I saw this video several years ago (it was created for the Legal Marketing Association annual conference). If you work in or around marketing for a professional services firm you will get a kick out of spending a few minutes watching and laughing.
If you are a partner or senior executive in a law firm, accounting firm, bank or other professional services firm, you will also find it funny. Although, you will NOT see yourself or your partners in the characters lampooned in this video. Nooooooo, not YOUR firm,.... it is the others!
Have A Great Day.
thom
I am currently accepting law firm or other professional services coaching clients. This is ideal for small firms or individuals who are aware they need to increase their visibility in their business community to increase their long term business development efforts. All opportunities come from people, so how you cultivate mutually beneficial relationships will have an impact on your success. Your marketing, brand, business development, networking, PR, social media, advertising and sales efforts all must work together if you expect results. Contact me at thom (at) thomsinger.com or (512)970-0398.
Showing posts with label Legal Marketing Series (Parts 1-5). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Legal Marketing Series (Parts 1-5). Show all posts
Friday, April 16, 2010
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Legal Marketing - What Your Firm Needs (Part 4)
Law firms mistakenly believe that they can accomplish their marketing, business development, PR and advertising goals without making the necessary financial investment. The lawyers all complain about their firm's website, brochures, ads, skill level of the marketing staff, image, and brand.....yet they are not willing to make the commitment to these areas that are common in other industries.
I do not understand why otherwise brilliant individuals make their marketing decisions based on an effort to NOT spend money. The first thing that your firm must understand is that you cannot save your way to success, especially since the money is not being put aside for future internal investments, but instead all profit is distributed to the partners.
If your partners are earning more than $450,000 a year and they are obsessed with PPP (profits per partner), then you will never be able to make the needed investments in your marketing collateral and staff that will get you up to speed.
***For those who are not familiar with law firm economics, law firms release their "profit per partner" numbers annually and then rank themselves against these numbers. It is not uncommon for partners in law firm who earn over $500,000 per year to obsess over their firm's national PPP ranking. These firms make hiring, structuring, and other business decisions with this in mind. The main argument is that these ranks help in hiring to show law school recruits just how much cash they will bank from firm A over firm B. However, today's law student wants to see more than this from the firm the select. They want to work with a firm that is a well rounded and well run business.
Now to be fair, this is not all firms, but the point that you must make an investment in creating your visibility in your business community still stands. If the reason your firm does not have top level talent in marketing and business development is your lack of desire to pay competitive salaries, re-think your compensation for these critical roles.
Many large companies in other industries re-invest 6% to 15% of their gross revenue in marketing, sales, public relations, and advertising. Law firms are lucky to spend 1% to 3% on these important business practices (including the salaries of the staff). Legal marketing industry surveys praise firms that get close to 5% as progressive! These numbers alone show that you cannot expect to have even half the success of businesses in other fields.
MBA's study these disciplines in school, lawyers do not. Law schools avoid teaching the skills important to running a business (and yes, your practice is a business), which leaves many attorneys mistakenly believing that these are not important to the growth of their practice. WRONG.
If you want more success for your firm's marketing efforts, then your firms will need to get over the sticker shock of what it costs to successfully get attention in the business world. Get past the attitude of lawyers somehow being "special" and above "marketing". Understand what your client companies have known for years and make the investment.
But for God's sake, hire professionals to help you develop a plan and to properly select the best venues to use as a conduit for spreading your message. DO NOT LEAVE THIS UP TO THE LAWYERS! People all have preconceived notions about marketing. Often these opinions are emotionally based on what they see and what they like,...not based on what is effective. And PLEASE do not just look at what your competitors are doing and mirror their marketing. This me too marketing (which is very common in law firms) will just make you a commodity.
I never said any of this would be easy, just necessary for future success.
Have A Great Day.
thom
I do not understand why otherwise brilliant individuals make their marketing decisions based on an effort to NOT spend money. The first thing that your firm must understand is that you cannot save your way to success, especially since the money is not being put aside for future internal investments, but instead all profit is distributed to the partners.
If your partners are earning more than $450,000 a year and they are obsessed with PPP (profits per partner), then you will never be able to make the needed investments in your marketing collateral and staff that will get you up to speed.
***For those who are not familiar with law firm economics, law firms release their "profit per partner" numbers annually and then rank themselves against these numbers. It is not uncommon for partners in law firm who earn over $500,000 per year to obsess over their firm's national PPP ranking. These firms make hiring, structuring, and other business decisions with this in mind. The main argument is that these ranks help in hiring to show law school recruits just how much cash they will bank from firm A over firm B. However, today's law student wants to see more than this from the firm the select. They want to work with a firm that is a well rounded and well run business.
Now to be fair, this is not all firms, but the point that you must make an investment in creating your visibility in your business community still stands. If the reason your firm does not have top level talent in marketing and business development is your lack of desire to pay competitive salaries, re-think your compensation for these critical roles.
