Tag: Legal Marketing

Join LMA at their Legal Marketing Technology Conference, October 5-6 in San Francisco

The Legal Marketing Technology Conferences are the largest conferences dedicated to technologies that law firm professionals use to identify, attract and support clients. They provide the premier forum to learn from and network with thought leaders and colleagues.

Legal Marketing Technology Conference LMA

Join your colleagues for the Legal Marketing Technology Conference West, October 5-6 in San Francisco. Register today!

PRE-CONFERENCE (afternoon October 5, 2016)

Attendees may choose between:

CONFERENCE (all day October 6, 2016) View the Agenda

  • 11 sessions
  • More than 30 industry-leading speakers

Register for next week’s LSSO RainDance Conference – June 7 & 8

LSSO’s annual RainDance Conference is the key resource of the organization.  The two-day conference is filled with high-level interactive sessions, roundtables and lively discussions with industry thought leaders.LSSO RainDance Conference 2016 Chicago

LSSO’s RainDance Conference – Register Today!

When: June 7 & 8, 2016

Where: The Mid-America Club, Chicago, IL

RainDance offers less of the theory and more of the practical, effective sales and service strategies for attendees to bring back to their firm and implement immediately.  With an intimate setting, you can expect open and honest dialogue among the attendees about the challenges they face in meeting the demands of the increasingly competitive and evolving industry.

RainDance is for firm leaders who have significant responsibilities for client retention, client growth, new business development, client service, and process improvement strategies to shape the future of their firms. It is recognized and known for attracting the highest caliber of attendees who are often regarded as the thought leaders in their firms and those who help shape the industry.

Click here for more information and to register.

About LSSO

The Legal Sales and Service Organization, Inc. was launched on August 8, 2003. At that time, law firms were beginning the evolution from marketing to incorporate business development and service initiatives.

Legal departments became ever more demanding of their firms and increased their use of process improvement tools, like Six Sigma and Lean, internally. However, law firms did not have the resources or tools in the areas of business development, service excellence and quality initiatives. LSSO was created to fill those needs.

Then and especially now, law firm leaders have ever-greater responsibilities for the future of their firms. The market is crowded and highly competitive. Clients are sophisticated buyers. As such, lawyers and law firms must employ effective sales and service strategies, whether they are responsible for bringing in new business or developing and retaining clients through service delivery.

Why Law Schools Must Change to Produce More Hirable Attorneys

effective networking, law students

Recently, I had the great pleasure of speaking at a Chicago Bar Association event for young attorneys on the topic of networking. After about 20 minutes I observed how ravenously everyone was taking notes and the deep level of attentiveness that I was receiving from the participants. While this is not unique to me as a speaker in the legal space, there was something different in the eyes of audience. Fear.

Once the program concluded, I stuck around to chat with the attendees to better understand their mindset.  A few of the comments were, “I have no idea how to network and am just trying to put myself out there.” And, “They never taught me any of this in law school.”  One first-year lawyer even remembered an adjunct professor saying, “If you’re not networking, you’re not working.” The same lawyer then thanked me for my presentation where I explained and demonstrated different ways to actually do it.

Over the past 10 years I have spoken at a number of young attorney events, but the fear and confusion on this day was palpable. For over 200 years, law schools have focused on teaching the law in order to produce scholarly advocates to protect the rights of his or her clients.  There was never a need to teach networking or how to run a solo practice because lawyers were employed at firms where the sole focus was gaining experience as a lawyer. There was also an abundance of opportunities to get a job.

In economics, we all learned about supply and demand. In the case of the legal space today, the supply of lawyers is overtaking the demand. Especially in the case of the new grads and younger lawyers.  With the legal landscape changing, it would only make sense that the law schools must change as well.  One attorney I interviewed was even involved in a 2014 ISBA report that demonstrated with clarity that law schools just aren’t preparing their students for the challenging legal marketplace that currently exists.

Fortunately, I did uncover that there are some adjunct professors and internal programs that mention and discuss networking with their students, but it’s just not enough. Networking is a learned skill that involves planning and processes to gain traction and ensure positive results. These skills can be used for the job search, deciding to go solo or to be used as an ongoing activity to grow a book of business once you’ve gained enough experience.  Even the simple skill of asking questions and listening to someone’s answers will be critical to a lawyer’s ongoing success and sustainability.

If a law school was to engage its students in a course on effective networking, here are three core elements that I believe should be included:

  • Element #1: Learn how to write a plan.  All law school students need to learn how to develop a written plan for finding a job or going out on their own.  They say, “Failing to plan is a plan to fail.” It is imperative that students learn how to develop and write a plan to better prepare for any eventuality. If the job market were tight, it would be helpful to have developed inside connections to find a good firm or company to work for. If there were struggles to find the right job, then developing a plan to partner with other solo’s to develop some business would be valuable. Whatever the situation, ones ability to develop a plan will be the break-through moment for someone wanting a career in the legal space.
  • Element #2: You’re young, learn how to use social media. In the age of anytime information and promotion, anyone can use social media to improve their ability to find a job or increase exposure in the marketplace. LinkedIn for example allows its users to connect on the site and find inside connections that normally would be hidden. For example, if we were friends and connected on LinkedIn, you could search through my connections to see the wide variety of general counsels and hiring lawyers that I know. Asking me for an inside channel into these contacts is infinitely more effective than sending out cold resumes to job postings or firms you are interested in.
  • Element #3: Learn the basics or you will destroy your free time. As someone who has killed hundreds of hours by networking inefficiently, I can attest to the importance of structure and processes to follow when networking. These methodologies can be found through books, firm mentors or teachers like myself. For many attorneys in school this would be important because it’s not about whom you know anymore but rather how you leverage the relationships with whom you know. Failure to properly give and receive value in a structured way within your network can lead to countless unproductive hours at events and coffee meetings.  While it’s true that relationships take time, how much time and with whom you invest is in question.

