By: Helena Lawrence

Sustainability is all the buzz – Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). What does this mean for law firms? Is sustainability a way to attract talent? What is the impact on your firm’s revenue stream? How does your law firm engage with clients on sustainability?

Before going further, let us get a baseline of our definition of “sustainably.” I like to think about it as making the world a better place for everyone and everything across the supply chain. It is more than just double-sided printing, automatic lights and LEED certified buildings. It incorporates ethics, inclusiveness, environmental considerations, basic good living for all and more.

Sustainability begins with the premise that profit and purpose can co-exist and it provides a framework that brings all the pieces together and creates a roadmap for law firms, companies and organizations to operate with economic, environmental and social integrity.

Goals & Objectives: What does your law firm want to achieve and why do you want to do it? Maybe your clients are asking what you are doing and the answer influences purchasing decisions. Maybe your executive committee decided to take a holistic approach to your business and wants to review and update business strategies? Maybe current and future employees expect the firm to address sustainability issues? How do you want to market your firm in the sustainability space – what is the story you want to tell? Identify your goals and objectives.

Baseline: Identify where your firm is currently on sustainability. Conduct an internal audit and undergo an issues and stakeholder mapping assessment to get a baseline of where you are currently and how that compares to what you want to achieve vis-a-vis stakeholder and market expectations.

Strategy and plan: Create a roadmap to identify the strategy and tactics to achieve your goals and objectives. Identify priorities, milestones, and tactic owners.

Communicate: Draft a marketing plan that incorporates your sales story. Come to a common understanding of your sustainability story and the contributions your firm is making so your sales team know how to sell your services and have talking points. Be authentic at every stage of your journey. Your audit will identify your strengths, and your roadmap helps manage milestones. Create a story and sales pitch for marketing your firm’s strengths. Be authentic and market your current capabilities and your aspirations, while making sure not to undersell or oversell your firm. It’s important to share the goals your firm has set for itself. Many firms are beginning to link their goals to the SDGs and setting a timeframe for achieving those goals (e.g., we will achieve gender parity in partnership by 2025 or 2030).

Lead: Inspire your firms’ stakeholders and communicate. Embrace your courage to take a stance on sustainability to make the world a better place for all, while maintaining a successful business that enables “good behavior.”

Businesses are organizing themselves around sustainability, ESG and SDGs and the law firms that incorporate these same values and organize themselves in a manner that clients understand are firms that will get the business.

There are frameworks such as DevryBV Sustainable Strategies Integrated Sustainability Framework (ISF) that take a system design mindset to the process by auditing where your law firm is currently, creating a strategy to get you where you want to go, marketing your story and working with you to inspire courage in others too.

Are you ready to embrace and champion sustainability?

Helena M. Lawrence, Owner, Sierra Marketing LLC

Helena Lawrence took the road less traveled and it led her to a career in marketing and business development in Washington, D.C. As the owner of Sierra Marketing LLC she provides sustainable strategy consulting for courageous organizations as well as marketing and business development services. 

Contact Helena at helenalegalmarketer@gmail.com or visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenalawrence/.

By Robert Weiss

Video marketing for law firms is still at an early adopting phase and each firm is different on how they’re approaching video. Wherever you are at, we’ve put together a short list of the Top 5 Questions that Law Firms have about Video Marketing so you can get informed and make a decision about this misunderstood, but highly impactful piece of digital content.

When it comes to getting new case work, video marketing is highly impactful because attorneys are the “products” at law firms and video is the ONLY way to truly showcase a partner’s personality and their expertise.

Why Should Law Firms Consider Video Marketing?

In the last five years we have all become a nation that watches video first before reading (hey, I didn’t make the rules!).  And when you think about it, the reason is simple - video is easier to watch and to understand than reading a lengthy text….especially with complex legal topics.

Video production for law firms is about appealing to giving people the most amount of information in the shortest amount of time.  If you're writing blogs, sending emails, or getting ready to give a presentation at a conference, those activities are just about communicating business messages.  And video marketing for law firms is just about doing the same thing.  But because video is more powerful than text and you will realize an uptick in your digital marketing objectives and begin to see more clients.

So let's get into the Top 5 Questions that Law Firms have about Video Marketing.  The first one is always,

1) What Makes up the Cost of a Video

There are many ways to produce a video, which is why you will find a wide range of investment options for a legal marketing video.  But these are the five main factors that can determine how much you would invest - think Sr Partner bills at a higher rate than an Associate, but might do the same legal work. 

By way of example, here are two different budget allocation levels that you might invest in when hiring a video production company to produce a 2-minute firm overview video.

