Law Firm 4.0 Blog

Getting a rash from the rash of law firm RFPs

During round table discussions in 2009 entitled, "Best Practices in Business Development and Proposals," we asked invitees (law firm marketing and BD professionals mostly) about the uptick in the receipt of RFPs and RFIs from clients and prospects.  The overwhelming response was that the number had tripled or quadrupled.

On February 18, 2010, I spoke to the LMA Atlanta City Group on "The Changing Face of Legal Marketing: Best Practices in Business Development/Proposals."  To prepare for this topic, I surveyed the Atlanta members and received 18 responses.  62% said pitch/proposal activity had increased since 2008, and of those, the range was a 5% increase on the low end and a 1000% increase on the high end.  Eleven of the respondents represented law firms over 500 lawyers, eight were in firms 100-500 lawyers.  The balance were under 100 lawyers.

Respondents said that before 2009, very few of their new clients and new work came from a formal RFP.   Over the last year, the percentage of new clients/new work obtained by RFP rose to 62% - so, nearly two-thirds of new work/new clients came in as a result of an RFP.

What does this steep increase mean?  We are seeing typically loyal firm clients going through formal RFPs - to reduce the number of firms they use, lower their outside legal spend and get their firms to think more creatively.  The March 2010 Harvard Business Review cover says, "Power out of the Recession."  That's what law firm clients are trying to do - and they want their law firms to aggressively help them do that.

Cheryl Disch is the proposal manager at Duane Morris.  She is a leading-edge thinker when it comes to proposal management, knowledge management technologies and tools, and business development. While discussing the agenda of an August 2010 annual International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) Conference panel, we came around to RFPs and that she had seen a huge increase in number, too. 

We agreed that AmLaw 100 and 200 firms receive many RFPs "blind" - meaning that there is no existing relationship between the prospects and the law firm.  Yet, lawyers (who may still have some capacity) believe that they were somehow "chosen" to receive the RFP, so the firm must respond.  It's a challenge for the marketers to counsel these lawyers out of the belief that "more gives you better chances of winning."

We suggest that the recipients of this quadrupled RFP volume create guidelines that dictate when to respond and when not to.  This isn't a one-size-fits-all rulebook, because whether to respond is dictated by firm culture issues, types of clients that fit exactly within the strengths of a firm, geography, budget - and practical things like lawyer and marketer resources to handle the logistics, planning and writing of the proposal.  Many large firms have such policies (and they rigorously adhere to them), but I was surprised to learn how many otherwise sophisticated firms still don't.

Cheryl suggests, "Have a three-hour meeting with the client instead. Get business in other ways - it's so much better NOT to climb into the often-unknown competition."  Whether responding to an RFP or meeting face-to-face, either way you are "spending time" with your clients.  But wouldn't you rather invest in relationship building instead of merely outlining your qualifications?

Excellent advice.

"Web site" finally becomes "website" - according to the AP Stylebook

I've been a stickler for writing "Web site" with a cap W, lowercase s and two words.  Because it was right.  According to an April 16th twitter post, the AP Stylebook has finally relinquished its hold on this written protocol - and from now on, "website" (one word and a lowercase w) is right. 

It was announced at the American Copy Editors Society Conference on Friday afternoon, it was effective yesterday and will be formally listed in the 2010 AP Stylebook, which is due out in a couple months.  Tech related Web sites (er, websites) applauded the change, but others, including New York Times technology writer, David Pogue, is not.

According to the new 2010 Stylebook, World Wide Web appears to remain initial caps, but webinar, webcast and webmaster will all change to a lowercase W (er, w).

I'm with David Pogue.  While I was an early adopter of email (v. e-mail) and interoffice (v. inter-office), "website" will take some getting used to.

Marketing ROI, Measurement and Metrics - LMA Dallas City Chapter Survey Results

I moderated a panel yesterday at the LMA Dallas City Chapter (subgroup of the LMA Southeastern Chapter)  luncheon on ROI.  Panelists included: 

Allen Fuqua, CMO, Winstead PC
Bill Livesay, Executive Director, Andrews Kurth LLP
Tim Powers, Partner and Business Development Chair, Haynes and Boone LLP

 
To anchor our remarks in the day-to-day reality of our LMA members, I created a survey for them to complete in advance.  The Dallas City Group has 82 paid members, and this survey had 29 respondents.

Each panelist spoke of how and what they are measuring in their firms.  I asked the question that all marketers fear hearing, "What are we getting for all the money we are spending?"

Both Allen and Tim rushed to say - if you're getting that question, you're in trouble.  It means you haven't done your job.  They confirmed an approach that is focused on industry penetration, client growth and success with client targets as the best way to truly measure ROI.  Allen simply said, "ROI is the return to shareholders of profit.  How much that profit is compared to the investment you've made . . ." is where the true test of effectiveness is.   Allen has a target of 100 to 1. 

