Wednesday, February 28th, 2007
I attended a great LMA Vancouver lunch hour seminar today presented by Tim Leishman from Kerma Partners. (Kerma Partners came into existence in late 2006 and has already developed into an alternative to Hildebrandt in the professional services consulting arena.)
Leishman first penned an article on lawyer practices styles in 1998, and the ideas he set out provide a helpful tool for thinking about and understanding the contributions lawyers make to the success of a law firm.
Leishman sets out four categories of contribution that lawyers make to their firms: Rainmaker, Point Person, Hired Gun, Brain Surgeon. In very short form here’s how he describes each of these types of lawyers:
Rainmakers are interested in connections. They are into meeting new people. They are initiative takers. They are high intensity networkers. They approach business development from the standpoint of “how can I help this person?” Or, “how can I make it easy for them?”
Point Persons are the client managers par excellence. They are most interested in loyalty. They approach their client service from the standpoint of how can I make this person look good? They are natural team players and consensus builders.
The Hired Guns are motivated by credentials. They like to focus on publishing, presenting and building their profile and reputation. They help strengthen the firm’s reputation for expertise.
Brain surgeons are those lawyers whose insight, and intellectual prowess, put them in a category all to themselves. They are highly knowledgeable in key niche areas of law and are known for their outstanding legal abilities.
Leishman’s point is that firms would be best to work to lawyers strengths rather then trying to get them to improve in their weak areas. Trying to get a Brain Surgeon become an effective practice group leader is likely an exercise in futility! Leishman sets out two priorities for law firms:
First, lawyers should be guided to develop in accordance with their relative strengths and talents.
Second, firms should learn to identify the natural abilities and talents that are associated with certain practice styles and learn from lawyers with those abilities so that those abilities can be developed in others.
Once you know your strength you can then maximize the intensity you are putting into it, and get the most out of it.
Attendees at the seminar also offered some of their own thought provoking questions and comments. One person commented that the difficulty for many firms is that they have a number of lawyers who fall into neither of the above categories. In these cases, coaching can help to support the lawyer in discovering and developing their strengths.
Another point raised was that there is a lot to be gained for firms in having practice group leaders learn to manage their groups by leveraging the strengths of their group members in each of these areas. Rainmakers, Point Persons, Brain Surgeons and Hired Guns when brought together as a team can bring about some powerful results for a firm. The challenge is that there are currently few practice group leaders given the time, training, and support from the firm to effectively manage, or learn to manage their groups in a way that maximizes the strengths of the members.
I encourage you to take a moment to read Leishman’s article. It’s a valuable tool for thinking about lawyer marketing and business development strengths and maximizing our investments in them.
Posted in Business Development, Leadership, Marketing | Permalink | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, February 6th, 2007
I had the good fortune to attend a panel discussion today held by the LMA Vancouver Chapter on How Public Sector Counsel Select Their Outside Counsel.
It was a dynamite session. Paul Reynolds of 2nvision consulting moderated the discussion. He spoke with three public sector in-house counsel on the factors influencing their retention of external counsel, what distinguishes the great lawyers they have worked with, and why they fire some firms.
Doug Jasinki, from Skunkworks Creative, and I are developing a five minute podcast with highlights from session for posting to the LMA Vancouver website. In the meantime here’s a brief excerpt from my notes on the session:
The best lawyers are:
- Responsive. They are prompt and respond in a timely manner to requests.
- Pragmatic. They work the file appropriately.
- Aware of context. They repeatedly invest in learning about the organization, not just for the initial sales call, and are sensitive to the organization’s particular requirements
- Team players. They work closely with in-house counsel, communicate well, and keep counsel well apprised of what is going on in a file
- Flexible. They are able to work at odd hours and on short notice when necessary.
- Pleasant to deal with! They are well mannered, and treat their clients with respect.
Listening between the lines today it seemed to me that the panelists had experienced some atrocious examples of bad client service. Here’s my take on the five easy ways to get fired:
- Don’t meet deadlines. If the client requests the Opinion for their very important meeting at 2:00 pm then hand it in at 4:00 pm.
- Communicate with the client as little as possible. Keep them in the dark. Don’t keep them updated on the file. If nothing happens on the file for weeks or months, you don’t have to contact them! Better to just let them wonder what is going on.
- Bill the client for the friendly chat you had with them on the phone.
- The client is a public agency and under public scrunity, but who cares?! Advocate as aggressively and sharply as possible, regardless of any negative media fallout.
- Be as arrogant as possible. When the CEO enters the room don’t stand up, don’t shake his hand. Turn up late for meetings and act like you are doing everyone a favour for being there.