On the left, you only have 1 location. While the one on the right, has 3 locations.  So it will be obvious on which video would cost more...the one with 3 locations.  As you go down the main aspects of what a video costs, you have different levels of staff experiences, camera quality, types of supporting equipment, and including motion graphics.

When planning for your video marketing strategy, you should be looking to do many types of videos.  Thus spending different budget levels for different business objectives.  But it is best to start with a budget that is suitable for your firm.

2) How Often Should We Be Doing Video and What are the Use Cases?

Every firm is going to have a different cadence for video marketing.  But if your firm has not yet done, or is just started, with video, then you will probably invest on a smaller scale than those firms that have already seen the power of marketing video for their firm.

Even though you might start with one video, you should get to the point of producing monthly content.  Most firms have many partners, have many service areas, many offices, and there are many use cases for videos like -  

3) How to Get the Highest ROI From an Investment in Video.

To get the most ROI out of your investment in video implement a Video 1st Video marketing strategy. It starts with a video first and from the video you derive all the ancillary pieces of content that legal marketers need today.

For example, when a partner does a subject matter expert video, you can have that video transcribed and then repurposed into a blog post, social media captions, ad copy, email campaigns and web copy. 

Then, as you are in the sales process converting leads into clients, you can use your thought leadership videos before, during or after a meeting to solidify the trust that is so key to winning new client relationships.  So once you have videos, you can use them in several different ways, week in and week out, over the next few years.

4) To Script or Not to Script?

Your partners are not actors, but they do know what they are talking about.  Which leads to the question of “To script or not to script?”

Our answer is - do not script (unless it is for a teleprompter style video).

In order to prepare your partners for your video shoot, have them prepare a high-level outline of what they want to say...just like they would if they were speaking in front of a client.  With their outline ready, they will be in a position to speak naturally and professionally just being themselves in front of the camera.

Having an outline can help them be more confident in what they are presenting with natural intonation and presence.  In that matter, that’s what a video production company brings to the table. They're excellent at working with people who may feel uneasy in front of the camera before and making them feel comfortable in performing.

5) Should You Do DIY Video or with a Production Company?

Do you need to always use a video production company?  Of course you don’t. And you should get to the point of doing video yourself.  But, would you suggest that your professional business client use LegalZoom?  They could, but would that really help them in the long run?

Each firm is different, and video production companies are highly experienced to assist you attain your business goals, and can help you with the pre-production process up to the final output.  So especially if you are new to video production, you might be better to get started by working with one of the talented video production companies near you.

When you start doing more videos you will begin to understand the entire process, you’ll get better at creating videos. When you shoot your Do-it-Yourself content and mix in high quality content from a video production company, that’s when video marketing really kicks in.  It’s just a matter of figuring out what goes where.

BONUS: 

6) How Many Years Does a Video Last?

One of the amazing qualities about video content, like subject matter expert / thought leadership video, practice area marketing videos, recruiting videos and firm overview videos is that they can last for a long period of time.

Even though you will make an investment in video today, you can repurpose and reuse that video for 4-5 years...or more sometimes.  The core content in your thought leadership videos, firm overview videos or practice area marketing videos, for example, are going to last a long time and can be used all over again across your sales process and digital footprint.

Have any questions, give us a call or send us an email, our contact information can be found at https://nycCorporateVideoProduction.com

We’ll be seeing you in front of the camera.

Robert Weiss is President of MultiVision Digital, one of the top video production companies in New York, that provides the full spectrum of video strategy, video production and video marketing services that businesses need to drive action across the entire buyer's journey.  Having produced over 900 business videos since our inception, our holistic approach has allowed clients to increase sales profitability, convert leads at a higher rate, improve SEO rankings, and improve client loyalty.  MultiVision Digital’s clients range from solo-entrepreneurs to global Fortune 500 companies across almost every industry.  But more importantly, have executed successful business video strategy plans for every business objective. Robert is a graduate of Bryant University, he is a USA Hockey Level 3 coach and has summited Mt Kilmanjaro.

By Darryl Cross

The biggest challenge for business development (BD) at law firms for the past 10 years was the same as it will be over the next 18 months: producing success at scale. The difference in the defined time frame is purposeful. As the pace of innovation accelerates and client expectations compound, the need to deliver results becomes more time compressed. Clients have problems, and they have unlimited options. It is critical to bring the discipline of sales enablement to law firm BD departments.

What is sales enablement? The Association for Talent Development (td.org) defines it as:

“the strategic and cross functional effort to increase the productivity of market-facing teams by providing ongoing and relevant resources throughout the buyer journey to drive business impact. It encompasses sales training, coaching, content creation, process improvement, talent development, and compensation, among other areas.”

