Valuable Lessons from This Great Recession

As the economy teeters along, firms struggle to recover from the labyrinth of layoffs, microscopic attention to expenditures, and the cautious decision to add new attorneys and staff. Despite posting profits in 2009, some firms still grapple with how to engender more rainmakers from their attorney pool to spread the business generation responsibility more evenly. After all, not all lawyers are rainmakers. At least, some do not perceive themselves to be.They are not comfortable “marketing,” but instead prefer to handle the new files that come in the door.

Given the economic factors at play and the shifting legal landscape, there is no better time to examine and enhance how your firm is investing in its business development program. Ameet Sachdev, a leading Chicago Tribune business reporter covering legal affairs and law firms, put it this way, “If the recession taught lawyers anything, it is the value of business development. Those with large books of business or longstanding relationships with clients were more admired as corporate firms faced a downturn in legal work. The cocoon that protected lawyers respected for their critical thinking but with few business contacts was shattered.”

Pivotal Questions

What should firms focus on to maximize their oft significant marketing investments? Even more importantly, how can a firm generate profitable work through its business development endeavors? This article addresses these questions as well as how firms can employ time-proven methods of advancing their goals by educating its lawyers in the basics of practical business development.

Not in Kansas Anymore

For many years, firms have struggled with how to generate new work, build loyal client relationships, and cement their position in a crowded market place. If top-down support exists for formalized business development initiatives, there is often little institutional cohesion or accountability.

As I served in various in-house marketing roles for nearly two decades, I witnessed first-hand attorneys' futile random acts of marketing, and attorneys who became frustrated with their marketing activities that yielded few or no new clients. Management did very little to constructively assist lawyers with learning and practicing the basics of business development (i.e., sales in corporate America) and marketing, leaving coordinated initiatives to the lawyers. This longstanding management style is not sustainable as the legal services sector has been turned on its head in recent years.

What profitable firms realized as the economy turned downward is that many traditional marketing activities are not yielding the same results as they once did. It is not enough to publish a periodic practice group newsletter without consistent follow-up, or to host a series of charitable golf outings and expect clients to materialize. These random acts of marketing are not strategically focused and are often ineffective. Further, random marketing expenses can be a tremendous drain on a firm's limited resources and render few results.

Heidi White, Fox Rothschild's Chief Marketing Officer, offers her view, “I think random acts of marketing are not so much the issue as much as random acts generally. I sometimes see marketing/business development activity for the sake of activity, and it concerns me because it's rarely a productive use of an attorney's time, and often not a good use of the Marketing Department's time. Some lawyers have unreasonable expectations of instant success in generating work. They try something, don't see immediate results, and then give up. The key is to target an industry or other audience wisely, and then plug away over not weeks, not months, but years, to become a known quantity and develop a network of high-potential contacts.”

Successful rainmakers understand correctly that to build, grow and sustain healthy practices, it is imperative to embrace the business development mindset of consistently nurturing the relationships which they have been cultivating throughout their careers.

Peter R. Spirgel, Managing Shareholder at Flaster/Greenberg, sees it this way, “Institutional business development starts at the top. Firm management must recognize and appreciate that business development activities provide opportunities for the firm's attorneys, which lead to the firm's overall success and financial well-being. Once this core principle is understood and accepted, the practice of business development begins.”

Rainmaker Support

Despite their size and for a variety of reasons, many law firms do not provide sufficient support or assistance to their business-generating lawyers. Often, these few rainmakers (who comprise between 5%-7% of equity partners in most firms) are highly independent, very focused, and keep their assistants busy with marketing-related projects. They rarely seek additional outside assistance.

For the majority of firm attorneys, however, there is little support and attention paid to cohesive business development and marketing support. The reasons usually boil down to several issues: 1) Lack of communication around what resources are available to them, either from in-house staff or external sources; 2) The lawyers are not clear how they can best utilize business development support to help them grow and service their client base; or 3) Business development opportunities arise such that there is little planning time factored into responding appropriately.

