It’s December. The time you stop and wonder where the year went. I’ve been fortunate to have been extremely busy this year, but that is not an excuse to lose sight of my long-term goals. With winter just around the corner, now is the opportunity to refocus on priorities and develop a plan for the coming year. To me, planning must always begin with a discussion about vision.

Vision is one of those lofty words that can be off putting to some, but that should not diminish its importance. Vision is really about knowing who you are and what you want to be. I co-hosted a panel sponsored by the Center for Competitive Management earlier this month where I described vision as a practice group’s “WHY.” Another way to think about it is, “What does success look like?”

Regardless of how you ask the question, developing a short, concise statement of what you aspire to be is an essential component of a successful practice group plan. To ignore vision is to ignore defining what you are trying to accomplish. Equally important, from the perspective of building a strong practice group, a clear vision provides other benefits:

1) A vision provides your practice group with an identity. This aids in decision making about work that should or shouldn’t be done. It also drives decisions about the people side of the practice.

2) Discussions about vision offer an opportunity to emotionally engage members of the practice group. How often have you sat in practice group meetings, where colleagues eat their lunch, nod in the appropriate places and then go back to work without truly participating in the discussion? Meetings focused around vision offer an opportunity to engage your group. The point is not so much the words you end up using as it is the process of keeping your purpose at the forefront of everyone’s mind.

3) Vision guides planning. Once you have a clear vision, planning is easier. It also gives you a framework for ensuring your plans stay on track.

To be sure, law firms as a whole need to focus on vision. If your firm has a defined vision statement, then that should be the starting point for your practice group discussion. That said, even with firms that do have a vision statement, many attorneys are not aware of it or have not been part of the discussion to create it. Bringing vision to the practice group level offers multiple benefits in engaging attorneys. It’s a leadership opportunity.

In legal knowledge management and IT circles, the concept of Legal Project Management as a discipline has been a hot topic for the last two years. In marketing circles, … not so much. Amidst client development programs, service offering launches and the support and evaluation of new business opportunities, few law firm marketers seem to be thinking about how firm processes and technologies can reshape the fundamental value proposition of a firm.

But lawyers and marketing professionals who are thinking about how to reposition their firms to thrive in the future should consider the role Legal Project Management can play in that effort. Differentiating a law firm is harder now than ever before. The market is converging. The gap between the top firms and the rest of the playing field is widening. The firms at the top are getting the choice matters and are cherry picking the talent. There are few areas in which the rest of the field can still compete…. with one exception.

Firms of any size have the opportunity to demonstrate their unique value to clients by working more efficiently. Legal Project Management (LPM) principles provide the framework around which to do this.

LPM applies traditional project management concepts to the control and management of legal cases or matters. As explained by Jim Hassett in the July/August issue of Managing Partner (subscription required), there are eight elements of LPM:

• Setting the objective and defining the scope
• Identifying and scheduling activities
• Assigning tasks and managing the team
• Planning and managing the budget
• Assessing risks to the budget and schedule
• Managing quality
• Managing client communication and expectations
• Negotiating changes with clients

These elements are inherently part of any case or matter. The difference with LPM is that these steps are managed in an ongoing and consistent way. From a marketing standpoint, that translates into the following opportunities:

1. Enhanced Client Communication. Survey after survey reveal that client communication (or lack of it) is a primary driver of corporate decision making when it comes to hiring a law firm. With LPM, law firms have the tools they need to stay responsive and address issues in a proactive way with clients. LPM provides the tools for planning and managing a budget. It allows you to better manage quality. It also allows you to address unanticipated changes that invariably occur during the course of most matters.
2. Demonstrate ROI. The consistency that LPM brings to the table means there is an opportunity to demonstrate a quantifiable return on investment to clients — something very few firms have mastered successfully. Consider having the ability to conduct a post-matter client debrief in which you can evaluate the actual costs incurred against the original estimated budget, and then using that hard data to discuss ways in which you and the client might be able to improve management of a particular type of matter in the future.
3. Alternative Fee Arrangements. As we all know, everyone wants AFAs, but few people know how to put them together confidently. Fewer still know how to do so profitably. LPM provides the tools to effectively looking at the true cost of a matter, and the tools for better managing the matter during the project.

