Progressive Marketing

Set reasonable expectations for a social media plan

2012-02-04T13:01:00.000-08:00

If you never decide where you're going, how will you know if you ever get there? Setting expectations is no less important in a plan using social media than in any other endeavor. It simply is the only place to start.

What are your objectives from a brand and awareness standpoint? From an engagement standpoint? Who will be the content creator(s), who the conversationalist(s)? How much time can you/you company devote? How much money can you invest? Will you need outside help?

I've been using a simple form that is a schematic for each area in which our firm wants to apply social media. It covers what I think are the basic decisions and assignments that are necessary for starting a social media component.

Forrester Research's report on ROI in social media is also illuminating. They insist that in-channel metrics need to be augmented with other research tactics to learn if a strategy is really working. The start of your effort is where decisions should be made on what these measures will need to be at the end of a project in order for it to be properly judged as to its effectiveness.

One can get overwhelmed with the multitude of choices. I know I was. What helped me was selecting one or two objectives and measures that made reasonable sense as targets and that were within my ability to collect and assess.

Can you think of some simple goals that might be within your grasp as you start to use social media? Would you post them as comments below? Let's talk!

New Year's Resolutions...Not!

2012-01-08T12:02:00.000-08:00

I am in agreement, yet again, with my good friend Heather Morse, who admits in a new year's post that she's not much for resolutions. Me either, Heather. And I agree that it is no longer OK for lawyers to not to know how online social media work.

Heather's post about this gives a great catalog of meaningful sites and features that lawyers brush aside at their own peril. There are still some at the law firm where I work that insist that they will never develop a reputation as subject matter experts through social media. Yet, this is only true because they are not participating in social media.

I think of social media as "the people's public relations." Where once one had to be known by a reporter or editor, or conference planner, in order to be asked a question, quoted in a story or offered a speaking gig at the next industry conference, now it is much more likely that one of these media and industry professionals will reach out through social media to find the experts known among their networks of sources. If you are not in these collections of virtual connections, you will be virtually invisible.

And while lawyers once looked for the editorial exposure of being quoted in a news story on an issue as enhancing and spreading their reputation, they now have the dynamic duo of blogging and Twitter to develop audiences of interested people who will listen to and look forward to their views.

If you or your firm are making online social media a part of your public relations strategy, here are ten, well, they are not resolutions, let's call them ten suggestions...strong suggestions for 2012:

Set realistic expectations
Define your target market
Choose tactics carefully
Stay on topic, be provocative
Don't overdo it
Measure and listen in equal amounts
Keep current and be current
Reach out and circulate
Ask questions, give answers
Keep a record

I'll expand on this list in the weeks ahead, so bear with me.

A shout out to the Minnesota Chapter of the Legal Marketing Association, where I'll be speaking on social media on March 21, in Minneapolis. Thanks for the invitation!

More Tips for Business Development Coaching

2011-11-10T04:52:00.000-08:00

At the Legal Marketing Association Virginias Chapter meeting in Richmond last August, Deb Knupp and Megan McKeon were talking about business development coaching. Previous posts have discussed some of their presentation here and here.

One of the intriguing ideas that I wrote down was an action concept they called "Three INs." The authentic business relationship between lawyer and contact/prospect generates three kinds of responses that facilitate a continuing conversation and a deepening understanding of one another:

Invitations - these would be issued along the lines of the contact's specific interests, might be educational, social or some other mutually enjoyable shared activity;
Introductions - these would be among contacts to assist in building corollary business or social relationships that would benefit the contact's career, life or happiness;
Information - these would be highly customized for top prospects, perhaps regarding the specific business expertise of the contact or the lawyer, or for some other situation that reflects shared goals.

