Legal Marketing Blog

This is the  second installment of my responses to questions by freelance writer John Egan for an article to be published in CPAmerica International’s newsletter addressing “marketing for law firms.” Last time I dealt with suggestions and common mistakes. The next question dealt with budgeting for marketing; to wit:

3.      “Is there a rule of thumb about how much money a law firm should spend on marketing?”

No. I am not a believer in putting a dollar amount on how much a law firm should spend on marketing, merely because some firms throw out numbers like 1%, or 4% of gross revenues. It’s meaningless standing alone.

I would rather see firms approach budgeting on a zero-based system. That is, first determined what it is the firm wants to accomplish. Here’s where that planning stuff comes in again. Budgeting should only be done after the firm determines what they want to do, but how they’re going to do it. Only then should they put together a budget for their marketing and business development efforts.

There are certain basic necessities that a firm needs to spend dollars on, such as a website, promotional materials, and the like. But again, even that should be based on what it is they’re trying to accomplish in terms of goals and objectives for the law firm’s practice or practices.

It’s a good time, as we begin a new year, to consider some basics when addressing legal marketing.  I was asked this week by a freelance writer for CPAmerica International’s newsletter to respond to five questions for an article about “marketing for law firms.” Rather than present my answers in a lengthy post (which I really try to avoid – but don’t always succeed), I will present the 5 questions and answers in three posts in order to keep each short. First, I’ll take up some basic suggestions and the most common mistakes:

1.       “What concrete suggestions do you have for law firms concerning their marketing?”

• Plan (set goals and measurable objectives for firm/practice, identify targets, and specify action items to reach those targets);
• Budget;
• Implement the plan, by:

• Visiting key clients (firms will find that it is the most effectively concrete thing they can do to obtain more work),
• Getting to know the client’s business,
• Writing (articles, book, blog, column) and speaking to target audiences,
• Making friends in the media,
• Getting involved in organizations relating to target audiences, and network,
• Seeking feedback on the firm,
• Treating the client like a human being and partner,
• Don’t surprise the client – about anything,
• Returning clients calls ASAP, if not sooner,
• Developing a personal relationship (not just a business one) with clients – or finding clients that the firm wants to develop personal relationships with,
• Entertaining clients and referral sources,
• Referring potential customers/clients to others,
• Offering advice at no charge, and
• Suggesting fixed fees, whenever possible.

2.      “What are some of the common mistakes to avoid in legal marketing?”

• Failure to plan,
• Failure to implement plan, and
• Failure to get a professional to help the firm do both (since lawyers are not trained in the areas of marketing and business development – certainly not in law school).

You are late, if you haven’t already budgeted for marketing and business development for 2008. Most large law firms start their budgeting process in early fall for the following calendar year. 

Of course, there are firms that still do not prepare a formal marketing budget at all, so anything I say here would be a waste of time for those firms. Unfortunately, for some firms, budgeting is still done on the “Gee, can I take my client to lunch today on the firm?” basis. Planning ahead, ain’t part of the program.

For the others, (those not opposed to budgeting, but possibly have been procrastinating) there is some guidance from Michelle Golden of Golden Practices that may prove helpful in deciding as the new year approaches as to “What’s in a (your) Plan?”

I not only like her simple spreadsheet, I particularly like her focus and the priority order in which she lists her budget categories (with my usual editorial comments):

• Existing Clients – (clearly, this is the most critical area in which to budget dollars. As Michelle points out, this is the most important area to focus, but “usually, little is allocated in this area”);
• Influential People/Referral Sources - (likewise, very important, since the vast majority of new work comes from clients and referrals);
• New Business - (more long-term, so put less business development money in this category);
• Marketing Infrastructure -  (the “bottomless pit” indeed, and should only be financed to the extent it supports the categories above); and
• Research & Development - (in the sense that a firm needs to constantly assess its position in the market and that of its competitors – to be honest, I don’t see this as a high priority for many firms, so don’t get hung up here).

Take a look and see if there isn’t some helpful stuff for your budgeting process.

Thanks to Dan Hull for the lead to Michelle's post.

With 2008 less than 30 days away, it isn’t too early (in fact, it’s later than you think) to focus on your law practice, and the business development strategies you want to bring into play in the coming year.

Questions to ask yourself:

• Am I in the right practice area for me?
• Am I in a “hot” or “cold” area of the law?
• What should I do to ensure I am right on both fronts – at least with my legal marketing focus for 2008?

Here’s something that may help you. My friend Bob Denney of Robert Denney Associates has issued his 19^th Annual Report on “What’s Hot and What’s Not in the Legal Profession”  this month. It makes sense to take a look and do some serious reflection on your practice, as well as where you want to take it.

Items from various categories that popped out from Bob’s report:

Hot Practices:

• Intellectual Property – USPTO has adopted new rules (enough said on that point, as in new regs, new work for lawyers)
• Immigration – firms separating it from Labor & Employment
• Corporate Investigations – “fastest growing area of White Collar Crime”
• Animal Law – cruelty to animals is a crime in 43 states

Getting Hot:

• Foreclosures
• Bankruptcy
• Insurance coverage – “due to global warming”

Cold Practices:

• Medical Malpractice
• Workers’ Compensation

Marketing and Business Development:

• Marketing budgets - increasing as a “percentage of firm revenues at both large and mid-size firms.” Running as high as 10% in UK; reiterating that large accounting firms in both countries “have been spending that much for years”
• Marketing department staffs – “increasing in size along with the budgets”

Other Trends & Issues:

• Rate Increases – “Major corporations are getting increasingly fed up with firms’ rate increases… This, along with poor service, is why many are replacing nearly two-thirds of their primary law firms” (not sure about the 2/3 figure, but I do know that The BTI Consulting Group survey of last spring, which I reported on here, reported that 54% of large corporations had shed a primary firm within the previous 18 months.)
• Mid-size firms – “Well-managed mid-size firms – and even some small ones ‘ are not only surviving, but are thriving by attracting clients faced with the high rates – and often poor services – of the large firms”
• Calls for killing the billable hour – (oh hum, how long have we been talking about this? Enter “billable hour” or “alternative fees” into the Search box to the right for more of my posts on the subject.)

