Career Journal: Emerging Success for Marketing Technologists

Technology's growth over the past few years has been little short of epidemic; numerous stories have appeared in trade publications, including this one, about the dramatic “stage-right” entrance of techno-savvy law firms. There has been a great deal of discussion surrounding blogging, tweeting, Facebooking, e-discovery and risk and compliance issues. Firms are developing, or have developed, extranets for confidential client contact, Intranet portals for internal communications, repositories for communication materials, proposal generator software (yes, some firms still do not have customized or off-the-shelf proposal software), webinars, research services, web optimization and, of course, the ever-popular fourth roll-out of CRM software. Without effective talent managing implementation and execution of the above tools, and having the marketing executive tie the technology tool or initiative to revenue growth, the investment-minded firm can soon turn sour on new business development tools. Proven marketing technology talent and incremental implementation are evident at firms successfully taking advantage of this growing segment.

But it really does not matter whether your marketing department is part of an investment culture in 2012 or on the other side of the fence, maximizing existing resources. In each case, there are a couple of best-practice golden nuggets for the savvy “techno mar-com” savants to observe. In either the investment culture or maximizing resources culture, it is imperative that the technologists focus on two priorities: 1) Tie the tools and programs to business development priorities; and 2) roll out new technologies or tech programs in an incremental fashion with a keen eye on change management. Let's discuss both:

1. Tools with a Tie to Business Development
Imperatives and Revenue Growth

The best of the best marketing technologists develop strategies, programs and action plans (with the appropriate Jedi mind-trick flare directed at the partnership) that are tied to revenue growth. Evidencing the ability to demonstrate ongoing value and accomplishments through the expanded use of technology will help fend off the ever-present partner questions: “What do all of those people down there do? Why did we just spend XXX dollars on our new CRM system?”

To illustrate how some leaders tie technology tools to business development priorities, let's take a look at the use and misuse of blogs. First, the misuse:

At some point, many of you have experienced a partner's insistence on creating an unauthorized blog ' either with or without your assistance ' that may not have been consistent with the firm's business development priorities. The blog often then just sits with no updates, a useless relic created with valuable departmental time, energy, effort and resources. More importantly, the firm may have been exposed to potential harm if proper protocol was not followed.

In contrast, a more successful approach creates protocols that come from firm leadership. Just as some firms have pre-identified go-to, media-friendly partners for specific issues or practice/industry topics, firms now also have rules and proper content commitment requirements for go-to bloggers. Within these rules are checks and balances that ensure the communication strategy is tied back to client business development priorities.

As the above comparisons show, the best career advice is to tie any task-effort program back to specific business development priorities. But don't stop there. Make sure to somehow maximize internal communication describing how this tool ties to a firm business development imperative. However, without proper incremental rollout and implementation, it will be impossible to demonstrate tangible value and tie-backs to business development priorities.

2. Incremental Implementation and Change Management

Whether you are the one charged to implement, or are the hiring authority tasked with finding the correct executive to steward this area of the department, it is vitally important to either follow the approach discussed below, or find someone who will. As many have stated in the past, law firm culture was created for the primary purpose of resisting change. When it comes to new technologies, resisting change receives a steroid injection. What, then, is the most effective way for a marketing technologist to introduce a new program or CRM tool to the firm as a whole? Find partners-of-the-willing to beta launch the new device or program, thus feeding into the resistance-to-change culture. That way it can then be presented as, “We are not making any wholesale changes, we are creating a pilot program.” Each firm, as we all know, has high users of its business development resources. These champions also form a great pad from which marketing technology tools such as intranet dash boards for client teams, CRM software, etc. can be launched.

How many marketing technology peers have described to you the serious challenges involved with a firmwide CRM software roll-out? The lack of partner involvement and the training of assistants to input information are just a couple of hurdles to be cleared. An outstanding CMO once claimed that 98% of his job involved prompting execution. New software that has less than 20% participation or a client-team Intranet dashboard that is only updated by the marketing manager are two examples of execution challenges.

