How Rupp Pfalzgraf Uses Relationship Intelligence to Support Business Development

A lean marketing team. A growing law firm. A CRM built for the way attorneys work.

As Marketing Manager at Rupp Pfalzgraf, Samantha Sliwa oversees nearly every aspect of the firm's marketing and business development efforts. In a larger firm, responsibilities such as communications, digital marketing, events, public relations, and business development might be divided among multiple teams. At Rupp Pfalzgraf, they are managed by a lean marketing department that depends on technology to create efficiency, not additional work.

As the firm continued to grow, it became clear that its existing CRM could no longer support those goals.

The Challenge

Like many growing law firms, Rupp Pfalzgraf had accumulated years of contact data across multiple systems. Maintaining accurate records required ongoing manual effort, and the firm's existing platform offered little visibility into the relationships that already existed across practice groups.

"Our previous platform functioned much more like an email marketing tool than a true CRM. It wasn't built to give us the relationship intelligence or ease of use we were looking for."

Sam Sliwa, Marketing Manager, Rupp Pfalzgraf

Without automated contact management, maintaining accurate contact data became increasingly time-consuming. More importantly, attorneys and the marketing team lacked an efficient way to identify shared relationships across the firm, making cross-selling opportunities more difficult to uncover. The main challenges:

• Contact data maintained manually

• Limited relationship visibility across practice groups

• No automated contact enrichment

• CRM functionality centered primarily around email marketing

Why TRĒ AI

Samantha first learned about TRĒ AI while attending David Ackert's Marketing Leaders Roundtable.

"The moment I heard about TRĒ AI, I thought, this is it. This is what we've been missing. I reached out to Todd right after his presentation, and we were off to the races from there. What stood out wasn't simply another CRM. It was a platform designed specifically for law firms, combining relationship intelligence, automated contact management, and minimal reliance on attorney participation.”

For Rupp Pfalzgraf, that combination aligned with the firm's business development priorities and the realities of managing marketing with a lean team.

Implementation

CRM implementations often carry a reputation for being resource-intensive. Data migration, duplicate records, inconsistent formatting, and attorney adoption can delay implementation and consume valuable staff time.

Rupp Pfalzgraf's experience was different.

"They handled everything. Seamless implementation. We went from years of accumulated data to a fully loaded CRM without adding a major project to our team's plate, allowing us to focus on other important marketing initiatives."

TRĒ AI handled the migration, data cleanup, and platform setup with coordination from the firm's IT team, allowing marketing to remain focused on ongoing initiatives throughout implementation.

• Contacts migrated: 1,965

• Implementation timeline: 1 week

• Internal staff hours required: 3 hours

• Enhanced contacts to date: 21,922

Immediate Results

The first measurable improvements appeared in email marketing.

"Because our contacts were finally clean and current, the difference showed up right away. Open rates up, bounce rates down. From day one."

With continuously updated contact information, newsletters and client alerts reached more intended recipients while reducing bounced emails caused by outdated records.

Open Rate

• Before: 25%

• After: 35%

Bounce Rate

• Before: 2%

• After: 1%

Turning Relationship Data into Business Development

While cleaner data improved marketing performance, relationship intelligence created new opportunities for business development.

When Rupp Pfalzgraf opened a new office, the marketing team used TRĒ AI to identify existing relationships within the region, helping attorneys begin outreach with a clearer understanding of the firm's established connections.

Relationship data has also become part of the firm's approach to event planning and cross-selling.

"It completely changed how we approach events. We can pull relationship data across the whole firm and put the right attorneys in front of the right people. That's where the cross-selling really comes to life."

Rather than relying on institutional knowledge alone, attorneys and marketers now have greater visibility into shared client relationships across practice groups.

Built Around Attorney Workflows

Many CRM platforms depend on attorneys to regularly update contacts and relationship information before the system provides meaningful value.

For Rupp Pfalzgraf, minimizing that burden was a priority.

"Most CRMs need attorney buy-in just to function. TRĒ AI doesn't. Our attorneys are focused on serving clients. I appreciated that the platform could deliver value without requiring them to dramatically change their day-to-day workflow."

Because relationship intelligence is gathered automatically through signature scraping, email activity, and calendar data, attorneys can continue working as they always have while marketing benefits from more complete information.

"It's a completely different experience knowing that the platform delivers value whether attorney engagement is high or low. When attorneys choose to dive in, that's even better, but the marketing team could begin seeing value immediately."

More Than a Software Provider

For Samantha, one of the most valuable parts of the relationship has been the accessibility of the TRĒ AI team.

"What I can tell you is that the support we get from TRĒ AI has changed how I think about CRM partnerships entirely. I have a direct line to the team at all times. No waiting, no runaround. When something needs attention, we get on a call fast and we come out of it with answers. That responsiveness has a real impact on how confidently we run our marketing operation day to day."

Rather than functioning as a traditional software vendor, TRĒ AI has become an active partner in helping the firm's marketing team maximize the platform over time.

Looking Ahead

Today, TRĒ AI supports marketing and business development initiatives across Rupp Pfalzgraf, from maintaining accurate contact data and improving email performance to strengthening cross-selling efforts and supporting geographic expansion.

Asked to summarize the platform, Samantha keeps it simple.

"TRĒ AI is intuitive. Clean. Easy to use. Responsive."

For a lean marketing team supporting a growing law firm, those qualities matter. Technology should reduce administrative work, strengthen business development, and help attorneys focus on serving clients. For Rupp Pfalzgraf, that is where TRĒ AI has delivered the greatest value.