Builden Founder Jocelyn Brumbaugh shared how law firms can maximize their time and budget by not falling victim to common myths about marketing and business development in February’s installment of Brand Building in 15 Minutes.

Watch the full webinar here.

The Brand Building in 15 Minutes webinar series gives attorneys, marketers and legal administrators practical tips for efficiently executing marketing and business development efforts in a bite-sized timeframe. The program topics focus on process-driven best practices that raise law firm profiles.

Builden is changing the way law firms think about marketing by turning random acts of marketing into strategies that drive business development. Our seasoned team of legal marketers helps firms of all sizes better engage with clients, prospects and talent.

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Video Transcription

Jocelyn Brumbaugh (00:00):
Welcome everyone. So happy to see you here with us today. You are in the right place. I’m Jocelyn Brumbaugh, the founder of Builden Partners, and we are here today with our February installment of Brand Building in 15 minutes, where we take law firms biggest marketing and operational challenges and tell you how you can make meaningful change on them in just 15 minutes. Today, we’ll use our 15 minutes together to do some marketing myth busting. There are a lot of misconceptions out there about how to move the needle on law firm marketing and business development, and like Adam Savage and Jamie Heinemann, we’re going to blow stuff up today. But first, you know us. We are Builden Partners. We do marketing strategy for law firms and only law firms. Last month you heard from our director of marketing and public relations, Abby Moriarty, on how to get maximum news coverage for your new hires and we are excited to announce our own new hire: Alan Chichester joined Builden this month after many years as CMO at Barnes and Thornburg and we’re so excited to have him join our team as Managing Director.

And you know that at Builden we work with law firms, so we get it. We understand how to get things done within the partnership model. Here’s a few of the firms where we’ve hung our collective hats or worked on an interesting project over the years, but let’s get started and kick things off. So you know what’s great about 2023, this is your year. We especially love the first quarter of the year here at Builden. And for those legal marketers joining us today, I know you do too, because this is our time – We are incredibly popular. In Q1 attorneys want to meet, plan their year, do new things with the new budget allocations, all the things to raise their profile, develop business, and get closer to their existing clients.

(01:59):
It is the most wonderful time of the year. For attorneys, Q1 looks like this, right? You want marketing and business development adventure in the great wide somewhere just like Belle. You’re looking at all the beautiful opportunities ahead. But before we send attorneys off into the magical forest of opportunities, let’s make sure we have a clear-eyed view of what is worth your time and what isn’t. So, we’ll spend our few minutes together today on three myths about marketing, business development and client service.

Myth number one: So, in a post COVID world, marketing is your key to success. So, what drives a client’s decision to engage one firm or one lawyer over another? It’s important to remember that clients, they’re just like us, they want solutions. They want a partner in their business who understands them. They want predictability, and we all want predictability here in a post COVID world, but that’s not what’s happening in 2023.

(02:59):
I follow a lot of economists and it’s either going to be a hard landing and a terrible recession or a soft landing and everything will be fine. And everybody on the call today wants me to give a three-word solution to what things are going to be like in 2023. ‘Let’s make the old normal, the new normal again, because it feels better to think we can go back to that old way of telling clients what they should want. To pushing out marketing content and waiting for it to stick. But the good news for you is that the old normal of telling clients what they should want is the easy way. So that’s what most law firms are going to do. The way to differentiate yourself in a post covid world is to show up in a way that might make you feel uncomfortable. To really listen. you have to spend more time listening for those cues.

(03:47):
Take the cues from the client about how they want to be helped, because they might not know what they want just like the rest of us, because the real issue might not be the issue that they raise. Maybe it’s really workflow or maybe it’s better communication about progress and outcomes. Maybe they want the band-aid solution and not the full scale six-layer belt and suspender solution. You see, lawyers are smart, and they want to show that they are smart, that they can think on the fly, that they have a solution for whatever the issue is, that they are sure that being smart is the reason someone will hire them. And being smart about more things makes more clients want to hire them more. So, the more things we write about, the more content our firm puts out there on all the things, the more often they will be hired.

(04:32):
But that’s why we are busting this myth today with this nugget. Because in a post covid world, listening is the currency. It’s not about being ready with the answer before you figure out what the client is asking. Client service was always about getting out of your comfort zone and showing up with custom solutions for each client. It’s a one size fits one world. And I got to say I’m not here to malign marketing. That would be a terrible idea, this is what Builden does. But marketing is one to many. Marketing is your website, your media placements, the things you write, the events you host. Marketing is great, your website is great, and having quality actionable content is great, but that’s not listening. Those one-on-one interactions, the opportunity for there to be silence while your client thinks of the next thing they want to say. Instead of you jumping in with what you want to say, just like Steven Covey says here, listening is what’s key here.

(05:36):
Listening is how you differentiate yourself. That is the currency in a post COVID world. Okay, so what was myth number one, again, in very small fonts, so it definitely does not get lodged in your brain? It was that in a post COVID world, marketing is your key to success. But the reality is in a post COVID world, listening is your key to success.

Okay, myth number two, law firms should do more client feedback surveys. Law firms that get ahead, the ones that get the 80 out of their 20, they’re all doing client feedback surveys. Not polarizing, right? We can all objectively tell others that they should do more client feedback surveys. Of course they should, but there are a few instances in which you should not. So, this is the second myth that we are going to bust today. So, do not do client feedback surveys unless you agree in advance to change what is happening with that client.

