Business Development Will Dominate Marketing

In law firms, regardless of the pedigree of the marketing director, business development is still housed, for the most part, under the marketing department umbrella. Many of the marketing directors, however, have painfully little hands-on experience with the work of their departments that has the most noticeable impact on their firm's bottom line.

As a result, one of the key issues law firm marketers struggle with today is the blending of the marketing and business development functions under a common departmental roof. This cohabitation is not always proving to be a congenial affair. To give one extreme example, one well-known marketing director recently was told that 'business development is a separate business from marketing and we're giving that work to a business person ' the executive director.'

Not a promising development ' but not totally surprising either.

The separation of marketing and business development ' 'sales,' as the rest of the world calls it ' is the norm in most of the business world. And even in these industries, the well-established division is all too often balled up in issues of status, prestige, and, yes, money.

There seems little doubt that we are at the beginnings of what may be a prolonged struggle. But where will it lead? What does it mean for the continued development of the law-firm marketing function? As these two very different worlds merge ' or should we say collide? What impact will it have on the established and more traditional marketing leaders and their upstart counterparts in business development?

One thing is clear: If law firm marketing departments can't identify and define their roles and contributions, more law firm leaders may be motivated to intervene and settle matters. The results could be worrisome at best ' and gruesome at worst.

Marketing: the Early Days

The infancy of law-firm marketing was characterized by scattershot 'outreach' programs: public relations, client seminars, and memoranda on changes in the law. These were the kinds of things that lawyers and their baby marketers, always on a very short leash, could wrap their arms around. Success was measured in media hits, and the ultimate measure of a 'client development' department's worth was the number of times their lawyers' names appeared above the fold in The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal. And a mention in a column such as The American Lawyer's Big Deals/Big Suits was enough to set nascent marketing hearts to thrumming. Sameness was the order of the day. Crass attempts to discuss more direct or evolved forms of targeted business development were met with stony silence, or, on rare occasions, banishment to the paralegal ranks. In all instances, the word 'marketing' was verboten.

At some point in the 1980s, things began to change. Many point to The American Lawyer's determination to shine a light into the nooks and crannies of the big-firm world ' especially the unheard-of publication of closely guarded financial data ' as a watershed.

Suddenly, in an increasingly competitive profession, overt competition was becoming acceptable. And wonder of wonders, 'marketing' was no longer a dirty word.

Flash forward 15 years. In the competition for new business, today's marketing department is seen as an integral player. No firm aside from Wachtell Lipton has the marketplace cred to sniff about operating successfully sans marketing team. Today, the 'Chief Marketing Officer' and 'Marketing Director' titles are part of the lexicon, as law firms embrace the marketing function in ways unimaginable even five years ago.

Marketing Squid

If there are still any doubts, just check out the numbers. The Legal Marketing Association claims 2800 members, and sites such as the LawMarketing Portal have taken off. By all reports, marketing spending, including salaries, has risen dramatically. Along the way, many of those who have been successful in the CMO or Marketing Director role in the last 10'15 years have incrementally shifted their game from random, reactive activities into more sophisticated marketing and communications tactics.

A much-heralded second phase of legal marketing development included big-ticket branding and advertising campaigns. Agencies like Greenfield Belser developed lucrative niche practices, and the introduction of Web sites moved communications forward with tremendous focus and speed. Yet, spiffy identity programs (to ampersand or not to ampersand?) were about as in-depth as law firms got in terms of strategic planning and development.

On the surface it seemed that a corner had been turned. Or had it? One consultant continued to chastise marketers who failed to step up, pegging them not so endearingly as 'marketing squid.'

Yes, law firm marketing had come a long way, but clearly there was still a long, long way to go.

A Brave New Biz-Dev World

UK firms, most would agree, were out in front of most of their U.S. brethren in making business development a focal point of activity. In fact, it can be argued that business development worldwide got a seat front and center in law firms when Kevin Geary, then Clifford Chance's Director of Marketing, flipped the name of the global behemoth's marketing department to business development.

While it is taking U.S. law firms some time to catch up with the English Magic Circle, the business development function clearly has been on the rise. About five years ago, big U.S. firms, suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere, got biz-dev religion with a vengeance. The authors were right in the middle of it, not surprisingly at White & Case, a New York firm that had gone global and was trying to trump the Brits at their own game.

At that point, most firms couldn't actually define exactly what constituted business development ('I'll know it when I see it, dammit!') but they knew they needed it ' and pronto. Bigger and bigger dollars began chasing a very shallow talent pool as law firms increasingly placed their bets on a new species of business development chieftain: the $500,000 accounting/financial services 'outsider' who stepped out of a consolidating and no-longer-cozy corporate world to drive large-scale law firm biz-dev departments. Before you knew it, client service teams and out-and-out sales pipelines were all the rage.

