Every so often, in a particular area of a professional practice, somebody gets the bright idea to give samples ' to give a half hour of free advice as a way to entice a prospective client to ask for more. Two questions arise. Is it ethical? Is it good marketing? The unqualified answer to both is ' it depends.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT REQUIRES AN UNDERSTANDING OF BUSINESSJ Relationships lead to successful legal sales. The annual 2009 Inside Counsel Survey on Legal Department Operations builds on the importance of understanding business. The survey found that the top three attributes that in-house counsel find most important to managing their departments are business acumen, legal department knowledge and financial acumen. Relationship building and gaining an understanding of a client or prospect's business are areas of law selling that aren't often fully explored.
2010 RED ZONE LEGAL SALES LEADERSHIP During the past few years, I have been pushing our firm's clients to clearly define their business development training objectives. They all fall into 4 categories that enhance legal sales: * Revenue Growth * Brand Recognition * Enhanced Visibility * Profitability. A forward thinking lawyer marketing program develps tactics which combine all four objectives. See our series of blogs which detail the most successful business development consultant tools at www.closersgroup.com/blog/.…
The regulations that the Federal Trade Commission recently promulgated on product endorsements could result in injunctions for bloggers and advertisers, who could be ordered to reimburse consumers for financial losses stemming from product reviews that are considered inappropriate under the new guidance.
Who's doing what; who's going where.
A discussion of mandatory retirement in law firms and the ADEA.
Cost-control methods in law departments are more than just talk as cost pressures are creating a fundamental shift in the management and operation of the departments and their interaction with outside counsel, results of a recent Hildebrandt International survey suggest.
As a participant in a law firm, you should be thinking about what you can do to contribute to the success of the firm on a frequent basis. Whether you are the managing partner, a practice group leader or an associate, your daily, weekly and monthly activities should contribute not only to your personal goals, but to the firm's goals as well. In addition, your goals should include those related to current clients, potential clients, marketing and firm administration. The following are some important goal-setting techniques and some examples you should keep in mind throughout the year, not only to make sure you are growing personally, but also to make sure you have contributed to the overall growth of the firm in a meaningful way.
If your firm has a number of legal departments, how does one determine the profitability (or economic contribution) of each? Delving further into a specific department, how do you measure the profitability of a practice area?
The Practice Support Department has long recognized the importance of project management to promote cost-containment strategies and to ensure compliance with discovery requirements during the discovery phase of a litigation case. While the firm developed its own sophisticated project management database, the newly implemented iFramework software takes project management to a higher level.
