Rapid Assessment: Action Programs
Creating Action Priorities that Achieve Results
Here is a RAPID ASSESSMENT tool designed for firms that are squarely in the RED ZONE but not yet able to cross the goal line. You’re so near and yet so far from closing the new engagements that you’ve targeted.
The RAPID ASSESSMENT tool is also designed for firms that are not yet in the RED ZONE because their marketing effort has somehow fallen short.
In 60-90 days, we provide “strategic actions” that build on your existing marketing assets…discard or reinvigorate under-performing marketing assets…define and target new opportunities…and ensure immediate new revenue even as we help create a longer-term pipeline of opportunity.
RAPID ASSESSMENT begins with interviews of the firm’s marketing leadership and select partners – as well as senior associates who have so much to contribute to, and so much to gain from the process.
We review…
- - External perceptions of the firm
- - Competition and marketplace trends
- - Client retention and relationship-building initiatives
- - The firm’s business-generation culture
- - Past proposals and pitches
- - Relevant collaterals
- - Advertising, public relations, and community event participation or sponsorship
- - Internet/intranet resources
- - Speeches, panels, and byline publishing
- - Talent-building and sales or marketing training resources
- - Diversity, pro bono, and community service
- - Alliances with other professional groups
- - New practice specialization or other service offerings
- - Internal marketing/sales reporting and accountability practices
It’s the questions we pose that then make the RAPID ASSESSMENT so powerful and unique. We may gore someone’s ox, but the results justify the discomfort.
For example, when you look at your clients:
- - Who are the top 20 clients in your office over the last three years? How many of your practice area specialties have they each used? How many of those clients have fallen off the top 20 list in the last three years?
- - What have been your clients’ turnover rates in their C-Suites and legal departments?
- - Do you know who might replace your client contacts if they leave their companies?
- - How important is diversity to your clients and prospects? Which clients actively track women and minority members of the professional firms they retain?
When you look internally:
- - What have you done in the past that has been effective in terms of marketing and sales? What has been ineffective?
- - Have your partners taken steps to immerse other lawyers at the firm in a programmatic business generation effort?
- - Have your partners shared knowledge of their clients’ businesses and industries, or do they hoard that knowledge?
- - Do you have value-added services to provide clients that go beyond strictly legal advice?
- - Does your sales and marketing training include associates to further build a true business-generating culture?
- - Are you actively searching for opportunities to place your lawyers and senior professional staff members on advisory boards, professional associations, and community organizations where they will have direct contact with clients and prospects?
- - Have you tested drafts of new collaterals with your clients before you market them?
- - How much of your new business drives from new clients? How much from existing clients? What is the significance of that ratio?
- - Is there a specific industry focus that offers special opportunities right now?
We are talking about a RAPID ASSESSMENT of the strategic program that lawyers need to get found as well as the skill sets they need to get chosen.
Marketing is all about marketplace savvy and self-knowledge. It’s about learning.
Business development is all about the crucial moment when buyers decide if what you’ve learned has value for them – and if you’re the best person to deliver it.
Marketing and business development are different skill sets but they always dovetail.
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Business development action programs should be simple. The plans laid out need to be simple enough to act on in a day. Closers turn them into execution plans. The results are immediate.
Contact our consultants for more information about implementing business development plans within your law firm, or for other assistance with strategic action plans and law firm marketing strategy.