(06:36):
Because it’s very easy to get those survey results and think, oh yeah, the praise is right on target and then explain away anything negative. But they couldn’t make up their mind internally, so it took longer. Oh, but they had too small of a budget, but the scope changed. In this instance, client feedback surveys are a waste of your time, but more importantly, they are a waste of your client’s time. If a client flags an issue for you and you don’t address it, that is worse than if you’d never asked. So, you need to get on board in advance about what their issues might be. It might be politically tough. You might need to take someone off the client. You might need to take you off the client. You might need to accept something else that’s uncomfortable, like a new pricing model or revisiting your DEI initiatives or updating your technology stack.

(07:24):
But you need to be ready to change if you are going to do this. Number two, do not do client feedback surveys unless you agree in advance to address that issue across all clients because this one attorney that you get feedback on does not have traits that only come up when they do work on Apple. He doesn’t come ill prepared just to Caterpillar. Or more likely your accounting department does not only mess up the bills when you do work for Amazon. Client feedback is a way to find out before it’s too late what the systemic issues are across the practice, maybe across the firm even. So, you need to get agreement that you will make the systemic changes within the firm that will come up during the feedback before you decide to do the interview. And then finally, do not do client feedback surveys if you’re not going to listen. You need to know going in where the pain points are so you can figure out what the client wants to be different, but you have to be ready to listen and to listen for what else they’re saying.

(08:24):
And think about it – this does not always have to be client feedback surveys in all caps. You have the opportunity to ask clients for feedback informally all the time. How did we do on that? Anything we need to do better? But then you have to remember to listen to what they say. Okay so, myth number two, law firms should do more client feedback surveys? That’s the myth we’re busting because law firms should only do more client feedback surveys if they’re willing to listen and to change. Okay so, we’ve talked about marketing, we’ve talked about client feedback. We’re keeping you top of mind. We’re making sure you get more business from your existing clients. So now let’s talk about the biggest business development myth of all.

(09:09):
“The way to get more business from your key clients and prospects is to: [insert your most recent idea here.]” And you know exactly what I mean about that recent idea. It’s the silver bullet idea that we thought of that first week in January when we were thinking about making our resolutions. It’s the new practice group or that new target audience or deciding we need to be Band 1 in Chambers, all those things. It’s that random active marketing that we’re sure is going to be the game changer. So, I’m going to skip the suspense for this one and bust the myth right now.

(09:44):
So, the reality of how to get more business from your key targets is to create a repeatable process and repeat it. Process, oh, I love you so much. The key to getting more business is process. And today is the perfect day for you to look back at your book of business in 2022, be thoughtful about what worked in your business development efforts, and more importantly, what worked surprisingly well with limited effort. That’s what you want to recreate. This is what you want to do. You want to develop a process around it that is simple and that you will follow. And if you can’t identify something that worked well with little effort, then 2023 is your year. Here’s what you do: figure out what you want your goal to be for 2023. What do you want to be different in December of this year? And don’t worry that it’s February already, right?

(10:36):
You still have 313 days to make this happen. But here’s what you do. You need to make process your shiny thing. So, for this first bullet, if your personal goal is to get more work out of these 10 clients, put a list of their names on your desk or better yet, put a gallery of their photos from LinkedIn so that they’re looking at you every day. And then every month when you have a touchpoint with that client, cross her off your list or put a post-it note out over her face, and onto the next. And so, if it’s the last week of the month and two of these people are still looking at you, call them. Ask about their pandemic puppy, or will they be at that conference that you’re going to this year, or whatever. This process would take you five minutes a week.

(11:20):
And let’s talk about how to make the most important thing, the most important thing. The second bullet, if you meet regularly with your leadership team or your practice group or whoever you meet with to get things done, what is their priority for 2023? What’s the priority for that group? That’s the thing that needs to be number one on your agenda every meeting, not number six, because we’re not going to get to number six because of that one person who talks too much. What is number one on your agenda? If it’s getting more work, go back to my idea from 60 seconds ago. If the priority is client feedback surveys, then make that number one. Whatever it is, it needs to be number one on the agenda every time you meet because then you know it will get covered. There will be action items and the person responsible for last meetings, action items will know that they’re going to be held responsible at the top of the call and they’re going to be ready. Process.

(12:12):
It’s so boring. It’s like if you want to lose weight or run a marathon or learn a language, you only get there by doing something consistently and incrementally. But you know what? Your competitors are not doing it because it’s boring. They’re at their own 2023 planning meetings today and they’re strategizing. Insert [most recent idea here.] They’re vowing to write more content, launch a new service, get better ranked in Chambers. Don’t do that. Do the boring thing that will make a meaningful difference in your practice. So, a year from now, you’ll talk about how much new work you have and how many new processes have changed within the firm because figuring out the process can incorporate all of the myths we bust today. And here are your keys to making meaningful difference in your practice in 2023. One, listening is the currency in post COVID world.

(13:11):
Two, only do client feedback surveys if you’re ready to change. And three, develop a repeatable business development process and repeat it. That is how you can have a myth free 2023.

All right, so we made it under 15 minutes and you’re good to go, but please save the date for next month when we address something that is unpleasant, but that like taxes, you’ll inevitably encounter. What do we do when a partner passes away? So, plan to join us on Wednesday, March 22nd at 11:00 AM central, noon eastern, when our Director of Client Projects, Sarah Goddard will tell you everything you need to know about how to build a process in advance of this happening at your firm.

So, thanks so much for your time today. If you like a bunch of marketing tips crammed into a small space, then you also like our newsletter. Shoot us a note at hello@buildenpartners.com to sign up. See you next month.