There’s a lot of marketing and business development morsels in this report for individual lawyers in any size firm. Take a look at Bob’s four-page report; it should have some food for thought applicable to your firm, making it worth the read.

The summer is that time of year when most folks, even clients, take some time away from the grind.  So, it's not a bad time to plan some marketing efforts to undertake, either now or when everyone gets back into the swing of things after Labor Day.

Allison Shields over at Legal Ease has a few suggestions (in addition to collecting your account receivables and firing some problem clients - a subject I've talked about on occasion here and here).  She offers the following marketing tips to consider during the summer (with my own twist of course):

• Touch base with former clients to reconnect and possibly pick up some business,
• Update clients on the status of matters, helping to ease their emotional concerns,
• Think of something special to do for your clients to build on the relationship,
• Touch base with referral sources for the same reason,
• Assess your marketing activities to determine what is working and what isn't, and
• Oh Yeah, don't forget to take that real vacation yourself to recharge your batteries.

As a result, you should be in great shape to undertake a fresh approach to your business development efforts come fall.

What the heck is a Mastodon, you ask? I didn’t have a clue myself until I looked it up. It’s an extinct mammal related to the elephant family.

The point relating to legal marketing? Simple. Small firms and solos have hope of seriously competing with larger law firms thanks to the Internet. That is the message conveyed by Mike Dillon, general counsel at Sun Microsystems on his blog, The Legal Thing in a post he calls “The Way of the Mastodon.”

A big thanks to Patrick Lamb at In Search of Perfect Client Service for his great post summarizing Dillon’s main points. Here’s my take:

• Traditionally (read: in those ancient days prior to the Internet), companies in need of a specialized lawyer would turn to their regular law firm, leaving it to them to find that specialist;
• Law firms got larger as the law became more complex, and they needed to hire more lawyers to meet those specialized needs (read: increasing costs, and requiring higher and higher hourly rates to pay for these additional “costs”);
• Along comes the “ole” World Wide Web, and now companies can find really smart, qualified, specialized lawyers in small firms who are just as good and are much more cost effective. How do they know that they are really smart and qualified? Simple, GCs are reading their blogs;
• Big, expensive law firms will be challenged to stay relevant or go the way of the Mastodon.

As Dillon sums it up: “My point is that the epoch of the current law firm model – which derives its profitability from growing scale and raising hourly rates – will soon be over.”

The new model will definitely increase opportunities for smaller, efficient, niche law firms.

As a follow up to my last post about “branding,” I wanted to mention a conversation that Valeria Maltoni at Conversation Agent had with Gerry Lantz, a very successful marketing, advertising and communications executive (and now consultant). In this conversation about branding, Lantz tells a couple of stories about how two expensive branding campaigns failed. 

One involved BP’s brand overhaul in its attempt to come across as more “green” by seeking “alternative energies and be(ing) environmentally friendly.” They changed their logo, colors and slogan to “(B)eyond (P)etroleum” in that effort. Then, they experienced a major oil spill and a refinery explosion causing death and injury. Both events were attributed to ignored warnings and the lack of inspections, according to Lantz. The consensus as to why the campaign failed: “BP didn’t push its brand story all the way down to the operational level.”

The other involved an ad that invited the public to generate their own ads about Chevy’s 2007 Tahoe SUV. Apparently, a number of ads where extremely critical of the vehicle, and the campaign was a “bloody fiasco,” according to Lantz, and lead to Chevy pulling their ads. Some of the public ads can still be found on YouTube.com. As Lantz says: “Don’t invite a conversation if you don’t want to listen.”

Tying this back to my post on seeking feedback from clients on what “word” best describes the firm’s brand, not only should your firm be prepared to listen intently to what the clients’ have to say, but make sure that all the attorneys and staff at the “operational level" are aware and buy-in to the firm’s intended brand.

If your clients were to describe you (your brand) in one word, what would it be? Well, ask them. That is what John Jantsch recommends in his current e-newsletter (free subscription available here). And he suggests a simple question:

“What’s the ONE word you would use that best describes what we do well?”

Could the word be: results, caring, fast, responsive, smart, effective, good communications (okay, okay, that’s two, but you get the idea), or might it be dependable, expensive, inexpensive, fair, quality, etc.? Then ask your clients to expand on what they mean by the “word.” 

After you have done this exercise with at least your top clients, consolidate the messages as much as possible to the point of reaching the most common elements among the information gathered. This pretty much will describe your brand (or unfortunately brands, if disparate groups within the firm are sending different messages).

Finally, ensure that every person in the firm (staff and lawyers) understands the “brand” you wish to project beyond the mahogany walls, and encourage them to live and breathe it to all those they encounter every day.

In response to my question as to what its legal marketing strategy was, the managing partner of a 400-lawyer firm said “to grow to 1500 lawyers in five years.” He explained that he wanted to expand to both coasts, the Midwest, as well as internationally. Conceding that this may be an interesting goal, it wasn’t particularly strategic, since there was no plan in place to implement such a vision. Five years later, the firm had grown by approximately 50 lawyers.