The reasons above accentuate the need for firms to place higher priority on tracking the support and assistance provided to their primary rainmakers. By providing designated, experienced support and resources, the firm will more quickly see a return on their investment resulting in new clients, new matters from and stronger ties to existing clients, and a stronger position in its marketplace.

Regularly touch base with your top rainmakers to ensure they have the business development resources they need. Educate these folks to the full range of resources that may be useful to them. Make available to them a dedicated and experienced lawyer coach who can assist them in their efforts. Savvy firms want to ensure that their top producers are happy and satisfied with the support they receive, and that it is effective in helping them to not only generate new clients, but also to provide extraordinary service to their existing clients.

Business Development Metrics

Who in your firm is monitoring the ongoing business development activities and whether or not they yield desired results? Is there any type of reporting or time-keeping mechanism that captures this potentially valuable intelligence? Or, as with many firms, do lawyers chat casually about what they are up to during firm meetings and gatherings with no measurable tracking in place? Some firms systemize their efforts in a variety of ways, including recording business development initiatives on time-keeping sheets to analyzed by in-house marketing professionals, an outside business development adviser or a marketing/practice development committee usually comprised of practicing lawyers and/or a mix of law firm professionals.

If appropriate systems are not in place, carefully institute such a program by which the firm tracks business development efforts and evaluates on a line-by-line basis what activities the firm and its lawyers are engaged and, importantly, whether they should be continued. With the help of qualified law marketing professionals, business development plans should be crafted for every lawyer and practice group as well as a firm marketing plan which complements with the firm's strategic plan. These tools are vital to the success of the firm's long-term health and can be effective measuring mechanisms by which to set future growth goals and evaluate business development efforts.

When evaluating business development plans, a critical eye should be given to whether the firm is allotting too many of its resources to traditional, low impact marketing tactics such as publishing random newsletters or participating in non-segmented seminars and conferences. Moreover, with qualified professional marketing assistance, firms will learn how to invest its resources into high return-on-investment activities such as targeted face-to-face interactions, small client group activities, and the like.

Studies show us that over 90% of new business is developed through personal relationships and referrals as opposed to low-contact traditional methods. This seismic focus shift must occur to move firms forward. It is wise to remember, though, that there is no single solution to generating new business but rather many parts of a comprehensive business development and marketing strategy. A combination of business development initiatives complemented by strategic marketing tools will drive a firm's dedicated growth efforts.

Jennifer Smuts, Director of Marketing for Connelly Bove Lodge & Hutz, headquartered in Wilmington, DE, comments, “Statistics prove that improving existing client relations present valuable business development opportunities for most law firms. Client services teams comprised of attorneys, staff and administration work to provide service beyond the matter level. This type of service is an expectation today that clients need to support the various limitations they have been hit with since the economy has shifted.”

Valuable Resources

As is often the case, if a firm has an organized marketing program, it is understaffed and frequently charged with handling the full scope of business development, marketing, event planning, and corporate communications initiatives. In short, it is destined to fall short of the firm's mission critical goals. In-house marketing staff, as well intentioned and experienced as they may be, are often not best suited to initiate strategic programs which will deliver measurable results. Irrespective of their marketing backgrounds, internal marketing staff may not be the most effective trainers or coaches to help guide lawyers in their business development endeavors.

First, internal marketing professionals are typically inundated with last-minute lawyer requests and crisis projects which monopolize their time. With the exception of the larger firms, the marketing department is often a place from which to request brochures or revise an attorney's biography, not a resource through which to seek expert insights and guidance on how to pitch a new client company, how to expand an industry presence, or learn how to more effectively cultivate a relationship with a prospective general counsel client. These consulting functions are often best directed toward outside resources whose focus it is to provide an advisory role in addressing strategic goals.

Second, the skill sets required to execute strategic training and coaching, marketing, and business development programs are very different and should not be assigned to staff who lack direct experience in these areas, as tempting as it may be. Not only will it potentially marginalize positive outcomes but predictably, the firm will fail to realize its established goals. Assess the core competencies of your internal marketing resources and allow them to focus on these areas.