LPM as a discipline has the opportunity to make a lasting impact on how lawyers do business. But we all know change is slow to come, particularly if left up to the lawyers alone. Marketing professionals should get involved with their knowledge managers, IT and pricing colleagues to help drive this change.

“[INSERT LAW FIRM NAME] is a full-service law firm with market-leading strengths in the energy, financial services, real estate, technology, pharmaceutical, and [insert industry] sectors. Our multidisciplinary teams handle business transactions, M&A, intellectual property, corporate governance, complex litigation and anything else that could come your way. In other words, we do anything for anyone.”

With the exception of the last sentence, this description or a near facsimile could be found on any of hundreds of law firm websites around the globe.

Well-intended writers — usually at the direction of attorneys — often try to appeal to the widest possible audience of existing and prospective clients. The impact is just the opposite. The description ends up so broad that the message appeals to no one.

Buyers of legal services are more sophisticated than ever. They don’t have time to waste. And the competition for their attention is fierce. Too often law firms fail to reach their target audiences because they try to be everything to everyone.

Through market segmentation, law firms can gain greater insight into what drives the unique audiences they serve to buy legal services.

Market Segmentation

Simply defined, a market segment is a group of people who have similar demands and needs based on common characteristics, such as a shared demographic, geography, psychographic or behavior. As a result, the way a segment makes buying decisions is typically the same.

With an understanding of what drives and motivates a segment, you can create messages and identify specific marketing tactics that will allow you to get the attention of your audience.

A simple exercise to better understand a market segment is to consider the following:

1) What are the unique challenges facing this segment?

2) What specific benefits does our firm offer this segment?

3) How does this segment communicate?

Do this with two-to-three different segments and compare the results. Then look at the key messages your firm uses to market. Do they apply to the segments you’ve identified?

The reality is one-size marketing usually fits none.

My husband ran the Boston Marathon on Monday. Even as a spectator, it was a pretty amazing experience. Steve finished with a PR of 2:50:26, placing him 646 overall out of 27,000 runners. He smiled the whole time he was running.

Training for the race was time consuming. He qualified last October at the Chicago marathon. Since then, he’s had a plan in place that included weekly running goals for mileage and for time, group runs with friends who have more race experience than he does, and weekly visits to an active release therapist to help keep him healthy.

He did this while balancing work and family obligations. It was hard work, but he set a goal and was determined to see it through.

One of the biggest excuses I hear about marketing and business development is that there is not enough time. I say excuse not because I don’t think people are busy. We are. We all have demands on our time and we have to prioritize.

But time is a funny thing. There is never enough of it. But when you really want something, you’ll find a way to do it. You can find away to make it to your kid’s ball game. You can find a way to write that article for an industry publication. You can find a time to take your client to lunch.

And once you do all of that, you can think about running a marathon. After all, isn’t that what life is anyway?

In the quest for the perfect law firm business model, I’m often asked about the best way to balance the practice of law with the time needed to develop new business.

While there is no silver bullet, here are three first steps to consider when developing a plan to grow your practice.

1) Start with the partnership.

If your firm has a strong business development culture, your equity partners are regularly out there marketing themselves and your firm. But do a gut check. Typically 20% of partners generate 80% of a firm’s business. That may mean that more attention should be focused on helping rainmakers generate more rain. However, it does not mean that they are the only ones who need to be marketing.

Every attorney in the firm has a responsibility to dedicate non-billable time on helping the firm grow. In my experience, not every attorney needs a personal business plan. Non-rainmaker attorney time may be better spent supporting specific marketing and business development initiatives at the firm or practice group level.

2) Evaluate your current workload.

Where does your work come from currently? If it’s another partner that is feeding you work, how can your support her business development goals? If you rely on referrals, what are you doing to stay in touch with those referral sources? If you are trying to develop a new area of practice, what speaking or writing opportunities are available to you to raise your visibility before prospective clients?

3) What is your current utilization?

To meet your professional goals (firm or personal), how much of your time are you willing to work?

What percentage of that time must be spent on billable matters to meet your minimum financial goals?

How much time is left?

If the answer is zero, you need to rethink your business plan. There are only 24 hours in every day. To maintain a steady pipeline of business, you need to make time to do it. That means spending less time on current clients or devoting more non-work time toward your business development efforts.

It’s all about balance.

