Generating leads: How to create effective personal marketing plans

25 Mar 2013Feature

Doug McPherson discusses how fee earners and partners can create personal marketing plans that are effective for business development

For the majority of law firms, the new fiscal year is looming large and, with major changes expected to continue apace in a hardening market, more emphasis than ever is being placed on business development. This is the time of year when, in a bid to support that emphasis, partners and fee earners are asked to put together a personal marketing plan to show what they will do over the coming year to reach the fee targets expected of them.

The request for such a plan is usually met with some reserve, to put it mildly. Most fee earners and partners understand the reasons for having such a plan. They also understand the important influence that developing an effective business development blueprint will have not only on their immediate billings but also on their future income and their progression within the firm.

However, few fee earners actually know how to create such a plan. Faced with a blank sheet of paper, the initial steps can be daunting. After all, they didn’t train as hard as they did to become lawyers just to write marketing plans. So, where should they start?

Getting started

However you slice and dice business development, there are only three things that you can do:?

win new clients;
develop the clients you already have; and
leverage the professional contacts you have more effectively.

?If you base your plan on these three areas and attribute activities to each that works for you, you will have an extremely effective business development plan.

For some, the marketing default is still formal networking events. However, the essence of any successful business development is to do the things you like doing and to do them well. If you are forced (or force yourself) to do things you don’t like to do, you will find excuses not to do them or, worse still, you’ll do them badly, which will negate any potential benefit, return or enjoyment. To simplify things further, when you’re putting together your plan, forget about terms like ‘business development’ and ‘marketing’ and replace them with the word ‘visibility’.

However you approach (or define) business development, all you are trying to achieve is increased visibility. In order to be effective and win work, you need to be visible to potential clients, existing clients and your professional contacts. Your plan is just a list of the activities you’re going to engage in so that you achieve and sustain the levels of visibility required to make sure all three groups think of you as and when they have work you could do.

Before putting pen to paper, try to work out what you like doing. Once you have that straight in your mind, take a blank piece of paper and note down the three key objectives listed above. Under each, write down which activities you think lend themselves best to increasing visibility to potential clients, existing clients and professional contacts.

And remember while you are going through this part of the exercise that you are part of a firm, which means that it is ?a team game. You will have colleagues who can supply the complimentary resources that you will need to put your plan into action.

For example, your strength may be meeting one-to-one with clients or referrers and building productive relationships. However, in order to maximise your visibility in a certain location or within ?a specific sector, there will also be a need to network at the right events, to research new targets, to write for trade titles and to contribute to online forums. While you create your plan, look a little wider and ?try to identify which of your colleagues ?are good at what and discuss how your plans can interlink to generate higher levels of success.

Likewise, different practice areas ?will require a different mix of the three core objectives. Employment or corporate/commercial solicitors may see more opportunities in new client acquisition ?and would therefore benefit from targeting the industry sectors in which they have most experience. Litigators are more reliant on internal and external referrals from fellow professionals, while family solicitors will always be more reliant on referrals from clients.

The accountancy market is similar. Auditors will look toward new client acquisition, the corporate finance team rely on tip-offs from other professionals and personal tax advisers are more reliant on client referrals.

These are, however, general rules of thumb: the most effective business development plans will always include a mix of new client acquisition, managing client relationships and leveraging professional contacts.

New client acquisition

One of the common mistakes fee earners make when it comes to writing personal marketing plans is being too general. Often, their marketing plans mention nothing more specific than ‘high net ?worth individuals’ or ‘SMEs’ or ‘owner-managed businesses’.

If you cast the net this wide, your chances of creating the level of market visibility you need to generate the scale of work you want are extremely low. Step one has to be working out which sectors you want to target. To do this, you should consider three things.

Credibility: In which sectors does your firm have a success record that will give you the reference points, testimonials and case studies to persuade prospective clients in the same sector that you’re a safe bet??
Opportunity: Who needs the type of help that you can provide??
Interest: It’s always easier to learn a sector that you actually like and have an interest in. You’re going to be spending time researching that sector, so personal interest is a massive plus.

There is often a bit of nervousness around employing a sector focus, but there shouldn’t be. You don’t need to cut out all possible sources of work except for those linked to your chosen sectors. You just need to employ a more strategic and focused approach to winning new clients.

Once you choose a sector, you can identify specific targets: the businesses or individuals within the sector you want as clients. From there, you can put a database together and start to email them short, relevant news pieces and commentaries on legislative changes so that they get to know your name and recognise that you understand their world.

Better still, once you have a target list, you can cut huge corners. By using LinkedIn and by talking to colleagues and contacts, you can work out who already knows the people you want to be introduced to and ask them to facilitate those introductions. This shortcut makes things much easier and less time consuming, and helps to avoid the discomfort of cold calling.

Likewise you can identify the events, conferences and exhibitions that serve your sector. Attending will have two clear benefits: you’ll learn the current trends and issues affecting your target sector (and key terminology) and you’ll be able to meet numerous potential clients.

You can go one better and secure a speaking slot at one of these events. By speaking you don’t have to rely on chance meetings: you’ll actually have the opportunity to demonstrate your expertise to every attendee.

If the idea of public speaking isn’t exactly attractive, you should identify the key trade publications read by the decision makers within your chosen sector. Approach the editor with newsworthy ideas and offer to write articles that will educate and help the publication’s readership. You’ll be able to demonstrate your professional credentials by applying your skills directly to situations that commonly affect the industry in question.