Whether you are currently enrolled in law school, a recent grad or someone who is billing 2000 hours a year for someone else’s clients at your firm, learning to plan and execute on your networking has never been more important. I know that the law schools today are aware of the need for networking classes, but they just haven’t fully committed to the idea. My hope is that with further awareness and forward-thinking deans, graduates will be better equipped to acquire the jobs they are looking for.

Article By Steve Fretzin of Sales Results, Inc.
Copyright @ 2016 Sales Results, Inc.

Attend the LSSO’s 13th Annual RainDance Conference June 7-8

LSSO’s annual RainDance Conference is the key resource of the organization.  The two-day conference is filled with high-level interactive sessions, roundtables and lively discussions with industry thought leaders.

LSSO RainDance Conference 2016 Chicago

LSSO’s RainDance Conference – Register Today!

When: June 7 & 8, 2016

Where: The Mid-America Club, Chicago, IL

RainDance offers less of the theory and more of the practical, effective sales and service strategies for attendees to bring back to their firm and implement immediately.  With an intimate setting, you can expect open and honest dialogue among the attendees about the challenges they face in meeting the demands of the increasingly competitive and evolving industry.

RainDance is for firm leaders who have significant responsibilities for client retention, client growth, new business development, client service, and process improvement strategies to shape the future of their firms. It is recognized and known for attracting the highest caliber of attendees who are often regarded as the thought leaders in their firms and those who help shape the industry.

Click here for more information and to register.

About LSSO

The Legal Sales and Service Organization, Inc. was launched on August 8, 2003. At that time, law firms were beginning the evolution from marketing to incorporate business development and service initiatives.

Legal departments became ever more demanding of their firms and increased their use of process improvement tools, like Six Sigma and Lean, internally. However, law firms did not have the resources or tools in the areas of business development, service excellence and quality initiatives. LSSO was created to fill those needs.

Then and especially now, law firm leaders have ever-greater responsibilities for the future of their firms. The market is crowded and highly competitive. Clients are sophisticated buyers. As such, lawyers and law firms must employ effective sales and service strategies, whether they are responsible for bringing in new business or developing and retaining clients through service delivery.

The Evolving Role of Today's Law Firm Leaders

The National Law Review is in attendance at the 23rd Managing Partner Forum today in Atlanta, Georgia. NLR Managing Director Jennifer Schaller is moderating a collaborative panel discussing investing in clients. Check out the below article by founder of the Managing Partner Forum, John Remsen.

We all know that the legal profession has changed dramatically over the past two decades, resulting in a new set of challenges that yesterday’s firm leaders never had to confront. There’s an oversupply of lawyers. More demanding and less loyal clients. More demanding and less loyal partners and associates. Staggering advances in technology. Tort reform in many jurisdictions. Skyrocketing operating expenses. Mergers and acquisitions and unprecedented competition. Certainly these and other trends have created tremendous pressures for law firm leaders—who must change the way they operate if their firms are to remain viable in the long run.

Yet most aren’t keeping pace. In the midst of all the change, far too many firms haven’t changed much at all. They run essentially the same way they did 20 years ago—like loose confederations of solo practitioners sharing office space.

Why? According to nationally known lawyer-psychologist Dr. Larry Richard and his groundbreaking research on the subject, most lawyers hate change. They also love autonomy and resist rules and structure. They have little patience and want immediate results. They don’t like risk and shun the unknown. So for many firms, it’s easier just to leave things alone.

On the other hand, some firms “get it.” These firms are fundamentally changing the way they do business, with streamlined governance, standardized systems and procedures, strategic plans, and marketing and business development programs. They enforce minimum performance standards for partners and associates. Many are also divesting themselves of low-profit clients and practice groups. They are deequating underperforming shareholders and asking disruptive lawyers—even those with big books of business—to leave. These firms are emerging as the front-runners in the market because their top levels of leadership have the moxie and vision to make change happen.

The Firm Leader as Change Agent

In today’s most successful law firms, the role of managing partner has evolved significantly, from that of a “caretaker” trying not to rock the boat to that of a dynamic consensus builder and change agent. Today the managing partner is the CEO of a multimillion-dollar entity in a rapidly changing industry and needs to exercise critical leadership skills to set the example for leaders at all other levels of the firm and thus ensure the organization’s success.

Of course, knowing that you need to set the course to success and actually doing it can be difficult, given the press of countless to-dos firm leaders tackle every day. Consider this: Last year TheRemsenGroup surveyed more than 170 managing partners from firms ranging in size from 10 to 2,200 lawyers. Of those firms, 60 percent had more than 50 lawyers. When they were asked what their most important contributions were in their roles as managing partner, building consensus among shareholders and initiating change topped the list of responses. In contrast, when asked where they spent most of their time, day-to-day administration ate up way too much of it.

We also asked if these managing partners had a job description: 74 percent did not. In addition, 76 percent did not have a clearly defined exit strategy.

What can we take from this? Too many leaders at the top levels of law firms are winging it.

Steps to More Effective Leadership

A successful firm leader must be a visionary, a communicator, a negotiator, a coach, a disciplinarian, a cheerleader and a psychologist all wrapped up in one person. Needless to say, it’s not an easy job, especially when you add management responsibilities to the mix.

There are, however, steps that the top levels of firm leadership can take to enhance their effectiveness and improve the performance of their organizations. Here, in a nutshell, is the guidebook.

  • Codify the Top Leader’s Job

Every managing partner should have a well-defined job description. It should set forth the primary responsibilities of the position, the amount of time required, and how the partner will be compensated for his or her nonbillable contributions. Also, it should account for the fact that a managing partner’s time should be spent mostly in the areas of planning, communication and consensus building. Day-to-day administration functions should be delegated to a capable administrator.

