Reflections on a topical issue that is agitating many law firms: business development, or why law firms are encountering difficulties with an ill-defined concept.
” We need a good business developer, you know one “, ” business development doesn’t work for the firm “; “are you happy with your business developers ? “And what do they do with their time? “
Who hasn’t heard these remarks when talking to lawyers at local law firms?
At the same time, a senior business developer recently commented on his activity: ” I was totally overwhelmed, I had 5 invitations to tender during the week, with many lots, many areas of expertise at stake, all in 30 countries, and we don’t have offices in all the countries concerned, so I had to contact correspondents; we have little chance of being selected compared with other, better positioned firms, but the teams wanted to respond. “. ” I’m constantly collecting customer references for the rankings, which takes up a lot of my time, but given the number of practices, I don’t have the time to select them properly in order to position the firm properly. “.
Whether junior or senior, business developers spend a great deal of their time carrying out tasks for which they have no perspective, but from which they can’t escape, and for which they can’t give their opinion, for example on whether or not it’s appropriate to respond to a call for tenders, in the absence of guidelines and financial data in particular, on which to base their opinion. They take on tasks that are not always rewarding or worthwhile, often fall short of their professional skills, and are always dealt with in a hurry, which doesn’t allow them to relax, reflect or make proposals.
As is often the case, we need to look at the meaning of the words we use to decipher a problem, and the first question we might ask ourselves is: why use the term business developer, whose role is to do business development?
Why, indeed, use an Anglo-Saxon term to designate the person whose job it is simply to ensure business development? Perhaps because the word “commercial” is ill-judged within a regulated profession of experts? Because, historically, the legal profession was not concerned with marketing and communication? But the world has changed with the arrival of Anglo-Saxons on the French market since the 90s. Firms are now equipped with marketing and communications specialists, whereas ten years ago, in the consulting and auditing professions, a partner acted as such.
So what are we really talking about, and why is there a lack of understanding and sometimes dissatisfaction between lawyers and the support staff in charge of business development?
To answer this question, we need to return to one of the major challenges faced by law firms and, more broadly, professional services firms: differentiation from the competition and the definition of a positioning that must be truly operational, i.e. value-adding.
Align marketing strategy with firm strategy
In any company, sales strategy is aligned with corporate strategy. There’s no reason why a law firm should be any different.
Aligning marketing strategy with that of the firm is a prerequisite, but the firm must also have a strategy. Marketing must be targeted to support the desired image, which is reflected in the positioning. It must be orchestrated around a structured annual action plan, and not be the sum of opportunistic actions. Such an approach enables us to go beyond urgent, unavoidable projects and provide a strategic framework for the lawyers and business developers who support them. This plan should be structured around 5 specific functions: market intelligence and analysis, offer development (an aspect too often neglected), prescriber and prospect relationship management, internal communication and, of course, external communication. The actions identified must meet strategic objectives that are themselves aligned with the firm’s strategy, all of which must be measurable and measured on a regular basis with established indicators.
Aligning business developer profiles with strategy
A business developer can only be fully satisfactory if his or her role is in line with the strategy in place, i.e. a strategic framework defined by the firm’s management to which he or she can refer and take into account in the projects for which he or she is responsible.
This reference framework will provide him with a clear line of communication to encourage constructive exchanges with the teams of lawyers, in the interests of developing the business and concentrating on the essentials. Failing this, he is and will remain an eternal assistant; such a situation is both frustrating for the people concerned, who are often highly qualified, and for the lawyers, who fail to see the value they bring in view of the financial burden they represent.
Today, however, job descriptions circulating on the market often list a series of tasks ranging from responding to calls for tender to managing rankings, with no mention of market, sector or customer intelligence, the development of specific offers or even customer portfolio analysis and satisfaction surveys, a key aspect in fine-tuning and adapting offers. In some cases, we even indicate tasks that are more in line with a communications role, such as writing materials or media relations, which call on different specific skills.
Creating the perfect match between lawyer and business developer!
It should never be forgotten that the first business developer, the “real salesman”, is the lawyer himself, because he knows his client, who he works with regularly, his personality, his market and his organization, his profession and his problems; the business developer must be a facilitator, a guarantor of the strategy, who must provoke a market by supporting the associates, particularly the younger ones, to develop their professional knowledge, increase their networks by creating favorable conditions: an appropriate offer, analysis of market development opportunities by working on reputation, personal image and meeting opportunities. As we can see, his role cannot be reduced to that of a passive executor, “filling in” tender templates or ranking tables. He must be in a position to encourage development, but also and above all to monitor customer relations and analyze them on a regular basis.
It is through the complementarity of these two players – the lawyer and the marketing and business development manager, as they should be qualified – that law firms will be able to ensure the sustainable development of their business, all in a constructive climate of mutual trust.
An article by and , founder of .
is a specialist in marketing and communications for law firms and professional services firms.
is Founder of .