Deb and Megan also had some great suggestions for networking:

Always keep your business cards where you can fetch them in two seconds (the 2-second rule);
Approach individuals or groups of three to introduce yourself, where conversations are easier to start and participate in (the 1 or 3 rule);
When waiting in a long line, make two friends by speaking to both the person in front of you and behind you;
When you speak with someone new, make at least three minutes of conversation to be gracious, ten minutes to have a deeper discussion and fifteen minutes of conversation for a hot prospect, then move on (the 3-10-15 rule);
Avoid lingering in conversations (or getting trapped in unproductive chats) by preparing to exit with finesse, step away for food or drink or have a ready reason (return a call, check for client email) to depart.

My thanks go to Deb Knupp of Akina Corporation and Megan McKeon of Katten Muchin Rosenman for their gifts.

What advice can you add for business networking? How would you overcome the natural reluctance to make an intentional process out of social conversations?

Qwikster, New Coke and Big Fat Marketing Egos

2011-10-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

Netflix's Reed Hastings has fallen on his knees again, begging for forgiveness. No need to rehash this news from yesterday's Netflix blog. This might be a good time to put the cement overshoes on his marketing consigliere, though. Someone's corporate ego is in the way big time.

I hear from NPR that the finance side might have been a big reason for these twin black eyes for Netflix. On the one hand, raising prices is bad enough. But not understanding the needs of your consumer and how they interface with your revenues is deadly. Here's a cycle not to repeat: double your price, say I'm sorry and we're going to make you do twice as much work to consume our service and then mea culpa, we didn't understand you used our service to simplify your life and entertainment choices.

I'm old enough to remember "New Coke" and it's a case study in wrongly-done marketing in courses and graduate schools around the country. It seems like such common sense now, but back in the day this was big fat marketing egos gone wild. Despite the Coca-Cola Company's spin (read this!), "New Coke" was a try that failed in the most public way. It cost a bunch of money and generated much negative press and consumer confusion. Even today, it is shorthand in the marketing profession for a really bad marketing decision.

OK, nobody's perfect. But we all can use a little humility. What are you doing to make sure big, fat marketing egos don't get in the way of your integrated marketing communications programs with ill-conceived strategems like market share warfare and illogical service spin-offs?

More reading:

Qwikster – Biggest Marketing Blunder since New Coke

Mobile Is Now How Content Gets Shared

2011-10-07T07:29:00.000-07:00

Go Popcorn (@GoPopcorn) is the source of this very interesting graphic, which details the fast growing influence of mobile platforms on social content sharing activity. Here's a slice of activity that's just 60 seconds long.

Motivating Lawyers in Business Development

2011-10-04T08:31:00.000-07:00

It's amazing what you can learn for a $35 lunch at the LMA Virginias Chapter. Below you will find my first followup to the earlier post on Deb Knupp and Megan McKeon's program in July, also posted at the Virginias Chapter blog.

Business development coaching is about motivators. Motivators can be carrots (recognition, compensation) or sticks (management, peer pressure), but everything boils down to what’s in it for the lawyer. Methods of motivation include training (what is it I need to do), coaching (how do I perform business development) and encouragement (where is my support).

Business development for any lawyer, says Deb, revolves around three truths:

Knowing his target market – what’s a good fit so he can concentrate on catching only the clients he wants
Building authentic relationships – she must focus on mutuality, trust, frequency and sincerity
Solving problems that should be solved – even when self-interest must be suspended

Simply, the keys are being focused, making friends and solving problems. Akina sees the business development cycle in six phases, which they call the Revenue Acceleration Framework. It describes three preparation phases that Deb likened to “taping the room” before you paint; necessary, but definitely not the exciting part.

One of the principles in these phases that served as a light bulb moment for me was the deliberate segmentation of a target market. In the Akina approach, as Megan and Deb outlined it, a lawyer makes a list of their top 20-40 contacts. These must fall within three types: prospects (contacts who buy legal services), connectors (contacts who know and refer people who buy legal services) and allies (contacts who can co-market legal services). Further segmentation sets a “priority” level: A= definite prospects/clients; B=not sure about the contact’s value; and C=completely unknown value. This matrix puts the highest value contacts at the fore, but also defines concurrent work to understand the business development benefit of the additional relationships. Thus begins a process resembling “dating”, according to our speakers.

