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Richard Potter, Q.C.*

It is an understatement that lawyers are comfortable with rules. And when they set out to analyze a fact situation, lawyers are able to start the process using a widely accepted legal vocabulary.  But in many aspects of law practice management, lawyers quickly become confused by the lack of a generally accepted vocabulary – the terms commonly used are ubiquitous (marketing, business development, communications, public relations, for example), yet their meanings seem to have the permanence of shifting sand.

By clarifying our vocabulary, we can greatly improve our analysis of legal services marketing and increase our chances of making better choices.  Although “marketing” is an imprecise term, I like to turn this quality into an asset by adopting it as the best umbrella word for the whole spectrum of business initiatives open to a law firm.  Anything that involves the process of matching a client’s needs with a lawyer’s expertise and experience can be encompassed by this elastic term.

But when we dig below the all-purpose term of “marketing”, we achieve more clarity by shifting to the visual and graphic medium.  Here is a chart that I have found very useful in making marketing choices:

Communications end of the marketing spectrum	¬	« [The mid-range of the spectrum]	®	Business Development end of the marketing spectrum
public relations	“broadcast” advertising	web site	seminars for clients and contacts	CRM (client relationship management)
brochures		electronic newsletter speaking and writing		one-on-one contacts, including “selling”
Institutional Messages broadly distributed	¬	«	®	Personal Messages highly targeted

The left hand side (LHS) of the chart represents the communications end of the spectrum – that is, broadcast messages not individually tailored, having a relatively low unit cost of delivery and a relatively low incidence of success per message delivered.  These are impersonal messages delivered at a distance and requiring repetition.  The right hand side (RHS) of the chart is the business development end of the spectrum – that is, tailored messages with a relatively high unit cost of delivery that bring a much higher incidence of success.  These represent individualized communication, delivered to the target more or less face-to-face.

In and of itself, one end of the spectrum is not more desirable than the other.  However, what is often missed is that one end of the spectrum is not the exact equivalent of the other.  Ten thousand dollars spent at the LHS is not the equivalent of $10,000 spent at the RHS.  For the busy lawyer or Managing Partner, however, it is all too easy to approve expenditures at the LHS end of marketing initiatives for one reason only: it takes almost no lawyer time and gives the appearance of taking positive action.  At the RHS end, however, significant outlays of lawyer time are required and supervising these initiatives takes real management skills.  It is easy to see which end of the spectrum is usually preferred.

But preferring the LHS over the RHS comes with a hidden cost.  Not only are LHS initiatives relatively wasteful, in that much of the communication never reaches the relevant readers/viewers/targets of the initiative (and therefore requires more costly repetition), but the chance of new business flowing directly from one LHS contact is extremely remote.  It is not that LHS initiatives have no place in an overall program; rather, when constructing a marketing program, you should ensure that your initiatives are chosen to achieve a balance on the spectrum that makes the most sense for the firm or practice area involved.  You should continue to weigh the costs of your program in money and lawyer time and re-evaluate the mix of LHS and RHS initiatives.

A word about the content labels in the boxes in the chart is warranted.  The positioning of the content labels (advertising, web site, CRM, etc) is not an absolute statement of the position towards the RHS or LHS, but rather a relative statement.  The real question to be asked about any initiative is not where on the chart a label “ought” to be in the abstract, but where it will be positioned on the chart when you use it the way you plan to use it.  For example, the most extreme LHS initiative, such as printing a static hard-copy brochure, can become an RHS activity if a lawyer takes a copy of the brochure and uses it as a starting point for an in-person pitch to a target.  Similarly, a seminar for clients that involves little personal contact or follow-up becomes an impersonal and institutional exercise – that is, more of an LHS activity.

In terms of the broad spectrum of marketing activities open to you, your primary goal should be to turn your communications initiatives (LHS) into business development activities (RHS).  When your communications become highly targeted and personal, your rate of success will increase dramatically.  More importantly, closer contact with your targets and clients will bring even better insight into what motivates and interests them.  You may even attain a virtuous circle in which your next business development move seems to present itself almost automatically from the last one.  In effect, your clients will be telling you how best to market to them.

In itself, a changed vocabulary does not develop new business.  But it can serve to remind us of the real goal of marketing: to match clients’ needs with our services and develop new business.

* Richard Potter, Q.C. is the principal of i-lawmarketing.ca (www.i-lawmarketing.ca) and advises law firms on strategy and on the spectrum of marketing from communications to business development.