Okay, I know, I’m preaching to the converted! But I am constantly amazed by the talented, skilled, energetic, motivated and simply brilliant bunch of people that work in marketing and BD roles in law and accountancy firms right across the UK.
What they (you) are doing, how they (you) are doing it and what they (you) are helping their (your) firms to achieve is quite frankly astounding.
So this week – I want to give a MASSIVE shout out to ALL professional services marketers and BD’ers (not sure that’s a word … but I think you know who I mean!)
What better way to celebrate than to talk to a few of these people to find out what they do, how they do it, their outlook, their top tips and maybe the odd quirky insight into their lives and what brought them to this crazy sector.
And that’s what our new podcast series is seeking to do.
Last week I shared with you a link to the first in our dedicated podcast series – a lovely chat with Helen Freeston and Sue Murphy from Paris Smith.
A few of my personal highlights from my chat with them are:
The pandemic forced more firms and clients to go online. This has accelerated engagement with digital channels and tools plus helped to extend the reach of law firms beyond their traditional territories – a growing geographical footprint.
Clients still value face to face contact and access to their lawyers.
A hub providing resources, advice, guidance, and ideas – not just on legal matters – has helped Paris Smith extend its reach into the community.
“Our lawyers provide an exceptional service to their clients, so the experience sticks with them which creates loyalty, trust and recommendations.”
The pandemic created an environment where showing your vulnerabilities has become more accepted and expected and is helping to make lawyers more ‘human’ to clients.
Post pandemic marketing and BD presents more opportunities.
You need to be a good storyteller to get people ‘on side’ with what marketing are trying to achieve:
Sometimes life in a marketing/BD team for a law firm can be lonely but don’t give up if it seems like what you are saying is falling on deaf ears… suddenly a few months down the line it will pick up – stick to your guns, you know what you are doing, you know what the market is doing and how best to impact you clients.
But please, don’t just take my word for it … listen yourself. In just 30 minutes you’ll learn a load and I’m pretty sure you’ll take away an idea or two.
I’ve got another episode currently being pulled together having spoken to Dawn Beschorner from WR Partners, and Alison Mitchell from Forrester Boyd, both chartered accountancy firms who are also members of the UK200Group, the UK’s leading professional services membership organisation for quality assured charted accountancy and law firms.
It’s another great chat with insights around the benefits of collaboration as well as more perspectives on the opportunities and challenges right now.
This will be shared with you in the coming weeks.
Finally, with Legal 500 launching last week it’s great to see some humblebrags on LinkedIn about firms and lawyers’ achievements.
But if you would like to get better recognition and learn more about how to make a good submission, please do join me on Thursday 20th October at 2pm (please note the new date, previously scheduled for 27th October) when I will be sharing all based on my 16 years of experience of helping firms with literally hundreds of submissions.