Despite the mechanical nature of the description, Deb insisted the purpose of the exercise is to “share the love.” And for the next phase, a lawyer must discern what these contacts need to know. She and Megan had some suggestions about messaging.

In training lawyers on the proper message to deliver, Deb works in two areas. The “quick pitch” (“elevator speech”) is the answer to the ubiquitous question “What do you do?” Deb arranges the answer like this: the problem I solve for whom. Diagrammed another way the answer is “I [verb] [target market] [problem solved].”

The “follow up” is also the familiar question, “What’s new?” This answer can be broader, but should show some relation to 1) current events (ie. specific news), 2) a current project (either business or personal) or 3) looking forward (what’s on the horizon). Deb even handed out a worksheet to outline these areas in more detail, where the lawyer can note the possible answer to “What’s new?” so they enter a relationship activity prepared.

That’s what’s new with me. What’s new with you?

When automation subs for thinking, is that a good thing?

2011-09-21T08:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we were told that Google+ is wide open for business. We learned that Facebook now sends your account news based on what they think you are most interested in. Both of these platforms congregate personal networks into audiences and apply an automation model to the process of extending the user's identity and activity across that audience.

I'm a proponent of social media, which I consider "the people's public relations channel" as it taps into and uses online broadcast utilities to distribute comment and reputation outside of traditional media. What once was under the complete control of a reporter and editor now is within the command of any individual internet user. And it has turned the previous media relationship on its head, as reporters and editors now search among social media looking for sources for stories and expertise.

However, the proliferation of multi-featured channels, with increasing demand for permissions to access and sell your personal attributes, poses huge questions for users, both corporate and individual: how much do we trust these social utilities to understand us and respect our individuality? How great an effort are we willing to put into managing these tools so that the automatic features we use operate as we intend?

Marketing is a process. Each cycle of communication rests on calculated tactics aimed at specific outcomes drawn from product and consumer knowledge. All along the communication and feedback loop, energy must be expended. When we enter social media channels with the hope that they will automate our communications and ease our work, are we putting our faith in the right place?

Hello, LMA Midwest!

2011-09-06T18:17:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you just have to thank your lucky stars. How else to explain occupying the same forum as Ross Fishman , Ann Lee Gibson, Tim Corcoran, Barbara Miller and Bill Flannery? I am not worthy!

Friday, September 9 we each play a part in the Legal Marketing Association Midwest Chapter Conference being held in Chicago at the University Club. My topic is Social Media (big surprise there!), but I'll be talking about how to calculate the benefit of participation, using some of the "big five" as examples.

For folks in the audience, I have put some resources in my public Dropbox, a service I have used for over a year and which I recommend to anyone who has to keep up with files from several computers or mobile devices. If you came to the Conference, I hope you will let me know in the comments below if you got what you wanted, or anything, from my time at the front of the room. I'd appreciate your help in improving the information.

Even if you didn't attend, here are some recent resources I find really helpful, you can collect the articles and reports at the links below.

And check back with my blog to let me know how you're doing on measuring social media.

Back in the BizDev Dojo

2011-08-02T05:42:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago, I found myself furiously scribbling notes at the Legal Marketing Association Virginias Chapter meeting in Richmond. Deb Knupp and Megan McKeon were talking about business development coaching.

I felt like I was back in school, with my mind open and new ideas pouring in fast as I could absorb them. Truly, I can recall nothing recently that turned me on more and gave me better actionable intelligence that this hour with my two newest senseis.

As a rare act of generosity, Deb and Megan left the attendees at the luncheon with both a fully developed and proven system of coaching and a tool kit of ready forms and tactics. As it happened, I needed to return to work that afternoon and have a first coaching session with one of our lawyers who had expressed frustration with her marketing plan's speed of progress. I applied a few of the ideas I'd just learned during that afternoon conversation. The effect was remarkable and resulted in an energized attorney and focused multi-step plan which we are now shaping for implementation.

I'll be discussing some of the key concepts here over the next few weeks. Today, I just wanted to issue a shout-out and grateful "Thanks y'all" to Deb Knupp of Akina Corporation and Megan McKeon of Katten Muchin Rosenman for their gifts.