Many large companies in other industries re-invest 6% to 15% of their gross revenue in marketing, sales, public relations, and advertising. Law firms are lucky to spend 1% to 3% on these important business practices (including the salaries of the staff). Legal marketing industry surveys praise firms that get close to 5% as progressive! These numbers alone show that you cannot expect to have even half the success of businesses in other fields.
MBA's study these disciplines in school, lawyers do not. Law schools avoid teaching the skills important to running a business (and yes, your practice is a business), which leaves many attorneys mistakenly believing that these are not important to the growth of their practice. WRONG.
If you want more success for your firm's marketing efforts, then your firms will need to get over the sticker shock of what it costs to successfully get attention in the business world. Get past the attitude of lawyers somehow being "special" and above "marketing". Understand what your client companies have known for years and make the investment.
But for God's sake, hire professionals to help you develop a plan and to properly select the best venues to use as a conduit for spreading your message. DO NOT LEAVE THIS UP TO THE LAWYERS! People all have preconceived notions about marketing. Often these opinions are emotionally based on what they see and what they like,...not based on what is effective. And PLEASE do not just look at what your competitors are doing and mirror their marketing. This me too marketing (which is very common in law firms) will just make you a commodity.
I never said any of this would be easy, just necessary for future success.
Have A Great Day.
thom
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Legal Marketing - What Your Firm Needs (Part 3) or "Who Moved My Clients"
Many law firms are shocked when they lose a client. Even though much has been written about the serious reduction in the number of firms engaged by Fortune 1000 companies, attorneys too often think the downsizing will not effect their practice.
If you are looking for new clients or working like mad to hang onto the ones you currently have (and beware if that part about "working like mad to keep clients" sounds foreign to you!), you need to employ marketing and businesss development techniques. Remember, people do business with people they know and like.....but out of sight is also out of mind (If the use of cliche bothers you....too bad).
The fact that you have done good work for a client in the past is not reason enough for them to call you for their next matter. If they use the services of other firms you run the risk that your competition will figure out the power of cross-selling before you can cement your relationship with the client. Other lawyers also do great work for the client, too, (put your ego aside and look at this through reality colored glasses) and they might have enough influence to get their firm the work in your practice area.
Do not wait until someone moves your clients out of your arena before working on showing them how much you appreciate their business. Go out of your way to deliver good work on time, but beyond just billing them for your hours, thank them for the honor to serve them. You would be surprised how far a sign of gratitude can go to keeping the competition at bay.
You need to develop the habit of constantly having interactions with your clients that are outside of the matters at hand and collection of your invoices. Newsletters, blogs, client parties, closing dinners, phone calls just for fun, etc.... should all be part of your normal business life.
If your firm is fortunate enough to employ marketing, business development and client relations professionals....embrace them. Allow them to know your clients and ask them for constant feedback on how you are doing with your efforts to cultivate your relationships. You might be surprised how helpful these people can be to uncovering unique opportunities to advance your ever growing practice.
Have A Great Day.
thom
http://www.thomsinger.com/
If you are looking for new clients or working like mad to hang onto the ones you currently have (and beware if that part about "working like mad to keep clients" sounds foreign to you!), you need to employ marketing and businesss development techniques. Remember, people do business with people they know and like.....but out of sight is also out of mind (If the use of cliche bothers you....too bad).
The fact that you have done good work for a client in the past is not reason enough for them to call you for their next matter. If they use the services of other firms you run the risk that your competition will figure out the power of cross-selling before you can cement your relationship with the client. Other lawyers also do great work for the client, too, (put your ego aside and look at this through reality colored glasses) and they might have enough influence to get their firm the work in your practice area.
Do not wait until someone moves your clients out of your arena before working on showing them how much you appreciate their business. Go out of your way to deliver good work on time, but beyond just billing them for your hours, thank them for the honor to serve them. You would be surprised how far a sign of gratitude can go to keeping the competition at bay.
You need to develop the habit of constantly having interactions with your clients that are outside of the matters at hand and collection of your invoices. Newsletters, blogs, client parties, closing dinners, phone calls just for fun, etc.... should all be part of your normal business life.
If your firm is fortunate enough to employ marketing, business development and client relations professionals....embrace them. Allow them to know your clients and ask them for constant feedback on how you are doing with your efforts to cultivate your relationships. You might be surprised how helpful these people can be to uncovering unique opportunities to advance your ever growing practice.
Have A Great Day.
thom
http://www.thomsinger.com/
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Legal Marketing - What Your Firm Needs (Part 2)
Has your law firm done a SWOT Analysis? Are the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats something that every lawyer and staff member inside your firm understands and can articulate? My guess is "NO" (If yes, good for you, you do not need to read my blog).
My experience with lawyers in top tier firms is that they are enamoured with their strengths. They can tell you all about what makes their practice area unique, important and successful. Never do they have a problem letting the rest of the office (or the world) know about the cases they have won and the deals they have completed.
However, they have no idea where they come up short in regards to their competition. In fact, if someone from another planet was to study only lawyers and kids who play t-ball they would think that everyone wins at everything on planet earth.
For the individual attorneys and the firm to really succeed, you must observe and acknowledge the tender underbelly. We all have weak areas and everyone makes mistakes along their path toward success. This universal truth is ignored inside firms, and it causes people to ignore these problems for far too long.