These newfangled concepts, combined with an ever-increasing focus on profitability, at first blush looked awfully good to lawyers. This new breed of director, they reasoned, 'knows how the real world works' and could create highly sophisticated business development programs with clients nestled at their core. Problem solved!

Most firms at this stage had 'pretty' branding plans in place ' some even had dogs in turtlenecks gracing the pages of various publications ' but what was the marketing department's focus? Client surveys! Strategic planning! Alumni programs! Databases! All of the above?

Arrival of the Account Model

A maddening, schizophrenic profile of marketing departments, including communications, branding, and business generation, emerged. It was and is a profile that matches all too well lawyers' ambiguity about the role of marketing and business development in their own careers. While many of these superstar directors became frustrated, they delivered to our profession one grand masterstroke (aside from the much-appreciated boost in salaries) worthy of Tiger Woods: They applied the account model to industry and practice groups.

By this, we mean they assigned marketing department members to individual departments or practices. This change gave business development professionals a name (as part of a group you are not just a faceless squid lumbering through the Deep Blue), a charter (your job is to help us get clients) and a focus (we need a plan before we can get from A to B) that their marketing and communications peers did not enjoy.

In addition, at least some lawyers were quick to recognize that the fundamental role of a business development professional could be quite different from that of a more traditional marketing and communications professional: Hey, these folks can work with me to pinpoint opportunities and transform them into revenue!

Holy ROI, Batman!

Professionals in these roles quickly got down to business and brought to bear the knowledge they'd earned in the business world: development and execution of strategic plans, coaching and training, practice group management and development, managing a pipeline ' activities that are substantive, exciting and, if all goes well, quite positive for the bottom line.

Place Your Bets

So what happens to the traditional role of the marketing director when the business development function now generally lodged under his or her roof gains in prominence and prestige?

That's a tough question. And if that weren't raising static enough, the roles played by the new breed of business development professionals, unlike those of their marketing peers, are decidedly not back office. Today, it is the business developer who often acts as the liaison between partners and their colleagues in the marketing department ranks ' a pressure cooker of a topic worthy of a separate article.

Are we overstating things? We don't think so. Recent studies show that dollars and bodies are being shifted from traditional marketing to business development. Sure, maybe it's a fad. (It wouldn't be the first.) But clearly a major shift is underway. Roles that five years ago drew stellar candidates willing to take low-six-figure salaries are now scoffed at by wet-behind-the-ears biz-dev newbies who won't talk for less than two and a quarter. To those who still believe something's gotta give, our answer is: It already has. And it shows no sign of stopping.

So let's handicap this thing. Who will emerge as top dog? Will it be marketing? Business development? Both? While this is still playing out and will for some time ' law firms are still a little light in the decision-making alacrity department ' we know it won't be both. Successful dual leadership is extremely rare and, more often, a recipe for disaster.

That said, however, we don't believe that the function that can most readily show that it plumps up the bottom line will play second fiddle much longer. Marketing and communications programs are vulnerable to outsourcing in ways that biz-dev functions are not. Moreover, as business development matures, tracking of ROI will improve, further increasing the credibility and effectiveness of the business development function.

Conclusion

It's time for marketers who want to stay relevant to get active in business development. What's kept things on track is that law, like all other so-called noble professions, is a business. And at least at the big-firm level, it is very often an extremely high-stakes business that must be managed strategically and with a drive towards measurable results. Those lawyers and law firms not already fully on board with this reality are likely to be left far, far behind ' if they have not been already. In the long run there is room for only one leader in such an environment. So place your bets. The smart money is on business development.

A typical business development job description would include:

• Individual and group business development training and coaching.
• Assistance with writing individual and group business development plans.
• Research on prospective and current clients, as well as industries and markets.
• Creating prospective client lists and relationship tracking systems.
• Proposal and presentation preparation.
• Marketing and business development strategy.

Traditionally, law firm marketing departments are focused on activities aimed at increasing awareness and brand positioning, including:

• Branding through advertising, Web sites and direct mail.
• Public and media relations.
• Events and sponsorships.
• Direct mail and e-mail newsletters.
• CRM and database management.
• Brochures.

Joseph M. Calve is Chief Marketing Officer and head of the Business Development Group of 700-lawyer Proskauer Rose LLP, headquartered in New York. Carolyn A. Rumpf is Senior Business Development Manager for the firm's 250-member Global Litigation Department. Calve can be reached at 212-969-3550; [email protected]. Rumpf can be reached at 212-969-4046; and [email protected]. This article was first published on the Law-Marketing Portal, http://www.lawmarketing.com/. Reprinted with permission.

In the real business world, marketing and business development functions co-exist ' albeit uncomfortably at times ' in a more or less equitable partnership that sees them working toward common objectives but living on separate islands. In the somewhat more surreal world of BigLaw business, the functions tend to live together but, all too often work at cross-purposes. And therein lies a budding tale.

