LEGAL MARKETING & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Transcription

1 MONTHLY A GUIDE TO LEGAL MARKETING & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

2 TABLEOFCONTENTS 3. Intro 4. Legal Services Act 5. Overview 6. Price Leader 7. Merging 8. Specialise & Innovate 10. Strategy 11. Top Tips Every marketing strategy needs a specific emphasis on creating interesting insights and turning these into content

3 INTRODUCTION The legal market is being reshaped in many countries by pressures including prolonged economic problems, entrepreneurs, technology and, in Britain, de-regulation. Law firms for the first time have to fight for business in a static or declining market, rather than the buoyant market they have experienced for the past 30 years. With the greater challenge now presented of retaining, winning and growing clients, law firms need to sharpen their marketing and sales skills. Lawyers, like many professionals, see marketing as the tactical use of particular channels (such as advertising, seminars, public relations, events, website). Using these to give tactical boosts to sales, credibility and awareness are important. But the key to successful marketing isn t glossy documents, slick websites and colourful logos successful marketing is all about a clear strategy and first answering tough questions about why people should choose your firm rather than many similar competitors. This article looks at elements to consider for a successful marketing strategy, and a key element to this is understanding how the market and clients are changing and at the moment change is happening quickly in many legal markets.

4 LEGAL SERVICES ACT In Britain much of the legal sector is about to be transformed by a piece of legislation (called the Legal Services Act, but nicknamed Tesco Law after a leading supermarket well-known for aggressive expansion and cheap prices). The widespread expectation amongst most commentators is this legislation, which facilitates competition through various measures, including allowing law firms to have outside investors, will dramatically change much of the legal market in the next two years. Most English lawyers feel it will cause dramatic change...but not to their firm, just other firms! However, the winds of change are blowing across the UK s legal markets with the high profits and cottage industry style of most law firms attracting the attention of both entrepreneurs and large corporates.

5 OVERVIEW In the US innovative new businesses such as Rocket Lawyer and Legal Zoom have quickly grown to become major legal brands (Legal Zoom claims to be the best recognised legal brand in the USA, with the second best known being the fictional TV lawyer Ally McBeal s firm!). In fact in most markets over the past thirty years have seen a booming market for lawyers and legal advice, and a very good living could be gained by doing little more than putting a sign on your door saying attorney and doing some very basic marketing. That has now changed. Many markets are over-lawyered, there is a backlash against paying lawyers simply by the hour, and a combination of greater competition and more educated customers means many law firms are facing fees going down rather than up. If your law firm is to survive and even thrive in such a market, it is not a question of simply running a quick marketing campaign, or rushing to put lots of pages on social media. Not to say these things aren t useful, but the first thing needed is a strategy after all, it is much easier to hit your target if you know what you are aiming at. Many law firms do not have a strategy and fail to realise this, mistaking some version of being all things to all people for one. This may have not been an impediment in the days when demand for lawyers grew quickly. However, be clear that being all things to all people is an absence of strategy. But what are the strategies that law firms should apply if they are to survive or even thrive?

6 PRICE LEADER Being the cheapest the price-leader is a tough strategy to achieve successfully and is generally one to avoid unless you are enormous and have the scale to drive down your costs, or are doing something really unique to dramatically reduce costs. Ultimately there is only one cheapest firm and it is very hard to be it. The margins are very slim and without great skill it is easy to sell lots and make no money (or even a big loss). However, this is a direction many law firms inadvertently drift because they have no strategy. With no strategy they struggle to communicate their value and get beaten down on price. Without a clear message they fail to be able to justify their prices compared to lower cost competitors.

7 MERGERS Another popular move is for firms to attempt to solve their problems by getting bigger through merging. The idea with a merger is that two law firms get together and their combined resources mean two plus two equals five. Well that is the vision, but often the reality is different. Firms are driven to seek mergers through having problems they cannot solve but mistakenly believe that these problems will become easier if they are a bigger firm with greater resources. In fact often you end up with one firm with even bigger problems, the additional costs of integration, and the projected cost savings never materialise! Mergers can work where there is a vision of what is new that can be achieved by the two firms getting together (which they can t achieve by themselves). Transatlantic mergers are a case in point, allowing the two firms to win clients and undertake lucrative assignments that were previously closed to them. However, without such a compelling vision the reality is that most mergers prove disappointing and some prove disastrous.

8 SPECIALISE & INNOVATE Specialise Being a specialist in particular areas (whether it is an area of law, an industry sector, geography or other market ) is a great place to be. Specialists can build strong reputations. A strong reputation allows you to charge premium rates, be better able to judge the market and its developments to attract better assignments. When you are well-known you are also able to attract the best people. A strategy that is going to allow your practice to survive in the current environment will have a strong element of specialisation in it. Innovate It s okay to survive, but in the current demanding environment many businesses will still thrive. Some may thrive through being in the fortunate position of being in the right markets at the right time. Some will thrive through already having dominant positions gained through many years of work (such as the large Wall Street US firms and UK Magic Circle ones). But in a demanding environment it will be those firms that successfully innovate that are able to thrive. Innovation can take many forms novel methods of pricing; service delivery; marketing; working with other professions; use of technology, etc.

9 Why is a strategy important to the marketing plan? For marketing activity to be successful, firms and specific practices need to answer often difficult questions about what makes them distinctive compared to their many competitors. Given your competitors are similarly- qualified, have similar experience and often have the same capabilities and services why should clients choose your firm? What is distinctive about your firm and your service; what clients do you particularly want; what is it that your clients particularly want not the clichés about great service and deep expertise what do they really want? What are your values as a firm what do you believe in and how will you make a difference to them. Once you are clear on what is distinctive about your firm; the clients that are realistically going to want to work with you; and what you can provide them that they are not getting from their existing law firm, you are well placed to devise a marketing and sales campaign that targets the right people through the right channels. I emphasise the term sales, a term many professionals dislike. Marketing is what gets people coming into the showroom, but sales is what happen inside. Many professionals recoil from the word sales and equate it with hard sell double-glazing firms or market-stall traders. In fact sales is working with the potential client to help them understand their needs and then creating a solution that helps solve their problem. To my mind this is what true professionalism is all about.

10 TOP TIPS In order to be memorable, interesting content and ideas are key.. There is a lot of concentration on channels such as telesales, events, press coverage, direct and marketing, social media, etc but unless you are actually saying something interesting you cannot stand out. Every marketing strategy needs a specific emphasis on creating interesting insights and turning this into content, and this is ofte the toughest element as it is very time-intensive. Thought leadership is a jargon term that is often used to refer to initiatives to generate insight for campaigns. It is certainly one way of overcoming the content hurdle. In the same way that you wouldn t play a round of golf with only one club (unless you were a complete novice) it is unreasonable to expect one type of marketing activity to deliver great results by itself. Your activity needs to be integrated so you are targeting the same people through social media, PR, events, networking, etc simultaneously. Making the different elements work to support allows far greater results to be achieved. Many firms when they embark on a marketing campaign start by going after people they don t know and have no connection with. These are the hardest prospects to win. Instead start with your own clients, former clients and your clients network: if people have bought from you in the past and had a good experience they are much more likely to buy again or act as valuable advocates for your firm. In my experience with commercial firms, a few client discussion lunches is often more effective for generating immediate sales than more elaborate campaigns. Most law firms think they are already doing lots with this extended network. Invariably they are not and for most marketing campaigns you should be starting with how you can get more out your hugely valuable existing relationships. Tim Prizeman, director, Public Relations & Thought Leadership consultants Kelso Consulting ( The author has been advising professional firms on business development issues over 20 years.