  • Appoint Strong Group Leaders

A firm needs strong leadership at all levels. Unfortunately, departments and practice groups are too often led by the most senior lawyer or the lawyer with the biggest book of business when, in fact, that may not be the right person for the job. Passion, commitment and leadership skills are required for these important roles. To help ensure the right people are put in the right positions, department heads, practice group chairs and branch office managing partners need job descriptions, just like the managing partner does.

  • Develop a Firmwide Strategic Plan

The evidence is clear. Firms that have plans outperform those that do not. Planning helps to bring everybody onto the same page, sharing the same vision for the future. Firm leaders have to embrace and encourage the planning process and the plan’s implementation at the firm, practice group and individual lawyer levels.

  • Build a Firm-First Culture

Leaders should always encourage and reward a “firm-first” mind-set and attitude among all the firm’s members. There are a variety of ways to do this, including through compensation mechanisms, but even simple steps can prove very effective. For example, insist on the term “our” clients instead of “mine” and “yours.” Leaders must do everything possible to promote trust, teamwork and fairness within the firm.

  • Lead by Example

Managing partners and practice group leaders cannot be hypocrites. They must “walk the talk” by being first in submitting their individual marketing plans, getting their time records in, mentoring younger colleagues, returning client phone calls and otherwise setting the standard for everyone in the firm.

  • Invest in the Future

According to LexisNexis’s 2007 Juris Law Firm Economic Survey, the top performing and most profitable law firms spend more per person than underperforming firms do. They are investing in the future. The lesson: Resist the temptation to enhance profitably through cost cutting. That’s a short-term fix. Profitable firms look at long-term impacts.

  • Groom Successor Leaders

The best leaders are wise enough to identify and mentor a successor for their roles. They give that person important, high-profile assignments so that the firm’s people gain trust and confidence in the successor’s leadership skills well before the torch is actually passed. In addition, managing partners in particular should have a well-defined exit strategy that is communicated to all shareholders.

  • Be Passionate

They sure don’t teach much about leadership in law schools. But that’s not an excuse for failing to strive to be the best firm leader you can be. There are many intricacies involved in steering a firm toward top performance in times of change. To learn more about them, you should attend leadership conferences and ask your firm for training. Read books and articles. Learn from other managing partners and practice group chairs. It’s important for leaders to demonstrate that they’re devoted to excellence. -After all, if the leader isn’t committed, there aren’t likely to be many followers—and the firm will stagnate as a result. Those firms with strong, passionate and committed leaders, on the other hand, will emerge as the most successful law firms of the future.

Article By John Remsen, Jr of The Remsen Group
Copyright 2016 The Remsen Group

The Evolving Role of Today’s Law Firm Leaders

The National Law Review is in attendance at the 23rd Managing Partner Forum today in Atlanta, Georgia. NLR Managing Director Jennifer Schaller is moderating a collaborative panel discussing investing in clients. Check out the below article by founder of the Managing Partner Forum, John Remsen.

We all know that the legal profession has changed dramatically over the past two decades, resulting in a new set of challenges that yesterday’s firm leaders never had to confront. There’s an oversupply of lawyers. More demanding and less loyal clients. More demanding and less loyal partners and associates. Staggering advances in technology. Tort reform in many jurisdictions. Skyrocketing operating expenses. Mergers and acquisitions and unprecedented competition. Certainly these and other trends have created tremendous pressures for law firm leaders—who must change the way they operate if their firms are to remain viable in the long run.

Yet most aren’t keeping pace. In the midst of all the change, far too many firms haven’t changed much at all. They run essentially the same way they did 20 years ago—like loose confederations of solo practitioners sharing office space.

Why? According to nationally known lawyer-psychologist Dr. Larry Richard and his groundbreaking research on the subject, most lawyers hate change. They also love autonomy and resist rules and structure. They have little patience and want immediate results. They don’t like risk and shun the unknown. So for many firms, it’s easier just to leave things alone.

On the other hand, some firms “get it.” These firms are fundamentally changing the way they do business, with streamlined governance, standardized systems and procedures, strategic plans, and marketing and business development programs. They enforce minimum performance standards for partners and associates. Many are also divesting themselves of low-profit clients and practice groups. They are deequating underperforming shareholders and asking disruptive lawyers—even those with big books of business—to leave. These firms are emerging as the front-runners in the market because their top levels of leadership have the moxie and vision to make change happen.

The Firm Leader as Change Agent

In today’s most successful law firms, the role of managing partner has evolved significantly, from that of a “caretaker” trying not to rock the boat to that of a dynamic consensus builder and change agent. Today the managing partner is the CEO of a multimillion-dollar entity in a rapidly changing industry and needs to exercise critical leadership skills to set the example for leaders at all other levels of the firm and thus ensure the organization’s success.

Of course, knowing that you need to set the course to success and actually doing it can be difficult, given the press of countless to-dos firm leaders tackle every day. Consider this: Last year TheRemsenGroup surveyed more than 170 managing partners from firms ranging in size from 10 to 2,200 lawyers. Of those firms, 60 percent had more than 50 lawyers. When they were asked what their most important contributions were in their roles as managing partner, building consensus among shareholders and initiating change topped the list of responses. In contrast, when asked where they spent most of their time, day-to-day administration ate up way too much of it.

We also asked if these managing partners had a job description: 74 percent did not. In addition, 76 percent did not have a clearly defined exit strategy.

What can we take from this? Too many leaders at the top levels of law firms are winging it.

Steps to More Effective Leadership

A successful firm leader must be a visionary, a communicator, a negotiator, a coach, a disciplinarian, a cheerleader and a psychologist all wrapped up in one person. Needless to say, it’s not an easy job, especially when you add management responsibilities to the mix.