Having a weakness does not make you weak. Having a weakness that you cover up or ignore is what makes you open to failure. Publicly showing others that you are working to improve is what will lead to greater success in the future.
Knowing and targeting opportunities is better than wishful thinking when it comes to business development. If you firm is not regularly meeting to discuss how to uncover these opportunities then you are leaving money on the table....as prospective clients are going to other lawyers to serve their needs.
Seeing the threats to your success before they knock you off course will allow you to win. Too many firms allow clients and prospects depart before they see the cause of their discontent. Be proactive with your clients, prospects, referral sources, employees and associates.
Stay tuned for Part 3.
Have A Great Day.
thom
http://www.thomsinger.com/
My experience with lawyers in top tier firms is that they are enamoured with their strengths. They can tell you all about what makes their practice area unique, important and successful. Never do they have a problem letting the rest of the office (or the world) know about the cases they have won and the deals they have completed.
However, they have no idea where they come up short in regards to their competition. In fact, if someone from another planet was to study only lawyers and kids who play t-ball they would think that everyone wins at everything on planet earth.
For the individual attorneys and the firm to really succeed, you must observe and acknowledge the tender underbelly. We all have weak areas and everyone makes mistakes along their path toward success. This universal truth is ignored inside firms, and it causes people to ignore these problems for far too long.
Having a weakness does not make you weak. Having a weakness that you cover up or ignore is what makes you open to failure. Publicly showing others that you are working to improve is what will lead to greater success in the future.
Knowing and targeting opportunities is better than wishful thinking when it comes to business development. If you firm is not regularly meeting to discuss how to uncover these opportunities then you are leaving money on the table....as prospective clients are going to other lawyers to serve their needs.
Seeing the threats to your success before they knock you off course will allow you to win. Too many firms allow clients and prospects depart before they see the cause of their discontent. Be proactive with your clients, prospects, referral sources, employees and associates.
Stay tuned for Part 3.
Have A Great Day.
thom
http://www.thomsinger.com/
Friday, August 10, 2007
Legal Marketing - What Your Firm Needs (Part 1)
I am amazed that many law firms (and other professional service companies) still do not "get it" when it comes to marketing, business development, sales, public relations, and networking. There has been so much discussion about his in the legal profession over the past decade that one would imagine that these highly educated people would realize that their firm is a B-U-S-I-N-E-S-S, and they should run it like a business!
There I said it, your law firm is no different than the companies you represent. You are bound by the same laws of the universe that effect businesses large and small around the world: You need clients, you need them to pay you for your services, you need to spend less on your expenses than you bring in throughout the year (AKA - profit!), and you need more paying clients in line so that you can keep your doors open. That other stuff you think is important is nice, but it is all extra.
No lawyer would tell their corporate client to fire all the sales and marketing people. That is how companies find, qualify, engage and retain customers. Why is it then that they downgrade these functions inside their own firms?
I recently had a firm tell me they were looking to hire a marketing professional. They wanted someone who was experienced, motivated, and had a business mind / personality. Oh, and they wanted to pay around $35, 000 per year.
WHAT??? Why don't they just admit "We do not want to value this person as an important part of our firm. We are looking for someone just out of college who will suck it up and work hard for a small sum of money while we treat them like crap. Also, once they learn the job and can start to provide real value, we hope that they will leave us for another firm or another industry who will pay them what they are worth. Thus we can start over and find someone else dumb enough to work for us at this low salary. Finally, we need someone who can handle being yelled at by attorneys, because we all know that will happen regularly during their tenure at this firm."
If your firm wants to achieve greater success in your marketing you have to stop thinking of staff members without law degrees as sub-human. Realize that people with a variety of different backgrounds can contribute to your overall success. Think about "why" you have a marketing or business development position in the first place. What is it hat you want to accomplish and how can this person work with you to achieve the goals? You already have enough legal secretaries who you can yell at, so you don't need to treat you marketing staff in a disrespectful manner. (You should not treat anyone poorly, but that might be more than I can ask of some of your partners...not you...I am sure you are not the problem attorney!)
Once you know what you want to accomplish with your marketing efforts, it makes it easier to rationalize paying a professional salary for the "right" person who can impact the success of your office and beyond. Sales people in the top companies (Cisco, IBM, etc....) make as much or more money than lawyers (yep, it is true!). The right person on your team can catapult you to the top of your business community, but this person will not magically bring in new clients. You need to be their business partner if you want success. There is no magic. They can strategize with partners and associates developing plans that will lead to additional business. And who does not like the sound of additional business?
I think that legal marketing/legal business development (aka, SALES...but most of you are not ready to think about yourselves as salespeople...YET!!!) are still in a discovery stage in the legal profession. Firms are more comfortable with the concepts of these important business disciplines, but are still tentative to embrace them. If you entertain thoughts of "what will the other firms say or do" then you are destined to be mediocre in your marketing. Be bold and act like a business!
Stay tuned for Part 2.
Have A Great Day.
thom
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