Considering that most geographic areas are all well-served by existing law firms of all sizes, one has to ask the critical question when it comes to thoughts of expanding the firm: WHY?

Often the answer is that if we were bigger, we’d do better. Wrong. Growth for growth’s sake, in order to reach nirvana, just doesn’t work.

That isn’t to say that there aren’t legitimate reasons to grow a firm. Three good reasons for expansion include:

• Meeting existing clients' needs in current marketplace or elsewhere,
• Shoring up gaps in the firm’s practice areas to meet current or anticipated needs, and
• Present marketplace is stagnant or dying, and firm needs to move into growing areas.

So, whether it’s adding individual lawyers, or expanding the firm’s geographical reach (by opening an office or merging with a firm elsewhere), make sure that the reasons for doing so are strategically thought through. Many firms have done so only to close the office or shed lawyers later.

For some very good reasons why some small firms choose to stay small, take a look at the article by Stephanie Lovett that appeared in The Legal Intelligencer and on Law.com’s Small Firm Business. 

By that I mean, don’t have one or even two clients account for too high a percentage of your or your firm’s revenues. It could potentially set you up for disaster. A sound law firm marketing principle involves broadening and deepening your client base in order to minimize the potential of one or two clients bringing the firm down, if they choose to leave. Their departure could be based on any number of reasons, ranging from dissatisfaction to merging with a larger company, whose existing law firm would likely end up doing all the legal work.

LeBeouf Lamb Greene & MacRae, an international firm of 700 lawyers and 18 offices worldwide, may well have wished they heeded that advice, at least for their Pittsburgh office, which closed February 1st, according to a story that appeared in Small Firm Business and The Legal Intelligencer. The demise of the firm’s Pittsburgh office was due apparently to a too big a reliance on one client, Alcoa, Inc.

In response to the question of what percentage of a firm’s revenue from a single client should start raising serious questions within the firm, “the most common answer was 10 to 15 percent” among legal industry experts and lawyers themselves, according to the story. I tell clients they should shoot for 5%.

Obviously, the event for a firm the size of LeBeouf Lamb is not devastating. But, how about your firm? If you have a client or two or three that account for a percentage of revenue you are not comfortable with, then you really need to give serious thought to expanding your legal marketing and business development efforts to ensure you have a broader client base.

The more you distinguish yourself or your firm from others, the more effective your law firm marketing efforts will become. Too many firms still sell themselves as generalists, especially smaller firms, or at least capable of handling a wide range of legal matters. Unfortunately, that only continues the problem potential clients have in differentiating one firm from another.

Niche marketing is not a new topic for this blog (as you can see from earlier posts listed below). What got me thinking about the topic again is an article I read by Paramjit Mahli of Sun Communications Group entitled “Know Your Niche” that appeared in the New Jersey Law Journal this month.

Not only does she identify reasons to narrow your niche so you stand out in a particular field or practice, but Paramjit points out that your legal marketing dollars will be better spent. The more you know about the potential clients in a niche market, the better you can direct your lawyers’ business development activities. There just isn’t the time or dollars available to accomplish this in the broad marketplace for an individual lawyer or small firm.

See earlier posts on the topic:

"More on Niche Marketing "

"For Effective Legal Marketing – Focus, Focus, Focus"

"Do You Have a Niche, and What Are You Doing About It?"

As the New Year approaches, it’s time to give some more thought to the legal marketing benefits of practice groups. But, I am not talking about forming groups based on areas of law that we learned in law school. Rather, your practice groups should be client-focused; i.e., structured in terms of the needs of specific clients and their industry. As I mentioned in a post I did nearly two years ago, your practice groups should be organized based on the needs of specific client types, for example:

“Your practice groups should be multi-disciplinary in nature. For example, in the health care area, a group should consist of lawyers with expertise in administrative law, employment, environmental, business entities, contracts, real estate, tax, estate planning, litigation, and so forth. In other words, structure your practice groups to meet the needs of a client segment whatever your firm’s size.”

Joel Rose, a law firm management consultant, spoke recently on practice groups at a gathering of marketers at a Philadelphia Bar Association-sponsored meeting. His remarks were reported by Barbara S. Kaplan in an article on Law.com. I totally agree with the comment:

“In the majority of financially and professionally successful law firms, practice or industry groups are inherent to client development Rose said.” (emphasis mine)

For Joel’s “(c)ommon identifiable elements of those firms” see Barbara’s article.

With the baby boomers coming of (retirement) age, law firms need to seriously start planning for the future. Not only in terms of firm management, but legal marketing as well. Even though lawyer marketing has been openly discussed and actually implemented in some firms for more than twenty years, business development is still primarily accomplished with relatively few rainmakers … and they’re often baby boomers.

As mentioned the concerns are more than just marketing issues. Since I am a believer that everything a law firm does relates to marketing, management factors relating to succession planning are relevant here as well, and worth mentioning. Ellen Freedman, law practice management coordinator with the Pennsylvania Bar Association has an article in this month’s issue of Law Practice Today that spells out a number of things that need to be met as firms prepare to say goodbye to their baby boomers, Ellen topics include:

• Leadership & Strategic Planning (not only to run the firm, but with vision for its future, which will need marketing talents to execute both internally and externally),
  
• Revenue Generation (requiring willing and talented rainmakers),
  
• Transition & Servicing Clients (client retention and relationship enhancing capabilities are the main business development skills needed here),
  
• Retirement Funding (with rainmakers leaving, you will need to replace them not only to sustain the firm, but to fund the boomers’ retirements),
  
• File Retention (here she is talking about physically dealing with client files that need to be retained and only destroyed with clients’ consent. The marketing implications relate to a request for files you cannot locate, creating an unhappy client),
  
• Staffing (valuable staff are not only hard to replace, but likely have developed excellent relationships with certain clients which also have marketing implications), and
  
• Solo and Small Firms (it’s easier for larger firms to absorb the loss of important rainmakers; and in the case of solos, according to Ellen, they will need to associate with a larger firm, or find a willing buyer for their practice to ease their transition).