Who have you heard recently that has rocked your world in business development?

Marketing Still Adjusting to New ROI Models

2011-06-24T05:36:00.000-07:00

Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim this week covered an Insights report from Forbes (free registration required) showing that top level marketers are still stumbling towards implementing the new marketing paradigm: customer acquisition. (Read the MP article here.)

Maybe you're surprised that customer acquisition as a marketing goal is something new. A more complete explanation based on the Forbes report might be that the stringent measurement of short term acquisition and buying activity is currently a top metric for judging marketing program success. More than brand recognition, more than brand communication and outreach, more than profit, sustaining customer activity and increasing incoming customers are the measures that matter.

At least that is the reported state of affairs from the responses to Forbes's interviewers. Customer retention and customer acquisiton are more important to the marketers than profitability or branding. The methods for achieving these goals are mostly online, too, as the largest spending increases are forecast for online media, social media and mobile media efforts. The vague categories of retention and acquisition also rank in the top five for spending increases, but there is scant discerment of what constitute these.

Further, the two top challenges identified have to do with understanding the interaction of strategies. The bewilderment of marketers is a chief obstacle to improving the focus and effectiveness of marketing. I wish I could say I do not belong in this crowd, but mea culpa, for sure.

How are you seeking to clear your mind and focus on understanding the retention and acquisition effects your marketing strategies? Have you any insight for me or the rest of us?

Going Mobile?

2011-05-03T06:21:00.000-07:00

One of my all time favorite rock bands is The Who, but they were going home when they were "Going Mobile." These days, going mobile is the future of marketing, IMHO.

While text messaging is still the dominant way of communicating messages of all types to mobile users, the increasing penetration of smart phones and tablets worldwide will eventually make cell application channels and the internet the main distribution methods for high definition and interactive ways to reach mobilized consumers. Just recently, I had the pleasure of hearing Jolie O'Dell of Mashable.com talk about the use of location-based marketing pioneered by foursquare.com. This tactic is now proliferating through the smart phone universe as mobile users "check in" voluntarily at participating businesses. While the marketing implications of location broadcasting are still murky (and the hidden collection of mobile data by Apple and Google is causing privacy concerns and government scrutiny), the most obvious conclusion is that mobile device users consider their hand-held technology the most convenient point for consuming information, entertainment, sales offers and social connections. Sounds like a "place" where marketing belongs, don't you think?

If you're interested in learning almost everything about the mobile world, there's a great post at mobithinking.com. If you're still in doubt about whether your business can benefit from entering this developing arena in marketing, consider this:

250+ million Americans carry mobile phones—over 80% of the nation's population

Cell phones subscriptions topped 5 billion globally before 2011

The global mobile advertising market was valued at over $16 billion by 2011

And if you still doubt that mobile marketing can deliver the emotional intimacy that is the heart of effective marketing:

Four out of five teens carry a wireless device, and the majority (57%) view their cell phone as the key to their social life

Going mobile?

General Counsel Panel Says Lawyers "Spectacularly Bad"

2011-04-06T06:15:00.000-07:00

At the Legal Marketing Association Annual Conference on April 6 at the Disney resort in Orlando, we heard again from a set of in-house counsel about their needs and advice for outside counsel.

Stephen Kaplan, SVP, General Counsel, Connextions

Jeff Novak, GC, AOL Paid Services

John Lewis, Jr., Senior Managing Counsel, Litigaiton, Coca-Cola

They said that law firms are "spectacularly bad" at asking about the client's needs, but really good about talking about the law firm's capabilities.

They said cost is important because it represents risk and is actually part of the outcomes they measure.

They remember when law firms ask "what does a win look like for you?" This relationship continues to grow revenue for the law firm, and they "make us look good."

They recognize as novel the concept of a law firm saying "we know how to contain costs on our side, we can apply these same ideas to a client's costs."

