<b>Technology in Marketing:</b> New Tools for Effective Proposal Generation

Imagine a partner walks into your office with a thick, bound Request for Proposal document from one of your firm's top clients. The partner claims she received it only earlier today and wants you to take a look at it and see if something can be put together in the next few hours, since the deadline is tomorrow. Oh, and by the way, it's 4:30 p.m.

Sound like an uncommon challenge? Not according to a 2006 benchmarking survey by Chicago-based Hubbard One, a Thomson Elite company. Fifty-one percent of the survey respondents said that they respond to more than 10 proposals a month, often with minimal advance notice. Some indicated close to 30 per month. As the demand increases and marketing is more involved in the business development process, 62% of marketers have indicated they are not satisfied with their current proposal process.

State of Law Firm Business Development

Experience outranks relationships, according to the 2005 American Corporate Counsel (ACC) association study. Corporate counsel and other clients are hiring lawyers based on the expertise of an individual lawyer in a particular area, the reputation of that individual lawyer and the reputation of the firm. Market conditions are also changing. There are now upwards of 100 law firms with over 400 lawyers each. Mergers continue unabated, and consolidation of outside counsel by major corporations is not letting up. Over 50% of corporate counsel selects attorneys from a company-approved list according to the same ACC study.

What does all this mean for the law firm marketing or business development professional?

Well, there is good news and bad news. On the one hand, demand for marketing materials ' whether quick brochure packets or tailored materials for specific RFPs ' is quickly rising. So too are the number of hours required for these often complex proposals. But with this increase in demand, comes opportunity for the savvy legal marketer. Marketing and business-development professionals want to be able to provide value to the bottom line, and be able to track and quantify that value. By using proposal automation software, those previous long hours spent formatting content can be spent strategizing with attorneys to win the business. This leads to a new opportunity to shape a more productive role where marketers can prove a return on investment using technology tools available today.

New Roles for Marketers

Law firm marketing and business development has never been more competitive, more complex and more exciting of a career. Traditionally, marketing activities support sales and sales-drive revenues. Some law firms have distinct sales versus marketing staff that focus exclusively on generating, driving and closing opportunities. However, most firms have a mix of staff focused on business development. We know from our clients that spending and resource investment is up in business development. Yet law firm marketers want to have a measurable impact as they define metrics and prove a return on investment. Marketers in the past have traditionally focused on branding, advertising, seminars, newsletters, client surveys and the like. Pitch materials or responses to RFPs were rare. Now, with more firms adopting industry and client-focused organizations, marketing managers are assigned to practice groups, industry teams and client teams. Despite the increased workload put on them, marketers continue to want to have an impact on revenue ' and the proposal process gives them the opportunity to have that impact.

Many marketers are not satisfied with their current proposal process, according to Hubbard's 2006 study. Marketers spend 80% of their time finding and formatting content, and only 20% on adding substantive value to the proposal. We all know that new business is rarely won by using boilerplate content. Too much time is spent assembling materials rather than adding value or new content. Yet in most firms, it's difficult to find up-to-date content. Few firms have good processes in place therefore it is difficult to track and report on proposal activity accurately.

Hope Has Arrived: O.P.T.

How can marketers change a firm's process so they can spend less time finding and formatting content and more time creating substantive content to differentiate the firm?

O.P.T.: Organize your process and content, follow Protocol and use the latest Technology.

Launched in 2005 with the latest release expected in February 2007, Hubbard One's Proposal Generator is part of the new Elite Marketing Center. A fully integrated Web-based solution, the modules can be used as a standalone for Experience Management (who knows what) and Proposal Generation, or as an integrated solution that can even bring in matter and time and billing details from Elite. According to Chris Kraft, Director of Product Management, we can expect these applications to 'address the challenges of traditional CRM systems by providing law firms with valuable tools that combine data from financial systems and client-facing systems, such as Web sites.' By giving attorneys and marketers an integrated suite of tools to manage their day-to-day business development processes (ie, communicating with clients/prospects, requesting collateral, managing opportunities, creating pitches, conducting client research, etc.) contributing information to a marketing system will become more natural and less evasive.'

Case Study: Am Law 100 Firm

By organizing your content and breaking the implementation into smaller, more manageable pieces, one AmLaw 100 firm with close to 1000 attorneys found success with Hubbard's Proposal Generator.

The business challenges were enormous. We needed to define a proposal process that included vetting each opportunity before committing resources. Our objective was to ensure that marketing and client development staff could spend more time on strategy and less time on tables of contents, fonts and templates. Lawyers wanted quick, high value results yet they continued to come to the department with last minute requests. It was also a newly merged firm that was dealing with integration issues. Naturally, the firm desired a consistency of approach and marketing materials.

