fractional marketing field guide

welcome to stage's fractional marketing field guide – inspiration credit Seth Godin.

flexibility:
in a world where rigidity hinders progress, embrace the power of flexibility. while some companies insist on minimum hour commitments, we do not.

fluidity:
picture a senior team capable of swooping in and out seamlessly on any project…from keeping the trains running to orchestrating strategic growth. we all know, those trains gotta run, Chambers is a hungry animal.

diversity of perspective:
in the realm of fractional teams, innovation reigns supreme. drawing insights from varied creatives, law firms, and macro marketing industry trends, we offer a treasure trove of ideas.

relationships rule:
in the grand theater [could not resist] of business, we recognize that, fundamentally, we are in the service business. relationships stand as the cornerstone of our services – where every interaction is a chance to build lasting connections.

the b-word | brand:
for some, the term "brand" is a vague notion. we understand its essence. to truly brand yourself or your firm, dive deep into a niche. specialization is more than a choice; it's a strategy. specificity fuels your journey towards a well-defined brand.

content is king, queen, and non-binary royalty:
step into the spotlight and stay there with content that harmonizes the heart of the firm and your human talent.

ROI:
in legal’s ever-evolving landscape [hello AI], monitoring is key. continuously evaluate your return on investment – identifying what drives growth and what should be jettisoned.

Seth said it best: “Offer the opportunity to have a discussion and invite people into a relationship. Talk about a possibility and give power back to them.”

challenge - TODAY: contact one relationship and invite them to have a virtual coffee or cocktail. start the conversation.

get to the heart of what your client wants

want to get to the heart of what your client thinks about a trend, topic, or new regulation?

to find out, we recommend an effective and often underused methodology: ASK THEM

Jennifer Ramsey’s collaboration with TreeHouse Innovation: how to have deeper conversations with your clients and win more work

Lawyers are client-centric by definition. They’re experts in their clients’ businesses and dedicated to meeting their needs.

Regardless of their industry, every client will be facing a huge array of challenges right now – from technological disruption, to sustainability, to shifting customer expectations, and more. So there are more potential ways for lawyers to help them than ever before – and new avenues for growth for law firms.

Here, Treehouse’s El Tong and Jennifer Ramsey from stage – a women-owned business development and marketing venture focused on relationships, revenue, and growth for legal services – share six tips to help lawyers have deeper conversations with their clients and identify other problems they can help them solve.

1. Go deeper with your research

Of course you’re already well-versed in your client’s business and their sector, but to take your conversation to the next level, adopt a mindset of curiosity. Go deeper with your research and try to find something meaningful about what they’re personally passionate about to talk about. What can you learn about their interests, both at work and beyond? What are they proud of?  

Curiosity doesn’t come naturally to everybody, but you can train yourself to be curious by developing a habit of preparing in this way. Gather as much insight as you need to feel comfortable having a really good, open conversation. Remember, it’s not creepy to look at someone’s LinkedIn page – it’s a compliment!

2. Have an open conversation

It’s human nature to go into a conversation thinking about what you need to get out of it. But then you lead with bias from the get-go. You frame the conversation around what you need and when that’s your focus, opportunities to expand the conversation will pass you by. This is where curiosity comes in again.

Instead of starting with questions about specific business needs or projects you’re aware of, ask broader, more open questions, such as:

What’s on your plate right now?

What’s on the horizon for you in the next few months?

What’s most important to you at the moment?

You can then build on what they say and show your genuine interest. You might say:

That’s interesting, can you tell me more about why that matters to you?

I’m interested to learn more, why do you think you’re struggling with that?

Why is this such an important issue for you at the moment?

By asking why, you give the other person permission to share more deeply. They’re more likely to tell you what else is going on, which you probably wouldn’t have known about otherwise.

When you approach conversations in this way, you naturally start to build empathy and trust, which puts you in a great position to start looking for solutions to challenges together. Rather than ‘touchpoints’ the stage team coaches its clients to think of these interactions as ‘trustpoints’, as it’s trust you’re seeking to build.

You might worry that you’re going to cross a line by asking someone these kinds of questions, but it’s all about getting the tone right. Keep it light and conversational and demonstrate genuine curiosity, and people will feel safe to share.

3. Silence is a powerful tool

It’s very tempting when you ask somebody ‘Why’ to feel the need to suggest possible answers yourself. But try to hold back. If you jump in and say ‘Is this happening because XYZ’ you will immediately steer the conversation in a certain direction, and you will miss the chance to hear their gut response and may miss opportunities.

There may be silence while they think about their answer, but that’s OK. Hold your nerve and see what comes. People are generally quite forthcoming, and especially when they can tell that you genuinely care.