They realize that the law firm is offering an partnership that transcends the vendor relationship when they educate the GC on a new role as a value-add, off the clock. They say it makes a difference in treatment of the lawyer/law firm: "We leverage vendors, put them under duress, drive their price down. We don't do that to partners."

When markets have mobile lawyers, after they move around and immediately want to command an audience on how great their law firm is now, GCs remark they have to remind the lawyer that they used to say these great things about the place they left. And GCs make a joke out of many of the claims law firms make about themselves. As for differentiation between law firm strengths, GCs say "A lot of firms struggle on the 'what else' question in pitches."

Learn who are you, what is your brand, give GCs the differentiators that make a difference to their companies and them.

Firms must realize that GCs do not believe they hire lawyers not firms. "If you haven't figured out how to make us clients of the firm, you are always risking the work moving. We want to be clients of firms who know our business, anticipate our needs and understand what we want out of our legal work."

"It's just not acceptable to come into a company looking for work and know nothing about us, it's intellectually lazy, when everything in the world now is an open book test."

It is painfully easy to stay up on a client's moves, executives and activities, they said. This is table stakes now, firms should know clients as well as they can throughout the relationship and that includes every member of the client legal team team.

GCs remark that diversity is not a moral imperative, it is just the way the world is. Not having a diverse workforce, and not to recognize it among clients, is "just plain dumb." This is about growing your firms, they say. It is evidence of a forward thinking, innovative legal firm. "The industry acts like a herd of wildebeests, moving together in almost every action" from associate salaries, law schools recruited, fees and partnership agreements. That is clear to GCs and it destroys the notion that there is anything that differentiates law firms one from another.

Good strategic and tactical marketing that reach GCs must convince them that there is a compelling reason to displace a current relationship. Example: One was sued in NY, and a law firm came to the company GC and said they'd like to represent the client in this case. They said they were so sure they would win, they had already drafted the motion and would do the engagement for a flat fee. And if they lost, the client didn't have to pay. That got their attention. Only specific and highly customized marketing is effective.

GCs think "the landscape is changing, client expectations are moving. To not adjust the business model is akin to the tree that stands stiff in the storm and gets snapped in two." The majority of legal work in not "life or death" for a company, and most matters can be done by any one of several dozen law firms. Firms have to be introspective about where their growth opportunities lie.

GCs have become very sophisticated at how they use data, especvially when insituting an electronic billing system where clients can discover errors that their law firms don't even catch. When law firms say that they don't have a method to analyze their work processes and create more efficient ones, it's a red flag. Having the capacity to do these things is essential to the client's work and revenue. In-house law functions are a cost that has to be managed, and that has to be part of a law firm's marketing to us. "This business is one size fits one." The things like the ACC Value Challenge are not the end of the conversation, they are just the beginning.

Your Honor Awards: Winning!

2011-04-05T11:13:00.000-07:00

During the judging this year, co-chairs of the Legal Marketing Association Your Honor Awards asked the panelists to indicate submissions that would be interesting case studies for a conference audience.

Wold Theiss's Janet Nordstrom is Chief Strategy Officer of a 325 lawyer firm spread over mostly Europe with services among many former USSR states, that won in training category. The lawyers had never had business development training. Brought in corporate counsel from multi-national firms and ACC to teach lawyers what would be necessary to compete for business among this universe.

Young lawyers were sponges, ready to learn. Took them to a remote site in Austria where they couldn't leave or access communication and distraction. Wrote two very difficult case studies. Did day and half pre-training on how to create value for client. Empowered the lawyers to devise solutions to the case studies, which would be judged by the in-house counsel as if in an RFP situation. At the end, panel of corporate counsel gave deep details on how to forge relationships that develop work for a lawyer.

Andrea Wood of Leonard, Street covered her winning entry in the online category, the launch of Dodd-Frank.com. Just seven marketing staff, but a strong business development culture, enabled a team effort to focus on this time-sensitive time-intensive project. One attorney reserves the domain on June 27 and presented the name to the marketing department.

