September 17, 2007
Bruce MacEwen of Adam Smith, Esq. has a fantastic post on marketing, titled How Close to Your Clients Dare You Get? By translating into law firm language the 5 key characteristics the best CMOs for consumer packaged goods companies as identified in The Complete Marketer (free registration required), published by Booz Allen & Hamilton) , this post sheds a new light on law practice marketing. The 5 characteristics that MacEwen discusses are:
* Put the consumer at the heart of marketing
* Make marketing accountable
* Embrace the challenges of new media
*Â Recognize the new organizational imperative
* Remain adaptable
The Complete Marketer identifies a 6th theme (”Live a new agency paradigm,” which addresses the external relationships an organization might have with, for instance, advertising agencies) that MacEwen omits without explanation.
Both MacEwen’s commentary and the underlying article are worth review. Perhaps the strongest reminder that marketing deserves attention from every lawyer and law firm is MacEwen’s none-too-gentle reminder that “we’re all marketers now” and if “you probably in your heart of hearts don’t believe in any of this and just want to be left alone to practice law,” that’s “a fine and worthy choice. Just don’t expect to build, or sustain, a great firm down that path.”
Meanwhile…. For associates wondering how to begin business development activities, Monica Goebel’s How Associates Become Rainmakers offers 3 key steps: identify and market your niche, cultivate relationships with clients and “high potential” referral sources, and develop and executive and business development plan.Â
Although Goebel’s article is directed toward senior associates, in my view it’s critical to start these activities immediately. Many firms have little or no training in business development (though the trend is favoring a change there) and the firms that do have such programs often don’t make them available until an associate’s midlevel years. Waiting until those years makes sense from the niche perspective (it’s difficult to assert expertise credibly without several years of consistent work to back up the assertion), but it wastes numerous relationship-building opportunities. Junior associates who seek to excel are well-advised to learn about marketing early and to develop (perhaps with the help of a mentor) and execute a plan for appropriate business development activities.Â
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