There are, however, steps that the top levels of firm leadership can take to enhance their effectiveness and improve the performance of their organizations. Here, in a nutshell, is the guidebook.

  • Codify the Top Leader’s Job

Every managing partner should have a well-defined job description. It should set forth the primary responsibilities of the position, the amount of time required, and how the partner will be compensated for his or her nonbillable contributions. Also, it should account for the fact that a managing partner’s time should be spent mostly in the areas of planning, communication and consensus building. Day-to-day administration functions should be delegated to a capable administrator.

  • Appoint Strong Group Leaders

A firm needs strong leadership at all levels. Unfortunately, departments and practice groups are too often led by the most senior lawyer or the lawyer with the biggest book of business when, in fact, that may not be the right person for the job. Passion, commitment and leadership skills are required for these important roles. To help ensure the right people are put in the right positions, department heads, practice group chairs and branch office managing partners need job descriptions, just like the managing partner does.

  • Develop a Firmwide Strategic Plan

The evidence is clear. Firms that have plans outperform those that do not. Planning helps to bring everybody onto the same page, sharing the same vision for the future. Firm leaders have to embrace and encourage the planning process and the plan’s implementation at the firm, practice group and individual lawyer levels.

  • Build a Firm-First Culture

Leaders should always encourage and reward a “firm-first” mind-set and attitude among all the firm’s members. There are a variety of ways to do this, including through compensation mechanisms, but even simple steps can prove very effective. For example, insist on the term “our” clients instead of “mine” and “yours.” Leaders must do everything possible to promote trust, teamwork and fairness within the firm.

  • Lead by Example

Managing partners and practice group leaders cannot be hypocrites. They must “walk the talk” by being first in submitting their individual marketing plans, getting their time records in, mentoring younger colleagues, returning client phone calls and otherwise setting the standard for everyone in the firm.

  • Invest in the Future

According to LexisNexis’s 2007 Juris Law Firm Economic Survey, the top performing and most profitable law firms spend more per person than underperforming firms do. They are investing in the future. The lesson: Resist the temptation to enhance profitably through cost cutting. That’s a short-term fix. Profitable firms look at long-term impacts.

  • Groom Successor Leaders

The best leaders are wise enough to identify and mentor a successor for their roles. They give that person important, high-profile assignments so that the firm’s people gain trust and confidence in the successor’s leadership skills well before the torch is actually passed. In addition, managing partners in particular should have a well-defined exit strategy that is communicated to all shareholders.

  • Be Passionate

They sure don’t teach much about leadership in law schools. But that’s not an excuse for failing to strive to be the best firm leader you can be. There are many intricacies involved in steering a firm toward top performance in times of change. To learn more about them, you should attend leadership conferences and ask your firm for training. Read books and articles. Learn from other managing partners and practice group chairs. It’s important for leaders to demonstrate that they’re devoted to excellence. -After all, if the leader isn’t committed, there aren’t likely to be many followers—and the firm will stagnate as a result. Those firms with strong, passionate and committed leaders, on the other hand, will emerge as the most successful law firms of the future.

Article By John Remsen, Jr of The Remsen Group
Copyright 2016 The Remsen Group

Lessons for Lawyers from Steve Jobs [VIDEO]

Apple LogoThis is Small Business Week and I’m going to share with you some inspiring talks by business visionaries in this week’s blog posts.

The first is one of the most famous commencement speeches ever given — the 2005 Stanford commencement address by Steve Jobs. One of my favorite lessons from Jobs’ talk is “Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.”

The most successful lawyers I know have followed the less-traveled road to success. They have freed themselves from conventional thinking within the legal profession. They have marketed when others have not. They were among the first to adopt alternative fee structures while others lost clients to the hidebound billable hour. They have recruited Superstars for their firms while others were happy just to fill office chairs.

Our success in helping more than 18,000 lawyers grow their firms has always been rooted in contrarian thinking.   When firms have believed that the best path to fill their coffers was to be everything to everyone, we have demonstrated the profitable power of specialization. When firms have clung to traditional advertising, we have shown lawyers that the road to better ROI lies in isolating a target market and reaching out to them one-on-one for a more engaging experience. When the legal professional scoffed at Internet marketing and social media, we proved how having a strong online presence led to more leads.

Steve Jobs was a contrarian his whole life. Listen to Jobs speak about seeing opportunities in setbacks — even his own death, which was much closer than he knew at that time:

Article By Stephen Fairley of The Rainmaker Institute
© The Rainmaker Institute, All Rights Reserved

The Challenge of Developing Marketing Initiatives in Law Firms

In many ways, law firms can be tough environments to begin marketing initiatives.  The National Law Review had the opportunity to follow-up with the panelists at the Designing a Wholly Integrated Marketing and Business Development Model Panel at this year’s Marketing Partner Forum conference.  Ian Turvill, Chief Marketing Officer at Freeborn & Peters LLP, Beth Cuzzone, Director of Business Development at Goulston & Storrs and David Burkhardt, Client Service Director at Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton LLP were gracious enough to share their thoughts on how to integrate marketing strategies into law firm life.

First of all, in many ways, marketing in law firms is tough because firms are naturally critical of new initiatives and leadership tends to be filled with “professional skeptics” who are quick to point out why something won’t work.  So to be successful, one must be strategic.  Turvill says, “It is difficult to get leadership on board with a strategy, and it will take time for strategies to show results.  So the answer is to take these facts explicitly into account.  I am a big believer in starting small, demonstrating that a particular approach is likely to bear fruit.”  Burkhardt says, “It’s important to monitor and improve client satisfaction and to ensure that our clients are aware of all the services available to them.” Cuzzone offers two golden rules: “the marketing initiatives [should] align with the firm’s strategic direction, culture and values.  The burden is on the marketing professionals to marry the implementation of the strategy with their firm’s people, personalities and budget.”

