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:
- What are my/firm’s strategic objectives, and how can I contribute to them?
- How do the firm’s practice areas relate to one another and the firm as a whole?
- What strategic and economic value does each practice area bring to the firm?
- What keeps “my” clients and other clients coming back to the firm?
- What is my/firm’s target market(s) in terms of type of clients?
- 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?
- How can I/firm learn more about clients’ business/needs/opinion of our services? (Kind of silly question isn’t it? ASK THEM – duh)
- Am I or firm utilizing the client relationship management (CRM) tools available to us?
- Do I fully understand the firm’s compensation system in terms of its relationship to rewarding lawyer marketing?
- Can I deal with rejection when other lawyers and/or the firm resist my legal marketing suggestions?
All excellent points, and ones I recommend that every practicing lawyer ask him/herself.