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Author: Allan Colman

Did 34 Attorneys Really Say That About Business Development?

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Attorney Marketing, Business Development, Law Firm Marketing, Marketing for Law Firms.

Did 34 Attorneys Really Say That About Business Development?

Approaching the first workshop with a new client is always a challenge. For us, the obstacles we encounter in these first meetings are based on many of these following real quotes from lawyers in our strategic business development groups. Fortunately, the ultimate successes outweigh the initial skepticism.

In this series of posts, how would you respond?

1. “We have no pipeline and no one seems to be concerned.”

2. “Just lost my largest client and I haven’t marketed in years.”

3. “We have great attorneys — clients should be calling us.”

4. “We won a great victory for a client. But it’s been 6 months and she hasn’t called us.”

5. “We always miss the major new litigation.”

Wait until you see the next 5!

Business Development Means "Keep the End in Mind"

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Asking for Business, Attorney Marketing, Law Firm Marketing, Marketing for Law Firms.

This is the second and last commentary on clarifying the differences between marketing and business development.

Marketing supports the possible. Business development targets, pursues and closes prospect targets. A traditional law firm marketing department is designed to assist in keeping its firm’s image and reputation in the corporate eye, provide support for outreach and RFP responses, conduct intelligence-gathering, create media profiles, etc.

The really good firms are fortunate to have some of their staff with longer-range “marketer” capabilities; that is taking a view of the desired end result, landing new work and incorporating these goals in their support.

Business development, if properly implemented and managed, should focus on, and take advantage of,client targets already on the minds and lists of the firm’s professionals and partners. Financial and management consulting firms remain salutary models for law firms as historically they have been much more focused on specific deliverables and closings.

They take to hear the axiom, “Always keep the end in mind.”

Do You Really Know What "Business Development" Means?

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Attorney Marketing, Business Development, Law Firm Marketing, Marketing for Law Firms.

This is the first of a 2- part post designed to clarify the differences between “marketing” and “business development.” As the term “business development” finds its way into common discussions, we find it means all things to all people. It has created great confusion as firms look to expand their client bases, grow per-client revenue, cross market more practice areas and take a larger piece of a pie that many in-house legal departments are trying to shrink.

However, with the pressures on our marketing professionals to produce collateral materials, update websites, plan and staff seminars and conferences, provide public relations to and with the media, etc., all to often the MARKETING PLAN (spoken with great reverence) sits on a shelf. If spoken of at all, it is usually at the annual partners meeting.

If an enlightened leadership wants to update the “M” plan, or (perish the thought) develop a real business development strategy, the details, time, cost and staff input is money often misspent. Stratagems abound but too few provide visible, measurable results.

Part II next time will deal with KEEPING THE END IN MIND.

DO YOU HAVE A BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT VOCABULARY?

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Law Firm Marketing, Marketing for Law Firms.

In our very first workshops with new clients, we provide the meanings of and examples of each of the following key business development keys. Master the vocabulary and you will master business development.
Send me a email if you need a definition.

1. Closing Quartet
2. Permission Marketing
3. Invisible Marketing
4. Economic/User Buyers
5. Force Multiplier
6. Opportunity Mind-set
7. “Touches”
8. Current % of “buyers.”
9. % of business from clients and referrals.

Add more and let me know.

Are You Winning More or Losing More New Business?

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Asking for Business, Business Development, Law Firm Marketing, Marketing for Law Firms.

In our work with clients, we find they often do not take the time to evaluate what works and what doesn’t work in their prospecting, pitch and proposal meetings. Take time to consider the following:

1. Is your proposal/presentation materials format fresh and updated?
2. Have you tested different conversion approaches?
3. How carefully, and updated are the actual “talking points” and “pain points” the client is worried about?
4. Do you and your teams practice the meeting pitches prior to and conduct a post mortem after a meeting?
5. Are you sending the right team composition to the prospecting meetings?

Additional questions will follow in our next blog.

Go to our services page at www.closersgroup.com for more details.

What's Going On In Your Firm? – II.

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Attorney Marketing, Law Firm Leadership, Law Firm Marketing, Managing Partners, Marketing Partners, Practice Group Leaders.

Additional questions we ask during our Strategic Business Development Planning to enhance and refine a firm’s business development successes include:

5. Is anyone actively using your CRM system?

6. Can your firm’s business development structure be strengthened to have a greater impact in generating new business growth?

7. Have you clearly identified firm-wide regional needs and cultures?

8. Do you celebrate “new client acquisition” in addition to client wins?

9. What are the internal obstacles to building consensus and active attorney participation in getting face-to-face with prospects and renewing client relationships?

Your firm’s management committee, marketing committee, practice group leaders and Partners-in-Charge of offices need to carefully consider all 9 questions if they truly want to grow business.

What's Going On In Your Firm?

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Attorney Marketing, Business Development, Law Firm Marketing, Marketing Partners, Practice Group Leaders.

During our Strategic Business Development Planning, we ask clients to evaluate questions such as:

1. What is the firm’s own internal perception? What do the attorneys, assistants, paralegals, etc.say to describe the firm to their friends and colleagues?

2. Is there a consistent message about the firm being delivered to the market place? In our experience, the firm’s “brand” is rarely, if every, used by attorneys meeting with prospects. Is there a common sentence describing the firm’s differentiators used for speech introductions, bios with published articles, etc.?

3. Do you understand the differences between marketing, business development and business generation? These skills are all too often combined in a title without understanding the tactical differences and needs.

4. Are your attorneys engaged in cross marketing as well as cross selling? The first is to better educate your colleagues on the value you can bring to their clients. Cross selling is the act of recommending another practice area of your firm to help a client with a problem separate from the one you are working on.

We’ll continue with other questions in our next blog. For more detail, go to www.ownthezonebook.com.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT BEST PRACTICES, II.

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Asking for Business, Law Firm Marketing, Marketing for Law Firms, Marketing Partners, Practice Group Leaders.

As discussed in the previous blog, pro-active organization and accountability are keys to converting your best practices into new business. Following are 4 additional tasks that complete the first steps you need to take.

5. Populate the business development program with targeting and pursuit efforts by specific practice group, sub-groups, offices, individuals — one step at a time, at first, and finally, wherever there are lawyers who really want to be engaged.

6. Assure that business development training sessions are practical, not theoretical.

7. Keep the firm ahead of economic and industry trends and build this knowledge into every client contact.

8. Make decisions on under-performing activities by either abandoning them or improving your approach in each case.

Remember, the best way to land a target is to act and pursue. If you miss, you learn. Then try again.

Business Development Best Practices

Written by Allan Colman on . Posted in Business Development, Law Firm Leadership, Law Firm Marketing, Marketing Partners, Practice Group Leaders.

We urge clients to adapt a special set of best practices when focusing on ways to measure business development success. Some of these might surprise you but are essential to new revenue growth.

1. Designate partner-leaders for each client target. This is not the usual industry focus, or practice area niche. Rather, it means a senior partner must take the lead for each new designated target.

2. Part of the job is to establish timelines for each step leading to a final close of new business. The partner-leader must designate someone to hold each attorney and marketing professional accountable for the actions they are assigned.

3. Provide the environment to encourage greater strategy debates before investing in responses to RFP’s, or even in pursuing new contacts. A “go/no go” decision making session is a must.

4. Constantly review the failed business development efforts in formal post-mortem meetings. This discussion could be part of a “go/no go” debate. And make sure out of these sessions, you codify the steps that do lead to successful new business acquisition.

In our next column, we’ll add 4 more best practices to challenge and energize your efforts.