That means playing to people’s strengths.  Many marketing professionals at law firms have the same complaint: getting attorneys to work on marketing goals can be a difficult ask.  One example of this is content generation for content marketing: getting attorneys to write can be a challenge.  Turvill reminds us that “Recognize first that writing or generating content may not be the right approach for all attorneys.  As someone said to me, ‘you shouldn’t try and teach a pig how to sing opera; the pig will get angry and you’ll simply get muddy.’”  Turvill points out that there are many ways to create content, and “it is not necessary for attorneys to be the laboring oar on content generation.”  External consultants can be helpful, and finding ways for attorneys to have public obligations for writing give them a greater sense of  commitment.  Turvill says, “once the content is generated, then we repurpose that in as many ways possible.”  Cuzzone agrees, saying, “Once an attorney produces one piece of content – members of our department are good at repurposing it in several mediums. We turn a litigation win into a case study . .  . We turn a simple blog post into an executive briefing powerpoint to be given to clients or an article into a checklist, and so on.”  Cuzzone adds that it is very important to have strong writers on your team.

Once you have content, a social media strategy is crucial for getting it out and seen.  However, a good social media strategy is a bit more in-depth. Cuzzone says it’s all about creating a “unique social media personality by posting items that reflect our culture, people and clients … we don’t just post links to our newsletters and press releases. We also started interacting with clients on social media.”  Turvill agrees that social media should be thought-out and deliberate, involving the basic principles of marketing.  Social media channels should be segmented, so various practice groups have their own channels and the content should be tailored with client needs in mind.  Turvill also suggests that content should be differentiated–so there is information available through your social media feeds that is unique to you.  All of social media should be targeted, so that you know who your audience is broken down in terms of their position, industry and interest.

Turvill and Cuzzone agree that in terms of success, it’s important for law firms to know who they are and where they’ve been.  Turvill says, “The single most important technology is a database of a firm’s experience that can be easily searched and then used to generate a listing of representative matters  in response to a request from a client.”  Being able to quickly reference previous work done, and its subject matter is an important tool to have, as Turvill points out, “Outside of references, a client will judge a firm’s appropriateness for a matter based largely on whether they’ve done something like this previously.”  Cuzzone agrees, saying, “much consideration needs to be given internally before developing an external strategy.”

In his role as Client Services Director at Wyrick Robbins, David Burkhardt sees the importance of “listening opportunities.”  Burkhardt sees his job to provide, “intentional and sustained client advocacy.  Client service reviews, interviews and satisfaction surveys are a natural way to engage our clients in conversation.”  These are the opportunities for firms to learn about their performance and how their client’s perceive their service, perhaps using different metrics than law firms are familiar with.  Burkhardt says, “Law firms still have a ways to go to truly make their clients’ voices heard.  Yes, you won the case or closed the deal, but that is not always the ultimate sign of client success.”  Burkhardt points out that things like how your firm communicates with clients can have a big impact on how the client views the transaction. Similarly,something as minor as asking clients if they prefer an email to a phone call–can make a big difference.

As these steps are put in place, in order to demonstrate the success that might otherwise be difficult to measure, it’s important to create a measurement system that can show the growth or change.  Cuzzone says, “Since implementation has a high failure rate in law firm marketing, benchmarks are essential to show progress along the process.”  Being able to demonstrate success, with numbers and data, can go a long way to convincing skeptical law firm leadership that marketing initiatives contributed to the bottom line.

Successful marketing within law firms requires strategy, self-awareness, and a solid understanding of what your clients, and potential clients, want.  Strategically playing to the strengths of your firm for marketing purposes, re-purposing content, having a social media plan, and making sure yardsticks are in place to monitor progress are all important steps in being successful.

Article By Eilene Spear
Copyright ©2016 National Law Forum, LLC

Asking for Business From a Distance

Legal services are increasingly provided to companies located across the country or even across the globe from the firms that serve them; and this creates a new level of complexity when it comes to business development. Maybe you and your team flew to Dallas or Tokyo to make pitch. You think it went well, but now you need to figure out how to follow up effectively long distance. Similarly, you may want to do additional work for an existing client located a thousand miles away.  Should you fly out and see her, or is reaching out by phone sufficient? Such dilemmas are common in the modern world.  Here are a few factors to consider when asking for business from a distance.

Asking for business feels a lot weightier for the attorney than for the client.

An attorney may think that following up after a pitch or discussing the possibility of starting a new matter is a complex, delicate conversation and, therefore, it would be better to communicate in person. It is important to remember, however, that the conversation will probably feel very different to the attorney than to the client. A lawyer may find initiating such discussions to be stressful, like they are an evaluation of one’s expertise, worthiness, or likability.  Yet, if the lawyer is doing it well, such a conversation should not be dramatic or difficult from the client’s perspective. If anything, it should be the opposite. The attorney is offering help, giving clients a chance to talk through the challenges they are facing, and hopefully bringing empathy, an outside perspective and relevant expertise, all of which is appreciated.  If there is a good fit between the client’s needs and the legal services offered, the discussion naturally progresses towards a sale, regardless of whether one is on the phone or in person.

Words don’t matter as much as tone of voice.

Experience tells us that we can sense a great deal about another person’s mood and attitude simply from hearing his or her voice telephonically. Think about the last few times you spoke to customer service representatives on the phone. They generally speak from call scripts. Did you notice that different people can communicate the same message, even use the same exact wording, but you as the customer can hear it very differently depending on who is speaking? One person may seem kind and approachable, another may seem “checked out” and uncaring, while a third may seem cold but capable. Our desire to do business with a company is heavily influenced by our sense of trust and connection to the customer service person—and that is largely a matter of tone, pace, intonation and other intangible factors that we pick up on almost instantaneously when interacting with others but which we are less attuned to in ourselves.