Empowering Your Rainmakers

Despite conventional wisdom, some firms endeavor to economize on its business development skills program by soliciting a firm rainmaker to speak on how she successfully built her practice by providing examples and hope others follow suit; facilitating training programs which are non-interactive and resemble “talking head” presentations with no attorney coaching follow up; and/or providing programming which attempts to be a “one size fits all” that results in only rarely useful instruction for most.

Clearly, each of these scenarios represent lost business development skills training opportunities which wastes critical time and resources, does not provide effective long-term support for the firm's future rainmakers, and stymies the business development skills learning process for firm lawyers who are committed to producing new business for the firm. For a firm's long-term growth benefit and the development of attorneys who are committed to becoming more productive rainmakers, firms would be well served to consider all available resources, both in-house as well as from qualified outside experts.

Invest Wisely

The present economic downturn is reflecting some upward movement. One of the most valuable lessons firms can learn from this recession is that the firm's overall health depends upon attorneys who are well-educated and disciplined in the nuances of the business development process and can deliver upon those principles with new matters. Firms that resist investing in their valuable assets ' their time keepers ' with results-driven business development skills training and coaching, do so at their own peril and, in all probability, ensure their prized present and future rainmakers will move to a firm which will.

Semantic Differences

It is useful to define the oft mistaken words “marketing,” “business development” and “client development.” According to Jayne Navarre of LawGravity LLC, “Marketing is about influencing and shaping opinions and attitudes. It sets the stage by providing exposure for services and products. In short, it is advertising, publicity, promotion and branding. Business development is about influencing and encouraging action. It connects consumers to services and products. Client development is the retention, expansion and growth of revenues derived from existing clients. Marketing sets the stage, provides exposure, but it takes business development and client development to win new engagements and grow revenue.”

Kimberly Alford Rice is Principal of KLA Marketing Associates (www.klamarketing.net), a business development advisory firm focusing on legal services. She may be reached at 609-458-0415 or via e-mail at [email protected].

As the economy teeters along, firms struggle to recover from the labyrinth of layoffs, microscopic attention to expenditures, and the cautious decision to add new attorneys and staff. Despite posting profits in 2009, some firms still grapple with how to engender more rainmakers from their attorney pool to spread the business generation responsibility more evenly. After all, not all lawyers are rainmakers. At least, some do not perceive themselves to be.They are not comfortable “marketing,” but instead prefer to handle the new files that come in the door.

Given the economic factors at play and the shifting legal landscape, there is no better time to examine and enhance how your firm is investing in its business development program. Ameet Sachdev, a leading Chicago Tribune business reporter covering legal affairs and law firms, put it this way, “If the recession taught lawyers anything, it is the value of business development. Those with large books of business or longstanding relationships with clients were more admired as corporate firms faced a downturn in legal work. The cocoon that protected lawyers respected for their critical thinking but with few business contacts was shattered.”

Pivotal Questions

What should firms focus on to maximize their oft significant marketing investments? Even more importantly, how can a firm generate profitable work through its business development endeavors? This article addresses these questions as well as how firms can employ time-proven methods of advancing their goals by educating its lawyers in the basics of practical business development.

Not in Kansas Anymore

For many years, firms have struggled with how to generate new work, build loyal client relationships, and cement their position in a crowded market place. If top-down support exists for formalized business development initiatives, there is often little institutional cohesion or accountability.

As I served in various in-house marketing roles for nearly two decades, I witnessed first-hand attorneys' futile random acts of marketing, and attorneys who became frustrated with their marketing activities that yielded few or no new clients. Management did very little to constructively assist lawyers with learning and practicing the basics of business development (i.e., sales in corporate America) and marketing, leaving coordinated initiatives to the lawyers. This longstanding management style is not sustainable as the legal services sector has been turned on its head in recent years.