Who is best suited to lead the firm, at least until the next, next thing comes along? The answer seems clear. There's a new sheriff in town. Its name is business development.

'We're Giving Your Work to Someone Else'

In law firms, regardless of the pedigree of the marketing director, business development is still housed, for the most part, under the marketing department umbrella. Many of the marketing directors, however, have painfully little hands-on experience with the work of their departments that has the most noticeable impact on their firm's bottom line.

As a result, one of the key issues law firm marketers struggle with today is the blending of the marketing and business development functions under a common departmental roof. This cohabitation is not always proving to be a congenial affair. To give one extreme example, one well-known marketing director recently was told that 'business development is a separate business from marketing and we're giving that work to a business person ' the executive director.'

Not a promising development ' but not totally surprising either.

The separation of marketing and business development ' 'sales,' as the rest of the world calls it ' is the norm in most of the business world. And even in these industries, the well-established division is all too often balled up in issues of status, prestige, and, yes, money.

There seems little doubt that we are at the beginnings of what may be a prolonged struggle. But where will it lead? What does it mean for the continued development of the law-firm marketing function? As these two very different worlds merge ' or should we say collide? What impact will it have on the established and more traditional marketing leaders and their upstart counterparts in business development?

One thing is clear: If law firm marketing departments can't identify and define their roles and contributions, more law firm leaders may be motivated to intervene and settle matters. The results could be worrisome at best ' and gruesome at worst.

Marketing: the Early Days

The infancy of law-firm marketing was characterized by scattershot 'outreach' programs: public relations, client seminars, and memoranda on changes in the law. These were the kinds of things that lawyers and their baby marketers, always on a very short leash, could wrap their arms around. Success was measured in media hits, and the ultimate measure of a 'client development' department's worth was the number of times their lawyers' names appeared above the fold in The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal. And a mention in a column such as The American Lawyer's Big Deals/Big Suits was enough to set nascent marketing hearts to thrumming. Sameness was the order of the day. Crass attempts to discuss more direct or evolved forms of targeted business development were met with stony silence, or, on rare occasions, banishment to the paralegal ranks. In all instances, the word 'marketing' was verboten.

At some point in the 1980s, things began to change. Many point to The American Lawyer's determination to shine a light into the nooks and crannies of the big-firm world ' especially the unheard-of publication of closely guarded financial data ' as a watershed.

Suddenly, in an increasingly competitive profession, overt competition was becoming acceptable. And wonder of wonders, 'marketing' was no longer a dirty word.

Flash forward 15 years. In the competition for new business, today's marketing department is seen as an integral player. No firm aside from Wachtell Lipton has the marketplace cred to sniff about operating successfully sans marketing team. Today, the 'Chief Marketing Officer' and 'Marketing Director' titles are part of the lexicon, as law firms embrace the marketing function in ways unimaginable even five years ago.

Marketing Squid

If there are still any doubts, just check out the numbers. The Legal Marketing Association claims 2800 members, and sites such as the LawMarketing Portal have taken off. By all reports, marketing spending, including salaries, has risen dramatically. Along the way, many of those who have been successful in the CMO or Marketing Director role in the last 10'15 years have incrementally shifted their game from random, reactive activities into more sophisticated marketing and communications tactics.

A much-heralded second phase of legal marketing development included big-ticket branding and advertising campaigns. Agencies like Greenfield Belser developed lucrative niche practices, and the introduction of Web sites moved communications forward with tremendous focus and speed. Yet, spiffy identity programs (to ampersand or not to ampersand?) were about as in-depth as law firms got in terms of strategic planning and development.

On the surface it seemed that a corner had been turned. Or had it? One consultant continued to chastise marketers who failed to step up, pegging them not so endearingly as 'marketing squid.'

Yes, law firm marketing had come a long way, but clearly there was still a long, long way to go.

A Brave New Biz-Dev World

UK firms, most would agree, were out in front of most of their U.S. brethren in making business development a focal point of activity. In fact, it can be argued that business development worldwide got a seat front and center in law firms when Kevin Geary, then Clifford Chance's Director of Marketing, flipped the name of the global behemoth's marketing department to business development.

While it is taking U.S. law firms some time to catch up with the English Magic Circle, the business development function clearly has been on the rise. About five years ago, big U.S. firms, suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere, got biz-dev religion with a vengeance. The authors were right in the middle of it, not surprisingly at White & Case, a New York firm that had gone global and was trying to trump the Brits at their own game.

At that point, most firms couldn't actually define exactly what constituted business development ('I'll know it when I see it, dammit!') but they knew they needed it ' and pronto. Bigger and bigger dollars began chasing a very shallow talent pool as law firms increasingly placed their bets on a new species of business development chieftain: the $500,000 accounting/financial services 'outsider' who stepped out of a consolidating and no-longer-cozy corporate world to drive large-scale law firm biz-dev departments. Before you knew it, client service teams and out-and-out sales pipelines were all the rage.