They knew they could leverage the name, so June 30 it was decided to implement a blog. The bill was signed on July 21, 2010 and this mean it was a rapidly expiring opportunity, needed to do development and support with PR and other marketing. Budget was not identified. Firm had no prior blogging experience. Attorney did have time to devote to the project.

Stockpiled posts for ten days prior to launch. Sought a lot of suggestions for low cost providers. Meanwhile, supported the attorney's interest in his practice and took the project information to all other practice groups. Enlisted firm leadership, somewhat at their looking askance, but they trusted their business development team. Ultimately, eighteen lawyers were trained on blog writing and have posted nearly 300 pieces of information on the Dodd-Frank Act. Site launch was July 30.

Stephen Hastings of Fasken Martineau discussed firm's Best in Show winning entry in marketing on a shoestring, a bespoke marketing tool built on SharePoint. Called Symphonie, it is a repository of marketing and branding tools that can be worked on and is systematized firm-wide. Fact sheets, bios, photos, events are easy to access and adapt. Everyone can see everything. Also built a social networks internal feature.

Asking a Question? Bring An Answer.

2011-04-05T08:54:00.001-07:00

Elizabeth Zabak of Carleton Fields, who was a presenter on leadership and professional development at the Masterminds pre-conference session during the 2011 Legal Marketing Association anual conference in Orlando, FL, discusses her takeaway from the interactive discussion with attendees.

Invest in Laterals When They Arrive

2011-04-05T08:13:00.000-07:00

Deborah McMurray of Content Pilot attended the Masterminds pre-conference session at the 2011 Legal Marketing Association and learned that firms need to invest more heavily in the business development skill set for arriving laterals.

Jordon Furlong on Building the Perfect Beast

2011-04-04T21:20:00.000-07:00

Jordon gives his takeaways for his Masterminds sesson on April 4 at the Legal Marketing Association annual conference in Orlando.

Read my post about his presentation here.

Leadership Roles Are Made Not Found

2011-04-04T13:04:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth Zabak shared some best practices for law firm marketing leadership, ways in which to become a truly effective manager and mentor, at the Masterminds session at the Legal Marketing Association annual conference in Orlando today.

General characteristics for success operate in the new reality of there is no start time, people have to be effective right away. Marketers need to have grace under fire. Candidates have to be driven, smart, have good judgement. The successful hires show personal confidence and generosity. They have esprit de corps, lack of ego, behave with shared responsibility.

Questions at the interview to get beyond the resume

What are you passionate about?
How did you resolve a situation with a difficult person?
What would you ask our managing partner in an interview?
How do you handle competing deadlines?
What do you wish you were better at?
What kind of management brings out the best work in you?

What makes up high performing teams?

autonomy, mastery and a sense of purpose
intrinsic rewards vs. carrot and stick
earn loyalty and create a more talented team
develop clear expectations, clear messages
create a team, not a dictatorship

Developing and retaining talent

provide regular feedback and evaluation
project evaulations
"fan mail"
managing partners spread firm recognition emails
adults need 3:1 praise to criticism
be a strong role model
be a mentor and coach

Can The Law Firm Business Model Survive?

2011-04-04T10:44:00.000-07:00

In the Economics and Profitability Masterminds session at the Legal Marketing Association conference, William T. Garcia, Strategic Initiatives at Howery and Mark Price, Director of Marketing of White and Williams, question the traditional model of law firm economics. We no longer live in the world of leverage on associates at the lowest level of law work, the world of clients unwilling to question price because low cost was equated with low quality, and a world of high volume low value work.

Market forces:

new recruits are ready for high value work now

low availability of high volume low value work

clients no longer willing to pay for it

rate increases vs. rate of inflation

clients unwilling to accept annual rate increases

disaggregation of law services, more client management responsibility

rate negotiations and discounting

perceptions of the legal industry

expectations re: technology expectations

Levers of profitability

capacity

utilizaton

rate

realizaton

Billable hours - as capacity increases, compensation expense increases rate is allocated by individual lawyer.