However, publishing opportunities don’t end with the trade press. There are also newsletters produced by trade associations allied to your sector. These newsletters will be distributed to the association’s entire membership, giving you access to an unparalleled readership and, because the newsletter is delivered as part of paid-for membership, the content will be trusted by readers.

At the same time, don’t be blind to the increasing promotional power of the internet. LinkedIn groups, targeted Twitter feeds and online forums all offer not only access to prospective clients but also the opportunity to interact and start building a rapport with people before you meet them.

The important thing is that, when you do make contact, you will have a story. ?You will be able to: ?

present relevant case studies based upon past client work;
demonstrate you understand the world in which your targets inhabit; and
discuss recent developments, current issues and even industry gossip. ?

This will help you to establish your credibility and, as a result, minimise the level of risk the prospect associates with appointing a new adviser to a level ?where he may just give you that all-important first instruction.

It is also important to recognise that a sector focus is not the preserve of the commercial team. For example, firms with private client and personal tax teams can have equal success by focusing on groups as diverse as foreign nationals, private landlords and young farmers.

Improving new client acquisition

Apply focus and target prospects
Search for warm introductions
Find the right events
Find speaking opportunities
Get published in print and online

Managing client relationships

As with all successful plans, the end result will only be as strong as the preparation behind it. If you are going to realise the maximum financial benefit from your current client base, you will need to understand it.

Who are your most important ?clients in terms of fees? These are the clients who would leave a difficult hole to fill if they were to move to another firm. Their maintenance and retention ?should be central to your client management activities.

Secondly, who are your most important clients in terms of opportunity? Which only currently offer you a small share of their legal wallet? Which have other divisions or companies within their corporate structure that you could also work for? Which have other firms providing other types of work? These are the ones from which it will be easiest to generate repeat business.

Once you have identified your most important clients, set out a formal client development plan for each. This plan should not only identify the key objectives for each (for example, increasing current spend or cross-selling other services), but also deadlines and measuring tools. If you don’t include tools to support continual review, things will not progress.

When it comes to contact – whether that’s entertainment or face-to-face meetings – get to know each contact and base your approach on his preferences, not yours. Some people like football rather than rugby, some prefer coffee to lunch and some may not like a late night. Taking time to meet each contact’s preferences will generate positive PR and allow you to develop much stronger relationships.

Linked to that, when it comes to meeting to discuss a specific matter, try to spend as much time as you can on your contacts’ premises rather than yours. It demonstrates that you have a genuine interest in them and it is also where they feel most comfortable. This will pay back in the long run.

One last tip on client management: try to find events which a number of your clients will attend. Within sectors, these could be exhibitions or conferences, or with individuals it could be local community-based events. Seeing a ?number of people at once will not only reduce the time pressure but will also underline your commitment to and involvement in their world.

Managing client relationships

Identify your most important clients by spend and opportunity
Set out a formal client development plan for each
Continually review progress
Find events at which you can see a lot of clients at the same time
Design your initiatives according to clients’ interests

Leveraging professional contacts

The first step in generating new ?business from existing professional contacts is identifying your most productive referrers – not your most friendly, nice or longstanding contacts.

We naturally gravitate towards the people we like most rather than those who are actually the most valuable. That means that, if you are going to structure your referrer management, you need to know exactly who gives you the most work.

Not only will they require the most looking after to make sure they keep referring work (and referring it to you rather than your competitors), but they are also the ones you need to pass work back to in order to keep the channels open.

Once you have your list of contacts, rank them in three tiers. Your top tier ?will likely consist of no more than five ?or six contacts, tier two around 15 people and tier three will house the rest. Once they are ranked, you can apportion the level of contact they deserve according to their position.

To make sure you keep up contact and that the touchpoints remain fresh, you need to employ a mixture of face-to-face meetings, entertainment, calls, emails and circulars (the latter will represent the majority of your contact with tier three). As with client management, find out each contact’s preferred way of working and bend to meet them.

Once they’re in the diary, don’t let any meeting slip. These meetings are as important as client meetings and you wouldn’t move those. In fact, they’re probably more important, as there’s a higher likelihood that you will leave the meeting with the prospect of new work.

The last thing to remember is that your current referral list is not set in stone. New useful contacts will come to light as a natural by-product of the activities you’re putting in place to underpin all three core elements of your personal marketing plan. If you’re out and about, you will meet new people and the law of averages suggests that at least one will be a potentially productive referrer.

You will also hear about particularly active professionals in your market. Just as with the new prospects you are targeting, you can use your current network to get introduced to these people. You can then start to build a personal relationship with them and work toward the time that ?you can comfortably explore ways of working together.

Leveraging professional contacts

Identify your most productive referrers
Rank, apportion and diarise contacts according to their rank
Don’t let diarised activities slip – they’re as important as client meetings
Mix touchpoints to ensure things stay fresh
Identify new potential contacts and pursue them

Increasing visibility

The process of putting together ?a personal marketing plan can be distilled into one overriding objective: achieving greater visibility.

Beneath that lies the three groups of people you need to achieve that visibility with: new client targets, current clients and your professional contacts. How you achieve that visibility is down to you and your preferred marketing activities.

?Douglas McPherson has 19 years of professional sales and marketing experience and is a director of business development consultancy Size 10 1/2 Boots (www.tenandahalf.co.uk)