As appeared in LinkedIn, June 29, 2023
During the past decades, I’ve studied marketing departments of law firms. (Fun hobby, I know.)
One of the reoccurring issues I see is the often-unintentional lack of bringing together marketing and business development.
In a simple form, marketing, which involves the communications of messaging and all of the remarkable strategies and tactics to get the word out, through PR, advertising, events, newsletters and rankings, is vital to helping brand and name awareness. Business development is the hard work of bringing in clients, either through garnering business from existing or new clients.
Unfortunately, at many firms, these areas are siloed – with research for business development taking place in one area, PR plans in a third, and events in a third.
A few things happen when you bring these areas together and have them be a part of one organizational structure or, at a minimum, through constant and effortless communications, as many of my ongoing clients do.
✅ Everyone knows the firm’s strategy and is working towards a common goal. As Simon Sinek says, knowing “The Why” is vital to pursuing a job. It brings greater purpose and inspiration, and I believe a greater result.
✅ Ideas and innovations multiply and come from various places. One of the steps I always took at Cravath was to have regular all-hands-on-deck meetings.
It was great to get everyone in a single spot, to hear about the latest projects. Ideas for an upcoming seminar might come from the graphic artist who had listened to an idea from a lawyer. A PR concept could come from someone involved in directories who noticed a trend in a specific type of matter. As we aim to transform what is often seen as a mature industry, these innovations become even more important from a commercial standpoint.
✅ Better service to the lawyers and other departments (both of which are considered clients when you create and lead a marketing and BD department.)
By ensuring that everyone in the group knew something about what others on the team were doing, we were in a better place to answer lawyer questions when they needed to know who to speak with about a particular project, or the status of a new integrated technology.
By bringing these teams, even the largest ones, closer together and by facilitating the sharing of information on a real-time basis, the work created is better, the ideas are more targeted and the client – the lawyers, other departments and paying clients – are served in the best way possible.
And one more thing: I love the glamour and humor of the American “Thin Man” movies of the 1930s and 40s, and my next dog may be named “Asta,” just like the pooch in the movies.