Project fee model - as capacity increases, compensation expense can increase OR time per project can decrease rate is allocated by project. Smart law firms will add back capacity at the lowest possible cost.

Good marketers will talk to their attorneys about AFAs as producing a lower payment risk. More collectible because payment is coming in on front or as retainer, reducing time needed by attorney to collect.

For AFAs, firms will need to continue to pipeline associates to partners, but focus on outsourcing low value work or staff based work in order to expand and contract through non-employees.

Bringing Value to the Client Relationship

2011-04-04T08:21:00.000-07:00

Law firms can't avoid adapting to the changing marketplace. One which has lead the thinking and development on alternative fees has been Drinker Biddle of Philadelphia.

John Byrne, CMO, and Kristin Sudholz, Chief Value Officer, of Drinker Biddle & Reath spoke to the audience of Masterminds at the 2011 Legal Marketing Annual Conference (#LMA11) in Orlando, FL. They point out that the one determinant condition of AFAs that make them work for law firms is scope. The dialog with clients about their goals and views of value for specific ordinary course of business or commodity work is the way to start.

Law firms need to have a resource within a law firm who can work through the AFA scenarios prior to them eing introduced to a client. Data is important, but a financial team who is willing to play ball is key. There has to be a management editct to bring any and all proposals through the review process where these team members get a chance to apply their analysis.

Fee Models other than Hourly:

fixed fees

capped fees

retainers

milestone formula

tax-based billing

blended fees

volume discounts

secondments

value billing

Analyisis after billing is crucial to gauge whether the engagement satisfied the needs of the firm and clients. There will be some where losses occur on either side, the law firm will over work the matter or the clients will over pay. There is more non-billable work among lawyers to get the return. And you probably will never get rid of "shadow billing" as a way to see if the engagement is "making money."

Building the Perfect Beast

2011-04-04T05:56:00.000-07:00

Jordan Furlong of Edge International says that the economy is not turning around and the we have entered a time of new realities for law firms.

What's going on?

Segmentation

is going on in legal work, and is becoming stratified. Each strata will have different price points and different relationship needs.

Mission critical work, from the client point of view, is work they wish they did not have to award. Clients think it definitely matters who they hire and they want the best...skills and reputation, for protection of the decision. Money is no object.

Ordinary course of business, where they need a lawyer, but it doesn't really matter who they hire to do this work. Their biggest leverage is the cost.

Commodity work, may not need a lawyer, but if they can get the work done for the right price and the lawyer is who does it, that's fine.

Law firms must decide in which tier they should be, and they all can't be in the mission critical work. The area of need is too small. If the firm doesn't choose a segment, the market will choose one for them.

Another trend is the development of alternative providers of legal services, and may not actually have a lawyer involved.

Some focused on small and consumer legal services. Low risk work.

Legal process outsourcing companies, usually based outside of North America (India, for example) who do "entry level" legal work that might have gone to associates. Can cut 85% of cost, and they do the work well. Law firms see these as competition. Clients see them as options.

What to do?

Invest in systems.

Abandon the clock.

clients care about outcomes
clients care about price
the rest is irrelevant

Rethink legal talent

law schools are built to produce teachers of law
grades are a poor metric of lawyer success

LMA 25: Destination Disney

2011-04-02T16:40:00.000-07:00

Next week, I will be blogging from the Legal Marketing Association's 2011 Annual Conference, the 25th annual, being held at the Disney Yacht and Beach Club Resort. I'll be serving with Beth Cuzzone of Goulston on the Monday Masterminds day-long deep dive into business development, alternative fees and leadership. Watch this space for information from Masterminds and the two-day conference following.

Charlottesville and Social Media This Weekend - March 19

2011-03-18T10:52:00.001-07:00

At the invitation of my friend Wendy Inge, I will join her for a presentation to the Association of Legal Administrators' Third Virginia Statewide Educational Retreat in Charlottesville, Virginia, this weekend.

Tom Jefferson's town. You-Vee-Ay. Shenandoah Valley. Skyline Drive. We'll spend our day at the Boar's Head Inn (mmmm, really like their deli meats!) and, hopefully, lay some groundwork for some experimentation among our bretheren in the fields.