Active listening is a companion of curiosity – they go hand in hand. It’s not an exact science but aim to speak around 10% of the time in a discovery conversation, as your main job is to listen and create a great conversation experience.

4. Co-create the solution together

Now that you’ve developed a shared understanding of the challenge they’re facing, you can naturally start exploring what a good solution could look like.

It’s not about putting all your offers and services on the table, but instead discussing what might help. If you have ideas for solutions, put them out there in a general way, without inserting yourself into it – for example:

I wonder how it would feel if you could plan out your caseload for the next year?

I wonder if it would be useful if you had an easy way to understand how that regulation change will affect you – what do you think?

So you’re suggesting a solution that might help, but you’re not presenting it as a deal you have to sell. This allows you to test the water and see if this is something they’re actually looking for, and to build towards an answer. Continue to hold the curious approach you’ve taken so far, and explore together what they might need.

Remember that you don’t need to work it all out in one conversation. If you’ve built a genuine rapport, you will undoubtedly be invited back to chat again, and then you can put forward how you can help.

A great quote to keep in mind is from Maya Angelou –

5. Follow up

Never underestimate the power of a thank you note! Whether it’s handwritten or an email, a thank you note is always worth sending. It’s a great opportunity to summarize the main points you discussed, and confirm any actions you took away and when you will come back to them.

Quick follow-up is another ‘trustpoint’ and a great way to keep that door open for future discussions.

6. Remain curious

We give a lot of thought to the questions we ask at the beginning of a relationship, but we need to maintain that approach throughout because situations change.

Even when you think you’ve agreed on a solution for a client, keep talking to them as you develop it. Keep checking in and get their reaction to what you’re building. Ask them: How does it make you feel? Can you give me your gut reaction to it? 

Too often people will put loads of time and energy into perfecting a solution, only to show it to a client and discover it’s not what they were expecting. Stay curious, keep asking questions, and you’ll land on a solution that gives you a happy client – and happy partners too.

read here

6 business development tips to show gratitude this season

1. Call them. Old school style and ask them how they are connect on a personal level. 
2. Gift them. Send them a token of appreciation.
3. Invite them. To a webinar, an event, or better yet, a 1:1 coffee, lunch, or dinner.
4. Offer them….insights on the legal landscape and how it will affect business and challenges.
5. Give them something free (that they actually want).
6. Thank them.

coaching collaboration with the Wellbeing @ Work (W@W) platform

Often, lawyers feel "existential dread" (a real-life client quote…) and stress often associated with marketing and developing business.

Lawyers are often "learners" who want to continuously improve and focus on improving their weaknesses instead of their strengths. In our 1:1 coaching, we work with lawyers across all levels to ask, "How can you use your strengths more intentionally?"

Still trying to figure out how to answer that question?

We map our client's 5 leading strengths to marketing activities - creating a personal roadmap to activate business development and sales activities confidently.

And for all those lawyers who love stats, according to Gallup, "People who use their strengths every day are 7.8% more productive in their role and three times as likely to say they have an excellent quality of life."

With our Wellbeing @ Work (W@W) platform collaboration, our goal is to mitigate stress by incorporating well-being into coaching. stage offers concrete coaching tools and a supportive consultative style.

top 3 podcast appearances

Looking for something to listen to as race towards the end of the year?

How about our top 3 podcast episodes?

🎤 Freeman Means Business (TM) with Susan C. Freeman. Amplifying Women's Voices Through Storytelling (with Kathleen). Listen here: https://bit.ly/3NxBhSj

🎤 Good2bSocial Podcast with Guy Alvarez. The power of a Sector-Based Approach. Specificity Drives Strategy (with Jennifer). Listen here: https://lnkd.in/eVwZW4iZ

🎤 Nexl This Legal Life. Not Another Legal Podcast with Ben Chiriboga. Beyond Business Cards - Authentic Networking (with Megan). Listen here: https://bit.ly/3TrfJut

Stroock closure or any biglaw layoff

We know going through transitions is tough, and we wanted to make it easier for anyone who is impacted by the Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP closure or any biglaw layoff.

Join Megan Senese and Benjamin Field (from Individuation Coaching) on Thursday, Nov. 16th, from 12-12:45 pm ET for a virtual "Open House."

It is free for any business professional (including business development and legal marketing) or lawyer.

It's a safe + welcoming space where people can connect, network, and find support. The goal is to create a supportive community of peers who can offer support, network, and gain new insights.

Reach out to Megan Senese for the link.