Let’s face it, many law firms don’t conduct any formal legal marketing planning ever. And the reasons that a lot of firms don’t is because they don’t know how to begin, what they should do, who should be involved, and what they hope to achieve in the process.

Some firms that do plan, approach it as a major undertaking. It can be, but it doesn’t have to be depending on what your goal is. For instance, not much planning is involved prior to a few partners deciding to drop into the local pub for a few cold ones with a client, while planning to grow your 10-lawyer firm into a 1500-lawyer behemoth with offices in all the major world capitals is likely to take a bit longer.

Presumably, to most firm’s marketing planning is somewhere in between. Bruce Allen at Marketing Catalyst agrees that firms have difficulty getting started with planning. He offers us a chart that lists some of the factors that should be taken into account in doing strategic marketing planning. I like Bruce’s list because it’s a good one. However, I think it requires a lot of (eventually necessary) work that I don’t think all firms, especially those not tuned into planning, are ready for.

So, if you’re not ready to dig into Bruce’s excellent list, I would offer what I call my “Five Simple Planning Steps To Stop Random Marketing” (I didn’t say the title was simple). Here goes:

1.Assess client base (accounting can do a lot of this for you) -Break out "key" clients by industry, type of company, geographical area, revenues, etc; identify clients that are profitable; list work you do for key clients; compile list of current referral sources; and determine profile of clients you want.

2.Determine firm's key practice areas - identify profitable practices, and preferred practice areas.

3.Identify marketing targets (includes clients, referral sources, and prospects) based on assessment of current clients and preferred practice areas.

4.Develop action items that work for you/firm aimed at specific targets by name - e.g. speaking, writing, networking, client feedback, entertainment, joining organizations, client visits, Internet, etc.

5.Get off your duff and do it - pick one or two action items at a time, set time schedule for actions and measure progress.

This isn’t the be-all and end-all of legal marketing planning, but for those who haven’t been into planning previously, this is a fairly simple way to get started.

As a former law firm chief marketing officer, I was reading with only general interest an article by Richard Gary that appeared in LawFirmInc.com suggesting 10 questions that law firm CMOs should be prepared to answer. Gary is a former managing partner of an AmLaw 100 law firm. It got me thinking.

Since many law firms don't have a CMO and some have no marketing staff at all, I looked at the questions from an individual lawyer’s perspective and realized they were just as appropriate for attorneys to ask themselves and/or their firm’s leadership:

1. What are my/firm’s strategic objectives, and how can I contribute to them?
2. How do the firm’s practice areas relate to one another and the firm as a whole?
3. What strategic and economic value does each practice area bring to the firm?
4. What keeps “my” clients and other clients coming back to the firm?
5. What is my/firm’s target market(s) in terms of type of clients?
6. Do I/we approach client relationships based on client’s business and needs, or from the standpoint of my/firm’s practice resources or expertise?
7. How can I/firm learn more about clients’ business/needs/opinion of our services? (Kind of silly question isn’t it? ASK THEM – duh)
8. Am I or firm utilizing the client relationship management (CRM) tools available to us?
9. Do I fully understand the firm’s compensation system in terms of its relationship to rewarding lawyer marketing?
10. Can I deal with rejection when other lawyers and/or the firm resist my legal marketing suggestions?

As I have mentioned before, it is smart legal marketing to utilize a client intake form so you will know who refers work, as well as determine where and how your client matters come to your law firm. By periodically reviewing these forms, you will get a better picture as to where your strengths are, and where your lawyer marketing efforts are more likely to pay off sooner. Your efforts clearly need to be aimed, in the short term at least, in that direction.

In an earlier post,  I gave a list of questions that could be included on an intake form to help make smart marketing decisions. I got the list from Bruce Allen at Marketing Catalyst who has since pointed out some reasons for caution on those earlier questions.  Accordingly, he has revised his list.

My guess, since he is an in-house marketer, is that some of his lawyers were being lawyers (we just can’t resist can we) and nitpicked the questions rather than actually filling out the intake form. That’s just a guess on my part, but I’ve been in Bruce’s shoes before.  In the interest of accurately reflecting Bruce’s list, the following is his latest version:

• How did you get this work?
• What was the referral source (if there was one)?
• What is the business of the client?
• What is the scope of their operations within (state, or our marketingplace)?
• How comfortable are you to work with this client or on this matter?
• Does this client/matter fit into your overall practice/practice goals?
• What is their potential for additional work?
• Would you feel comfortable talking with partners in other practice groups about exploring additional business issues the client might be facing?

The important thing to keep in mind is not the actual wording of this internal form, but the important marketing intelligence that can be gathered about your client base, and how you can utilize the information to improve the success of your legal marketing program.

From my own experience over two decades, clients are the best source of new work for law firms.  Second best are referral sources.  Okay, you’ve heard me toot that horn a few times I know (here, here, and here), but it's true, really. Now, according to a post  by Jim Hassert, research backs that up.

Jim is doing a series on the “Six facts every lawyer must know to develop business.”  Last week was “Fact 2: You must start with current clients.”  He quotes from The Rainmakers’ Toolkit by Harry Mills as follows:

                "Research shows:

• The chances of selling to an existing client are better than 1 in 2.
• The chances of selling to a lost client are 1 in 3.
• The chances of successfully selling to a fresh prospect are 1 in 8.”

