Robert SawhneyManaging Director SRC Associates Ltd

14th June 2010

1www.srchk.com

The Power of Context

• Experiment at Princeton University in the US• Good Samaritans (seminarians of The Princeton

Theological Seminary) were asked to deliver a short talk on the bible at a nearby venue

• The Samaritans split into two groups: one told they were late, the other told they were a few minutes early

• Variable: ‘victim’ outside building• 68% of the early group stopped to help, only 10%

of the late group?• (Source: The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell)

www.srchk.com 2

What is Marketing? – it ain’t this!

• Many studies of the legal profession show that the emphasis has moved away from law firm marketing and to where it should be: business development.

• Marketing is "nice to have," and includes competitive intelligence, CRM, branding, newsletters and e-newsletters, advertising, public relations, brochures, directories and sponsorships. But today, what law firms "have to have" is sales: lawyers and professionals who can open new matters, bring in new files and attract new business (source: Larry Bodine, US based consultant)

www.srchk.com 3

Me arguing with someone!

• http://www.thenewlawyer.com.au/article/firm-marketing-inspires-email-vitriol/493687.aspx#comments

www.srchk.com 4

Marketing and market orientation: the relationship with BD and fee earners

Culture :

‘a business is market oriented when its culture is systematically and entirely committed to the continuous creation of superior customer value’

‘market orientation is the organization wide generation of market intelligence pertaining to current and future customer needs, dissemination of the intelligence across departments, and organization wide responsiveness to it’

Behaviours:

Intelligence generation

Intelligence dissemination

Firm wide responsiveness to intelligence

Manifestations:

Marketing associated initiatives – services, branding, CRM, pricing, STP, differentiation, promotion…

BD - one to one activities of sales with targeted prospects, informed conversations…

Fee Earners – client orientation and understanding of needs, , talking from a perspective of knowledge, job satisfaction and firm commitment…

www.srchk.com 5

The Problem in PSFs

• Marketing and marketers lack perceived value due to professionals limited understanding of what marketing is and supposed to do

• Marketers who lack influence • Low trust of marketers and the information they

produce• Marketing and BD lumped together• Focus on tactical marketing and BD activities without

sufficient knowledge and market driven structure in place

• Vicious cycle of declining impact of marketing and BD with growing disdain of professionals

www.srchk.com 6

The Value Proposition: How marketing and BD add value and contribute to success in Asia Pacific professional services firms

(source: Roundtable Consulting, APSMA 2009)

• A significant gap – only 31% of respondents strongly agreed that marketing and business development are a valued part of their organisation

www.srchk.com 7

Firstly, the view of clients

www.srchk.com 8

The Integration Imperative

• Fee earners product

• Know who and know where and know what

Intellectual capital

• Appropriate value

• Value perceptions

Clients

• Financial

• Non financial

Firm performance

www.srchk.com 9

Go anywhere they like, do anything they like, expect

anything they like, and over promise to clients

MarketingBD

A Law Firm View

• Barlow Lyde & Gilbert has laid off three of its five business development personnel as part of an ongoing internal restructuring in the UK

• Chief executive officer David Jabbari said: "I am not a fan of traditional marketing departments in law firms. I accept the need for expert support and high-level research in some areas, but there is much that should be owned and managed directly by fee earners. Business development is a fundamental responsibility of fee earners that should not be delegated.“

• The three employees' functions have been taken over by 10 professional support lawyers

www.srchk.com 10

The Model of Change

Mind Set

• Marketing is everyone’s job

• Articulate the new meaning of marketing, marketing processes, and BD

Build Structure

• Identify and develop the collaborative relationships and skills that will be needed in this new culture and how working processes are best structured

Practice What You Preach

• The new ‘rules’ must be lived and breathed by everyone involved

• Senior partners must be on board and committed

www.srchk.com 11

Build Structure – what to build? (adapted from

Lowe, S (2009) The Integration Imperative, Professional Services Books, Concord)

1. The right processes

2. The right skills

3. The right support

www.srchk.com 12

The Right Processes

Business strategy and

strategic marketing

Processes

Build a market driven culture based on knowledge

www.srchk.com 13

•Identify strategic clients•Acquire and retain

strategic clients•Build revenues with

these groups in line with client value and firm

strategy

The Right Skills

Business strategy and

strategic marketing

Processes

Skills

Build a market driven culture

based on knowledge

www.srchk.com 14

For Fee Earners•Thought leader and

industry expertise•Trusted partner for

clients based on understanding client

value and new dialogues

For M + BD Staff•Lead continuous

integration of efforts through exhibited

benefit, metrics, and KPIs

•Become voice of influence and

recognised expert

The Right Support

Processes

Skills

Support

Build a market driven culture

based on knowledge

Business strategy and

strategic marketing

www.srchk.com 15

HR – recruitment, retention,

evaluation, KPIs, training

Finance – pricing, profitability, budgeting

IT – technology and CRM systems, SEO,

data mining etcM+BD – train fee

earners, implementation of

marketing strategies and

tactics, research, voice of client

Case Study – Perkins+Will (global architectural and design firm)

• Services deployed through various practices (architectural, interiors, urban design) and industries (health care, science and tech)

• Development of internal silos, lack of big picture delivery for clients• Goal – integrate all expertise = holistic design• CEO – ‘build a culture of innovation and deliver client value through

interdisciplinary teams working in an integrated model’• Set up sub group from various practices and functions – dual

internal and external focus• Researched 10 firms in different industries which were known for

their integrated strategy and operations• Realised they needed ‘T’ people and thinking, different dialogue

with client• Delivering interdisciplinary design as embedded value • Board of directors approved initiative and the process began with a

significant internal education programme

www.srchk.com 16

We Know This – it’s the knowing doing gap!

www.srchk.com 17

(Source: The Value Proposition: How marketing

and BD add value and contribute to success in Asia Pacific professional services

firms Roundtable Consulting, APSMA, 2009)

Thank You!• If you want copies of the any of the reports or research cited

here, please don’t hesitate to contact me:

• bob@srchk.com, www.srchk.com

• Blog: www.marketingasia.typepad.com

• Twitter: http://twitter.com/robertsawhney

• My latest book: Available from Lexis Nexis in Hong Kong and other Asian offices or www.amazon.com

www.srchk.com 18