We have all heard that only 7% of your message comes through your words, 38% from voice and vocal cues and 55% from body language.  This statistic, based on Dr. Albert Mehrabian’s research, is frequently quoted out of context and applied to situations far outside the scope of the research, such as giving a speech or arguing a motion in front of a judge. Nevertheless, in situations such as business development where intent, credibility and character matter most, the tone of voice does make or break our effectiveness. The fact that we can’t rely on visual input doesn’t change this; it only makes the vocal segment of the non-verbal communication that much more important.

Your tone and other vocal cues are determined by your intention, attitude and approach. 

Even if you accept the premise that clients’ impressions of, and desire to do business with, you will be heavily influenced by your voice, you still may be wondering what to do about it. Some people recommend speaking slowly, remembering to breathe, and varying pitch and pacing, all of which is good advice, as far as it goes. However, it is like a doctor addressing the symptoms rather than the underlying cause. When a lawyer speaks too fast or forgets to breathe, it is generally because he is thinking about himself, his own nervousness, or his desire to achieve a particular outcome, rather than about the client and her needs.

When a lawyer goes into a conversation genuinely focused on the client and seeking to understand her challenges, desires, and perspectives, he naturally communicates better. The intention to be helpful and collaborative generally pushes aside self-doubt and makes people more relaxed, flexible and responsive. Consequently, one of the most valuable things you can do before calling a client or potential client to ask for business is to make a deliberate choice about your intentions and how you want to approach the conversation.  This creates a subtle but important shift in your demeanor and attitude, which automatically alters the tone, pitch and other vocal nonverbal signals and, in doing so, enables you to have more effective conversations, even at a distance.

Individuals’ affinity for phone conversations varies.

While some people hate the telephone, many people are just as comfortable on the phone or teleconference as they are in person. Don’t assume that your client or prospective client has the same attitude that you do. Look to the client’s behavior as a guide. Does he prefer to wait for in-person meetings, or does he like to talk through things by phone? Also, if you have any doubt, you can always ask him directly. For example, you could say, “I have an idea for how my firm may be able to help you with _______.  I’m planning to visit you in July. Would you prefer to wait until then to discuss this or would you rather talk sooner?” People like having a choice, and the most effective professionals of any kind are those who understand that people are different and adapt their approach accordingly.

Most of the time, any form of asking for business is preferable to none at all.

A final factor to consider when asking for business from a distance is that while attorneys often worry about finding the right words or the right moment to follow up or initiate a conversation, this is one of the many situations where it is better to just do it.  No matter how perfectly you conduct the conversation or how great your relationship, some companies will need your services and some will not.  All you can do is ask.  While this is no different than the situation when following up with clients at a closer proximity, I find that the distance becomes one more rationale for not having those uncomfortable conversations. Human beings tend to put off activities and discussions that feel awkward and our minds are excellent at finding excuses.  Don’t turn distance into an artificial obstacle.

Article By Anna H. Rappaport of Excelleration, LLC

© 2008-2016 Anna Rappaport. All Rights Reserved

The Future of Law Firm Marketing with Deloitte CMO Diana O’Brien [PODCAST]

In this podcast interview, John McDougall of McDougall Interactive and legalmarketingreview.com and Nicole Minnis of The National Law Review speak with LMA keynote speaker Diana O’Brien about her role as CMO of Deloitte, the future of law firm marketing, marketing technology, and the challenges that law firms face with traditional and digital marketing.

John McDougall: Hi, I’m John McDougall, CEO of McDougall Interactive, and I’m here today with Nicole Minnis, Lead Publications Manager at the National Law Review. And our guest is Diana O’Brien, the Chief Marketing Officer of Deloitte. Diana will be the Keynote Speaker at the upcoming Legal Marketing Association annual conference on April 11th – 13th, in Austin, Texas. Welcome, Nicole and Diana.

Nicole Minnis: Thanks John, hi, and hello to you, Diana, as well.

Diana O’Brien: Thanks John and Nicole, it’s great to be here today.

John: Absolutely, and Diana, thanks for taking the time. You are a fairly new CMO, and I know that you came to this role from a non-marketing background — given that, what inspired you to take this new role as CMO of Deloitte?

Diana: Well “inspired” is the right word. First, my passion was really clients. I’ve spent 30 years in client service. That’s really where I learned to listen to clients, and respond, and react to what it is that they needed, and that was really the impetus to me appreciating and becoming, I think, a champion for clients within our firm. So today being the Deloitte CMO, I’m really the champion for all of our clients, and I’m responsible for helping out stake-holders within the firm whether they be our newest associates to our partners, be responsible for listening and understanding the collective needs of all of our clients and creating an environment where our clients get every day, in every interaction, a world-class experience in every touchpoint. So the client experience is something that I’m just deeply passionate about.

The second thing I sort of married up with that is I had the chance, after having that career, to take on a responsibility of being the Managing Director of Deloitte University – which is our learning center in Texas – and that’s where I came to appreciate and recognize that the world has changed. What worked yesterday doesn’t work tomorrow. We need to create environments where people can thrive, and grow, and continue to evolve, and I had the chance to do that for all of the learning. But, really, the same is so true for marketing today. We’re moving from this world where you could just push out this sort of one-way message where you were communicating what you wanted to communicate and push it out there and hope people heard it, to this more interactive, 24/7, broader business connection, and creating an environment where your clients thrive and you’re part of that active engagement. So it’s not really a back office anymore, it’s right front and center with the clients, and it’s a new capability that you need in order to do that.

So when you marry those two things up, it was a perfect choice for me and I was excited to take it on.