So, your planning and legal marketing efforts should put the emphasis on clients first and foremost.

If you want to read Jim’s Fact 1 – “There are many ways to sell” click here.  Next time I want to address his Fact 3 about listening.  If you don't want to wait, check it out here.

The University of Miami's Office of Professional Advancement within the Division of Continuing and International Education has officially launched the "Marketing Program for Lawyers: Developing and Maintaining Client Relationships."  In the interest of full disclosure, yours truly will be the lead instructor for the program, and I am very proud that the University has asked me to develop and participate in this effort.

This certificate course will take place over two and one-half days, with lectures, and planning exercises, as well as a planning workshop. The latter will be result in the "students" leaving with working draft of a marketing plan that they can immediately start implementing.

It is intended primarily for solo's and small firm attorneys, but individual lawyers from any size firm are welcome.  The topics to be covered include:

•   Tools and techniques of marketing
•   Effective marketing strategies
•   Short-term marketing winners
•   Ethical considerations
•   Law firm Web site and Internet presence
•   Building lasting client relationships
•   Marketing planning workshop
  

John Jantsch gets another mention this week due to his comment in his interview with Business Week Online where he talks about about marketing being a system rather than an event.  I’ve mentioned John’s marketing system and shared some of its high points in an earlier post.

In his interview he states that taking marketing “to the next level requires a more integrated approach system and more investment in the front end.”  That, folks, is called “planning.”

When asked for his view on the key things that are essential to marketing, he lists three that small businesses (read law firms also) must do: 

• Differentiate yourself from others (develop a niche practice or service quality),

• Use technology to “educate, market and generate leads” especially on the Internet, and

• Work on word-of-mouth referrals.

Law firms need to accomplish these things too, but they can’t if they don’t plan them.  So, stop chasing the idea or event of the week by planning your legal marketing.  It really will take your law firm to the next level.

Making lawyers accountable for legal marketing is more important in small law firms than in larger ones for the simple reason that productivity (whether it be legal services or lawyer marketing) cannot be spread over as large a base.  Thus, it is much more critical that every lawyer in a small firm contribute to the generation of business.  That doesn’t mean they will, even if there is a financial penalty for not doing so.

I know of law firms (having actually worked at a couple) where lawyers were docked their draw on a monthly basis if they didn’t submit their billable hours on time.  Believe it or not, there were one or more lawyers that hadn’t received their draw for several months. I never understood why they acted this way.  However, most lawyers aren’t that stubborn or foolish.

So, how do you hold a lawyer accountable for marketing?  Larry Bodine has a post containing a two-minute podcast spelling out how one Chicago law firm deals with the issue.  Basically, it goes like this:

• Every partner is required to develop a marketing plan for the year,
• At compensation time, if they haven’t participated, made progress or obtained results, they are penalized in the five-figure range,
• After the second year without participation, the penalty at least doubles and can reach six-figures, and
• If that doesn’t work, the lawyer and the firm part company.

Pretty strong stuff, but if your firm is serious about legal marketing, you too need to hold your lawyers accountable in some manner.

When I first talk with law firms, I often hear that the firm has a strategic marketing plan, it just isn't written down. Rather it's in the head of the managing partner, or president, or chairman, or whomever. In my humble opinion there really isn't a meaningful plan, if the partners....and associates and, yes, even the staff... don't know what it is. How can there be a workable plan if the majority of the people contributing to the law firm's success don't know about it.

Don't get me wrong, I am not generally in favor of an elaborate process to develop a strategic plan. I have witnessed firms doing so, and not only was it usually a wasted effort, it can be costly in terms of productive (as in billable) hours lost. Generally, it becomes a huge navel staring process, that generally produces paper and nothing else. I have found that too many lawyers either hate the idea of this type of planning or fall in love with the process itself, but then fail to implement the "great" ideas they came up with. So again, wasted effort.

But, there may be a way. Tom Collins of morepartnerincome.com has a post I missed a couple of weeks ago that I think makes a lot of sense. First, he tells us about a survey conducted by his company that found that 84% of the surveyed law firms did not have a written strategic plan. Then, he has a suggestion on how to come up with a plan in a way that I think will work for a lot of firms.

He suggests that the firm circulate a questionnaire to all partners (N.B. don't become frustrated over the fact that 20%-40% won't bother to answer), and ask that they independently fill it out. Questions might include (add or subtract questions to fit your firm):

*What do you perceive as the firm's strategic plan?

*What do you think the firm's goals and objectives should be for the next year? 3 years? 5 years?

*What are the firm's top 3 strengths? Top 3 weaknesses?

*What are the main threats to the firm's future? What are main opportunities that would benefit the firm?

*Identify any current or future trends that will/could impact the firm.

*Rate the firm as Good/Average/Bad in the following areas:
oClient Relationships
oMarketing (Business Development)
oPersonnel policies and procedures
oFinancial performance
oAdmin. and management practices
oProfessional development

*How could the firm improve in each of the six areas above?

Finally, compile the answers and share them (without attribution) with the partners, and schedule a meeting/retreat to discuss the responses; and write down what comes out of the meeting. Share that with everyone in the firm, including the file clerk.

Now that was easier wasn't it? At least it's a start.

It seems simple enough, but lawyers who do not understand legal marketing want the quick fix. At times it appears that it is just one more thing on their "to do" list they want to get checked off. Failure lurks in that approach.

Case in point: I received an inquiry as to my services, but it was clear that the lawyer did not appreciate the value in planning a marketing approach before implementing one. You can't do the latter without the former. Further, he thought he should get both for a nominal amount of time and very little expense. Ouch!

