Olympic Snowboarding and Lawyer Marketing – Evolution and Balancing Acts
Snowboarding debuted in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano and has been evolving ever since. The 2006 games in Torino, Italy, saw the introduction of snowboard cross, but the thrills of the halfpipe competition are what really draw in the fans. Performing in the halfpipe requires athletes to minimize their start-to-finish times while maximizing the “air” they achieve and the artistry of their tricks.
Olympic snowboarders train extensively during the off-season and continually push themselves harder to ensure that they stay on the cutting edge, perform at peak levels, and have that extra something that will wow the crowds. Similarly, lawyers focused on successful law firm marketing will find benefits when they minimize the time invested in business development strategies and maximize their performance.
There’s no doubt that, during the last 25 years, law firms, lawyers and legal marketing professionals have made great strides in spreading the word about their services. Unlike coaches of snowboarders like Shaun White, however, law firm marketing professionals sometimes struggle to get lawyers to practice new tricks. Many also still face a key obstacle to ongoing innovation for business development: there are lawyers who don’t consistently follow through when it comes to individual or group law sales.
The challenge is that the lawyers are often struggling to find balance between business development and practicing law. One of the business development strategies that the consultants at the Closers Group recommend to address this is fairly simple: narrow the focus of what is on a lawyer’s agenda.
When a lawyer’s focus is spread across a range of tasks, the marketing department can help by cutting down the lawyer’s to-do list. A lawyer is more likely to at least begin to make an effort to get through assigned or agreed-upon tasks when these tasks are clearly defined.
Just as a snowboarder will have a more successful run when he or she is focused and in the moment, law firm marketing teams will find that business development efforts are more successful when the attorney’s time and activity are focused on tasks like lead generation and lead development.
