...the correct answers to these questions help firms to win business and new pitches...
Midsized and regional firms can vary in their maturity: some may have robust marketing departments, while others may solely operate in a responsive and event-driven manner. Irrespective of where your firm sits in the maturity phases, it’s imperative to identify and build scalable systems and strategic improvements that give you confidence, reduce staff turnover, and enable your attorneys to focus on what they do best. (Of course, these processes must be contextualized within the cultural lens of your firm!)
Below is a sample list of some of the operational marketing process and system questions that midsize and boutique law firms should be asking.
After all, the correct answers to these questions help firms to win business and new pitches, and, of course, the systems that are created now will scale up as your firm grows top-line revenue. While many of these seem readily apparent, many of these low-hanging operational/"blocking and tackling" issues are slipping through the cracks in most firms – and they are the biggest key to winning mandates.
The cascading effect of having the right systems/tech in place creates more time to complete high-value tasks (think pitch rehearsals, client targeting, and deep customization) and saves potential embarrassment and reputational damage to the firm (not to mention potential bleeding of roughly $400K annually for firms who pitch 100+ times).
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Practice/Industry Layout
Clients don’t care how your firm is organized. They want someone who understands their industry and can contextualize advice specific to them and their unique landscape. Some considerations are below:
- How do you differentiate in regards to competitors and what is your unique selling proposition (USP)?
- What's missing in regards not only to your ACTUAL service offerings, but also how they face the market overall?
- Are you working on practice descriptions and bios with specific listed experience tailored toward the problems you solve (as opposed to outcomes)?
- Have you considered integrating offerings for ease of use for the reader? How hard is it to find answers?
- What are the thorny problems that your attorneys are solving? (no laundry lists of forms/procedures, but real case studies)
- Do you pitch around issues and industry or align/face the market as you do internally?
- How do you bring expertise to bear? Do you tell stories, use videos, humanize the talent?
- What is your pricing strategy?
Experience and Matter Descriptions/Data
There’s nothing worse than finding that you’ve done a key deal or matter after the pitch goes out the door, which is commonplace if you don’t have your matters housed in a central location. Things to think about:
- Where are the matters housed? How do you develop pitches? How do you centralize matters? Do you take deals that attorneys did at other firms?
- Do you have an “answer bank” for commonly asked questions or key messages?
- How is your matter intake and billing process? Does it feed the experience database?
- How does information move around the firm? How do you communicate externally? Mailing Lists?
- What other technologies do you have? CRM?
- Do you use external data to validate/sell services? How about individual data? Internal data?
- Do you undertake gap analysis of matters? Do you have triggers for hours/drops or matter closings? Do you close matters? Do you have general C/M numbers? How do you pull that out? Do you have multiple fields for secondary/tertiary angles of descriptions (M&A may have IP/tax descriptions for example)
Operations
Without the basic blocking and tackling in place, small and midsized firms put themselves at a significant disadvantage against the larger firms who have these processes and answers locked up (as well as resources to spare). There is also significant risk of attorneys stepping on each other’s toes if these processes are not institutionalized:
- Have you defined the sales cycle and given folks resources to succeed (intranet project) at each stage? Do you share best practices during these stages?
- Do you have a sense of both client entry points and firm weaknesses where you can't serve clients? Does that scare you?
- Do your attorneys and staff describe the firm in a consistent way to the market? How about each practice area? Are your attorneys speaking the same language?
- What avenues of communication are there in the firm to encourage bonding and cross-selling? How do you overcome trust/familiarity issues that stand in the way?
- How do folks pitch generally? Do you present at the "dog + pony show" or are deals sole-sourced? Do you prep for presentations? Do you escalate big opportunities and aggregate key players? Who do you bring and why?
- Does the compensation structure create/drive the behaviors you want to see? Is there shared origination? Do associates get origination? Do they get billable/credit for BD time?
- Do you submit for awards (Chambers, etc.) What is the strategic imperative (not because others do it)? Has it shown benefit?
- Do you track pitches? Do you seek feedback on wins and losses? Do you have a pipeline?
- What type of research is done prior to the first meeting? Why? Can you automate most of it?
- Do you seek feedback after each matter to uncover new opportunities or referrals?
- Do you undertake practice correlation analysis? How about client lifecycles?
Digital Presence
According to a recent Gartner study, legal and other B2B buyers are roughly 57% of the way through the selection process before they pick up the phone to contact a potential partner.
- Tell me about web/mail/social tracking and analytics. Who comes to your site? Who reads your content? What else do they do with it? How are you scaling successes?
- Do you have calls to action, and ease of navigation? What do you want users to do when they come (besides hire you?)
- Do you leverage the power of networks (notably with younger folks) to introduce their contacts to you/other rainmakers?
- Are you using LinkedIn for targeting clients and social selling? Why or why not? (Building account and lead lists)
- What is the thought leadership strategy? How can you anonymize trial wins to showcase HOW you solve problems (as opposed to bragging about victories)
Midsize and boutique firms can significantly increase their chances of competing with large “Goliaths” by considering the answers to the above, and building the right systems and processes to streamline pitches and awards, increase realization rates/partner point values, and reduce staff turnover.
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Mike Mellor is the President and Founder of 742advisors, where he helps to ideate, build, and scale systems and processes that help firms to win new business. A former CMO at a thriving AmLaw 200 firm, Mike has spent over 20+ years helping firms of all shapes and sizes to win more with fewer resources. He can be reached at michael@742advisors.com.