The panelists were refreshingly candid and many of us left with a stack of notes on such topics as how to structure your business development approach, how to respond to RFPs, how to stand out as great counsel, and what are the most effective marketing tools.
The feedback I am hearing about the event has been overwhelmingly positive. As one lawyer concluded, it was great to have the opportunity to get “find out the answers to those questions that lawyers typically don’t have the guts to ask!” (Guts is my word. He used a more descriptive one!)
Posted in Business Development, Client Relations, Marketing | Permalink | 1 Comment »Thursday, January 4th, 2007
Is there any more contentious issue at law firms then compensation systems? At most of the firms I have worked with there is dissatisfaction with the current system but nobody wants to take on the challenge of developing something new.
In late 2005, I attended a seminar held by David Maister in Seattle. When he opened the floor up for questions a lawyer immediately brought up the issue of compensation systems and a long and fiery conversation ensued. The merits and drawbacks of performance-based compensation systems vs. lock-step systems were debated at length.
Maister advocates for a compensation system that emphasises a firm’s active management of performance. I recommend his blog post of April 3, 2006 for a valuable review of the two systems. Here’s an excerpt:
The disadvantage of pay-for-performance compensation systems is that they provide a wonderful excuse not to manage. If someone’s performance is down, instead of management seeing that there is an obligation to go help that person, they have a wonderful cop-out. They say, We cut his pay. We’ve done our job. The rest is up to him or her.
Contrast this with what happens in a system where everyone gets a relatively fixed salary or share of profits, which changes as you get more seniority, if you survive.
In such a system (often called a lockstep system because people move in lockstep up the pay scale), if someone underperforms, you have only two choices. You either (a) work with that person and help them improve to deserve the same income as their peers or (b) if you cannot restore them to full share, you have to ask them to leave. Notice that having lockstep without the guts to deal with performance issues is clearly a disaster! A fixed-share or fixed salary system FORCES YOU to manage, ie to be intolerant of underperformance.
In other words, by not paying for performance, you end up with higher performance by tackling performance issues. By paying for performance, you get less performance because the system allows you to accommodate underperformance.
I have always been a fan of lock-step compensation systems. I began my legal career with an international law firm based in London. When the firm opened their New York office one of the attractions they offered their lateral hires was lock-step partnership. At the time, the New York office Managing Partner conducted many interviews with the US legal press on the advantages of the lock-step system. The system gave the international firm a great deal of flexibility in deploying their lawyers strategically around the globe. The New York office Managing Partner was a top-class securities lawyer from London. Because of the lock-step system he was able to move from London to the New York office to support the expansion even though it meant his billings were significantly reduced for a number of years.
Now many years later in Vancouver, one of the complaints I hear from many partners is that firms do not adequately encourage nor support them in managing practice groups, nor in engaging in business development activities. When I have spoken with these partners about the problem I have learned that for some the issue is a lack of flexibility in the compensation system for billable hour targets when a fee earner is undertaking additional managerial responsibilities.
In Vancouver we have yet to see anything approaching a lock-step system. I did though recently learn that a local law firm has taken the bold step of implementing a blended form of compensation which rewards the performance of the team rather than the individual.
Over lunch in late December, Simon Taylor from Catalyst Consulting told me about some very interesting work he had been doing with a Vancouver mid-sized firm. Working with the Managing Partner, he has helped the firm design and implement a compensation system that rewards the work of the practice group. Individual partner’s compensation is tied to the performance of the practice groups they are involved in. One of the measures of performance is client satisfaction. The firm has implemented a client satisfaction survey. Lawyers are only compensated when they reach a level of client satisfaction of 94% or higher. The goal of the system is to reward teamwork in the practice group, and promote an emphasis on client service.
This compensation system is basically saying “we will reward you for achieving this set goal”. That works fine for the lawyers who naturally work in this manner. But for the others, how is the firm going to help them to learn the new behaviors required to succeed? Incentives alone are not enough. They don’t get around the essential work of managing the people and supporting their efforts to adapt to the new system.
What I wonder is, what is the firm doing to support the lawyers in effectively managing their practice groups? How is the firm helping the lawyers to deliver this outstanding service? How is the firm setting up these lawyers to succeed?
I spoke with Simon this morning and he will be adding a comment today that elaborates on the above. Thanks Simon!
Posted in Business Development, Compensation | Permalink | 3 Comments »Wednesday, December 20th, 2006
The best place to invest your non-billable time? With existing clients. This is the rule, tried and true, which I learned many years ago as a fledgling legal marketer, and it has not changed since then.
