On January 31, 2017, Jennifer Johnson Scalzi, founder of J. Johnson Executive Search, presented to the Capital Local Steering Committee the program Recalibrating from Non-Lawyer to Revenue Enabler™: Positioning Yourself and Your Team to Work in Tandem with Revenue Producers to Achieve Sustainable Growth.
Current Trends in the Legal Industry
The program began with an overview of some of the trends we are seeing in the legal industry. Firms are shifting away from traditional practice group models to industry or client focused groups. Firms are spending more time recruiting and non-lawyers and are investing more time educating them. Technology is playing a pivotal role both internally and with clients. Custom client portals are changing client-attorney interactions. For firms of to thrive in the future, they need to embrace cross-firm collaboration. The top earners at law firms are usually responsible for bottom line revenue generation.
Data shows that on average, AmLaw 100 firms have one marketing employee for every 16.8 attorneys. AmLaw 200 firms have, on average, one marketing employee for every 25.4 attorneys. According to recent surveys, positions that require marketing generalists are fading and more specialized roles such as marketing technology, RFP managers and completive intelligence. Chief Marketing Officers say they are looking for experts in technology, business development events and content creators.
Diagnosing and Understanding the Legal Environment
What fuels perception about the non-lawyers? Some things the group came up with are: the perceived gap in education, our roles are not client facing, we are overhead rather than revenue generators, lawyers – not marketing employees – are the experts, and finally we are not owners.
For the majority of the 447 years of law firm history, legal marketing did not exist. Until the 1900s, only certain races, classes, and genders were allowed to attend law school. Even today, some leaders of law firms were trained by mentors from this era. Many attorneys fall within the top 1% of earners, and money is often equated with power. Most attorneys are trained to find fault and weakness. Any time not spent billing is perceived as not making money and therefore lacks value. Attorneys lack the business education to truly understand marketing.
Curate Wider Perspectives and Challenge the Status Quo
Look outside of the legal industry to the the buyers of the legal services are saying. For example, Deloitte publishes a yearly report entitled, The CMO Survey, IBM publishes The Global C-suite Study, and Dell publishes State of IT Trends. “The buyers of legal services speak the language that is in these reports,” Johnson Scalzi says. Explore case studies that look at major firms that failed. The Demise of Howrey, a case study from the Harvard Law School, gives insight into how firms can avoid the same fate.
Conduct Enterprise-Wide and Personal Proactive Metrics Reporting
Use survey data to expose new opportunities. Marketing and business development professional are being measured most by the types of activities they do. Therefore, we must be proactive at letting attorneys know what we are working on. When we see a partner on the elevator, instead of remarking about the weather, perhaps we should share how busy we are with a current RFP for a major client. That will leave a lasting impression.
Things to consider:
- What were the job-related moments and/or accomplishments you were most proud of last year?
- Describe your most challenging situation during the past year, how you dealt with it, and what you learned.
- List your areas of strengths and areas needing improvement.
- Describe one or more goals, including professional development, you would like to accomplish this year that are aligned with the priorities of your department and firm. How do you plan to accomplish these goal(s)?
- What goals would you be interested in working toward between now and the next performance evaluation? How will you measure progress toward these goals?
- How can you bring added value to the firm?
Embrace and Lead Change
Be the change leader for the firm. Start by optimizing current processes. Track how much time you and your staff are spending on certain activities and then create metrics to measure success. Try using the Kotter Model for Change Management:
Intrapreneurship
Take ownership as your role as a marketer and become an innovating and entrepreneurial marketer—an “Intrapreneur”. Be proactive in seeking out opportunities for work. Never wait to be told there is trouble. Routinely communicate your successes to the people who matter the most. Your words matter so choose them wisely. Use the LMA as a resource and bring back topics and tasks for your team. Consider educating others to help propel them forward in our field. Develop a mission statement that is value-based for your purpose and revisit it often; share with your team as appropriate.
By Kamaria Salau, Marketing Manager at Jackson & Campbell, P.C.