By Debra Baker

I was reading in the New York Times last week about a website called StickK, where people share publicly their goals and resolutions, even putting money on the line in the event they fail.

The concept, according to the Times article, is that “people are more likely to achieve their goals if they stake their reputations – or their bank accounts – on success.” Apparently, if you fail to achieve your resolution, the money gets donated to a charity of their choice.

There are more than 63,000 StickK contracts with more than $5.9 million at stake.

It got me thinking about the challenges law firms face in developing business development programs that are acted upon in a consistent and ongoing way.

Part of the problem is that law firms don’t place as high a priority on business development as they do on billing clients. Firms may offer encouragement, have the best of intentions, even provide training. The breakdown comes with enforcement. What needs to be done to get the attorneys to act?

Maybe it is as easy as making their plans public and staking their reputations – and bank accounts – on success. Imagine that instead of sending practice group plans and personal business plans to an executive committee for review, plans are made public.

Attorneys are assigned roles based on their interests and needs. Those charged with overseeing the plans are required to make quarterly updates to the partnership. They report on activities, what’s working, what isn’t, how the plans have been adjusted and for what reasons. Those that don’t keep up get fined. The money can even go to the firm’s charitable contributions.

It’s February 1, 32 days into the new year. How are those resolutions coming?

The following post is a reprint of a guest post I wrote for the Moire Marketing Blog on January 24, 2011.

By Debra Baker

My first job in legal marketing was as a “writer” for Heller Ehrman. They wanted someone with a law degree who could work with the attorneys to strengthen their messaging. At the time I was a senior writer for the ABA Journal and was doing pro bono work on the side. The fit seemed perfect.

As a reporter I was always looking for stories, so that is the approach I took when working with the practice group leaders to develop copy. I asked the basic questions to better understand what they did and  what made them different. For example:

• So how many M&As have you done in the last five years?
• What size deals do you handle?
• Do you represent the buyer or the seller?
• In what industries are you strongest?

What I quickly learned was, like many firms, Heller didn’t have a writing problem – they simply lacked enough data to tell a good story. The firm had gone through so much growth that they no longer knew all the great work that they were doing as a firm.

That’s where database marketing comes in.

At Heller, I worked with several partners to create a database to manage and track key matters. This not only allowed us to create compelling marketing copy, it became the foundation of building out the business development arm of the firm.

Without an experience database that allows you to quickly access representative experience or compile important metrics like trial experience or deal flow, you lose the opportunity to effectively validate your marketing message and firm value proposition. What’s more, you end up in a legal marketing Ground Hog Day, where it’s “first time every time” with each new pitch or initiative that comes along.

Experience databases are a critical component of the legal marketing and business development mix, but far too often law firms avoid such projects because they feel like they will be too resource intensive and costly. The biggest challenge is turning the need into execution. Here are five tips to get you started:

1. Define your goal. Determine up front what you are trying to accomplish and what data you need to be successful. Before you start building something, you need to understand what you want to do with it.
2. Keep it simple. For large firms in particular, it can be challenging to come up with a set of parameters that will be all things to all practice groups. One of the biggest risks of a database project is spending too much time trying to create the perfect database and, as a result, nothing gets done. Start with version 1.0 that gets you 80% of the way there and then improve upon it.
3. Find your champions. Marketing cannot do this on its own. You need a directive from your management committee and attorney champions who are going to sell the initiative to the partnership. If the firm as a whole is not committed to the project, it won’t work.
4. Don’t wait to start collecting current data. When a database gets built you need two things: Historic data that you can use today to tell your story and future collection so your story remains relevant and current. Don’t wait to collect all the historic data before you focus on your ongoing collection. Do it at the same time. It may take six months to collect five years’ worth of data. If you aren’t collecting the current information, you will end up with an outdated database before your start.
5. Identify a marketing owner. Marketing can’t do it alone, but marketing does need to own both the system and the process. Without a marketing champion, your database will quickly lose steam.

Database marketing is as simple as it is complex. Typically where the rubber meets the road is with the people and the process. You need an organization that is committed to the project. You need a process to maintain the system that is simple and can be executed in a consistent and ongoing way. With an effective experience database you will not only tell a better story about your firm, you will be more efficient and effective in doing it.