Michelle Golden has a great post on this subject. Here’s an excerpt:
As we coach professionals of all levels on their individual marketing efforts, it seems like we constantly need to emphasize the importance and benefits of spending a greater percentage of energy or effort on nurturing existing clients (versus new biz development). Existing clients should receive this heavier focus for many reasons:
- increasing the level of service to increase the level of satisfaction/delight;
- affect longevity in customer relationships;
- inspire referrals from current customers; and, oh yeah,
- increase the number of project opportunities relative to meeting customer needs–needs you won’t know about or be able to help them with if you aren’t TALKING with them.
I agree with Michelle and would just add that “talking” with clients means asking questions about their business and spending most of the time listening to the answers.
Visit your client’s place of business. If your client runs a pulp mill, then put on your hard hat and head down to the operation and have a look. This is the best place to invest your non-billable time. There is no faster route to new files.
Posted in Business Development, Client Relations, Marketing | Permalink | 1 Comment »Tuesday, December 19th, 2006
As New Year approaches it is time to start thinking about developing your personal marketing plan for 2007.
As a new associate the most important thing for you to do in your first few years of practice is to experiment: Explore what sort of legal practice you want to build, what kind of clients you like, and in terms of marketing, what you enjoy doing. Take control of your future by becoming actively involved in developing the habits, skills, and contacts that will help you to build the practice you design for yourself.
The following is a list of marketing tips for you to consider as you begin to plan for 2007. Starting with the most important – your personal marketing plan!
The goal of a personal marketing plan is to help you focus your attention and energy on doing the things that will best help you to turn your professional aspirations into reality.
Personal marketing plans, or indeed business plans, in general work along three simple lines:
1. They begin with a close and realistic description of where you are at currently.
2. Next they look at where you want to be.
3. Finally they describe how you are going to get there.
Below you will find some suggested activities and approaches that you might consider for your plan in 2007.
The personal touch. In this internet age, the personal touch counts more then ever. As much as possible take the time to write a thank you note, a condolence note, or a nice to meet you note. These notes should be hand written, not dictated to a secretary. In addition to being a good lawyer, the most effective marketing tools are the handshake, the unexpected, non-billable act of kindness, the follow up phone call, and the personal note. In your plan outline how you will begin to incorporate the personal touch into your practice.
Find your own style. Experiment and find out what you do best. Play on your strengths. If you are a talented speaker, seminars and conferences might work well. If you don’t enjoy public speaking try a one-on-one approach. The same goes when developing your marketing plan. Think carefully about your strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, then plan accordingly.
Talk less and listen more. One of the most common errors lawyers can make is talking to much and failing to listen. In some cases, inexperienced business developers will try and talk their way to new business. Learn to listen deeply and look for the ways in which you can help people out. You will find that helping others will lead to others helping you.
Develop a meaningful introduction. Learn to introduce yourself to people in a way that emphasises how you and your firm help your clients. The unfortunate reality is that introducing yourself as a lawyer shuts conversations down. Instead open the conversation up by explaining what you do in a way that invites people to ask questions. For instance, an estate lawyer might say: I assist clients with estate planning. I help them ensure that their wishes will be followed while keeping the taxes and probate fees down at a minimum.
Marketing is a contact sport. It is important to step out of your office and start meeting people. Get to know the other people in your firm. Get active in your local business/professional community. Join the business organisations related to your practice. Join community organisations. Become actively involved, join a board, help out, meet people.
Get organised. Keep track of the people you meet with a contact management system. Find a method that works for you to organise the business cards you receive and store information about your contacts such as where you met them, and what their interests are. Write all of this down so you can instantly find it. Make sure to get everyone’s email address.
Trade associations. If you are targeting a specific business or consumer groups, look into the trade associations (or other influential organisations) with which your target prospects are most likely to be associated and become actively involved in the association. Not only will you have a chance to network, you will also have the opportunity to learn more about your prospects’ industry, and their business concerns.
Become a presenter. Volunteer to be a speaker with the business and trade organisations you are involved with.
Write articles. The same associations will be dying for articles. Write a column for a local publication. Find a newsletter or web site that is read by your clients and write articles for them. Start a blog!
Use your lunch hour for networking. Call people who can refer you business and take them out to lunch. This would include your local realtor, accountant, lawyers at larger firms, bankers, etc. Also, contact all your law school classmates, just to say hello. Find out what they’re doing and stay in touch with them. Have lunch with people you are genuinely interested in getting to know, and learn about them.
Peer network. Develop a virtual, private peer network of lawyers. A secret bunch of co-conspirators you can turn to. An associate I know started a small alumni group. She and her law school alumni have lunch once a month. Just a few years in, and this has already developed into a powerful referral network.
Posted in Business Development, Marketing | Permalink | 1 Comment »
