Although a conflict kept me from this year’s Legal Marketing Association Conference, Attorney at Work  provides some short but sweet tips, which were shared by other marketers, from various panels at the annual meeting. Specifically:

GC Panel: (shared by Cherie Olland)

“Lawyers seem to default to talking at GCs about the law firm’s features instead of building meetings around issues that are important to the client. The general counsel panel at the conference exquisitely reinforced the importance of asking questions…Be interested in the client and what their critical issues are—pipe down and listen.”

Lesson here: Listen intently to clients, ask good questions…and (how to put this delicately) HUSH UUUUPP.

Client Feedback Panel: (shared by Roberta Montafia)

“Use a third-party professional to interview your clients to find out what they like and, more importantly, what they don’t like. Believing that you know everything you need to know about your clients is not only hubris, but it could be costly.”

Lesson here: If you don’t ask clients for feedback, they may provide it with their feet.

RFP Panel: (shared by Burkey Belser) 

“Panelists discussing RFP preparation uncorked a fine idea: Tap the lawyers in the firm who are the best writers not to prepare the proposal but to review it from the client’s point of view, after it’s complete…Proposals become more succinct.”

Lesson here: A second set of eyes looking at a proposal from a client’s perspective could improve immensely the end product – and result.

For additional tips from Larry Bodine and Adrian Dayton, take a look at the full article.