BD executives have always strived to implement 1-2 of these components at a time, but it has been a challenge to tackle them all simultaneously. However, expecting sales to occur with a patchwork of initiatives and cohorts is hopeful at best. 

BD departments without a holistic sales enablement function are reactive in nature and precedent driven. They are constantly cooking to order and little institutional knowledge is gained from each challenge. And, they are only training and coaching a couple dozen lawyers at a time, which is a method that will take decades to complete.

It is called a discipline of sales enablement because it requires discipline to implement it. BD executives must resist the urge to take on 1-2 components per year (e.g., “This is the year we will train our lawyers on business development…” or “Let’s put together some client teams…”). It is a better approach to combine the entire sales enablement suite of services and focus it all on a small subset of clients.

This extreme focus is a refrain that is more respected today. Firms are building strategic account teams to pay attention to the needs of their most valuable clients. Industry groups that monitor trends specific to clients with similar issues. Some firms have created “Client Index Funds” that are diverse selections of 20-30 clients across practices, offices, and industries that represent their most profitable engagements.

If this task seems daunting, technology can help. Choose a robust sales enablement software platform such as Seismic (www.seismic.com) that can bring marketing, sales, and operations together. Use a video role play software such as Rehearsal (https://www.rehearsal.com) to allow lawyers and BD executives to practice and coach together. Leverage your CRM system to share everything about a select group of clients and prospects.

By creating a complete sales enablement approach, the results will follow. Your department will be able to scale their efforts over time, better predict client needs, and enhance collaboration. Most importantly, it allows the BD function to demonstrate results. Happenstance BD management, methodologies, and processes are no longer valid. Run your BD like your clients run theirs. The discipline of sales enablement creates momentum. Hop on board.

Darryl Cross is a Fellow of the College of Law Practice Management and 20-year veteran of the legal industry who speaks at law firm and corporate events on cultivating high performance cultures. He is now with Amazon Web Services where he is building and inventing their worldwide Sales Academy.

The Fenwick & West marketing department has an opening for a Senior Business Development Coordinator (Mergers & Acquisitions) who will further the firm’s business development efforts through support of specific practice groups, individual partners, senior business development staff and oversight of business development coordinators and assistants. This position can be based in any of their offices.  Learn More!

Fenwick & West has an opening in their Marketing Department for a Senior Communications Specialist. The Senior Specialist will be responsible for leading, managing and supporting numerous strategic projects and initiatives furthering our external and internal communications goals. This job can be based in any of their offices. 
Read More

Have you ever wondered how your firm stacks up against others when it comes to pitches and proposals, client teams, sales coaching, key account programs, RFP processes, and other interactions with clients that are designed to drive revenue? Well, here’s your chance to find out…

LSSO is launching the industry’s first ever survey focused exclusively on “sales” within law firms, the 2021 Legal Sales Maturity Survey. We are inviting you to participate. The survey should take no more than 10-15 minutes for you to complete, and in exchange we will send you a copy of the survey report when completed.

Please click below to complete the survey by May 28th. All answers will remain anonymous.

TAKE THE SURVEY

Fenwick & West has a terrific opportunity for a  Director of Communications.  This position may be based in any Fenwick U. S. office.  The Director of Communications is responsible for the quality, cost and business impact of the firm’s externally and internally facing content.  Read More.

LSSO's Global Sales Summit is filled with high-level interactive sessions, roundtables and lively discussions with industry thought leaders in the legal industry.  Over 30 experts from around the globe have been gathered. The Global Sales Summit offers less of the theory and more of the practical, effective sales and service strategies for attendees to bring back to their firm and implement immediately. With this special online program, you can expect open and honest dialogue among the attendees about the challenges they face in meeting the demands of the increasingly competitive and evolving industry.LSSO's Global Sales Summit is for law firm leaders who have significant responsibilities for client retention, client growth, new business development, client service, and process improvement strategies to shape the future of their firms.

LSSO member's receive 20% off. Please contact ebooth@legalsales.org for additional information and to receive your member coupon.  

Reserve Your Ticket Now!

Paul Hastings has an opening for a Business Development Manager to support the Litigation Department. This position may be located in Paul Hastings' Palo Alto or San Francisco office.

Read More

The Business Development Manager supports the overall business development and marketing efforts of the Firm by helping to create and execute strategic and tactical business development and marketing activities related to specific practice groups and/or markets/geographies, in addition to managing a small team of one or more business development professionals to implement plans and initiatives.