I found an old email this morning that references a 2009 McKinsey Executive Insight report about challenges facing corporations coming out of the economic crisis. I no longer have a link to the year-old report, but the excerpt from the email reads:

“Companies need to integrate marketing and sales function into the day-to-day operations of the organization and apply the same rigor to defining commercial processes and systems that they have long applied to manufacturing and other operational processes and systems. This “commercial transformation” can take many forms and involves 1) a concerted, multi-year effort to substantially upgrade the effectiveness of a company’s marketing and sales processes, including aligning top management around a forceful transformation theme; 2) driving performance improvement programs around 2-3 carefully selected commercial levers and striving to lead the industry on these levers; and 3) embedding the change through a comprehensive commercial operating system, comprising not only processes and tools, but also IT systems and performance management.”

If you filter through the jargon and are not put off by words like “commercialization,” “operational processes”and “sales,” there are some salient points from which law firms could benefit, particularly those that have made a heavy investment in marketing but are not sure they are getting the results they want.

First, law firm management and their marketing departments need to be directly aligned. Many firms still fail to give marketing a seat at the executive committee and make the much needed connection between strategic growth and market position.

Second, the old adage, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it,” remains true. Law firm marketers need benchmarks around which they can measure their success. Real process needs to be put in place to evaluate return on investment.

Finally, IT and marketing can no longer work independently. Technology needs to be an integrated into law firm marketing strategies. There are far too many law firm marketing directors out treat technology like a “project” that can be checked off on a things to do list. Technology is a part of doing business. Combined with the right people and processes, it is a tactic for raising awareness, a tool for developing credibility and the centralized resource for tracking results.

This is not to suggests that law firms need to undergo a “commercial transformation” at the expense of professionalism. But the economy has changed and the drivers for legal services are different today. Firms need to take a disciplined approach to the way the do business in addition to the legal work they provide clients. They cannot afford reactive marketing where there is a constant state of motion and very little measurable progress.

Relationship management touches every aspect of the business—from how you answer the phone to how you bill your clients. Create a client service policy for your firm and make sure every person on staff understands their role in relationship management.

Effective client service teams analyze their existing client relationships across every functional unit of the organization. Here are a few things to consider:

Staffing: Where ever possible, try to staff a team that mirrors that of the client and encourage everyone to develop relationships with their counterparts at the organization. Positive impressions don’t rest in the hands of a single person. Everyone on the team should be part of strengthening the client relationship.

Billing: Evaluate your billing process from the standpoint of your client. Do your bills go to the right internal contact? Are they formatted in a way that makes it easy for your client to process? Or do your bills frustrate your clients by providing too little or too much detail? If you don’t know the answers to these questions, ask.

Marketing: First impressions today are not always in person. They are online, often before any face-to-face interaction takes place. Today, a firm’s website is where a first impression is established. What does your website say about the firm? Is the content up to date? Does the look and feel of the site reflect the strongest attributes of the firm? For more on this topic, read, “When is a website more than a website?”

IT: Bring your IT professionals into the client team fold and evaluate what resources are available to support the goals of the team. Look at what internal resources you currently leverage to improve the overall efficiency in the way you work. Client extranets, simple project management software and experience databases can provide invaluable differentiators to support the development of the client relationship.

For more information about client relationship management, check out my article, “Lessons from the Trenches: Client Service Teams.”

Oscar Wilde once said, “You know more than you think you know, just as you know less than you want to know.”

When it comes to law firm marketing, the same can be said about your clients. In some ways you do know more than you think you know, although you may not have harnessed that information to benefit your practice. In other ways, if you haven’t taken the time to understand what makes your client base tick, you may know a lot less.

The more you can understand your clients, the greater the impact you will have on them.

A key to building strong, long-term client relationships, is to understand the trends, drivers and needs that impact client behavior.

Trends: What trends impact your clients’ legal needs? Trends typically fall into four categories: competitive, regulatory, technological, economic.

Drivers: How do your clients measure success? Success for business is often based on key metrics such as financial performance or shareholder value.

Needs: What keeps your clients up at night? Consider the risks they face with their current legal needs, costs considerations, the source of the problem, competitive pressures.

By taking a disciplined approach to studying the trends, drivers and needs of your clients, you will provide value to your client that goes beyond the specific legal matter you handle. This will position you for a greater share of work and help turn your clients into great referral sources.

For more lessons about client service teams, read, “Lessons from the Trenches: Client Service Teams.”