Chris Houchens of Shotgun Marketing Blog tells a somewhat similar story along the quick strike approach. Chris' lesson is that one needs to consider ones objectives before planning a strategy.

And only then can one undertake to implement those strategies to reach the desired goals. Marketing is not a quick fix, or something to check off your list of things accomplished. It is an ongoing process.

Also, I particularly liked Chris' suggestion that a good starting point is to look "at your company (law firm) from your customers'(clients') point of view" and work from there.

Stop chasing the latest legal marketing idea, until you have planned one or two solid strategies and done them well. I have seen firms over the years jump from one thing to the next without ever succeeding at any one of them. I was reminded of this after seeing a recent post by John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing.

He talks about not chasing the "next cool thing," even as he admits that he has done that himself (and me too). Better to give your full attention to one, or at most two strategies, and give them a chance to work.

In fact, his closing comment says it all. "Create one strategy, finish it, test it, improve it and use it without regret." Good advice.

Having preached this message to some extent in my last post, it may be helpful for small firms to remember that concentrating on what is/are the best practice area(s) for your law firm requires effort and focus.

I ran across a very interesting piece by a Ph.D. psychologist in this month's issue of Law Practice Today. Cheryl Leitschuh has an article pointing out that size is not the issue, rather it's about "focus." Her five focus points include:

*Creating a strategic plan (this is not as intimidating as it sounds. It means determining who you are as a lawyer/law firm, what do you want to do, who are your preferred client types, and then concentrating on planning how to market to them),
*Clarity of message (after determining your/firm's abilities, then have a clear message to convey in your written materials and verbally as to what you do for clients - e.g., I assist clients solve problems relating to real estate matters),
*Choosing a niche based on your passion (feel strongly about and enjoy the kind of work you prefer doing, for the clients you want to do it for),
*Concentrating on when to say no (turn down the junk you don't want to do and clients you don't respect),
*Creating value and partnerships with clients (the key to long term relationships and professional success).

Don't waste your time trying to do everything for anyone and everyone who asks. It will only result in your practice remaining unfocused.

With year end pressures and the traditional holidays approaching, it is easy for clients, as well as law firms and other businesses, to put off any new initiatives until next year. I heard somewhere that lawyers are hired more in January and February than any other month of the year. Having no clue as to whether such is true, I got to thinking about it, and realized it may have something to do with New Year's resolutions, whether business-related or personal in nature.

While talking with my friend Kevin O'Keefe, the lawyer blog guru of LexBlog, Inc. fame, about an idea I had for my blog (he created it after all), I asked him whether he thought that more lawyers are hired in the first months of the year. He said "absolutely" and in fact when he was practicing law, his firm allocated its total annual advertising budget to January and February for that reason. Interesting!

If that is the case, it is best to get your legal marketing strategy ready now? Decide what clients or prospective clients you want to direct your legal marketing efforts toward, what activities are likely to be most successful for your firm, and start planning for January now.

I know...I know. I can hear the "forget it's" from here. It is year-end after all, and I've been around the business long enough to know that marketing is probably the last thing on the minds of lawyers this time of year. But...what if you are one that does cut out some time to get ahead of the competition and actually plan for early 2006 now? Just might give you an advantage, don't you think?

As I have mentioned before, many lawyers do not like the work they do nor the clients they do it for. I know, some will now be convinced that I have beaten this horse to death (here, here, and here). But stay with me a minute.

What I haven't addressed is the how or what lawyers might do to discover the type of work they really would like to do for that ideal client. I ran across an article on Fast Company's blog FC Now which may provide some help. It suggests that you listen to the whisper. I know, I know……..but stay with me a minute longer. The advice is pretty good. In the words of Doug Sundheim of FC Now:

Consider This:

Mediocrity is easy - follow the masses. Excellence, however, is not - that's a path you've got to carve on your own. Your guide is often no more than a faint whisper inside of you. To pursue it takes courage. And to succeed takes imagination and hard work. However, the payoff is big if you stick to it. You will have built something from nothing. And you will have forged your character and legacy in the process.

Try This:

1. What whisper do you hear?
2. Put it on paper - I recommend doing this even if you think you know it already - it forces you to articulate it more clearly.
3. Recognize that this is your sweet spot - the place where you'll find more creativity and success than anywhere else.
4. When the time is right, follow it. Slowly at first if you have to.
5. Revisit this whisper at least once a year as it can change and grow as you begin to listen to it.

Question: How have you woven your whisper into your life?

Or as I might put it, has your inner self been whispering to you as to where your practice should go? Then you can begin the process of focusing your legal marketing efforts to get you there.

My friend Larry Bodine reported on a survey of law firms relating to the attitude for and actual marketing training of associates that he and Michael Cummings conducted. Although firms say that it is increasingly important that associates development legal marketing skills, 57% of survey respondents do not provide such training. It was only a question of time before firms would recognize the need to train their future partners and leaders of the firm.

The survey should have included junior partners as well, since many of them were made partners in the days (and some still do) when business generation capability and results were not requirements for partnership status. It is not surprising that in many firms it has become a requirement in order to join the elite; but, it's a wonder it has taken so long.

Which raises another issue. What kind of marketing training would be the most effective? In the interests of getting some feedback on that, I thought I would conduct my own informal, unscientific survey on what associates (and yes partners too) would think was the most effective means to accomplish such training.

