Move past the taboo S-word and you’ll find gold
When it comes to marketing and business development (MBD), there is one word that lawyers seem to dread: sales.
The stigma around this taboo was one of the key points of discussion at this year’s Briefing MBD Leaders event. According to several senior marketing and BD leaders, aversion to sales — or more specifically, lawyers’ involvement in the process — stems from misconceptions surrounding it and MBD world within law firms. Put simply, lawyers don’t like sales and don’t see themselves as salespeople. It lies outside their comfort zone, and they have preconceived notions about what it involves.
Getting firms to understand the value of MBD is a hefty challenge that leaders in this space have been grappling with for years — one that if overcome, could give a significant boost to a firm’s growth strategy.
Often times, it can be difficult to illustrate this if an adviser solely focuses on talking about the law. This is where a key element of the BD role and skillset comes in, to illustrate how the law and lawyer can help the client with their specific problems.
This is why MBD experts believe that the myths around sales, marketing and BD — such as the cold call requirements and obvious hard sells — must be debunked to ensure lawyers understand what each of these teams does, and their role in building and maintaining client relationships. Some ideas for reframing the conversation might include:
- Using different terms to refer to sales — such as ‘targeted BD’
- Offering sales and marketing (or perhaps best call it ‘commercial’) training for lawyers
- Introducing incentives — such as billable-equivalent BD hours, or BD performance-based bonuses — to push more people to get involved in these activities
Bringing everyone to the BD table
Another big issue highlighted during the event’s panel discussions and roundtables is the fragmented approach to business development. Despite all working towards the same goal — getting more clients on board — even communications and MBD functions often work separately within a firm.
Several experts argued that this is the wrong approach, as each team can bring different perspectives and information to the others at the table, which can prove valuable in managing accounts and client engagement to build stronger relationships. As such, many stated that the communications department should be encouraged to go out and interact with both lawyers and clients alike, to better understand what lawyers offer and how this can be best presented to clients to win more business.
There is one more party that currently doesn’t tend to have a seat at any table when it comes to the BD conversation, but should: associates. During an insightful roundtable, some BD leaders highlighted why getting associates involved in sales talk with clients could be fruitful. They argued that not only is this a great BD training exercise for younger lawyers, but it also lays the foundation for stronger, long-term relationships between those at an earlier stage of their careers and their client counterparts — who may one day take over oversight of these accounts.
Getting value from your data
In today’s competitive landscape, effective data is becoming a key element in any firm’s growth strategy. However, MBD leaders heard that this isn’t about merely collecting data for its own sake; the true value lies in how businesses transform raw data from systems into actionable insights — including those that could be harnessed to win more (or more profitable) work from new or existing clients.
For data to truly drive business growth, the data strategy of a firm should start with clear, specific goals, as explained during the event’s panel on data-driven strategies and decision making. From there, firms can hopefully analyse the data and use the insights to set actionable steps to meet the goal set out.
However, extracting value from datasets can often be a challenge, as data scientists tend to use complicated jargon that most lawyers don’t understand. This is why one expert highlighted the crucial role data scientists and strategists play in translating complex analyses into easy-to-understand information that lawyers and other people within law firms can easily grasp and use — without this translation, even the most valuable insights may go unused. Collaboration between IT and data teams is equally important for democratising data and creating systems that are accessible across the organisation.
Ultimately, good data is more than numbers — it tells a story. When insights extracted from a firm’s datasets are presented in a clear and engaging manner, they can energise teams, spark innovation and generate enthusiasm for using data to fuel growth.
Using AI for business boost
Of course, no discussion of developments underway at firms today would be complete without talk of AI. Several attendees agreed that AI can offer massive opportunities for MBD, albeit that the incorporation of these specific tools within the function is still at an early stage.
Of the many potential AI uses suggested by experts, client research emerged among the top for rapid worthwhile exploration. More specifically, leaders claimed AI could be a powerful tool to identify likely risks for existing and potential clients — which can be used by lawyers to showcase how they could help. One leader also highlighted that AI can be harnessed to identify the hottest new business leads, which lawyers can use to pitch additional legal services.
However, panellists warned that AI should not be overused in outward-facing marketing activity, as it can be very easy to sniff out the fully AI-generated pitch, which can paint a poor image of the firm, or make it look the same as all the others — both quite dangerous in the current competitive market. As such, MBD leaders were advised to avoid overreliance, and ensure all materials that have involved any deployment of genAI are thoroughly checked.
While many lessons were learned during an actionable, packed MBD Leaders 2024, one key instance stood out to all: a deeper understanding of the MBD function’s role — beyond the current preconceived notions — is key to drive more business-wide collaboration and unlock the next stage of firm growth.
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