Integrating the Role of Fee Earners, Marketing and BD

Robert Sawhney Managing Director SRC Associates Ltd 14th June 2010 www.srchk.com 1

The Power of Context • Experiment at Princeton University in the US • Good Samaritans (seminarians of The Princeton Theological Seminary) were asked to deliver a short talk on the bible at a nearby venue • The Samaritans split into two groups: one told they were late, the other told they were a few minutes early • Variable: ‘victim’ outside building • 68% of the early group stopped to help, only 10% of the late group? • (Source: The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell) www.srchk.com 2

What is Marketing? – it ain’t this! • Many studies of the legal profession show that the emphasis has moved away from law firm marketing and to where it should be: business development. • Marketing is "nice to have," and includes competitive intelligence, CRM, branding, newsletters and e- newsletters, advertising, public relations, brochures, directories and sponsorships. But today, what law firms "have to have" is sales: lawyers and professionals who can open new matters, bring in new files and attract new business (source: Larry Bodine, US based consultant) www.srchk.com 3

Me arguing with someone! • http://www.thenewlawyer.com.au/article/fir m-marketing-inspires-email- vitriol/493687.aspx#comments www.srchk.com 4

Marketing and market orientation: the relationship with BD and fee earners Culture : ‘a business is market oriented when its culture is systematically and entirely committed to the continuous creation of superior customer value’ ‘market orientation is the organization wide generation of market intelligence pertaining to current and future customer needs, dissemination of the intelligence across departments, and organization wide responsiveness to it’ Behaviours: Intelligence generation Intelligence dissemination Firm wide responsiveness to intelligence Manifestations: Marketing associated initiatives – services, branding, CRM, pricing, STP, differentiation, promotion… BD - one to one activities of sales with targeted prospects, informed conversations… Fee Earners – client orientation and understanding of needs, , talking from a perspective of knowledge, job satisfaction and firm commitment… www.srchk.com 5

The Problem in PSFs • Marketing and marketers lack perceived value due to professionals limited understanding of what marketing is and supposed to do • Marketers who lack influence • Low trust of marketers and the information they produce • Marketing and BD lumped together • Focus on tactical marketing and BD activities without sufficient knowledge and market driven structure in place • Vicious cycle of declining impact of marketing and BD with growing disdain of professionals www.srchk.com 6

The Value Proposition: How marketing and BD add value and contribute to success in Asia Pacific professional services firms (source: Roundtable Consulting, APSMA 2009) • A significant gap – only 31% of respondents strongly agreed that marketing and business development are a valued part of their organisation www.srchk.com 7

Firstly, the view of clients www.srchk.com 8

The Integration Imperative Go anywhere they like, do anything they like, expect anything they like, and over promise to clients • Fee earners product • Appropriate • Financial Intellectual • Know who value Firm capital Clients performance • Non and know • Value financial where and perceptions know what BD Marketing www.srchk.com 9

A Law Firm View • Barlow Lyde & Gilbert has laid off three of its five business development personnel as part of an ongoing internal restructuring in the UK • Chief executive officer David Jabbari said: "I am not a fan of traditional marketing departments in law firms. I accept the need for expert support and high-level research in some areas, but there is much that should be owned and managed directly by fee earners. Business development is a fundamental responsibility of fee earners that should not be delegated.“ • The three employees' functions have been taken over by 10 professional support lawyers www.srchk.com 10

The Model of Change • Marketing is everyone’s job • Articulate the new meaning of marketing, marketing processes, Mind Set and BD • Identify and develop the collaborative relationships and skills that will be needed in this new culture and how working Build Structure processes are best structured • The new ‘rules’ must be lived and breathed by everyone involved Practice What You Preach • Senior partners must be on board and committed www.srchk.com 11

Build Structure – what to build? (adapted from Lowe, S (2009) The Integration Imperative, Professional Services Books, Concord) 1. The right processes 2. The right skills 3. The right support www.srchk.com 12

The Right Processes •Identify strategic clients Business •Acquire and retain strategy and strategic clients strategic •Build revenues with marketing these groups in line with client value and firm strategy Build a market driven Processes culture based on knowledge www.srchk.com 13

The Right Skills For Fee Earners •Thought leader and industry expertise Business strategy and •Trusted partner for strategic clients based on marketing understanding client value and new dialogues Build a market For M + BD Staff driven culture Processes •Lead continuous based on knowledge integration of efforts through exhibited benefit, metrics, and KPIs •Become voice of Skills influence and recognised expert www.srchk.com 14

The Right Support HR – recruitment, retention, evaluation, KPIs, training Processes Finance – pricing, profitability, budgeting Business strategy and IT – technology and Skills strategic CRM systems, SEO, marketing data mining etc M+BD – train fee earners, implementation of marketing Build a market driven culture strategies and Support based on tactics, research, knowledge voice of client www.srchk.com 15

Case Study – Perkins+Will (global architectural and design firm) • Services deployed through various practices (architectural, interiors, urban design) and industries (health care, science and tech) • Development of internal silos, lack of big picture delivery for clients • Goal – integrate all expertise = holistic design • CEO – ‘build a culture of innovation and deliver client value through interdisciplinary teams working in an integrated model’ • Set up sub group from various practices and functions – dual internal and external focus • Researched 10 firms in different industries which were known for their integrated strategy and operations • Realised they needed ‘T’ people and thinking, different dialogue with client • Delivering interdisciplinary design as embedded value • Board of directors approved initiative and the process began with a significant internal education programme www.srchk.com 16

We Know This – it’s the knowing doing gap! (Source: The Value Proposition: How marketing and BD add value and contribute to success in Asia Pacific professional services firms Roundtable Consulting, APSMA, 2009) www.srchk.com 17

Thank You! • If you want copies of the any of the reports or research cited here, please don’t hesitate to contact me: • bob@srchk.com, www.srchk.com • Blog: www.marketingasia.typepad.com • Twitter: http://twitter.com/robertsawhney • My latest book: Available from Lexis Nexis in Hong Kong and other Asian offices or www.amazon.com www.srchk.com 18

Integrating the Role of Fee Earners, Marketing and BD

by Robert_Sawhney on Sep 10, 2010

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