What profitable firms realized as the economy turned downward is that many traditional marketing activities are not yielding the same results as they once did. It is not enough to publish a periodic practice group newsletter without consistent follow-up, or to host a series of charitable golf outings and expect clients to materialize. These random acts of marketing are not strategically focused and are often ineffective. Further, random marketing expenses can be a tremendous drain on a firm's limited resources and render few results.

Heidi White, Fox Rothschild's Chief Marketing Officer, offers her view, “I think random acts of marketing are not so much the issue as much as random acts generally. I sometimes see marketing/business development activity for the sake of activity, and it concerns me because it's rarely a productive use of an attorney's time, and often not a good use of the Marketing Department's time. Some lawyers have unreasonable expectations of instant success in generating work. They try something, don't see immediate results, and then give up. The key is to target an industry or other audience wisely, and then plug away over not weeks, not months, but years, to become a known quantity and develop a network of high-potential contacts.”

Successful rainmakers understand correctly that to build, grow and sustain healthy practices, it is imperative to embrace the business development mindset of consistently nurturing the relationships which they have been cultivating throughout their careers.

Peter R. Spirgel, Managing Shareholder at Flaster/Greenberg, sees it this way, “Institutional business development starts at the top. Firm management must recognize and appreciate that business development activities provide opportunities for the firm's attorneys, which lead to the firm's overall success and financial well-being. Once this core principle is understood and accepted, the practice of business development begins.”

Rainmaker Support

Despite their size and for a variety of reasons, many law firms do not provide sufficient support or assistance to their business-generating lawyers. Often, these few rainmakers (who comprise between 5%-7% of equity partners in most firms) are highly independent, very focused, and keep their assistants busy with marketing-related projects. They rarely seek additional outside assistance.

For the majority of firm attorneys, however, there is little support and attention paid to cohesive business development and marketing support. The reasons usually boil down to several issues: 1) Lack of communication around what resources are available to them, either from in-house staff or external sources; 2) The lawyers are not clear how they can best utilize business development support to help them grow and service their client base; or 3) Business development opportunities arise such that there is little planning time factored into responding appropriately.

The reasons above accentuate the need for firms to place higher priority on tracking the support and assistance provided to their primary rainmakers. By providing designated, experienced support and resources, the firm will more quickly see a return on their investment resulting in new clients, new matters from and stronger ties to existing clients, and a stronger position in its marketplace.

Regularly touch base with your top rainmakers to ensure they have the business development resources they need. Educate these folks to the full range of resources that may be useful to them. Make available to them a dedicated and experienced lawyer coach who can assist them in their efforts. Savvy firms want to ensure that their top producers are happy and satisfied with the support they receive, and that it is effective in helping them to not only generate new clients, but also to provide extraordinary service to their existing clients.

Business Development Metrics

Who in your firm is monitoring the ongoing business development activities and whether or not they yield desired results? Is there any type of reporting or time-keeping mechanism that captures this potentially valuable intelligence? Or, as with many firms, do lawyers chat casually about what they are up to during firm meetings and gatherings with no measurable tracking in place? Some firms systemize their efforts in a variety of ways, including recording business development initiatives on time-keeping sheets to analyzed by in-house marketing professionals, an outside business development adviser or a marketing/practice development committee usually comprised of practicing lawyers and/or a mix of law firm professionals.

If appropriate systems are not in place, carefully institute such a program by which the firm tracks business development efforts and evaluates on a line-by-line basis what activities the firm and its lawyers are engaged and, importantly, whether they should be continued. With the help of qualified law marketing professionals, business development plans should be crafted for every lawyer and practice group as well as a firm marketing plan which complements with the firm's strategic plan. These tools are vital to the success of the firm's long-term health and can be effective measuring mechanisms by which to set future growth goals and evaluate business development efforts.

When evaluating business development plans, a critical eye should be given to whether the firm is allotting too many of its resources to traditional, low impact marketing tactics such as publishing random newsletters or participating in non-segmented seminars and conferences. Moreover, with qualified professional marketing assistance, firms will learn how to invest its resources into high return-on-investment activities such as targeted face-to-face interactions, small client group activities, and the like.

