Marsha Redmon is a professional public speaking, communications, business development and media interview coach and workshop leader for lawyers. She began her career as a litigator and subsequently spent four years as a TV news reporter before starting her own company. I had the opportunity to talk with Marsha about her current work and how it has been impacted by her past experiences, best practices in coaching lawyers, her thoughts on law firms’ usage of video, and her advice for legal marketers who are trying to improve their own communication skills.
What do you like most about your role as a communications trainer for lawyers?
That’s a tough one. I like it all. I see all of the work I do as coming from one core skill – communication. The value I bring lawyers is teaching them how to effectively communicate their expertise to clients, prospects and colleagues. In doing so, I emphasize the importance for the lawyer to understand what the audience needs and then articulate their message in an interesting way that explains how they can help and bring value.
What past experience or lesson has impacted your current work as a communications coach the most?
The years I spent as a news reporter and my undergraduate degree in broadcast communications have helped me to be both an effective practicing lawyer and a coach. If you can communicate on television, you can communicate anywhere. On TV you have to make your point very quickly, entertain people, and ultimately compete with the remote. It’s very similar to giving a speech – you have to be compelling, you have to get to the point quickly, and you have to focus on your audience’s interests in order to keep their attention. These are points legal marketers should keep in mind when communicating with lawyers. Another key skill is asking good questions. Asking a really smart question can show your knowledge and help you collect information. It can also cause the listener to think about their job or practice in a different way, and they will remember you.
As a former practicing lawyer, what is some advice you can offer legal marketers in preparing lawyers for a presentation and encouraging them to practice their speech/seminar prior to the live event? Are there any major dos and don’ts to keep in mind when approaching lawyers about improving their public speaking skills?
It’s always a best practice to start with something positive when giving feedback to lawyers. Then, if you notice an area of their presentation that is weak, acknowledge what the lawyer is doing and explain that you have observed how others take this to the next level. Invigorate their competitive spirit by comparing them to other lawyers and show them how they can get ahead. For example, “You did a great job of calmly and clearly stating your message. However, instead of sitting during your presentation, have you thought about standing? I’ve noticed that when other lawyers stand, it helps them to enunciate their message and take better command of the audience.”
For webinars in particular, check the analytics of prior webinars your firm, or a specific lawyer, has done to see if you notice any trends that would be helpful for the lawyer to know. If participants tend to drop off the webinar in the first 5-10 minutes, relay those statistics to the lawyer. Many webinars get off to a slow start because the focus is on housekeeping items. To avoid this, encourage the lawyer to start the presentation by talking about the main impact the subject matter has on the listeners, or by acknowledging what types of people are in the audience, or by providing a poignant example related to the topic. Then, a few slides into the presentation, introduce the speakers and quickly take care of the housekeeping items.
Another tip I would pass on is, encourage your lawyers to use polling questions to engage the listeners during the webinar. Lawyers are often hesitant to use this tool because it can lead to unscripted results, but it’s very interesting for participants to see how others answer and the poll responses can be very useful data for a firm to use in business development.
What key trends are you noticing in law firms’ usage of video? What related advice are you conveying to law firms?
Law firms are just starting to explore video. If legal marketers are looking for a way to have a big impact on some particular issue, you can get more benefit from video. Make short video clips on hot issues containing keywords the lawyer wants to own and post them on YouTube. This will significantly increase the lawyer’s internet search results, especially on Google since Google owns YouTube. If you’re going to use video, you must focus on what the lawyer can say that is of value to clients and prospects. In order for it to be successful, it has to be about the client’s needs.
I see the shift toward video as the same caliber of change that happened when we started doing things electronically and email entered the picture. Video is a one-to-one communication and it feels very personal. It allows a prospective client to get a real feeling for what a lawyer is like and how they communicate. Video is here to stay.
In what accessible ways can legal marketers improve their own communication and public speaking skills?
Practice. Get involved in LMA and with other associations and organizations where you have to stand up and talk. These opportunities are outside of the workplace and a safer place to practice.
When you taught Business Communications to MBA students at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, is there anything that surprised you?
Law school is all about the individual. It surprised me that business school is completely team-focused. MBA students spend a significant portion of business school participating in team presentations on which they are judged. Interestingly, these presentations are very much like the pitches lawyers are increasingly called upon to do. It will be interesting to see if any changes are made to the law school curriculum to help lawyers learn these presentation skills.
And finally, just to add a personal touch, what are your favorite pastimes?
Well, I have 9-year-old twin girls. We spent part of the summer traveling in Greece and doing lots of swimming. This summer, for the first time, my husband and I tried kite boarding. Also, I am writing a book about how lawyers can use video for thought leadership.
By: Jean Katz, Client Relations Manager, Covington & Burling LLP for the September/October 2013 Issue of the Capital Ideas Newsletter.