Jennifer Ramsey authors article in Law360: How Law Firms Can Use Account-Based Marketing Strategies

Jennifer Ramsey and Gina Sponzilli co-author: How Law Firms Can Use Account-Based Marketing Strategies

Three key developments in the legal industry are making account-based marketing strategies more relevant and important than ever:

• Law firm mergers are on the rebound in 2023.[1]

• Lateral partner moves have continued to move at a brisk pace.[2]

• There is an increased focus on the totality of the client experience — the sum of all interactions with a firm — which means law firms can differentiate themselves in this area to engender loyalty, retain key clients and grow revenue.

These three taken together make a strong business case for an increased focus on account-based marketing strategies in legal marketing, regardless of firm size.

Merger and acquisition activity and lateral partner movement can create significant disruptions in the legal industry. This type of marketing allows law firms to focus their business development and marketing efforts on specific accounts or clients, ensuring they maintain and strengthen client relationships, and allocate resources efficiently and effectively.

In addition, as partners move between firms or firms merge, client relationships can become strained. Account-based marketing enables law firms to maintain strong connections with their key clients and ensure they continue to receive the attention and service they need.

It is also useful for reputation management — these strategies can be used to manage and shape the narrative surrounding these developments, ensuring that the firm's brand remains intact or is improved.

As more firms embrace and emphasize the client experience to not only meet, but also exceed client expectations, this marketing approach puts the client at the core of the firm.

While not a new concept, demand for this type of marketing has continued to grow stronger due to measurable improvements that dedicated account-based marketing strategies produce.

For example, drawing on 279 qualitative interviews from account-based marketing leaders across the globe, Momentum ITSMA and ABM Leadership Alliance's latest benchmark study on the topic found that most of these programs drive substantial business impact, with an Jennifer Ramsey Gina Sponzilli 84% increase in pipeline growth, 77% in revenue growth and 72% higher return on investment than other types of marketing.[3]

Account-Based Marketing in a Legal Marketing Context

At its core, account-based marketing is an approach to business-to-business marketing and sales designed to uncover additional opportunities with an existing customer or client, and ultimately increase revenue. In the law firm context, this kind of marketing requires close collaboration between business development professionals and law firm leaders and partners to create personalized buying experiences for high-value accounts. When executed well, those experiences integrate the client company's specific attributes and needs. Successful account-based marketing programs also help build and maintain long-term relationships with premier clients.

This approach is particularly effective for businesses that operate in industries with long sales cycles, involve a complex buying process and develop into high-value accounts — all of which apply to legal marketing. It allows all stakeholders to take their most precious resource — time — and focus on accounts that have the highest impact on the firm's business.

Depending on the client company, that can be measured in terms of revenue growth, number of deals, retention value and expansion into new service areas. Account-based marketing is closely related to the client-team approach that many large law firms have adopted. Client teams bring together a diverse group of lawyers and professionals to focus on delivering exceptional service to a specific client. It involves deep research into the company and related industry trends.

It also requires an understanding of the client's goals and objectives, specific legal needs, and pain points. Client team marketers and business developers play an instrumental role in effectively communicating all this information to the service delivery team and the entire firm. Using this type of marketing, legal marketers and business developers can move beyond transactional exchanges to integrate relational interactions.

It incorporates relationship marketing, which is the opposite of transaction marketing: Transactional exchanges involve a single, short-time exchange with a distinct beginning and ending. Relationship marketing involves multiple, connected exchanges over time, and usually involves both economic and social bonds. Relational exchanges provide a competitive advantage to the extent that they create barriers to switching to a competitor and contribute to service differentiation.

Considerations for Launching an Account-Based Marketing Approach

With the ultimate goal being to effectively serve the client, account-based marketing provides a collaborative framework for internally bringing lawyers together from different practice areas to fully understand their colleagues' skill sets. For legal marketers, employing this form of marketing can be one of the more fulfilling and fun parts of the role. It requires a shift from an individual practice perspective to a team based orientation, with the client at the center of the conversation. Working together, the team uncovers client needs, matches service areas to those needs and wins new business. That said, there are a few things to keep in mind when launching an account-based marketing program.

Using an STP Approach

Legal marketers can incorporate account-based marketing into their strategic plans by using a segmentation, targeting and positioning approach.

Segmenting

Determine which clients are appropriate based on criteria such as potential revenue growth, strength of relationships with key client contacts, company size, strategic fit and industry position. An efficient way to identify high-value clients is to look at the firm's client base through an industry sector lens. A sector-based approach is designed around the client and brings together lawyers from different practices and with different specializations to help solve problems for clients in a particular industry. As an example, health care companies will have distinct legal needs, such as Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compliance, versus a software company, where intellectual property protection is at the heart of its business.

Targeting

Research stakeholders, company strategy and business expansion plans, and then map back to the firm's strengths and differentiators. Positioning Develop programming that speaks to the client, demonstrates an understanding of their needs and clearly articulates how the firm is positioned to serve those needs.

