Stop Struggling Against the Current
Anyone who has spent time near the shore knows that if you are caught in a riptide pulling you out to sea, the last thing you want to do is try to swim directly against the current. Instead, the recommended course of action is to swim parallel to the shore to eventually reach the beach, progressing slowly but surely toward your goal.
In the legal world, this may also be the best way to handle members of your firm who are dead-set on using only the most traditional methods of growing their legal business.
It was not so long ago that traditional marketing won the day. Networking events, luncheons, calls to “friends and family” -- this was all a firm needed to maintain and grow business. As we know, those days when firm phones rang off the hook with interested, lucrative prospects are gone. It is no longer enough to write an article from time to time and occasionally request recommendations from long-time clients. In our current reality, where demand is flat and the only way to grow (and defend current business) is to show value, cross-sell, pitch new clients and relentlessly strengthen the firm brand, these traditional methods are not enough.
Now, who wants to tell that resistant managing partner it is time to make a change?
In most cases, overnight change is close to impossible. A more gradual approach that ultimately allows you to reach your goal, regardless of how many steps it takes, may be met with less resistance… and may keep your sanity intact.
Here’s one way to begin that progress. Take a moment to jot down your ultimate goals, and every small change and step it is going to take to get there. Sometimes it helps to work backward.
Your list may look something like this:
Goal: Attorneys Proactively Communicate and Cross-Sell
Steps:
- Create a system for ascertaining strategic targets for cross-selling.
- Begin communication with periodic newsletter highlighting (strategic target) client developments.
- Get attorneys to read newsletters through incentives and/or internal marketing.
- Create and market strategic client team pages.
- Develop incentives for cross-selling activities.
- Host once monthly cross-selling happy hours.
- Change firm culture.
Tackle one step at a time. As is the case here, the first step may be something that can stay within the Marketing and/or Business Development department. In step two, you may find new challenges but nothing insurmountable. By the time you are further down your list, the cultural shift has already begun
When changes are subtle but meaningful, even the most rooted of individuals will be swept along with the changing tide.
Rachel Merrick Maggs, Esq. is a long-term member of the legal community and a leader in business development strategies. Rachel has been helping firms achieve business development goals through stronger intelligence for over 6 years with Thomson Reuters. Before that, Rachel worked in almost every part of a law firm, from support staff to practice. Rachel received her B.A. from Colby College and her J.D. from American University in Washington, D.C. Rachel is barred in Massachusetts where she practiced Employment Law for several years before joining Thomson Reuters.