Law firms need to act quickly to integrate marketing management into their practices before the big-brand organisations enter the sector and take advantage of any hesitation, writes Alastair Moyes




The discussion about whether marketing management is necessary in a law firm is over. The legal services market is changing and the question now is how best to integrate marketing management into solicitors’ practices.



Fiona Woolf’s comments in a recent article are, I would respectfully suggest, mistaken (see [2007] Gazette, 17 May, 18). Law firms do not ‘have a couple of years to get our act together’. The opportunity is here now before the big-brand organisations fully enter the market.



Those organisations will not wait for the niceties of the alternative business structures to be worked out. They will launch their services and treat the two to three years of limited profits as an investment.



The legal services market is too important for them to miss out on. It will take many law firms two years to re-organise themselves, so the Legal Services Bill may be handing a competitive advantage to the big-brand companies.



In dealing with this increase in competition, it is essential to understand what marketing is and how to use it. The word ‘marketing’ is often used to describe advertising, public relations and brochures, or as an accounting term to group promotional spending together.



This hides the fact that marketing is about understanding your business through your customers’ requirements, and organising your business to profitably service those future needs. The Chartered Institute of Marketing’s definition runs to many pages, but for solicitors it is simple: plan for the future customers of your firm while considering your resources and the competition you will face.



Marketing is firstly a management task that requires specialist knowledge and experience. Any accountant can prepare your firm’s accounts, but an experienced solicitor’s accountant will be quicker and probably save you money. An intelligent person can devise a case and practice management system with PCs, but why bother when specialist software providers have ready-made systems?



Fee-earners are required to use accounting and IT systems as part of their everyday delivery of legal services. Marketing is similarly the responsibility of everyone in the firm, from how you answer the phone to the choices of which areas of law to offer.



Most importantly, it is about collecting and using information about your current clients to tailor your firm’s services for the future. That takes time and understanding that is best provided by a marketing professional. The future value of your firm will not be measured in the partners’ equity, but in the value of your client database and your firm’s ability to generate future business from it.



There are three basic options for acquiring marketing expertise: hire a full or part-time staff marketing manager, appoint a consultant as marketing partner or bring in a marketing management firm. Trying to do it yourself is no longer an option.



A partner responsible for marketing should not be expected to be the marketing manager and neither should a secretary nor a practice manager. Professional services marketing management is a distinct professional group and should be considered similar to accounting or IT specialists that are brought in to serve the firm’s best interests.



The most common solution is to recruit a marketing manager, install them in an office and consider the marketing problem dealt with, but this can create more problems than it solves. Finding the right person and retaining them is difficult, as is knowing how to manage a person whose skills-set is entirely different to anyone else in the firm.



You may spend £40,000 plus other costs over a year to find that your marketing manager has produced a brochure and website but not dealt with more valuable issues of increasing profitability per fee-earner or developing your client and professional contacts databases.



If you do find a marketing manager who is good, the prospect of them leaving and taking the marketing momentum with them becomes an increasing risk to the firm.



Appointing a marketing or practice development consultant has the same recruitment risks, usually at a higher cost. However, they are more easily dealt with if they do not perform.



Once appointed, a consultant will bring the required experience, but the drawback is that implementation is usually left to the firm. Where an in-house manager is also a resource, a consultant will deliver the ideas and, possibly, practical help. But it is the responsibility of the firm to take on the ideas, then implement and manage the results.



The initial excitement and enthusiasm can quickly dissipate when fee-earners and partners get back to legal work and forget why it was important for them to carry out the ‘fill-in this or report on that’ aspect of their work.



Marketing management companies can offer the best elements of having full-time marketing management combined with the consultant’s experience. However, the partners and staff must be committed to adopting marketing management to get the most from this type of service. It provides a useful and flexible middle ground, being less costly than a consultant and a more reliable option than staff employment.



In practical terms, a firm can use a combination of all three types of solution: short-term consultants to set strategy and identify areas of business development; marketing management services to implement and develop your firm’s marketing functions; and full or part-time marketing staff once the marketing function is established. It is imperative to get advice from experienced legal services marketing professionals.



Marketing is a management discipline that most firms need to develop now. Start by looking at the law management section of the Law Society. Act now to prepare your firm for the future.



Alastair Moyes is part of a Marketlaw team writing a book on marketing in the new legal market. It will be published by Law Society Publishing in 2008