Building a strong foundation of a small group fully engaged in utilizing any new technology tool, and then properly communicating specific results that were tied to your champions will expand consensus and participation for that tool. And it would not hurt to mention the firms considered to be competition that are already using the tool. Feeding the mind set of keeping up with the Joneses also promotes an appetite to participate. However, finding or keeping (due to the high demand) legal marketing executives capable of pointing back to a specific track record of incremental implementation and tying initiatives to revenue generation with proactive Jedi mind-trick diplomacy can be frustrating and difficult.

I have a caution for those that might seek to obtain the services of someone with the above approach and best-practices capabilities: Primarily screen for an individual who can lay out roll-out programs and discuss details of the logic behind their tactics. Marketing technology professionals are in high demand and those who can articulate case history and positive results are a rare commodity. For those fortunate enough to already have an outstanding manager on staff, you might want to consider presenting a retention bonus sooner rather than later.

Conclusion

In summary, if you are in a firm that needs to maximize existing resources in 2012, spending time with partners-of-the-willing and producing well-communicated results could prompt partners to request additional technology resources without being prodded further. For example, if you have a fledgling technology initiative, devote as much time as possible to a small team in your firm's key industry/practice that will actually execute recommended action items. If they are executing, the likelihood of measurable revenue generation is high. The me-too syndrome will kick in with other partners after they see the resulting revenue increase, creating a perfect conduit leading to demand for additional talent in order to service the corresponding demand for more of the same. These results will secure your position as someone considered by partners to be a true asset. Remember, partnership organizations often view support staff through the prism of “What have you done for me lately?”

Unlike partners in the firm, you do not have the luxury of time ' the ability to discuss the last meeting and the viability of a program before deciding to continue the discussion in the next meeting X months from now. By focusing on timely execution with your champions, emerging success will be possible for you and your firm in 2012.

Bill Crooks, a member of this newsletter's Board of Editors, is a Partner at Priority Search International. He may be reached at 407-571-2861 or via e-mail at [email protected].

From a marketing perspective, 2012 is going to be an interesting year ' especially with regard to firms' investments in their legal marketing and business development departments.

Clearly, some firms will choose to aggressively bolster marketing and business development efforts by acquiring and utilizing additional resources; others will elect to stand pat and attempt to maximize results with existing staff and tools. For those wishing to expand, I forecast a short supply of marketing technology leadership and line manager specialists. And what about firms whose marketing technology talent is still slugging it out in the trenches with outdated tools and resources? Well, those firms might expect to experience larger than normal turnover rates.

The technology segments of marketing departments have become an increasingly significant area of investment across industry lines. Within legal marketing, the focus of many firms this year will be on upgrading their capabilities in this rapidly-changing area, with little regard paid to where the firm may reside on the bell curve of client relationship management (CRM) or intelligence-gathering tools.

Technology's growth over the past few years has been little short of epidemic; numerous stories have appeared in trade publications, including this one, about the dramatic “stage-right” entrance of techno-savvy law firms. There has been a great deal of discussion surrounding blogging, tweeting, Facebooking, e-discovery and risk and compliance issues. Firms are developing, or have developed, extranets for confidential client contact, Intranet portals for internal communications, repositories for communication materials, proposal generator software (yes, some firms still do not have customized or off-the-shelf proposal software), webinars, research services, web optimization and, of course, the ever-popular fourth roll-out of CRM software. Without effective talent managing implementation and execution of the above tools, and having the marketing executive tie the technology tool or initiative to revenue growth, the investment-minded firm can soon turn sour on new business development tools. Proven marketing technology talent and incremental implementation are evident at firms successfully taking advantage of this growing segment.

But it really does not matter whether your marketing department is part of an investment culture in 2012 or on the other side of the fence, maximizing existing resources. In each case, there are a couple of best-practice golden nuggets for the savvy “techno mar-com” savants to observe. In either the investment culture or maximizing resources culture, it is imperative that the technologists focus on two priorities: 1) Tie the tools and programs to business development priorities; and 2) roll out new technologies or tech programs in an incremental fashion with a keen eye on change management. Let's discuss both:

1. Tools with a Tie to Business Development
Imperatives and Revenue Growth

The best of the best marketing technologists develop strategies, programs and action plans (with the appropriate Jedi mind-trick flare directed at the partnership) that are tied to revenue growth. Evidencing the ability to demonstrate ongoing value and accomplishments through the expanded use of technology will help fend off the ever-present partner questions: “What do all of those people down there do? Why did we just spend XXX dollars on our new CRM system?”

