Not too long ago, a practice group leader told his consultant to write his practice group marketing plan and "get it going."
The consultant asked: "Is your practice group profitable, do you know where your clients' industries are headed, and do you have the right team of lawyers in place?"
The lawyer replied: "Why would you want to know that?"
Welcome to today's law firm marketing world. Although this world has evolved considerably in the last 20 years, there are still imperfections, because we all define marketing differently and luxuriate contentedly in our own biases. Here are some of mine:
Marketing is more than just promotion.
Peter F. Drucker in The Practice of Management says that "marketing is so basic, it cannot be considered a separate function of the business... It is the whole business, seen from the point of view of its final result - that is, from the customer's point of view."
In the law firm environment, Drucker's definition translates into five components:
- the viability and quality of legal services provided by specific practitioners (product);
- how you tell people about the services you offer (promotion);
- how much it costs to sell and buy your services (price/fees);
- where and who the buyers are (place); and
- how you are perceived in your market (positioning).
These are the Marketing Five Ps: the sources of a firm's competitiveness and the key factors that contribute to a law firm's success.
You must approach your law firm with the eyes of a marketer.
Legal practice continues to evolve - it costs more to run, requires more skill and expertise, faces increasing competition, takes more time to manage, and necessarily demands higher return-on-investment for the dollars spent.
For years, lawyers have been struggling with the relationship between law as a profession and law as a business. Marketing is the bridge that connects the business to the profession. By applying marketing principles to practice and management issues, lawyers often find that they are more targeted, focussed and responsive, and do better work more profitably for higher-calibre clients.
In marketing, planning and research are key.
Firms need two types of plans, based on both internal and external research: a firm-wide strategic plan, and a business plan for each practice area. All law practices - even solo practitioners and small firms - should distinguish between the two.
In a strategic plan, a firm needs to consider not only where it is today, but where it wants to be in one, three, and five years. The plan's contents articulate firm-endorsed principles and practices, what a firm wants to accomplish, how its business should evolve, and how it would like to be perceived over the long term.
Practice group business plans complement a strategic plan: they are based on market and profitability analyses and they allocate resources to improve the work product of a specific group. These plans identify areas of opportunity, express goals and objectives, and use action items and deadlines to keep everyone involved and accountable.
We're in the midst of more change.
We are witnessing a law firm revolution. The shifting economy continues to have its impact on all aspects of the profession, and the long-term effects of September 11 remain to be seen. Clients are more informed, they're more sophisticated and they know they have a huge legal services marketplace from which to choose. In the end, client-buying behaviours and the economy drive law firms; marketing is the vehicle that helps firms respond to both.
The savvy law firm will use marketing to create and maintain successful, profitable practices. In future columns, we will examine concrete ways to accomplish that goal.
Elizabeth Cordeau is president and principal of Lexcore Communications Inc., a Calgary-based management consulting firm to law firms and legal associations throughout North America.