These newfangled concepts, combined with an ever-increasing focus on profitability, at first blush looked awfully good to lawyers. This new breed of director, they reasoned, 'knows how the real world works' and could create highly sophisticated business development programs with clients nestled at their core. Problem solved!

Most firms at this stage had 'pretty' branding plans in place ' some even had dogs in turtlenecks gracing the pages of various publications ' but what was the marketing department's focus? Client surveys! Strategic planning! Alumni programs! Databases! All of the above?

Arrival of the Account Model

A maddening, schizophrenic profile of marketing departments, including communications, branding, and business generation, emerged. It was and is a profile that matches all too well lawyers' ambiguity about the role of marketing and business development in their own careers. While many of these superstar directors became frustrated, they delivered to our profession one grand masterstroke (aside from the much-appreciated boost in salaries) worthy of Tiger Woods: They applied the account model to industry and practice groups.

By this, we mean they assigned marketing department members to individual departments or practices. This change gave business development professionals a name (as part of a group you are not just a faceless squid lumbering through the Deep Blue), a charter (your job is to help us get clients) and a focus (we need a plan before we can get from A to B) that their marketing and communications peers did not enjoy.

In addition, at least some lawyers were quick to recognize that the fundamental role of a business development professional could be quite different from that of a more traditional marketing and communications professional: Hey, these folks can work with me to pinpoint opportunities and transform them into revenue!

Holy ROI, Batman!

Professionals in these roles quickly got down to business and brought to bear the knowledge they'd earned in the business world: development and execution of strategic plans, coaching and training, practice group management and development, managing a pipeline ' activities that are substantive, exciting and, if all goes well, quite positive for the bottom line.

Place Your Bets

So what happens to the traditional role of the marketing director when the business development function now generally lodged under his or her roof gains in prominence and prestige?

That's a tough question. And if that weren't raising static enough, the roles played by the new breed of business development professionals, unlike those of their marketing peers, are decidedly not back office. Today, it is the business developer who often acts as the liaison between partners and their colleagues in the marketing department ranks ' a pressure cooker of a topic worthy of a separate article.

Are we overstating things? We don't think so. Recent studies show that dollars and bodies are being shifted from traditional marketing to business development. Sure, maybe it's a fad. (It wouldn't be the first.) But clearly a major shift is underway. Roles that five years ago drew stellar candidates willing to take low-six-figure salaries are now scoffed at by wet-behind-the-ears biz-dev newbies who won't talk for less than two and a quarter. To those who still believe something's gotta give, our answer is: It already has. And it shows no sign of stopping.

So let's handicap this thing. Who will emerge as top dog? Will it be marketing? Business development? Both? While this is still playing out and will for some time ' law firms are still a little light in the decision-making alacrity department ' we know it won't be both. Successful dual leadership is extremely rare and, more often, a recipe for disaster.

That said, however, we don't believe that the function that can most readily show that it plumps up the bottom line will play second fiddle much longer. Marketing and communications programs are vulnerable to outsourcing in ways that biz-dev functions are not. Moreover, as business development matures, tracking of ROI will improve, further increasing the credibility and effectiveness of the business development function.

Conclusion

It's time for marketers who want to stay relevant to get active in business development. What's kept things on track is that law, like all other so-called noble professions, is a business. And at least at the big-firm level, it is very often an extremely high-stakes business that must be managed strategically and with a drive towards measurable results. Those lawyers and law firms not already fully on board with this reality are likely to be left far, far behind ' if they have not been already. In the long run there is room for only one leader in such an environment. So place your bets. The smart money is on business development.

A typical business development job description would include:

• Individual and group business development training and coaching.
• Assistance with writing individual and group business development plans.
• Research on prospective and current clients, as well as industries and markets.
• Creating prospective client lists and relationship tracking systems.
• Proposal and presentation preparation.
• Marketing and business development strategy.

Traditionally, law firm marketing departments are focused on activities aimed at increasing awareness and brand positioning, including:

• Branding through advertising, Web sites and direct mail.
• Public and media relations.
• Events and sponsorships.
• Direct mail and e-mail newsletters.
• CRM and database management.
• Brochures.

Joseph M. Calve is Chief Marketing Officer and head of the Business Development Group of 700-lawyer Proskauer Rose LLP, headquartered in New York. Carolyn A. Rumpf is Senior Business Development Manager for the firm's 250-member Global Litigation Department. Calve can be reached at 212-969-3550; [email protected]. Rumpf can be reached at 212-969-4046; and [email protected]. This article was first published on the Law-Marketing Portal, http://www.lawmarketing.com/. Reprinted with permission.