The down economy, Part 7: A tip for legal marketers

I was saving the post below for November’s “tip of the month.”  But when I read The Boston Globe yesterday morning, I decided that it couldn’t wait. 

Maybe it was the page one headline “Worldwide Worry.”  Or maybe it was the article that said, “All around the world, you can hear the squeal of businesses putting the brakes on expenses.”  Or maybe it wasn’t The Globe at all, just the cumulative effect of the law firm layoffs and other bad news I quoted in Part 6 of this series. 

Most readers of this blog probably agree with me that when billable hours go down, law firms should increase their business development spending to maximize the results lawyers will get from their new found marketing time.   But not everyone sees it that way.  Some partners will want to cut the marketing budget, and you will need evidence to make your case.

So the tip is simple:  Collect evidence that YOUR marketing is related to new business, and make sure everyone in the firm knows about it.

If you don’t have evidence yet, start looking today.  Do what we do in our coaching.  Whenever you hear about a new engagement, say something like this:   “Business is not a science experiment so it’s impossible to prove what caused a particular piece of new business.  But what do you think?  Did our marketing have anything to do with it?” 

If they say no, move on to the next lawyer.  But when someone says yes, verify the details, then spread the word.  Write memos.  Tell people in the halls.  Whisper in the managing partner’s ear.  Use all your professional skills to market your marketing.

Now here’s a prediction to go with the tip:  The more sales training and coaching your department does, the easier it will be to find evidence that it is working.  It’s easy for lawyers to see the link between a piece of advice and new business that comes in the next week.  It’s much harder to see the link to an ad, a press release, or a web page upgrade that happened weeks or months ago.

That’s one of the reasons Mark Greene, the chief marketing officer at Nixon Peabody gave this advice when we spoke together on a panel at LMA New England a few months ago:   “I recommend that in a down economy firms put at least as much stress on sales and sales coaching as they ever have.”  (For more, see Part 2.) 

And if you want to increase the proportion of time you spend coaching, or get more results from the coaching you already do, here’s another tip:  consider LegalBizDev’s internal certification program, our external coaching programs and our other products and services.  If you’d like to know more, email us or give me a call at 800-498-7246.