- With an
overwhelming stream of work to get done, few in-house law firm chief marketing
or business development officers (CMBDOs) have the time to regularly,
effectively and efficiently report results.
- Most firms’ marketing, business development and sales
(MBDS) departments are cost centers within the firm (i.e., the MBDS department
spends more money than it generates), so MBDS results are often tracked and
calibrated using the spend-to-budget cost-control method.
- Most firm leaders and owners want evidence
and proof that their MBDS investment is paying off.
One of the most successful law firm CMBDOs in history was well-aware of
the above from the start. She is also highly disciplined, so to be able to
report results, she regularly tracks the items below (using a steno pad when
she started over 25 years ago and now inputting via her iPad into a
computerized project management program that her entire team uses):
- Contact – who calls
her, spoke to her in the hallway or emailed her (by name, practice groups and
office)
- Who else – any other lawyers, staff, outsiders or
other stakeholders who are involved
- What – the
issue/request/project the lawyer is asking for
- When – the due
date(s)
- Where – if outside
the office, a quick description of the event/location etc.
- Why – the lawyer’s
definition of what success will look like once they complete this project/task
She uses this information to communicate with her MBDS team as to who
should do what, and most important, because this information is captured in
writing on the front end, she has a built-in, ongoing, cumulative record that she
uses to tally and report results (on a quarterly and annual basis).
In addition to the simple yet demanding “capture it all in writing at
the start” method described above to track results, the information in this article
is designed to provide other ways to track and report MBDS results to tangibly
demonstrate ROI (return on investment) and possibly even become a net-profit
center for the firm.
The main question is: How do firm leadership and owners of the firm define
“results,” especially the definition of
MBDS results?
MBDS results are defined in varying ways, but usually include a
combination of the following:
- 100% Completion – tangibly completing an MBDS task, activity or
document
- Incremental Steps – taking specific actions or steps toward
completing a task, activity or document
- Increases – in such metrics as revenues, origination, production,
realization, profits-per-partner, the number of clients, practice groups
clients use, activities and interactions or touch points, level of client
satisfaction, client retention, growth and Net Promoter Scores, number of
social media followers/engagements/conversions and leads, etc.
- Decreases – in such metrics as costs and expenses, attrition,
unproductive activities or clients, etc.
The next question is: What are the most important results for your firm
and department to track and report on? It
is important to focus on a very few definitions of results or on specific
metrics. Why? Because tracking and reporting takes time, so be sure to track
and report what is most important.
For most firms, the factors that drive the bottom line most are:
- Increases in revenue (from MBDS
efforts, not from the increases associated with absorbing lateral hires) and
- Quality work from quality clients (not
every client is a good/quality client; same with their work).
After all, consistently increasing both of the above is the ultimate
goal of all MBDS efforts and the reason that firms invest in creating and
maintaining in-house MBDS departments. Measuring the above in a meaningful,
efficient and routine way is the challenge for most CMBDOs and firms
For firms that have in-house/dedicated “sales” (or client
development/relations) professionals, it is usually much easier for these
client- and referral source-facing professionals to track and report results,
because most are trained in and use a disciplined pipeline tracking and
reporting process, which can be a simple document, a spreadsheet or a client
relationship management (CRM) technology system. A pipeline is simply a list
that contains the name of the client/target, each of the relevant touch
points/interactions undertaken to initiate and develop that relationship into
new client work, when the work came in, and the total amount in hours and/or
dollars.
Pipelines maintained in simple document or spreadsheet form contain this
basic type of information, while more advanced and sophisticated tracking,
sorting and reporting of activities, efforts and results can be done using CRM systems
such as Salesforce, OnePlace, InterAction and others (which are often quite
expensive). Some sophisticated firms have invested in technologies such as the
latest platforms from Intapp, LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters Elite, which allow
greater depth, breadth and coordination for tracking, reporting and analysis.
The main hurdle to effective reporting for the marketing and
communications divisions within the MBDS department is that much of the
work/activity and effort is hard to measure and report, especially such common
marketing and communications tasks and projects as public relations/getting
lawyers quoted in publications; all the vast amount of work required to plan
and produce seminars, conferences and events; website creation and upkeep;
published articles; maintaining the firm’s CRM database; and other common
marketing activities. Because these common activities, projects and tasks are
difficult to report results on, most firms simply track the results by numbers 1
or 2 above (i.e., by status of completion). This “activity reporting” often frustrates
firm owners, since activity does not necessarily equate to productivity or
revenue, yet many of these positioning, visibility and branding tasks and
projects are now a required part of any professional firm in business and are essential
to remaining competitive.
For example, the No. 1 commonly used marketing and business development
(MBD) activity used by lawyers, law firms, accounting firms and other
professional service providers is SCE (seminars, conferences and events), which
includes all SCEs produced and hosted by the firm plus all other SCEs the
firm’s lawyers attend, participate in and/or present at. The total amount of
money (and time) most law firms spend on SCE is one of the highest annual MBD
cost centers and budget items for many firms. Yet, because of the high number of
SCEs each year, plus the staff and lawyer time and effort it takes to get them
done well, any results are usually tracked and reported only anecdotally; for
instance, if a new client or lead arises from them of which the MBDS department
happens to become aware. So, unless the firm has an adequate, internal MBDS
team (which many firms do not; many are understaffed) with a formal sales
support function and accompanying processes in place, it can be challenging for
the MBDS department to track, measure and report on SCE results in any regular
or meaningful manner.
No longer content with reporting results from SCE investments as the
total number produced or participated in or the total number of firm lawyers
attending/participating/speaking, more firms are requiring more front-end
vetting before an SCE expense or project is approved. Some firms accomplish
this through their annual planning process and by requiring lawyers who want to
participate in an unplanned SCE opportunity to first fill out an SCE expense
approval form, which often requires follow-up steps. Other firms have hired
dedicated MBDS practice group-level staff to be responsible for following up
with relevant attorneys and reporting results.
Due to the sheer size of many major law firms, almost all have a
“Marketing Report,” which is simply an internal, proprietary newsletter that is
sent to all attorneys on a weekly or monthly basis to educate all firm lawyers
on who is doing what as far as MBDS and to highlight wins and other successes. Firms
of over 10 lawyers that do not yet have such an internal newsletter managed and
produced by the in-house MBDS department may find this is the best place to
start to regularly learn about results and report them to the firm.
