Kevin Wheeler and George Beaton
Collectively, we have more years of experience in law firm marketing than we care to admit. Over the decades, we have definitely improved the professionalism of this important business function, but why do we still despair so much about law firm marketing?
Well, the main reason is that so much of it still revolves around traditional advertising, like events (including hospitality), submissions to awards ceremonies by judges, and entries in legal directories?
Where is the strategic approach that combines an understanding of market demand with a company’s capabilities?
Where is the focus on the most important market segments, i.e. the primary target markets? Where does customer and market research take place?
What about your current key customers and how do you manage to develop them instead of constantly chasing new ones?
Finally, where are the research-based thought leadership campaigns that provide insights into current and future customer problems and enable companies to demonstrate their expertise by presenting possible solutions?
Unfortunately, we believe the crux of the problem lies in the lemming-like nature of the legal sector, where firms tend to copy each other rather than do things differently.
Lawyers don’t like to take risks. It’s safer to go with the herd. It’s a lucrative sector, so why change it? Plus, most lawyers have big egos and are in competition with their colleagues.
How else can one explain the fascination with directory entries and awards? It is the humble boast that reigns supreme!
In the companies where we take a strategic marketing approach, the difference is usually that a marketing leader/team is willing to challenge the company’s mindset and push partners to change.
Of course, you also need the support of the company’s management team – managing partner and board of directors – to help you set a strategic marketing agenda for the company.
How to avoid being a marketing lemming
So what should your company do to avoid becoming a marketing lemming? First, recruit professional marketing experts to support the partners.
People who have the intelligence, experience and strength of character to withstand the resistance that will inevitably come from partners, many of whom will resist the necessary changes.
And compensate them on par with partners. In fact, make them partners. These people will drive your company’s revenue and profit growth – they deserve the same status and compensation as the partners whose primary job is to make the product.
Next, you need to determine your company’s business strategy. From this, marketing flows. What are your company’s capabilities: where are you strongest in terms of services, customer types, industries and regions?
What are the trends in your key markets – where is growth coming from and how are customer needs changing? What is your company’s reputation like – what are you famous for? How does your brand compare to your main competitors?
Then, in a five-year strategic plan, identify the key market segments the company will focus on for growth, the goals it will pursue, and the resources and programs needed to achieve those goals.
Key Customer Program
- Identify the company’s most important clients. Assign a Client Relationship Partner (CRP) to each client, along with dedicated legal teams to address their current and anticipated needs.
- Make sure you understand each customer’s needs through regular, formal feedback.
- Prepare a customer service plan and use it to report progress to the team and the rest of the company. Tie a portion of the CRP’s compensation to the implementation of this plan.
- Thought leadership campaigns
- Gain insights into the Key themes in the market segments (services, customer types, industries, jurisdictions) you want to grow in. It’s best to commission research to back this up.
- Have your lawyers interpret the implications for clients and use this content to engage with both clients and targets and sell solutions.
- This ability should be demonstrated through speaking at conferences, conducting seminars and round tables, distributing reports and articles, and in face-to-face meetings.
- Digital marketing today offers a very cost-effective way to deliver messages directly to your target audience. Advertising, sponsorship and corporate hospitality, on the other hand, are very expensive and do not work, i.e. their ROI is pitifully low.
- And customers don’t really care about your directory rankings or awards unless they are based on a thorough customer survey.
- Developing lawyers’ BD skills
- In order for your firm’s marketing to produce results—namely, new clients and business—your lawyers must have excellent business development skills.
- It is critical to ensure that the right training and mentoring is in place so that employees understand the process of building relationships and selling the company’s services.
From this, develop a strategic marketing plan that covers the following three main elements:
If you do all of these things, your business will stand out from all the other lemmings. Good luck.
Kevin Wheeler is the Director of Wheeler Associates and a business development consultant who founded Wheeler Associates in 1997. The consultancy works exclusively for law firms and other professional services firms, providing advice and assistance on all aspects of marketing and business development. He writes regularly on business development issues and advises organisations in the UK and internationally.
Dr George Beaton is Executive Chairman of Beaton International and holds MBBCh, MBA and PhD degrees. He was a Senior Fellow of the University of Melbourne’s Schools of Business and Law for 30 years and was the founding Chair of the College of Law’s Program Committee for the innovative Master of Legal Business qualification package. He is the author of two books on the legal services industry.