We first brought in hundreds of recently updated lawyer bios using a consistent template format the firm had developed for its new Web site. Once all the content was in, we trained a small pilot group and began testing the Bio Template. Even if we could not yet generate a detailed proposal with this tool, we could at least append groups of attorney bios based on practice area, industry team, or office. Once this phase was fully tested, we trained the entire marketing and client development department who began using the tool immediately, saving hundreds of hours of time.

Protocol evolved as a result of this phased approach. We needed to determine where and how the final versions were going to be stored. Search criteria and other metrics needed to be established. When searching past proposals, what level of detail did we want to provide? What is the protocol for editing core approved documents and who will own that responsibility? There are a number of questions and issues that need to be resolved as you introduce the technology that should ideally support your firm's process. Most firms, however, do not have a well-defined business development process. 'It's 'eat what you can find' when it comes to content,' says Kraft. Hubbard helps clients with the process as well as the technology. There is usually a 'discovery process' when it comes to finding and formatting the approved content. Some documents are saved in the firm's document-management system; some are saved locally by 'gatekeepers.' Fortunately, this Am Law 100 firm had an approved set of 80-plus documents on the Intranet which attorneys and business development staff were accustomed to using.

After Phase I Bio Generator was a success, we moved on to Phase II Proposal Template. In this phase, Hubbard assisted with creating three proposal templates. Close to 100 approved documents, such as Practice Descriptions, Industry Team Overviews, Diversity Statements, Firm Technology Overview and others, were downloaded to the new database. Protocol for keeping these documents up to date was assigned. Training and testing occurred and once all the bugs were worked out, we rolled out this phase to the rest of the department. Phase III includes incorporating the firm's transactions and deals database.

Lessons Learned

As with Client Relationship Man-agement (CRM) and other technology implementations, one cannot just throw all the content into the database and expect it to work. Taking baby steps and allowing lawyers and staff to walk before they run with proposal generation ultimately leads to an effective outcome. A significant amount of testing is able to happen in this manageable approach as well. Similar with CRM, responsibility for content needs to be assigned. Establishing an agreed upon procedure for generating pitches and RFP responses will ensure that the highest quality, most accurate materials will be sent to clients and prospects. Adhering to the branded standards of the firm will ensure that your specific message will consistently reach your targets.

With new technology available today from Hubbard One, marketers and lawyers can spend more time on substantive value and delivering a unique message to their clients and prospects and less time finding and formatting content. Marketers can have a positive impact on the sales process. Sales and marketing should be a continuum. With effective technology supporting the business development process, marketers can have a positive impact on the bottom line in helping firms win business.

Imagine a partner walks into your office with a thick, bound Request for Proposal document from one of your firm's top clients. The partner claims she received it only earlier today and wants you to take a look at it and see if something can be put together in the next few hours, since the deadline is tomorrow. Oh, and by the way, it's 4:30 p.m.

Sound like an uncommon challenge? Not according to a 2006 benchmarking survey by Chicago-based Hubbard One, a Thomson Elite company. Fifty-one percent of the survey respondents said that they respond to more than 10 proposals a month, often with minimal advance notice. Some indicated close to 30 per month. As the demand increases and marketing is more involved in the business development process, 62% of marketers have indicated they are not satisfied with their current proposal process.

State of Law Firm Business Development

Experience outranks relationships, according to the 2005 American Corporate Counsel (ACC) association study. Corporate counsel and other clients are hiring lawyers based on the expertise of an individual lawyer in a particular area, the reputation of that individual lawyer and the reputation of the firm. Market conditions are also changing. There are now upwards of 100 law firms with over 400 lawyers each. Mergers continue unabated, and consolidation of outside counsel by major corporations is not letting up. Over 50% of corporate counsel selects attorneys from a company-approved list according to the same ACC study.

What does all this mean for the law firm marketing or business development professional?

Well, there is good news and bad news. On the one hand, demand for marketing materials ' whether quick brochure packets or tailored materials for specific RFPs ' is quickly rising. So too are the number of hours required for these often complex proposals. But with this increase in demand, comes opportunity for the savvy legal marketer. Marketing and business-development professionals want to be able to provide value to the bottom line, and be able to track and quantify that value. By using proposal automation software, those previous long hours spent formatting content can be spent strategizing with attorneys to win the business. This leads to a new opportunity to shape a more productive role where marketers can prove a return on investment using technology tools available today.

New Roles for Marketers

Law firm marketing and business development has never been more competitive, more complex and more exciting of a career. Traditionally, marketing activities support sales and sales-drive revenues. Some law firms have distinct sales versus marketing staff that focus exclusively on generating, driving and closing opportunities. However, most firms have a mix of staff focused on business development. We know from our clients that spending and resource investment is up in business development. Yet law firm marketers want to have a measurable impact as they define metrics and prove a return on investment. Marketers in the past have traditionally focused on branding, advertising, seminars, newsletters, client surveys and the like. Pitch materials or responses to RFPs were rare. Now, with more firms adopting industry and client-focused organizations, marketing managers are assigned to practice groups, industry teams and client teams. Despite the increased workload put on them, marketers continue to want to have an impact on revenue ' and the proposal process gives them the opportunity to have that impact.