John: Yes, it sounds like empathy and inspiration.

Diana: Yes.

John: And what’s your mandate as CMO?

Diana: It’s really simple. It’s really to drive growth for the firm; it really couldn’t be any more simple than that. What I would say that maybe would resonate, I think, for a lot of marketers is that it does still start with the Deloitte purpose, and I do think that you don’t grow unless you’re grounded in your purpose. So, a good CMO is always going to know what that is and be able to inspire all their professionals to link back to that. So, the Deloitte purpose is to make an impact that matters with our clients, our people, our communities. So, when I think about what my job is and I think about the 70,000 professionals that work at Deloitte, I need all of them every day to go out and strengthen our brand to grow the firm by showing up to our clients in a consistent but personalized way that creates strong relationships, that builds powerful experiences, delivers unique insights that helps our professionals and our clients establish the kind of connection that is sustainable over time so we can really help as problems and issues go over time.

Changes to the Marketing Organization at Deloitte

John: And what changes have you made to the marketing organization in order to execute on that mandate?

Diana: Gosh, I’ve been busy with that.

John:  Quite a few.

Diana: We’ve streamlined a lot. We have really focused on optimizing the resources but we’ve been driving towards a new model. What’s interesting about Deloitte in this regard – and I don’t know that everyone’s appraised this quite yet but – we encompass, obviously, the most traditional elements, which is the communications and marketing capabilities, but all of the go-to market assets, if you will, sit under me as well. So, our go-to market channels [including our managing partners in key markets, our client leaders and our industry practice leaders] and thought leadership, public policy, corporate citizenship, they have been put under me as well and so that’s unique and actually I’m hearing some of that. I’ve met with a few other CMOs that are doing some of the same things and have had some of the same responsibilities, and so what I like about it is that it’s really this combined essence of, really, how does the market — How do you drive growth? How do you really develop a marketplace?

The other thing we think is really important is digital. Obviously we have a strong digital practice and that serves our clients, but it also serves our in-house marketing team and that’s key to us being able to deliver our brand every day and create those kinds of experiences that we were talking about and deliver those insights. So I work very closely with the consultative arm of our Deloitte digital practice.

John: That’s a lot of stuff going on. That’s fantastic. Go ahead, Nicole.

The Future of Law Firm Marketing

Nicole: Shifting gears slightly and thinking about our legal marketing listeners more specifically, what do you see on the horizon in terms of transformation or potential paradigm shifts for law firm marketing?

Diana: It’s so interesting, Nicole, I think in many ways. Professional services, accounting, and consultancies like our firm and law firms, have some real similarities in this regard. I think digital marketing is going to continue to grow and that’s really for all of us, it’s not just legal markers. But we need to face it in a way that maybe some others don’t have the same issues, partly because we come from professionals where we’re highly skeptical. That’s just our profession, so we have to maybe be a bit more willing to get into the data around the success of digital and how that may in fact change us and work to be a better adopter of it. With some of the increased competition that’s there, I think if we don’t do that, the professional services environment has some challenges to stay ahead of the game, and that’s particularly going to be the case, I think, with talent. That’s going to be one of the big challenges if we don’t address that.

Certainly social media, obviously law firms are doing things in social media, but I think it will continue to be a big focus. It certainly has been for us. We have worked to become more engaged and use more outside platforms – and my own micro-site is an example – to sort of meet people where they are. We use LinkedIn more than we’ve ever used before to help us connect into the marketplace.  We’ve all got to figure out how to have our sites optimized for mobile so content can be more easily consumed. And again, when you come from a place where maybe adaptability is a little lower and skepticism is a bit higher, the mindset of professional services firms where we do have some of that, we have to work harder I think to embrace some of those things.

Marketing Technology

Nicole: It sounds to me like Deloitte is way ahead of the curve in terms of digital technology so I commend you and your firm on those efforts. What marketing technology do you see is getting the most buzz right now besides some of the things that you’re already working on?

Diana: It’s a good question. I have two things I want to say on this, one social listening is obviously incredibly important in content management systems or continuing to evolve publishing platforms, and it’s important that we stay thoughtful of that, but the number of channels that you now have to participate in is exhaustive, and it’s just growing, and I think it’s important that we not become sort of overwhelmed with the technology, but really solve specific business problems. One of the things I think that law firms can do is I think it’s important that they continue to differentiate themselves with eminence, and thought leadership, and specific things that you can differentiate yourself on. And one of the things I think that are particularly useful are – maybe not as technology-buzzing, if you will – but blogs and podcasts. I think they’re low-cost communication tools that really are a more direct engagement, and can connect more easily sometimes with the targeted audience that you want with the specialized information that you have.

Sometimes I think we can become sort of enamored with the technology. When I first took on I felt like, maybe the first four months, I was a bit enamored with the technology, but I kept coming back to, “Well, what problem am I really trying to solve for that’s going to drive my business?” While I think there are some interesting things out there that we all need to be aware of, I think it’s important to keep coming back to, “What problem am I solving?”

Marketing and Thought Leadership

John: As a follow-up to that, I love hearing you talk about thought leadership. I own a site, authoritymarketing.com, and we do a lot of work around the idea that your experts and your thought leaders, especially in professional services, will help propel your blogging, and podcasting, and marketing, and SEO, and social media. Would you say that those blogs and podcasts can also then be used by your sales people in business development, and is it kind of streamlining your efforts or killing two birds with one stone by doing both of those things at once? Not just doing the blogs and podcasts for their own right for their search in social benefits and all of that, but to also potentially use for biz dev?