2020 and now into 2021 has been described with more adjectives than I ever thought existed. Most were not complimentary, and most had four letters. But if we borrow the phrase:  “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” (Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" is responsible for this quote and re-phrased by Rahm Emanuel.)

What lessons can we take away from the 2020 pandemic and apply them to legal sales and marketing in the future?  

WFA – Work from Anywhere: Historically, most firms have used a business model of “nesting” their people in offices. The ability to work one or two days from home was considered a real perk. Whether that was just a long-time cultural norm, a distrust that the staff could not be trusted out of sight, or something in between, this model has been forcibly changed. 

Today – We have found that people can work effectively from home, and they can also actually work quite effectively from anywhere. Homes, vacation homes, riding a Peloton, or walking a treadmill are all common. I have a Director level friend at a major firm who rented out his house and has been traveling the country for nine months living in Airbnbs. 

Future – Offices will reopen but unlikely to pre-pandemic levels as WFA is now a recruiting tool as well as a way of life. 

Meeting Protocol: Meetings in law firm offices have always had a formal air to them. Suits, catered food, information packets neatly stacked on high-class conference tables, and screens dropped from hidden places in the ceiling. Genuinely nice, and sometimes a bit pretentious.  

Today – Welcome to Zoom Life and Teams World. Crying babies and barking dogs are now as common a part of meetings as the catered food and other amenities.  This has added a refreshing informality to most meetings that allows us to really get to know people on a much deeper level. Seeing the photos on the wall, guitar in the corner, the snow out the window, and the pets and kids allows us to know peers and clients at a much greater level that most of us have come to appreciate. 

Future - Maybe this is how business in the legal industry should and will be done? 

Cloud Readiness: Firms that were well-prepared and already had data and systems in the cloud allowed attorneys and staff to grab their laptops and not miss a beat in the WFA world, creating a significant advantage. We want to think every firm had this type of agility, but not so. More than one firm shuttled files between the attorneys’ homes and offices by staff. The office culture of “nesting” also lends itself to on-premises data centers and desktop, immobile computers. Clients were impacted by firms not prepared. Prepared firms had the opportunity to gain some competitive advantage.

Today – This was a tough lesson on many firms as it not only created chaos internally and demonstrated to clients how ill-prepared their legal counsel was in a crisis.  The real test here was how agile are we to think, plan, execute, operate the business, and still serve clients in the manner they need and deserve.

Future – Clients will ask about Pandemic readiness in RFPs and ask to see how firms operate in a crisis. 

Crisis Communication Readiness: In the early days when offices first closed, the command from the top to every marketing team was “let all of our clients know we are open for business and ready to take care of them.”  What seems like a simple request, and probably was for some firms, but for many, was a fire-drill nightmare. Based on the emergency calls we received, the firm’s anecdotal data had a ready-to-go, current list of client contacts was not a simple request. 

Today – Not having the most up-to-date contact information was another tough lesson for many firms. However, on the bright side, there is now a strong business case to firm leadership to invest in basic marketing communications (“MarCom”) blocking and tackling type things. For example, keeping contact data up-to-date and well-organized and having operable CRM systems had a bright light shined on it. 

Future –2021 looks like a boom year for Marketing Technology, Practice Management Technology, and the ability to operate all of it in the cloud and deliver on a moment’s notice. 

Work-Life Balance - Forced time off and moving out of the nest has sparked the desire for more quality time, and rethinking work-life balance lightened practice loads. Professionals and their staff have evaluated how they want to live moving forward and how they will define the value of workforce freedom and flexibility.

Today – Firms have (or should have) learned attorneys and staff can not only function but can operate in a highly productive fashion without the need for a “nest.” 

Future – WFA and the desire for work-life balance are changing all industries in more ways than we can begin to know. In legal, this certainly opens new opportunities to recruit both legal and support staff without geographic boundaries. Conversely, lawyers and staff will migrate to firms where WFA and work-life are a part of the culture and not seen as an inconvenience to the firm.

Personal – The pandemic tragically impacted many people.  On a personal level, the Covid-19 pandemic has made me very aware of how fortunate I am considering all the tragedy. I am sorry it took a pandemic to help me realize this. I regret something I wish I had done differently: I did not stay in touch with all my friends as I should have. Early on, we had Zoom happy hours and made some effort, but it faded. It always seemed to be something I would do tomorrow. I owe many of you.

On to the next three quarters of 2021...

Dave Whiteside is Director of Client Growth & Success at CLIENTSFirst. Dave is a consultant for CRM, Data Quality, eMarketing and Client Intelligence service offerings as well as leads ClientsFirst business development and Alliance programs.