Barring any drastic corrections in the market, all
of the indicators seem to point to an economy that
is ready to roar in 2004. Think this makes business
development easier? Nope. It gets harder, and the
stakes are much higher.
Granted, this has not been the most enjoyable time
for many law firms, especially those that had quickly
grown due to an unending supply of corporate transactions
in the late 1990's. A bidding war for associates,
where firms needed bodies to get the work done, permanently
escalated the salary scale and even resulted in painful
layoffs starting in 2001.
However, the economy is picking back up and many
corporate clients will be eager to grow. This equates
to more work for law firms, but not necessarily all
of them. Those firms that have invested in building
market share and client loyalty during the slowdown
will see the effects of the recovery sooner. Some
firms though will be quickly left behind as their
clients surge past them using law firms that have
better prepared them for the recovery. Here are a
few things that your firm can do to make sure you
ride the wave:
-
Help your clients get ready.
If you are waiting for the phone to ring to signal
when your clients get busy again, you may never
get called. A more proactive approach would be to
sit down with your clients and talk about their
business plan. Do they have adequate financing to
expand? Are their workforce policies in place to
deal with a spike in hiring? Will they need to expand
their real estate portfolio in the next 12-18 months
to meet new demand? Help your clients grow, and
they will ask you to help them accomplish it.
-
Formalize your marketing action plans.
When the work starts coming back in at
a frenzied pace, it will be impossible to do the
kind of planning you should. You need to create
tangible plans that can be put in motion immediately.
If your plans need focus, now is the time to do
your final research and make choices. Smaller amounts
of time available for marketing and a broad net
approach do not mix. Do it now.
-
Contact your referral and alumni network.
They are about to get busy as well, and they have
a lot of choices on who to funnel work to. For referral
sources, make sure they are up to date on your firm
and what you are focusing on. Also, make sure you
know the same about them, so you can properly reciprocate.
Your alumni should always be regularly contacted,
but now may be the best time to arrange a networking
reception to get everyone together again.
-
Make hard strategic choices and stick
to them. Whether you want to admit it or
not, you have some ideas, plans, or even practice
areas that are just plain bad. Put an end to them
right now. You cannot afford to have pet projects
act as an anchor by diminishing your business development
resources (time, money, or attention). It is critical
that you focus your resources on markets and clients
that will accelerate during the recovery. If you
continue to equally fund ideas that satisfy the
ego of partners rather than the prosperity of your
clients, the opportunity cost will be severe.
-
Speed is absolutely essential.
There is going to be a short window of time where
firms can permanently be put on the short list for
their client's most important projects and matters.
You cannot afford to be sitting in meetings, taking
months to create 300-person seminars, or incessantly
planning. While these activities are important,
a period of recovery after a long slowdown is not
the time to do it. Finalize your plans and get out
in the market with small, team based business development
activities. Try holding small seminars at your client's
place of business or connecting them with your other
clients that could be future customers of theirs.
In other words, do not build a suspension bridge
over a creek. Executing with speed requires simplicity.
-
Train your people. You are about
to get new opportunities with existing and prospective
clients. You may have been working for years for
one of these opportunities. Do not blow it by letting
untrained people "take their best shot" at it. There
are a great number of highly talented attorneys
who are hungry right now, and it will be a buyer's
market. Expertise will be assumed, so it will be
those who can communicate value and proactively
satisfy client needs that get asked to handle the
next big matter. Every professional that has direct
client contact should have formal business development
(sales) training. It is part of their professional
development because, in the long run, the ultimate
winner is the better served client.
-
Track your activity. Business
development tracking is supposed to be diagnostic
and not punitive. It allows the firm to focus resources
and create contingency plans that address time demands
on attorneys. Create a standard, measure and report
by operating unit (office, industry, or practice),
and make adjustments where necessary. Without tracking,
you are guessing, and that is known as the "lottery
strategy." Don't do it with your firm's money.
-
Put a system in place to manage your
best opportunities. Once again, you are
hopefully going to be very busy. In a recovery period,
the opportunity cost of missing an opportunity with
a client because of it "slipping through the cracks"
can be measured in the millions of dollars over
several years. You need sales logistics in place
to make sure resources are being deployed properly,
information is being shared within the firm, and
opportunities are being communicated across practice
group silos. Also, managing client opportunities
through a formalized funnel or pipeline approach
will help ensure greater success. If you do not
have a formalized process to manage these opportunities,
you will lose thousands, or perhaps millions, of
dollars in unrealized revenue and referral sources.
Do it now.
Your clients are about to get very busy, therefore,
some firms are, too. However, your clients
are now very wary about keeping costs in line after
such a painful time for many of them. They will want
business advisors as opposed to legal suppliers. They
will be looking for value as well as expertise. And,
they will have many choices. Those firms who can help
lead them to growth will ride the wave of prosperity
with them. Firms that simply hope that a rising tide
lifts all boats may find themselves in the wrong harbor.
Darryl Cross is the Managing Principal
of Darryl Cross Consulting and former Chief Marketing
Officer for Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff, based
in Cleveland Ohio. Darryl has been widely recognized
for his innovations in developing a sales culture and
system at Benesch. Darryl received the 2003 "Marketing
Initiative of the Year Award" at this year's Marketing
Partner Forum. www.more-rain.com
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