Competitive alpine skiers – whether they focus on downhill, the slalom, the giant slalom or the super-G – know that in order to achieve their goals, they need a specific action plan. In the case of alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics, that action plan starts by determining which events the skier will race and then moves on to focus on breaking down the course, identifying the right path to make the jump or turn, and analyzing the terrain and conditions in order to ensure that – when they arrive at the bottom of the hill – they produce a winning time.


When sports’ analysts comment on the downhill events, their focus is on two things:

1. What individual skiers are doing that sets them apart.
2. The terrain of the course.

Business development consultants who work with lawyers and law firms have a similar focus. Their expert commentary and guidance helps lawyers successfully analyze the terrain of client meetings and client relationships, and helps firms support lawyers who must show that they have what it takes while emphasizing what makes them unique.


Every firm (and, most likely, every attorney within the firm) has something that sets it apart. For some firms, the differentiating factor is a heightened level of client knowledge. When this is the case, all of the components of business development training dovetail because client understanding and relationships are law firm differentiation.


If you’re having difficulty pinning down what makes your firm different, a business development consultant like the Closers Group can help you identify it and work with you to build a strategy around that difference. If you’re looking to improve your closing skills and take your sales strategy to the next level, we can help you identify the best strategies for evaluating the options available to you, choose the right path for your presentations, and work with you to ensure that you stay on course and sign new clients in record time.

Dean Witter (not to be confused with Twitter – the micro-blogging service that some social marketing gurus swear by and others suggest you shun) did not build a successful investment firm by jumping into the fray. Instead, he focused on a single adage: “We earn one customer at a time.” This is invaluable advice, and it should be one of the keystone messages that a business development consultant delivers on closing skills and client retention.


Focusing on one client at a time happens on various levels. To build a one-on-one relationship with your clients, you need to learn their business:

1. Who are your client’s top competitors?
2. What new products or services are in development?
3. Are there internal pressures that your client contact must overcome?

Additionally, you need to take a personal interest in your clients—and maximize the opportunity to network whenever and wherever you can (read Never Eat Alone to find out more about this school of thought and the connectors that the author Keith Ferrazzi suggests). Ask about their families or talk over vacation plans; share a bit about yourself.


You’ll find that by making these connections, your abilities in legal sales will improve considerably.

This is the final chapter on law firm mergers and the importance of early involvement by marketing leadership. What can you do to maximize the “rollout” which begins in earnest after the “launch” is over? It needs to identify what the marketplace really wants, and it delivers it.
 
The launch is a press release. The rollout is the real meat and potatoes of merger marketing. It requires an in-depth knowledge of your own resources in terms of people and expertise. Those resources can be tough enough to identify at your own firm.
 
In a merger, it requires an assiduous cataloging of what the two firms bring to the table. It should confirm the wisdom of the merger.

In this third chapter on law firm mergers and the importance of early involvement of marketing leadership, the next question is:
 
How do you show - not tell - the marketplace that your intellectual and professional platform is indeed broader and deeper? New sub-specializations can be defined and marketed. Articles on legal or client industry issues should be co-bylined by lawyers from both merging firms. Talk about mergers in general, using your own as one example. Even years later, partners from the two original firms can still share their experiences at conferences, meetings, etc. - and by so doing implicitly remind the market that their own experience is an example of how it is done right.

This is the second in our series on Law Firm Mergers and the importance of integrating the marketing leadership from both firms as early in the process as possible. Since clients and internal stakeholders will be the most impacted, how should a firm get more people to care?
 
Well, what do people care about? While marketing in a merger situation is not conceptually unique, it is exponentially more complicated because now you must refine the message and re-identify the messengers across multiple fronts. These fronts encompass the capabilities of the merging firms and the altogether new capabilities that the merged firm presents.
 
With this premise set, our next column will focus on how you show - not tell - the marketplace that your intellectual and professional platform is indeed broader and deeper.

We begin a new series on why most underachieving law firm mergers share one fundamental deficiency. Over the next several columns, I’ll identify a checklist to be used by the negotiating partners and marketing leadership to deal with it.
 
The failure is to work a practicable marketing strategy into the very soul of the merger - before it happens, while it happens and after it happens. Keep in mind that marketing is not just self-promotional activity but the process by which the institution actually defines itself. It is also used by others, such as in recruitment and business development to define the firm externally. Marketing likewise has an immediate impact on internal perceptions.
 
The first of the strategic questions from both firms’ marketing leadership should include:
 
1. Who is going to care about the merger? The answer, of course, is anyone directly affected by it, mainly clients and internal stakeholders. So marketing leadership must provide for direct and well-timed outreach to both constituencies, by phone whenever appropriate.
 
Stay tuned for more.
 
allan