Many marketers are not satisfied with their current proposal process, according to Hubbard's 2006 study. Marketers spend 80% of their time finding and formatting content, and only 20% on adding substantive value to the proposal. We all know that new business is rarely won by using boilerplate content. Too much time is spent assembling materials rather than adding value or new content. Yet in most firms, it's difficult to find up-to-date content. Few firms have good processes in place therefore it is difficult to track and report on proposal activity accurately.

Hope Has Arrived: O.P.T.

How can marketers change a firm's process so they can spend less time finding and formatting content and more time creating substantive content to differentiate the firm?

O.P.T.: Organize your process and content, follow Protocol and use the latest Technology.

Launched in 2005 with the latest release expected in February 2007, Hubbard One's Proposal Generator is part of the new Elite Marketing Center. A fully integrated Web-based solution, the modules can be used as a standalone for Experience Management (who knows what) and Proposal Generation, or as an integrated solution that can even bring in matter and time and billing details from Elite. According to Chris Kraft, Director of Product Management, we can expect these applications to 'address the challenges of traditional CRM systems by providing law firms with valuable tools that combine data from financial systems and client-facing systems, such as Web sites.' By giving attorneys and marketers an integrated suite of tools to manage their day-to-day business development processes (ie, communicating with clients/prospects, requesting collateral, managing opportunities, creating pitches, conducting client research, etc.) contributing information to a marketing system will become more natural and less evasive.'

Case Study: Am Law 100 Firm

By organizing your content and breaking the implementation into smaller, more manageable pieces, one AmLaw 100 firm with close to 1000 attorneys found success with Hubbard's Proposal Generator.

The business challenges were enormous. We needed to define a proposal process that included vetting each opportunity before committing resources. Our objective was to ensure that marketing and client development staff could spend more time on strategy and less time on tables of contents, fonts and templates. Lawyers wanted quick, high value results yet they continued to come to the department with last minute requests. It was also a newly merged firm that was dealing with integration issues. Naturally, the firm desired a consistency of approach and marketing materials.

We first brought in hundreds of recently updated lawyer bios using a consistent template format the firm had developed for its new Web site. Once all the content was in, we trained a small pilot group and began testing the Bio Template. Even if we could not yet generate a detailed proposal with this tool, we could at least append groups of attorney bios based on practice area, industry team, or office. Once this phase was fully tested, we trained the entire marketing and client development department who began using the tool immediately, saving hundreds of hours of time.

Protocol evolved as a result of this phased approach. We needed to determine where and how the final versions were going to be stored. Search criteria and other metrics needed to be established. When searching past proposals, what level of detail did we want to provide? What is the protocol for editing core approved documents and who will own that responsibility? There are a number of questions and issues that need to be resolved as you introduce the technology that should ideally support your firm's process. Most firms, however, do not have a well-defined business development process. 'It's 'eat what you can find' when it comes to content,' says Kraft. Hubbard helps clients with the process as well as the technology. There is usually a 'discovery process' when it comes to finding and formatting the approved content. Some documents are saved in the firm's document-management system; some are saved locally by 'gatekeepers.' Fortunately, this Am Law 100 firm had an approved set of 80-plus documents on the Intranet which attorneys and business development staff were accustomed to using.

After Phase I Bio Generator was a success, we moved on to Phase II Proposal Template. In this phase, Hubbard assisted with creating three proposal templates. Close to 100 approved documents, such as Practice Descriptions, Industry Team Overviews, Diversity Statements, Firm Technology Overview and others, were downloaded to the new database. Protocol for keeping these documents up to date was assigned. Training and testing occurred and once all the bugs were worked out, we rolled out this phase to the rest of the department. Phase III includes incorporating the firm's transactions and deals database.

Lessons Learned

As with Client Relationship Man-agement (CRM) and other technology implementations, one cannot just throw all the content into the database and expect it to work. Taking baby steps and allowing lawyers and staff to walk before they run with proposal generation ultimately leads to an effective outcome. A significant amount of testing is able to happen in this manageable approach as well. Similar with CRM, responsibility for content needs to be assigned. Establishing an agreed upon procedure for generating pitches and RFP responses will ensure that the highest quality, most accurate materials will be sent to clients and prospects. Adhering to the branded standards of the firm will ensure that your specific message will consistently reach your targets.

With new technology available today from Hubbard One, marketers and lawyers can spend more time on substantive value and delivering a unique message to their clients and prospects and less time finding and formatting content. Marketers can have a positive impact on the sales process. Sales and marketing should be a continuum. With effective technology supporting the business development process, marketers can have a positive impact on the bottom line in helping firms win business.