Tim noted something that struck me:  When a partner asks the question above, she is really asking, "what did I get for the investment?  How did it benefit me?"  It's a personal question, not really about the firm at all.  Haynes and Boone has deployed business development managers who are embedded inside the practice/industry groups. They are the ones who answer this personal question - long before it's asked. 

All three panelists agreed that you have to keep a running inventory of the activities and initiatives that are supporting the firm and practice/industry strategies - because that's what lawyers see and frequently want to track. 

13 survey respondents said they provide metrics reports to partners - primarily monthly or quarterly, but 16 respondents do not provide reports.  And in another question, 19 respondents do not have a standard procedure or process for measuring return  on marketing and business development expenditures.

Bill Livesay spoke of a slightly different approach, and he started by noting the firm's entrepreneurial culture.  There are certain expectations that partners have, based on the culture of the firm.  A firm that has a top-down, institutional business approach would have different measurement and reporting expectations than one where partners are more self directed.  He stated that it's imperative for the marketing team to have enthusiastic managing partner support, and Allen and Tim agreed.

Most of the survey respondents measure ROI, ROA (return on activity), ROO (return on objective), or some combination of all of these.  6 respondents said they are not measuring any of these.

The 3 main reasons for measuring ROI?  An equal number of respondents said:  establish the value that marketing adds to the firm, realign/reallocate resources if things aren't working and understand bottom line business results.

Activities and initiatives that are being tracked or measured by respondents include:

• Web site visits/traffic patterns
• Seminar attendance/conversion rates
• RFP/proposal conversion rates
• Client satisfaction
• Market perception of practices/firm
• Market share of groups of clients (by industry, association, etc.)
• Wallet share of client

Respondents included:  16 marketing directors/marketing managers, 3 have buiness development as their primary responsibility, 3 CMOs, 2 executive directors, 1 partner and 4 others who were coordinators, consultants or vendors.

One respondent asked, "what are we seeing on the horizon when it comes to ROI, what's next?"  I think the ROI of lateral partner hiring and integration will get more scrutiny, which means it will also be viewed more frequently as a long-term strategic investment.  I hope, anyway.

Thanks to Allen Fuqua, Bill Livesay and Tim Powers for their leadership in this area.

Law Firm Intranets - A new look in 2010

I am seeing more interest in their intranets by law firms than I have seen in the last dozen years.  Firm leaders are taking a serious look at ways to improve communication up and down the organization, facilitate collaboration among colleagues and workgroups, reinforce cultural tenets and save money.

A well planned intranet can do all this, but the key is on strategic focus, smart and focused planning, measureable goals, and a perpetual understanding of your user audience. 

After conducting several audits of law firm intranets in the last few weeks, as we did with law firm Web sites in 2005, it was time to introduce certain Foundational Best Practices.  Once again, as with Web sites, these best practices surfaced after considerable research in the broad Web industry, researching reviews of intranets in Corporate America, how they are used, which ones stand out (as analyzed by Jakob Nielsen - www.alertbox.com) and determining which trends could translate to law firms - especially global and multi-office firms. 

In future posts, I'll expand on each of these, but here is the resulting list of 7 Best Practices in Law Firm Intranets for 2010:

1.  Intranet home page -- this is about information hierarchy and messaging.  It must be attractive, well organized and deliver a lot of goods right from this page.  This page has to work hard - and look good.

2.  Intranet site search -- focus on speed, refinement and relevant, well organized results.  Focus on "finding" and how many seconds it takes to get the answer you need.

3.  Navigation -- the watchwords here are intuitive, informative (you must preview what's inside each global navigation section -- if users have to guess, you've lost them) and one-click.  I audited one SharePoint intranet and it took 8 clicks to find something the first time and 10 clicks the second time.  Impossible!

4.  Lawyers and professional personnel -- focus on experience (what have they done, for whom have they done it, what were the salient issues by matter, etc.), quick contact info (including whom to call when they aren't available) and currency.  Bios should be up to the minute.

5.  Design and layout -- It's all about consistency, enhancing your brand and making the site inviting.  Ease of adding pages by multiple editors is one of the great benefits of SharePoint, but design stewardship goes out the window.  You lose users when the rigor of design consistency is lost. 

6.  Content -- Rich, organized, relevant content that is easily found will keep your users coming back.  If users aren't using your intranet daily to find information, it is time to rethink and replan your site.

7.  Social networking and interactivity -- this is about communication and building collaboration among workgroups.  Think of it as a "workplace Web."  This should be where individuals gather to chat, exchange information and ideas, and log best practices in Wikis and on blogs.

More to come.