So, readers, let me know what you think is the most effective type of marketing training:

*Large Group/Seminar setting (i.e. CLE style)
*Small Groups (6-12 attendees)
*One-on-one coaching (whether in-person, by telephone or online)
*Online Training (via Webinars or individual lessons conducted online like many universities)

And, how much time are you willing to devote:

*One Day
*2-3 Days
*7 Days
*Once per week (for month)
*Once per month ( for six months)
*Plus Annual refresher?

Send me a quick comment with your thoughts.

The most effective legal marketing in the near-term is that focused on existing clients and referral sources. My premise is simple, clients know you, have used you and they like you (presumably, or they would no longer be your client). Referral sources have already referred clients to you, and (assuming you have thanked them) will likely do so again. So, marketing aimed at enhancing and developing these existing relationships will provide the best chance for new business.

That is not to say that one should not also focus on developing new clients and referral sources to replace those that no longer need your services, and/or those that left for whatever reason. It is just that this marketing approach is more long-term, as relationships need to be developed.

Tom Collins has a great post over at morepartnerincome.com dealing with four basic strategies for pursuing new opportunities. They are:

*Get there first with the most
*Go where they aren't
*Use a niche strategy
*Create new value

I particularly liked how he makes these basic strategies applicable to law firms with his reference to the next Sarbanes-Oxley law, determining unmet needs of prospects, developing a niche to service those needs, and adding value such as better service. Take a look.

Firms should plan their legal marketing efforts to address both near-term and long-term business needs.

Small Firm Business posts an article written by Susan Cartier-Liebel for The Connecticut Law Tribune that warns solos against winging it as they begin their practice.

She lists some things you would need to consider as if you were a small business owner, which of course you are. Her suggestions go beyond marketing (For more on a marketing plan, see an earlier post where you can download a marketing planning form) and include such things as insurance coverage, location (a marketing issue), cash flow expectations, "bail out" plan, and CLE.

Although Susan's suggestions merely touch the surface of the planning necessary to start a solo practice, if you are thinking of do so (whether as a new lawyer or one about to leave a firm for life as a solo), her nine points are worth a look and including in your solo business plan.

Your "perfect client" should fit a description of one you enjoy helping resolve their legal problems (whether business or personal in nature), and the solution requires utilizing legal skills that you enjoy doing.

I have mentioned in several posts (here , here and here) the fact that unfortunately too many lawyers do not enjoy the work they do nor the clients they do it for. I don't mean to beat this horse too much, but it is a stumbling block that has to be overcome, I believe, to avoid burn out and to gain the practice you would really enjoy. Thus, the need to identify your perfect client, and to plan your legal marketing efforts aimed at those clients instead.

A post on The Greatest American Lawyer blog by the anonymous lawyer tells us that he has given a lot of thought to this subject. He says he has already fired some clients, and invites input from others as he develops his bullet checklist for the perfect client. Stayed tuned as anonymous shares his list with us.

In the meantime, why not start your own "perfect client" list?

Are you one that just can't seem to get around to marketing that you know you should be doing. You could schedule a marketing activity every day. It doesn't have to be major, but it should be something no matter how small.

John Jantsch suggests making a daily appointment with yourself
to do some marketing. If you are one to make excuses that you just don't have time for marketing, the answer may lie in your religiously setting aside time each day to do one or two small things. For instance:

*Call two or three contacts (clients, friends, referral sources, etc.),
*Find out about the next seminar or conference sponsored by a client's trade association,
*Contact the trade group or local business organizations looking for opportunities to speak,
*Schedule a visit to a client or two over the next few weeks,
*Call a reporter for lunch, and
*Start an outline for an article.

The activity doesn't have to consume a great deal of time. John suggests setting an hour aside, while I don't realistically think that lawyers will set aside that much time on a daily basis. The important thing, though, is to do some marketing every day, no matter how minor. And by making an appointment with yourself may just get you into the habit of doing so.

Succession planning for law firms is important for obvious reasons of survival. No less important is planning for who will replace the rainmakers when they retire, and the more marketeres who can step into those shoes the better.

Ed Poll has a post on his blog that addresses this issue. He has several suggestions on dealing with the issue with which I can heartily agree, such as:

*Prepare a business/strategic plan,
*Develop a strategic marketing plan,
*Require individual lawyer marketing plans,
*Have rainmakers introduce younger lawyers to client contacts, and
*Require associates to have a book of business before making them partners

As Ed says "… that's just for starters." Succession planning for lawyer marketing should be at the top of every firm's agenda.

Gerry Riskin reports on Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices blog the results of a survey conducted by his firm, Edge International, shows that 38% of law firms fail to plan strategically.

I am not sure that I would agree that 60% of firms do plan (I'm not questioning the survey results, only what the responses from many firms really mean) on where they are going or where their future business will come from. In my experience and among many of my colleagues with whom I have spoken (not a very scientific survey approach I grant you), it ain't happening. If there is a plan, it isn't very strategic, and missing much of the specifics as to what is truly planned.

However, taking Gerry's survey results as gospel, it does point out that too many aren't doing strategic - never mind marketing planning - and that does not bode well for firms of any size. I like Gerry's analogy to shifting sands and to ships off course. We know what happens in those situations. Law firms are not immune to the same results. So, give some serious thought to developing a written, detailed plan to ensure your firm is on the right course.

Preparing marketing plans doesn't have to be difficult. In a recent issue of Law Practice Today, Pat Yevics with the Maryland Bar Association has an article on writing your own marketing plan where she gives some excellent tips on putting your plan together. Her tips include:

* set specific goals, such as "I am going to take one referral source to lunch every two weeks,"
* plan can be as simple as a marketing to-do list that you have with you or in front of you at all times or it can be a document that is the result of working with a consultant,
* regardless of how it is written or who is involved in the process, the plan must be easy to follow and monitor,
* plan must be fluid and reviewed continuously, and
* you need to monitor your tasks on a regular basis.

