..applause.

I’m still here in Montreal, and apparently live blogging from the sessions themselves are impossible. Due to that, I’m in my hotel room, blogging about the sessions I’ve seen thus far. Here’s my setup:

If you look closely, you’ll see the nectar of the gods on my left. Yep, look closely. It’s red bull.

Here in Canada, they have the regular red bull, but they also have this. It’s the original Thai red bull that really packs a punch. Anyone who knows me can surely attest to the fact that I love red bull and any energy drink that can lift me up a bit and make me type at inhuman levels. Well, there’s a full supply of this stuff here and I’m definitely taking advantage.

Yesterday’s session was entitled “Breaking Through the Barriers: Sales and Marketing.” The sesion was conducted by:

Alvidas A. Jasin: Director of Business Development at Thompson Hine LLP
Iris J. Jones, Esq: Client Services Advisor at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
Sally J. Schmidt: President of Schmidt Marketing, Inc.
Adam L. Stock: Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Dorsey Whitney LLP.

Right from the start, these experienced law firm marketing experts wanted us to know that they use the “s” word: sales. Rather than using Business Development or Marketing, they wanted to stress that “sales” is what they are interested in.

What’s the difference?

Sales takes place after all the marketing initiatives have gone on. It’s like Glengarry Glenross “always be closing…” That’s how they think of sales. When you think about it, that makes sense; all the marketing in the world means nothing if it doesn’t result in a sale.

With this difference as a starting point, the panel began talking about creating a sales culture. It’s a sublte shift in thinking that can create an enormous difference. Take, for instance, the Thompson Hine sales organization shift.

Before implementing a “sales culture”, the firm had a Marketing Manager that reported directly to the partner in charge of the office. Remember, this is a multi-office firm. Now, the firm has a Business Development organization. It works like this: There’s a Director of Business Development and a Business Development Advisory Team. Reporting to them are separate “Business Development Managers.”

This way, each business development manager focuses on one practice group. Let’s use an IP group for instance. Rather than having a separate marketing manager in each office, marketing is instead divided by group. The IP Business Development Manager is focused just on IP in multiple offices. That way, each BD Manager becomes an expert in one group nationwide.

Another shift in thinking has to do with staff. Sure, it’s nice to say that everyone in the organization- from partners to secretaries are conducting their work with marketing in mind. But the panel gave some examples of how, in reality, it can be pulled off.

One example dealt with how secretaries should be involved in the marketing process. One firm decided that in order to truly understand a client, the legal secretary should know the client’s secretary. They actually had the legal secretary meet with the client’s secretary for lunch in order to foster a multi-level relationship. Now that’s practicing what you preach!

One other “duh!” moment occured when the panel showed a chart showing revenue by clients. In many firms, more than 80% of their clients are producing less than 5% of the revenue. In contrast, .2% of clients are bringing in over 25% of the revenue. Let’s say you have 10 clients that bring you over $1 million. Then you have 3,300 clients that bring you less than $50,000. Should you really be spending your time and energy trying to attract clients that don’t cover the overhead?

I’m not saying to drop all the little guys. That’s not the case at all. But when you’re trying to attract new clients, it’s very important to look at the big picture.

At the end of the session, Mr. Jasin told us we’d be getting a free gift. What was it?

Since the title was “Breaking Through the Barriers”, he had everyone break a block of wood with their hand. The idea, of course, was that you shouldn’t look at the obstacle, but rather look past it to see where you want to be. I took a couple of photos of the participants:

I am now leaving to go see an ask the experts panel. Though I’ve been sitting next to Larry Bodine at these marketing sessions, I’ve yet to hear him speak. He’s been keeping track of this conference as well at his blog.

Until then, au revoir.

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