To illustrate how some leaders tie technology tools to business development priorities, let's take a look at the use and misuse of blogs. First, the misuse:

At some point, many of you have experienced a partner's insistence on creating an unauthorized blog ' either with or without your assistance ' that may not have been consistent with the firm's business development priorities. The blog often then just sits with no updates, a useless relic created with valuable departmental time, energy, effort and resources. More importantly, the firm may have been exposed to potential harm if proper protocol was not followed.

In contrast, a more successful approach creates protocols that come from firm leadership. Just as some firms have pre-identified go-to, media-friendly partners for specific issues or practice/industry topics, firms now also have rules and proper content commitment requirements for go-to bloggers. Within these rules are checks and balances that ensure the communication strategy is tied back to client business development priorities.

As the above comparisons show, the best career advice is to tie any task-effort program back to specific business development priorities. But don't stop there. Make sure to somehow maximize internal communication describing how this tool ties to a firm business development imperative. However, without proper incremental rollout and implementation, it will be impossible to demonstrate tangible value and tie-backs to business development priorities.

2. Incremental Implementation and Change Management

Whether you are the one charged to implement, or are the hiring authority tasked with finding the correct executive to steward this area of the department, it is vitally important to either follow the approach discussed below, or find someone who will. As many have stated in the past, law firm culture was created for the primary purpose of resisting change. When it comes to new technologies, resisting change receives a steroid injection. What, then, is the most effective way for a marketing technologist to introduce a new program or CRM tool to the firm as a whole? Find partners-of-the-willing to beta launch the new device or program, thus feeding into the resistance-to-change culture. That way it can then be presented as, “We are not making any wholesale changes, we are creating a pilot program.” Each firm, as we all know, has high users of its business development resources. These champions also form a great pad from which marketing technology tools such as intranet dash boards for client teams, CRM software, etc. can be launched.

How many marketing technology peers have described to you the serious challenges involved with a firmwide CRM software roll-out? The lack of partner involvement and the training of assistants to input information are just a couple of hurdles to be cleared. An outstanding CMO once claimed that 98% of his job involved prompting execution. New software that has less than 20% participation or a client-team Intranet dashboard that is only updated by the marketing manager are two examples of execution challenges.

Building a strong foundation of a small group fully engaged in utilizing any new technology tool, and then properly communicating specific results that were tied to your champions will expand consensus and participation for that tool. And it would not hurt to mention the firms considered to be competition that are already using the tool. Feeding the mind set of keeping up with the Joneses also promotes an appetite to participate. However, finding or keeping (due to the high demand) legal marketing executives capable of pointing back to a specific track record of incremental implementation and tying initiatives to revenue generation with proactive Jedi mind-trick diplomacy can be frustrating and difficult.

I have a caution for those that might seek to obtain the services of someone with the above approach and best-practices capabilities: Primarily screen for an individual who can lay out roll-out programs and discuss details of the logic behind their tactics. Marketing technology professionals are in high demand and those who can articulate case history and positive results are a rare commodity. For those fortunate enough to already have an outstanding manager on staff, you might want to consider presenting a retention bonus sooner rather than later.

Conclusion

In summary, if you are in a firm that needs to maximize existing resources in 2012, spending time with partners-of-the-willing and producing well-communicated results could prompt partners to request additional technology resources without being prodded further. For example, if you have a fledgling technology initiative, devote as much time as possible to a small team in your firm's key industry/practice that will actually execute recommended action items. If they are executing, the likelihood of measurable revenue generation is high. The me-too syndrome will kick in with other partners after they see the resulting revenue increase, creating a perfect conduit leading to demand for additional talent in order to service the corresponding demand for more of the same. These results will secure your position as someone considered by partners to be a true asset. Remember, partnership organizations often view support staff through the prism of “What have you done for me lately?”

Unlike partners in the firm, you do not have the luxury of time ' the ability to discuss the last meeting and the viability of a program before deciding to continue the discussion in the next meeting X months from now. By focusing on timely execution with your champions, emerging success will be possible for you and your firm in 2012.

Bill Crooks, a member of this newsletter's Board of Editors, is a Partner at Priority Search International. He may be reached at 407-571-2861 or via e-mail at [email protected].