice leaders could finally see a unified pipeline.
By recovering wasted licenses and rebuilding adoption from the ground up, Sphere helped the firm save hundreds of thousands of dollars while unlocking the visibility it needed to grow.
