Legal Marketing Blog

Do you remember when the “M” word was anathema? I sure do. That is why my in-house marketing titles (prior to acceptance of the M word and my CMO title) were Director of Practice Development or Client Relations or Client Services. Well, that abhorrence has been replaced with the “S” word. So, the euphemism “business development” has come into play in order to avoid using the current bad word.

Any lawyer who is concerned about being considered a salesperson needs to truly wake up. Every one us has been a sales wo/man since the day we were born. What else would explain our successful persuasion of our parents, teachers, wife/husband (you did convince her/him to marry you after all), children….you get the point. Each and every human being is a salesperson. So, lawyers need to get over it.

The fact is that much that has been traditionally called law firm marketing is really selling.

A couple of definitions may help us bring the two into focus. Although there are as many definitions of marketing as there are professors at business schools, for years I have defined marketing as the process of:

1. determining the firm’s legal services capabilities,
2. and the wants and needs of the marketplace/clients, and
3. bringing the two together utilizing the 4 “P’s”:
   1. Product (the specific legal service or services that will be provided to solve an identified client need),
   2. Price (what fee will be charged for the identified services; hourly, contingency, fixed fee, blended rate, or other alternative fee arrangement),
   3. Place (how the product will be delivered; i.e., via branch office, Internet, clients office, etc.), and
   4. Promotion (the tools and techniques used to land clients which is where the selling part comes into play and overlaps).

Lawyers do many different things in promoting their services. Whatever those actions may be, the bottom line is that selling is the process of closing the deal with clients in order to become their lawyer.

Next time: Some of those activities that are really selling, but have been traditionally labeled marketing.

While I have not had the title of sales representative in a long time now, I have been doing "sales" all my life, and in every role I have ever had inside and outside the business world. We all do it whether or not we want to acknowledge it. And is it a sin for one to actually enjoy it? Most sales people are quite content. I agree with your assessment that we are all salespeople at some place or time. Society attaches a stigma about certain words which I find silly, but it's part of the natural evolution of society and language. You can call it whatever you want, but it still is about commerce that which has been with man/woman kind for eons - without the free exchange of goods and services, we would still be hunter-gatherers - sales has been the cornerstone of the modern world for sometime now. Take a look at our economy today. The reason it is so down is that no one is buying/selling. It is the salesperson provides that vital link. Keep selling and keep buying so we can get out of this mess! Cheers.