Diana: Yes, there’s no question, and actually we did something interesting this last year. We actually did an active online course on a couple key topics that we felt we were expert in, and what I feel happened as a result of that is the level of engagement that we were able to achieve. It’s actually really a form of marketing in today’s world which is more interactive. It isn’t this push of a message. It’s this engagement where, let’s say you put a blog out there, someone comments back. In [this case], people are commenting on the course. People are exchanging ideas over the content. So you’re evolving it and working it together. That’s the new world. That’s the new model. It isn’t something that is just, “Here’s my ideas and here they are.” It’s a dialogue and exchange that ultimately is more productive for everyone.

The Biggest Challenges for Law Firm Marketers

John: Absolutely, and what about specifically for law firms, what are the biggest challenges for law firm marketers?

Diana: I think, similarly, something similar that we have is how do you keep differentiating yourself in a saturated market? How do you promote your brand? How do you continually evolve, and innovate, and show that you’re uniquely qualified over someone else? Obviously eminence is one way to do that. Engaging is certainly a way. Thinking beyond law firms and professional services firms like Deloitte have, in the past, always charged – for example – by the hour, and that’s just been a mindset that’s gone in. Starting to think more about, “What’s the real value we’re bringing in?” Thinking of ways in which you can differentiate yourself. I think the marketer has a role now to play in helping to shape the thinking around that.

It isn’t just the message. It’s really the mindset of the organization. It’s the type of strategies and tactics that you will use, such as what we were just talking about in thought leadership. It’s how you create the client experience end-to-end, how you think about all the customer decision-making, how the customer feels at all those points that the marketer plays a role in. I think they have a really unique place to influence the many stake-holders, the many lawyers that are in the organization and how they show up at their clients.

But I think even more importantly than that is the future of where their talent is going to come from. I mentioned it before, but we did a study that was a digital study, we did it with MIT Sloan Management, and what we found was across all these age groups that, primarily, talent is really looking for organizations that are technically capable and receptive to employees being able to be digitally sophisticated. And we found that in many cases companies are not nearly as mature as the upcoming workforce and current workforce wants to be, and so that’s a challenge so we have to deal with that.

Conveying the Value of Marketing to Management

John: Yes, absolutely, especially younger people, and not just very young people, certainly into the 30s, and 40s, and above, but a lot of people are just so attuned to social media these days and searching on their mobile phones so if your organization is lagging in that it doesn’t inspire them. I often hear legal marketers complain how hard it is to convey the value of what they do to the management of their firms; do you have any advice for them?

Diana: I think this is something relatively new for CMOs, personally. I don’t, in my consultative time with clients, I think CMOs often didn’t really find their way into the C-suite, and I think that has changed. This is now a real opportunity to affect the C-suite.

I think the CMO had a chance to connect with the CFO about the metrics that drive sales. I think they are instrumental with working with the Chief Talent Officer about how to empower their employees to be better brand ambassadors, to reflect the culture in their business. I think they need to work with the CIO on any new technologies that might be touching the customer or extracting customer insight within the organization. So now they are really up here and I don’t think that was the case before. So they have a chance to change the perception of marketing and that’s new and it’s really a great kind to build new relationships and I think the advice I would have is not to underestimate the power that you have right now to influence and build key relationships with their peers, to have a sit at the table, to take your seat at the table and translate the customer experience, and bringing the customer championship into business results.

John: Yeah and as you said that earlier, really tying that up into your core mandate, your core value proposition and mission statement and making sure that marketing especially things like in the past, SEO or certain things were easy to kind of push a button and they would happen over on the side. Now they need to be much more integrated, right?

Diana: Yes and I think people consider those tactics. They thought, “Oh, well, just go do that.” Now it is an embedded part of the strategy and you can’t really have an organizational strategy without understanding how the marketing message is linking to that and how you are making them come to life in every element of the customer experience.

Content Marketing

John: Do you think content marketing has really driven a lot of that because if you could do digital marketing in the past, it was a little bit of a fairy dust, you know. You could kind of just sprinkle it on. Now you can’t just do that. You have to really develop content that has to reflect the brand or fail, right?

Diana: Yes. I said one time in a talk, and I thought I’d share it even at the conference, but I used to think of marketing as sort of a little m where it was about this message that you pushed out. And now it’s so much more. It’s really about the big M. It’s about the meaning.

John: Right.

Diana: And you are exactly right. That comes from the content that’s really there and it has to be rich.

John: Yes. And the CEO, the CFO, they should take an interest, and I think they are, more so than ever.

Diana: I do too. I do too.

John: What are you up to these days and how can listeners connect with you online?

Diana: Well, I have been pretty busy with the new role but what I have done most recently, I just left Deloitte University, which is a home to me every time I am there but we just had about a thousand of our folks there that sit in our market development organization that had spent two days thinking about, with a number of guest speakers, thinking about how are we going to continue to create the right connections and gain the right knowledge and to think about the right technologies to keep moving our organization forward.

We don’t have, you know — we’re big and it’s hard always to get people together and I’m glad we made that investment. It’s not always easy to do but it’s important when we do to make the most of it, and I think we did. So I was thrilled to be able to have our people together and I encourage, even when you know, with all the options to do things socially and online and virtually, sometimes being in person is the best way to really further that bond. So I was glad to do that.

So connecting with me, obviously please check out our website, first cmo.deloitte.com where you will get lots of relevant content that’s perfectly relevant to the CMO and I hope everybody goes there. My twitter handle is @DianaMOBrien and I welcome anyone and I’d like to have an exchange with anybody, and then certainly deloitte.com. We welcome anybody to visit us there for our eminence.

John: Absolutely, well thanks for talking to us today and thanks for listening everyone to the National Law Review podcast. Visit the National Law Review website at natlawreview.com and for more information about the Legal Marketing Association’s annual conference, visit legalmarketing.org/annual_conference. I’m John McDougall and thanks for listening.

Article By John McDougall & Nicole Cudiamat Minnis
© 2016 The National Law Review