We have identified Grapes of Wrath complaints about marketers from in-house counsel,” We were outnumbered and out-talked.” Pick which ever grape fits your business development style:
* Sending too many people to a meeting;
* Offering to handle what we already have;
* Not being prepared for the meeting;
* Lack of business etiquette, i.e. taking calls
* At a meeting, talking among yourselves, not the client/prospect.
Remember what Jeff Bezos of Amazon says, “Your brand is what stays in the room after you leave the room!”
Hearing from attorneys and marketing professionals in response to the 2017 Law Firm Outlook Survey, “getting attorneys out on the business development trail” says it best. Significant concern was expressed about growing competition but fewer attorneys willing to market. Law firm outlook was also described as needing to increase market share and winning new clients.
Therefore, our article title, Where’s the Beef focuses on the need build a long-term pipeline. But the “beef” also refers to the winner of our Survey Drawing.
MARK LEIPOLD, ATTORNEY AT GOULD RATNER in Chicago selected an Omaha Beef package as his prize.
The strongest responses identified primary needs as:
* Build a long term pipeline;
* Close more “new” business;
* Close more “new” business from current clients;
* Improve training for business development;
* Remove under performing activities and investments.
Clearly, the recognition of these law firm marketing needs are not a surprise. But what seems to run counter to them is satisfaction with what firms are investing in traditional marketing, such as advertising, social media, events, etc. And what several identify as the missing element is leadership’s lack of managing timelines and assignments.
In summary, if management want their 2017 law firm outlook to be successful, focus and execution should be placed on “getting attorneys out on the business development trail.”
We want to sweeten our offer for helping us with our 2017 Law Firm Outlook Survey. We’re conducting a brief survey to learn morfe about the key issues facing law firms in 2017. Anyone who responds can participate in a drawing for their choice of an OMAHA STEAKS package or GOODE TEXAS PECAN PIE – both sweetened and tasty rewards for helping us.
We;ll collect responses and share the results with our law firm community. Responses are anonymous and confidential – entry in the drawing is optional.
We greatly value your time and input. Take the survey https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5CCRFGP
We are conducting our 2017 Law Firm Outlook Survey. It is a brief survey to learn more about the key issues facing law firms as we head into the new year. We’ll collect responses and share the results with our law firm community.
Responses are anonymous and confidential.
We greatly value your time. To take the survey, https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5CCFRGP
Client trust is perhaps the greatest element in business development. Or to put it another way, why should they buy from you? Although you may be selling the most sophisticated service, your audience may harbor a deep dread of being manipulated.
The solution, then, is to confront that tacit distrust by building client trust as a major focus of your business development efforts. When we work with clients and developing their business generation strategies and tactics, we teach them to build relationships with their prospects. And by understanding their business, and the market place dynamics, (competitors, recruitment, growth strategies, etc.) one will demonstrate the knowledge that converts into client trust.
“Partnering” has become a byword in sales strategies so we should define and pursue that kind of relationship “partnering = trust.” In establishing your client relationships, you have taken pains to assure them that you are fully attuned to how their business operates, including the need for confidentiality, for ethical compliance, for client-specific sensitivities whatever they may be. At the same time you have sent the message that, if anything, they have an obligation to at least consider the latest advances in client services that you offer.
You have thus reversed the burden from worrying about dealing with you to worrying about what might happen if they don”t!
British Airways got a real boost from this marketing and business development ad, “Emails Don’t End in Handshakes.” It today’s highly competitive market for professional services, one-way electronic communications do not win new clients nor retain current clients. That is why in our marketing and business development keynotes and seminars, we emphasize the absolute need to build trust through personal relationships.
Just as we teach specific tactics to create partnering relationships, we must realize that there are specific behaviors on our part that can further our relationship with them or destroy it altogether.
As “emails do not end in handshakes” emphasizes, in business development, it is critical to go where your clients go. If your clients, prospects and suspects will be attending an industry or ACC conference, be there to reinforce the relationship. Ask them to be on panels with you or co-author an article. Learn more about the charitable organizations that are important to them. If a prospect is speaking at an upcoming event, attend it even if the subject matter is not in your particular specialty area.
