Is Your Firm Like a Snowflake?
Occasionally, I think of snow…not often mind you, but occasionally. Usually, that is when it dips below 70 degrees in Southwest Florida, like today. It’s darn chilly. Currently 58° and sunny, and we’re only expecting 65° for a high. The golfers I’m watching out the window are actually wearing sweaters or those golf microfiber jackets.
Realizing that some readers in more northern parts may want to throw something at their computer screen at this juncture, I guess I better get to the point.
Like every person is unique, I’m told that every snowflake is different. No two are alike (not sure how that has been scientifically proven, but I’ll take it on faith for now). My point is that Seth Godin had a post yesterday about organizations, comparing them to snowflakes. He said:
“There's never been a marketing problem that turned out just the way the book said it will. That's what makes it interesting. Sure, there's a science. There are best practices that, more often than not, pay off. Sort of like not giving a toddler vodka... it's just a good idea. But the art of management is in understanding that all problems are different, and that your intuition and insight are the key.”
I agree. My advice is to realize that, like a snowflake, your firm is (or should be) different; and so too your approach to law firm marketing. Don’t be a copycat by patterning your legal marketing after what every other firm is doing. Let your “intuition and insight” take you out of the box in 2007.
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Tom, I love the post: Best practices are so emphasized that it's refreshing to see a post shouting from the mountain that every situation is unique and good old-fashioned intuition isn't dead but more crucial than ever.
Tom, great post. I coordinate a Brazilian group on legal marketing and we have been discussing almost that on this last few weeks. We have been discussing the problem of law firms adopting strategic planning models, which can be rigid and inflexible, or, on the other hand, creating their own planning, flexible and based on what is available in the market, but mixing and enhancing it with internal expertise ("intuition and insight"). This second path reflects a lot your snowflake example.