Studies show us that over 90% of new business is developed through personal relationships and referrals as opposed to low-contact traditional methods. This seismic focus shift must occur to move firms forward. It is wise to remember, though, that there is no single solution to generating new business but rather many parts of a comprehensive business development and marketing strategy. A combination of business development initiatives complemented by strategic marketing tools will drive a firm's dedicated growth efforts.

Jennifer Smuts, Director of Marketing for Connelly Bove Lodge & Hutz, headquartered in Wilmington, DE, comments, “Statistics prove that improving existing client relations present valuable business development opportunities for most law firms. Client services teams comprised of attorneys, staff and administration work to provide service beyond the matter level. This type of service is an expectation today that clients need to support the various limitations they have been hit with since the economy has shifted.”

Valuable Resources

As is often the case, if a firm has an organized marketing program, it is understaffed and frequently charged with handling the full scope of business development, marketing, event planning, and corporate communications initiatives. In short, it is destined to fall short of the firm's mission critical goals. In-house marketing staff, as well intentioned and experienced as they may be, are often not best suited to initiate strategic programs which will deliver measurable results. Irrespective of their marketing backgrounds, internal marketing staff may not be the most effective trainers or coaches to help guide lawyers in their business development endeavors.

First, internal marketing professionals are typically inundated with last-minute lawyer requests and crisis projects which monopolize their time. With the exception of the larger firms, the marketing department is often a place from which to request brochures or revise an attorney's biography, not a resource through which to seek expert insights and guidance on how to pitch a new client company, how to expand an industry presence, or learn how to more effectively cultivate a relationship with a prospective general counsel client. These consulting functions are often best directed toward outside resources whose focus it is to provide an advisory role in addressing strategic goals.

Second, the skill sets required to execute strategic training and coaching, marketing, and business development programs are very different and should not be assigned to staff who lack direct experience in these areas, as tempting as it may be. Not only will it potentially marginalize positive outcomes but predictably, the firm will fail to realize its established goals. Assess the core competencies of your internal marketing resources and allow them to focus on these areas.

Empowering Your Rainmakers

Despite conventional wisdom, some firms endeavor to economize on its business development skills program by soliciting a firm rainmaker to speak on how she successfully built her practice by providing examples and hope others follow suit; facilitating training programs which are non-interactive and resemble “talking head” presentations with no attorney coaching follow up; and/or providing programming which attempts to be a “one size fits all” that results in only rarely useful instruction for most.

Clearly, each of these scenarios represent lost business development skills training opportunities which wastes critical time and resources, does not provide effective long-term support for the firm's future rainmakers, and stymies the business development skills learning process for firm lawyers who are committed to producing new business for the firm. For a firm's long-term growth benefit and the development of attorneys who are committed to becoming more productive rainmakers, firms would be well served to consider all available resources, both in-house as well as from qualified outside experts.

Invest Wisely

The present economic downturn is reflecting some upward movement. One of the most valuable lessons firms can learn from this recession is that the firm's overall health depends upon attorneys who are well-educated and disciplined in the nuances of the business development process and can deliver upon those principles with new matters. Firms that resist investing in their valuable assets ' their time keepers ' with results-driven business development skills training and coaching, do so at their own peril and, in all probability, ensure their prized present and future rainmakers will move to a firm which will.

Semantic Differences

It is useful to define the oft mistaken words “marketing,” “business development” and “client development.” According to Jayne Navarre of LawGravity LLC, “Marketing is about influencing and shaping opinions and attitudes. It sets the stage by providing exposure for services and products. In short, it is advertising, publicity, promotion and branding. Business development is about influencing and encouraging action. It connects consumers to services and products. Client development is the retention, expansion and growth of revenues derived from existing clients. Marketing sets the stage, provides exposure, but it takes business development and client development to win new engagements and grow revenue.”

Kimberly Alford Rice is Principal of KLA Marketing Associates (www.klamarketing.net), a business development advisory firm focusing on legal services. She may be reached at 609-458-0415 or via e-mail at [email protected].