Business development does not occur simply by offering an engagement letter. Closing skills begin with the first contact and involve following up, building the relationship, understanding their business, business brainstorming and offering ideas before ultimately asking for the business. In other words, being face-to-face, even if only occasionally, is how you win and keep clients. Indeed, to grow business, emails do not and will not end in handshakes.
For a complimentary 15 question Rapid Marketing Assessment of your firm or practice area, acolman@closersgroup.com
Almost every day there is an advertisement offering a service or product that is new or improved, such as Will Your Dog Eat the Dog Food? Or Have you tried our new combination of juices? And even Take our test drive for free??? And believe it or not, selling a new service, entering a new market place, or offering reminders of what your firm does so well, are managed and marketed in much the same way. In law firm marketing or business development for consulting services, recognize you are entering a new “beachhead” market.
But We Offer Legal and Professional Services…
“But we are professionals, and not selling hard goods.” Yes you are, but new business development for professional services such as law, accounting, architecture and engineering have the same elements needed for success. To quote Bill Aulet (author of Disciplined Entrepreneurship), “. . . before you invest large amounts of time and money, make sure the dogs will eat the dog food! And, oh yes, make sure the dog’s owners (or friends or primary/secondary clients) will PAY for the dog food.”
Referring back to previous columns, remember you should have already:
Clarified market segmentation
Identified your end user
Developed and quantified your Value Proposition
Know who the competitors will be
Mapped and quantified client acquisition costs
Tested your key assumptions
Measured the results
Testing for Law Firm Marketing or Business Consulting Services
This test marketing for law firm marketing, accounting firm business development, consulting services new business growth is critical. Prior to a full launch, you must determine if prospects and clients will engage your new or refined services and actually pay for them. Are they working as intended? Are clients referring new prospects to you? Is your team consistent in their business development efforts and presenting the same core story? Are you seeing trends to take advantage of or are they leading to unexpected challenges?
The final step will hopefully be following your beachhead success and refinements. The new business development efforts will be successful.
New business strategic planning is the process by which an organization’s leaders define and implement the plan needed to achieve the firm’s fundamental purpose — successfully solving problems and preventing them in the future. The output is a set of high level objectives [we identify them as “critical improvement areas” per 36ixty] and initiatives/specific actions to achieve these objectives.
In other words, turn strategy into action. And since most strategic plans sit on a shelf, gathering dust, we propose starting out with a ONE PAGE STRATEGIC PLAN – yes, one page. State the purpose, identify the anticipated profit, set the priorities, measure the performance and track the progress. Insure that firm members all understand what is happening, anticipate how their roles are critical to success, and build it into your firm’s/company’s culture.
Note that these 12 Practices from 36ixty [brand, leadership, strategy, communication, team, core message, marketing, sales, customer experience, revenue and systems] break down into 3 manageable groups; how people work; how processes work; and systems to integrate and manage them all. We call them “impact areas” where clients focus on bottom line results. And in order to define these, we start with having senior firm management answer these questions as a group.
• What do I need to do more of?
• What do I need to do less of?
• What do I need to start doing?
• What do I need to stop doing?
The right questions are designed to focus on what is really important to the business and internal aspects necessary for success. The answers become the foundation that might lead to refinement, transformation in effectiveness and profits. They are the keys to growing new business. What then follows is the strategic planning process in our next column.
Are there really “magic pills” for new business development?
Following our last post, on what happens to your new business development efforts when you are not in the “accelerator zone,” one wonders why isn’t everyone in business living in an “accelerator zone”? We find in our work that a primary reason is that most people don’t know what ingredients are necessary for leaders to new business development success. 36ixty Inc. cites 12 Essential Practices that lead to new business growth. They are branding, leadership, strategy, communication, team, value creation, core story, marketing, sales, customer experience, revenue and systems to manage all of these.
These 12 are not an end-all, cure-all or a series of magic pills. What they are equates to actual implementation of a business plan. They are especially applicable to firms and companies which are too often managed by consensus or collegiality. Practicing these 12 will lead to more clarity, focus and execution in new business development.
Our next chapter will address Business Development “Impact Areas”.
break down into 3 manageable groups; how people work; how processes work; and systems to integrate and manage them all. We call them “impact areas” where clients focus on bottom line results. And in order to define these, we start with having senior firm management answer these questions as a group.