I'll talk about our firm's entry, some tactical decisions and case study an example. Wendy's on the risk management side, so she'll issue the warnings. After, I'll post some of our materials here for your use. Check back when you can.

The Facebook Problem

2011-02-16T05:09:00.000-08:00

Just yesterday, the Wall Street Journal had a front page article on the second section about Facebook's "frenemies", the basic premise of which was "can't live with it, can't live without it." I was on a panel with Peter Schankman last year and he declared, convincingly, that there was only going to be one victorious online social utility and Facebook had already won (read more here).

I wrote on the Legal Marketing Association Virginias Chapter blog just last month about a couple of issues for law firms using Facebook. Given the information reported by the Wall Street Journal, it's clear that some of the world's most respected internet brands and companies are finding the apparent world-domination ethos hard to digest, but difficult to avoid. According to recent statistics from iStrategyLabs, over 70% of the U.S. web audience is on Facebook. Since 2007, their U.S. growth alone has been 600%. While the acceleration in account creation must slow soon, activity in the Facebook community is becoming unavoidable for businesses.

We all must keep a wary eye on Facebook. One good place to do it is the AllFacebook service, "an unofficial Facebook resource." Each iteration of Facebook is a double edged sword. For example, as Facebook increases its account controls, users will be able to be more circumspect about their data and their "friend" associates. Don't mistake the intent of these new features: the controls are ways to specify your relationship proximity with members of your audience and Facebook will sell those relationships to whomever wants to buy those eyeballs.

As a proponent of technology and a believer in the basic impartiality of markets, I understand the rise of Facebook. The combination of ease of entry and facile connectedness can be disarming. And I'm no Oliver Stone, I don't subscribe to conspiracy theories. However, I do believe in corporate amorality. The job of the corporate leader is to ensure the survival and growth of the enterprise. Self-interest is king.

Is there anything about Facebook's moves to suggest something other than self-interest is at work?

Have Law Firms Embraced Social Media?

2011-02-01T05:30:00.000-08:00

Our internal research in Virginia suggests not. Still, this article in February's Virginia Business magazine outlines the activities and opinions of a few of our more adventurous brethren. I spent a lot of time talking with author Doug Childers for what was originally intended to be a sidebar in the December Legal Elite issue. Editor Robert Powell expanded it to a feature and decided the piece needed to include a photo. Unfortunately, it is of me, instead of someone really attractive like Charleen Pine McManus of Ironworks Consulting.

How about the involvement of your firm? Toe-in-the-water or adult swim?

Who Are You? Who Do You Trust?

2011-01-25T06:36:00.000-08:00

More and more, the online space is a vital component of professional reputation for companies, governments, organizations, non-profits and individuals. In fact, recent research suggests that online reputation is becoming an obsession for many of us.

Harris Interactive's study last year found 80% of U. S. adults believe their online identity is now as important as their “offline” personal or professional reputation. Further insight shows this importance extends from the privacy side (security) to the public side (respectability). More telling, seven out of ten respondents claimed thay would be likely to refuse to interact with a company or person for whom they found negative information online.

This is why new reputation/information hygiene sites (also called online reputation management or ORM) are coming online almost every month. Here are just a few I have run across in recent days:

trackur.com
reputationdefender.com
reputation.com
onlinereputationmanager.com
truerep.com
reputationmanagementconsultants.com
reputationhawk.com
impeccablereputation.com
reputationmanagementexperts.com

Duct Tape Marketing has another useful list here. In the professional services industry, it may fall to marketing staff to scrub the online space. And the complexity of managing multiple individual reputations extends far beyond just a collection of Google alerts, as helpful as these may be.

Just as evaluation has its proper and crucial place in every marketing plan, reputation analysis must be a part of the criteria for measuring the effects of your online social media and other public relations both for your firm and individuals participating in the plan.

What are you doing to measure the reputation of your company, your professionals or yourself? What are you doing if what you find isn't meeting your goals?