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"Keep a line of sight from whatever you do to revenue" recommends Jim Staples, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Cozen O'Conner speaking at the LMA Capital Chapter annual half-day program. That means as legal marketers our job is to create opportunities for business development to occur. Meanwhile we are up against the tyranny of the urgent over the important.

So what can we marketers do to look profits in the eye? Morris Defeo, Partner, Crowell & Moring and former Executive Vice President for Corporate and International Transactions at CAIS Internet, Inc., advises us to take a step back and evaluate the big picture. Then we need to "improvise, adapt and overcome."
 
Basic pressures on lawyers include commoditization and outsourcing. So to sell our firms we should not promote our greatness, but our value proposition. What makes our firm unique? We need to help our attorneys figure out how they can express their value to their clients. Our attorneys also should look at their bio and ask the question - would you hire this lawyer? Why is this lawyer unique? Bios should list experience - show potential clients how you have helped others in a similar way to how you will help them.

So how can we help our attorneys protect their clients? Get our lawyers to look at cross-selling differently. To protect clients, law firms must get in several hooks. The more hooks there are, the harder it is for the client to get rid of you. "It's not about sharing - it's about protecting your own turf." said Jim. Aleisha Gravit, CMO of Akin Gump,was surprised when three clients were willing to share with them the overall size of their legal budget. By sharing that with the client's relationship partners she was able to demonstrate how much business the firm was not getting and where cross-selling could lead.