Having attended the LMA Annual Conference and the WALRAA Educational Conference, I have had many “Learning Moments” recently! Here are just a handful of the most poignant things I learned from our marketing and recruiting colleagues this month.
Marketing Learning Moments
- What we can learn from accounting and consulting firms:
- Get more comfortable asking for business
- Sell as a team, not as individual practitioners
- Promote and cross-sell internally
- Be creative and take chances on how you go about getting new business
- Your Firm’s and Attorneys’ experience is the only unique thing you offer clients, capture it! (Deborah McMurray, @ContentPilot)
- Doing what clients ask is expected. Being proactive and anticipating – doing what a client needs – exceeds expectations.
- Clients want to know what you (and your firm) have done, who you have done it for, and what you can do for them. This should be the main goal of your website!
- When clients see a purpose to the relationship beyond the immediate transaction, trust and loyalty are possible (Jim Kane).
- What gets measured gets rewarded.
Recruiting Learning Moments
- Consider: Do the strongest survive or the most flexible? In our constantly changing legal environment, being adaptable is your greatest asset.
- How do we hire for a future that looks very different than the past? What skills will you need 5 years from now to be successful? For lawyers, the answers are: business skills and emotional intelligence.
- Did you know: Half of all equity partners in large firms today did not grow up there. While it’s difficult to become an equity partner, other tracks are becoming increasingly more common.
- More than ever, you need to own your own career! Take advantage of development opportunities and take initiative to learn your internal and external clients’ business.