She also lists a series of questions you may want to ask yourself to help set the direction your plan should go to be more effective.

If you would like to use a fill-in-the-blank type marketing plan from one of my earlier posts to put some of Pat's suggestions to work, click Download file.

I have mentioned before (here and here) on the fact that too many lawyers do not like the work they do and the clients they do the work for. Not to beat the proverbial dead horse, lawyers and firms need to get serious about marketing the work they prefer doing for the clients they would like to represent.

Ed Poll at LawBiz Blog suggests developing client profiles of those ideal clients and then undertake marketing toward those prospective clients. I really like his idea, because of course, it is the first step in identifying your target market. He suggests a series of questions one could ask to help identify one's ideal client base. Take a look and see if they can help you with your marketing planning.

It does seem sometimes that law firms view marketing coaching as only for the uninitiated, specifically junior lawyers and those who haven't been successful marketers in the past. A Harvard Business Review article on "executive coaching" indicates:

… coaching was once viewed by many as a tool to help correct underperformance, today it is becoming much more widely used in supporting top producers.

Thanks to Ed Poll for his post that confirms that the same is true for lawyers. As he says "[m]ore lawyers are coming to the 'coaching table,' realizing that something is missing in their practice."

I was chatting with a lawyer in a large firm the other day who has his own blog, is very active at marketing (his marketing department holds him out as an example of what others should be doing), and he has a list (which he shared on a confidential basis) of over three dozen activities he undertakes on an ongoing basis. AND, he wanted to chat about what else he should be doing to enhance his practice.

WOW!

I missed Ed Poll's post back in early April about "Marketing More Effectively" where he said "For those interested in more effective marketing, consider Tom Kane and his comments," which obviously I found flattering. Ed went on to say "Then, when you want to put his thoughts into a plan, consider our workbook." HOWEVER, I did notice that Ed didn't say anything about sharing the profits in that there workbook. How about it, Ed?

I have seen the table of contents of the workbook and it looks pretty darn good, and very well organized. No, I still have not been offered a cut to recommend it. But, I do. Now, how about it, Ed?

My good friend John Jantsch (actually he doesn't know me from Adam, I just like his stuff) at Duct Tape Marketing advises marketers to Stop the Monkey Marketing which he explains comes from the Zen Buddist term Monkey Mind. That is, the untrained mind is not capable of focusing on only one thing, rather it is like the monkey in a cage bouncing from side to side.

I agree with his point that small business marketers need to learn to concentrate on one marketing strategy at a time, rather than bounce from idea to idea as we get caught up in what John calls the "marketing idea of the day." Since small law firms have limited marketing resources, it is a good idea to stay focused on the plan until you get a result - whether good or bad. Better to focus on a few well thought out ideas and stop dabbling in the idea of the moment.

A recent post by Reid Trautz talks about burn out, and what to do about it. He suggests ways to reenergize yourself if you are bored with your law practice. He also warns of the dangers of your boredom turning to carelessness. Enough said.

Reid suggests four aspects of a lawyer's practice that can be changed to relieve the sense of boredom:

*practice setting,
*practice area,
*clients, and
*lawyer's attitude.

The middle two can be accomplished through marketing. As I addressed in an earlier post lawyers should focus their marketing on doing the work they enjoy for the clients they enjoy doing it for. It takes work, but if you find you are becoming bored with your practice area and clients, you might want to change your marketing objectives.

I have always been a strong advocate of planning, if you want to succeed in developing clients. As I stated in an earlier post, paraphrasing from Alice in Wonderland, if you don't know where you are going, any path will take you there. I even included a marketing planning form you can download. Planning is essential if you are going to follow the right road leading to a prosperous and rewarding law practice.

Accordingly, you may want to sign up for a Web seminar "Composing Your Personal Marketing Plan for 2005" being presented by Larry Bodine and Mike Cummings this coming Wednesday, March 16. Check out the details.

Good law firm management is critical for successful marketing. That means, for there to be an effective marketing program, there needs to be an effective management structure and team. Marketing activities should be based on implementing the firm's business plan, which in turn needs to come from management's:

-leadership
-vision
-setting goals and objectives
-providing incentives and allocating resources
-holding attorneys accountable
-measuring results

Adam Smith, Esq. blog highlights a report by Smock Sterling Strategic Management Consultants on how law firm management has improved over the last 20 years. Key findings include:

-law firms now recognize themselves as businesses,
-high quality work is merely "price of admission" and no longer guarantees new clients,
-marketing is no longer a dirty word,
-management is better because it has to be,
-more non-lawyers involved in management, and
-practice group management is on the rise.

A law firm must instill good management, including appropriate planning for its future, before it can do the kind of marketing that will make a difference.

It is more important to plan and focus on what marketing you are budgeting for. Quality is better than quantity. Tom Peters' recent comment on an article "Can't Buy Me Love" by Steve Yastrow points out that throwing more money at marketing will not make for better marketing. Particularly, in the law business, you just have to do it. And that means by making personal contact with clients, referral sources and prospects. That does not have to cost a lot of money.

To paraphrase the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland, "if you don't know where you are going, any path will take you there." One of the toughest chores for many lawyers is the preparation and implementation of meaningful marketing plans. It doesn't have to be difficult, but it does require some thought and a little discipline.

I have uploaded a simple, fill-in-the-blanks marketing planning form. Give it a try. It will help you identify what you will do, when you will do it, and toward which targets you intend to market. Prepare one on a quarterly basis, and it will improve your chances of landing the good clients you desire.

Click to Download Marketing Planning file