Dateline:  06/08/97

This is a long article, though I hope it will be helpful.  If you prefer, you can jump right to the links at the bottom.

One of the biggest challenges in implementing your firm's marketing program is helping partners, professional staff and administrative personnel develop the skills to be successful in marketing and sales activities.  Quite simply, as one vice-chairman of a Big Six firm once told me, people who go into accounting by and large are not your football team captains, cheerleaders, class presidents and extroverts. They are more self-contained and tend to spend a lot of time with books and miss out on many of the interpersonal experiences that others have. 

It's very difficult to help professionals shake off some habituated behavior patterns when they reach leadership in the professional firm and suddenly discover that it's a requirement for them to be out meeting people, socializing with strangers, and cold calling.  

Jefferson was right. There's a lot of work in luck because you have to prepare. However great or small your firm's resources, focus on those aspects that will give you the most impact for the amount you have to spend on business development. If you keep your focus on giving each prospect what will help them resolve their immediate need, you'll increase your chances of winning, and start the new relationship on a sound footing.

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Networking is the Key
Today, as you have no doubt already experienced, networking is the key to new client engagements. And networking is considered quite ethical.  It is simply a process of developing contacts who are in a position to refer new business opportunities to you.  Firms no longer have the luxury of relying solely on good client service to result in referrals for new business.  Your personal marketing plan should focus on developing and extending your already existing relationships and contacts.

Diff'rent Strokes for Diff'rent Folks
Different people have different styles, and it's challenging to help everyone find the level most agreeable and productive for them.  If encouraged, people will develop their own comfortable marketing process.  When people are praised publicly for their successes and/or their good attempts, even if they failed, they are encouraged to keep trying. As soon as some members of the firm start to enjoy some success, it creates a snowball effect.

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Create a Tiered Program
A personal marketing program should include a refresher course for the more experienced members of the firm, and should cover listening skills, building trust relationships, and clues for recognizing potential client opportunities, typically gained through probing and open-ended questions.

If you are a partner or senior associate, it is very important for you to gain visibility in your local community.  Business people like to do business with others who are involved in building a better life in the community.  The older people get, the more likely they are to want to deal with someone approximately their own age, because it creates a bond.  Network with peers. Join a local charitable organization's Board of Directors and get involved in some aspect of helping that group succeed. Aside from the personal satisfaction that comes with volunteering, you will find that you have the opportunity to spend quality time with decision makers you might never have otherwise gotten to meet.

Younger staff probably need to develop many networking skills, so need to focus on techniques and how-to. They should be encouraged to be pro-active throughout their careers, and told clearly that their ultimate success will depend not only on their technical expertise, but also on their ability to bring in new business.  While technical competence and the firm's unique processes, methodologies, capabilities and culture must be learned successfully, it's clear that acceptance into the partnership also depends on converting contacts into clients. 

If you are an associate or young staff member, identify organizations in your community that use a lot of volunteer help from people approximately your age. Go to the socials and the openings and the outdoor concerts and summer programs. Find a couple of people in the group you like who are also trying to develop business associates and build a network with each other.  As  you grow together in your organizations, there will eventually come a time when you are all in positions of leadership and able to refer or award work to one another.

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Communication Skills are Crucial
Communication skills are a critical part of a personal marketing plan at any level, and they can be learned.  The primary focus of all communication should be the prospective client's needs, concerns and issues, not the ego of the partner or associate who is there to talk about the firm. There is no magic in communicating effectively--it only takes practice. Learn to ask open-ended questions and to listen attentively.

For example, there are two quick and easy marketing skills everyone can learn and use whenever they meet someone new in any situation.  First is business cards.  Everyone in the firm should have one and they should be told to pass them out at every opportunity. All you have to do is ask someone else for their card and offer your own in return.  Follow up later with a specific purpose or message.

The second is the ``practiced response."  Write and memorize a 30-second statement of who you are, what you do and where you work. Include some sort of statement about the firm's specialty as well. Give the new contact something to remember about you, instead of just ``Hi. I'm Bob.".  For example, when someone asks you ``What do you do?", instead of saying simply ``I'm an attorney," you should have a memorized statement that amplifies on the bare fact.  Say something like, ``I'm an attorney with Barnes, Smith and Goldberg here in Atlanta.  You may have seen that elephant billboard on I-95 featuring our support for the Zoo's 60th anniversary.  We specialize in tax work for not-for-profit organizations." This provides information the contact can remember, as well as generates some discussion topics. Volunteer information at any possible opportunity.

Within the firm's overall philosophy of billable vs. marketing hours, factor time into your schedule each week for meeting new people or following up with existing contacts you may not have talked with recently.  Keep records. Meal times are great for developing referral sources and minimize the loss of billable hours. Plan ahead, confirm all meetings, and have backup plans in case of last minute cancellations.

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Rudderless Ships
Finally, but by no means least, each senior associate and partner should have a personal marketing plan.  Written goals for the year.  With deadlines.  With some key steps noted for how you plan to achieve those goals by those deadlines.  Do you have one? 

The person in charge of marketing or practice development should meet with each partner and key associate individually to identify the most critical goals to set for the year. Together you can tie the firm's overall goals to to achievable personal goals in a win-win scenario.  Report on your progress quarterly to a committee or individual assigned to follow up on marketing plans.  If there is no such individual, create a self-appraisal form that everyone can use periodically to see if they are on track.  If your culture supports open discussion, have everyone distribute their quarterly results to all partners in the firm.

Some firms have an open environment where marketing ideas are freely exchanged in open discussion and people are encouraged to pat themselves on the back and tell of different marketing ideas they have tried, whether successful or not.  Everyone else has a chance to learn from both the successes and the failures.  You might also consider informal client service meetings, where the group brainstorms ideas for extending services to existing clients. Keep the groups small so everyone can be active in the discussion.

If you have only one hour each week available for personal marketing, try to make one speaking presentation and have lunch with three individuals you don't know or a media reporter.  Even an effort on that small a scale will pay big personal and organizational dividends. As Yogi Berra said, when you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.  Make a plan, follow that plan, and you are sure to succeed.

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Copyright 1997 by Kaye Vivian (kvivian@cloud9.net). All rights reserved.
Permission to reprint is granted so long as the content is not altered
and this copyright notice remains attached.

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