Know Thy Client — The Human Factor

Clients are not faceless entities representing companies, but rather humans whose decisions are influenced by a delicate interplay of reason and emotion. Understanding executive decision makers, influencers and end-user personas is key to running successful account-based marketing programs. This same thinking can be applied to and expanded upon in legal marketing. Identifying personas beyond the office of the general counsel to include the C-suite, board of directors and other legal department leadership expands a firm's networks and offers a competitive edge.

Consider specific role-based topics, including:

• For C-suite executives: on-demand legal advice, M&A, board management, risk analysis and corporate governance.

• For the board of directors: fiduciary duties, corporate governance, shareholders' rights; executive compensation and key executives' succession planning.

• For general counsel: risk management, litigation and dispute resolution, legal expense budgeting and operations, and data privacy and security.

• For staff attorneys and others in the office of the general counsel: human resources and employment issues, litigation, IP management, and legal cost containment.

Sample questions to ask clients to better inform ABM include:

• What are your day-to-day responsibilities?

• What results and outcomes do you measure?

• What business metrics are you measured by?

• What aspirations or goals are driving your decision

• What are the top strategic challenges or priorities you are currently facing in your role, and how are you addressing them?

Asking questions like these is paramount to building strong, long-lasting relationships with clients. Relationship building is a cornerstone of account-based marketing and helps foster trust and rapport, which are crucial for successful business-to-business relationships. By asking questions and actively listening to client responses, lawyers and legal marketers demonstrate genuine interest in learning more about clients' businesses and challenges.

Valuable insights can be gained that allow for delivering highly personalized experiences to individual client accounts. The answers also allow lawyers and legal marketers to uncover pain points or challenges that the clients may not have initially mentioned and gives way to customizing solutions to client needs.

Creating an Account Plan for a Holistic Client Experience

The deeper the relationship, the more holistic the client experience, which can lead to lower customer acquisition costs and reduce churn. Delighted clients are more inclined to give testimonials, provide referrals and participate in thought leadership. A comprehensive client-centric account plan that members of an account or client team can create, or even co-create with the client, and refer to over time, is invaluable for achieving a holistic approach to client experience. The plan is evergreen, evolving and present at every account or client team meeting. Key components include:

• An overview of the client relationship, organizational structure and company strategy;

• The firm's revenue targets and other objectives;

• An analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats — an activity that all client team members can participate in;

• A legal needs assessment of the client and the firm's tailored solutions; and

• Relationship building activities and timing.

Data Analytics Rule: How to Measure Success

Detailed account data paired with analytics and a reporting tool are helpful to properly launch and measure an account-based marketing program. Without some type of system to measure performance, it is difficult to evaluate the program's impact. One of the key metrics to measure the success of this kind of marketing is customer lifetime value. "Customer lifetime value" is defined as the total amount a customer spends with a company during the lifetime of the relationship. Those accounts — i.e., clients — that are in the higher range of customer lifetime value are prime candidates for this type of marketing focus. The goal of account-based marketing is to increase customer lifetime value to a percentage growth rate or spend amount. This metric can be especially useful for legal marketing and business development. To effectively measure customer lifetime value in a law firm context, metrics to look at include gross margin associated with each client engagement, average revenue per year and the number of matters. Other metrics that are accretive to customer lifetime value include value from referrals, potential revenue from cross-selling opportunities, and the cost to acquire a new client or matter.

What's Next

The legal industry is undergoing significant transformation in 2023, which creates a compelling business case for full adoption of account-based marketing strategies. With the pace of law firm mergers and lateral partner moves, these trends further underscore the need for law firms to adapt and enhance their marketing strategies. Coupled with the growing emphasis on the holistic client experience, these factors highlight the potential for firms to stand out, foster client loyalty and drive revenue growth through this marketing approach. These three developments collectively reinforce that now is the opportune time to embrace the account-based approach in legal marketing and leverage it for sustained success.

Click here to read on Law360.com

Reproduced with permission. Published October 12, 2023.

11 ways to scare legal marketing

1. I have feedback; pls call.

2. A Friday 5 p.m. email with an urgent pitch request due in two hours.

3. Submitting chambers late. Chambers due after a long holiday weekend. Anything Chambers-related.

4. Forgetting to put on track changes.

5. Spelling a client’s name wrong on an RFP or a name tag or anything.

6. “Pls fix.”

7. A “quick” Saturday meeting.

8. Getting invited to a partner meeting only to realize it’s just to take notes.

9. “Can you reformat these slides? It should only take a minute.”

10. When the lawyer declines client feedback because the they think they already know the client.

11. “Got a sec?”


What else scares the pants off you?