Creating Thought Leaders: Influence GCs and Get Hired
with Strategic Thought Leadership
John HellermanHellerman Baretz Communications
LMA Southern CaliforniaMarch 20, 2013
State of the Union
Competition is intense. In 2008, Fortune 1000 companies used an average of 55 law firms. In 2011, that number
decreased to 46 – a 16% decline.
Source: The BTI Consulting Group, “The Attorney Hiring Zone,” 2009 and 2011
Average Law Firms Fortune 1000 Companies Are Using
2008 55
2011 46
The 4 P’s of Product Marketing
The 4 C’s of Service Marketing
Finding
Knowing
Choosing
Market Access
Differentiation
Selection
Results
Reputations
Relationships
The Magic 3
A professional firm becomes branded by the reputation and
performance of its professionals over time.
The more lawyers with credible reputations within your firm, the better.
The Branding Process
Talent is the Product
A Professional Service Firm is a Product Marketer
Help Your Firm Attract the Best Talent& Help Your Talent Win New Business
(You’ll Generate More of Both)
The Prism
Use uncontrolled, and therefore credible, participatory channels
to create, influence and maintain
LUCRATIVE RELATIONSHIPS.
“To make my firm money”
The Purpose
STOP: “Doing” Public Relationsvs.
START: “Using” Public Relations
This is not about creating clips for clips sake. Ask yourself: How is what I’m doing going to help my
firm create, influence or maintain a lucrative relationship?
If it won’t help, tell your firm you’re going to save money by spending its resources elsewhere.
The Approach
What Do You Think?
Activity
Speaking at a Prominent Event
In-Person Casual Meeting
Practicing at a Well-Regarded Firm
Featured Subject in an Article
Referral from a Peer
Advertising
Authoring an Article in the Trade Press
Quoted as an Expert by the Media
In-Person Scheduled Introductory Meeting
Speaking at a Small Education Seminar
Rank these activities on a scale of 1 to 10.
Research Findings
The Attorney Hiring Zone
Personal Knowledge Activities
Credentialing Activities
Awareness Activities
SALE
(1) Peer Referral: 7.5
(2) In-Person Scheduled Introductory Meeting: 6.1
(4) Presenting at a Small Education Seminar: 5.4
(5) Practicing at a Well-Regarded Firm: 5.3
(6) Authoring an Article in the Trade Press: 5.1
(7) Speaking at a Prominent Event: 4.8
(8) Feature Article: 4.1
(9) Advertising: 3.4
(10) In-Person Casual Meeting: 3.3
(3) Quoted as an Expert by the Media: 5.5
Personal Knowledge Activities
Peer Referrals Are Ranked Highest at 7.5 Because of Trusted Third Parties;
In-Person Introductory Meetings Are Second at 6.1 Because of Internal, Self-Screening
• Peer Referral: 57% of corporate counsel report they will consider hiring an attorney based on a single peer referral.
• In-Person Introductory Meetings: Good, old-fashioned hustling.
• Discussion Point: BTI did not address how attorneys are getting in-person introductory meetings. How are you doing that? What tactics are you using to get these meetings?
Credentialing Activities
Credentialing Activities Convey An Implicit Endorsement
From Sources in Positions of Trust
• Practicing at Top Firms ≠ Clear Path to Hire.• Corporate Counsel is Watching
Corporate Counsel The Wall Street Journal
• Speaking at a Seminar/Conferences Might be Good… if You Make it Good.
• Attorney Bylines and the “Pay-to-Play” Factor.• Influence on Steroids: Spread the Word and the Peer
Factor.• Sharing is Caring: Marketing Value Remains.• The Cumulative Effect: Third Time is a Charm.
Awareness Activities
Awareness Activities Can Raise General Awareness of a Law Firm or Individual Attorney, But They Do Not Serve as Credentials Because of the Lack of a
Screening Function by a Trusted Third Party
• Advertising Gets You Known, Not Hired.
• There is Nothing Casual About Business: Make In-Person Meetings Count.
• “Me, Me, Me…”: Feature Articles.
BTI/HBC Marketing Sales Pyramid
1. It typically takes 7 follow-up calls to get the GC to agree to a meeting because GCs routinely reject requests for meetings to test for follow-up. Astonishingly, 90 percent of attorneys fail to follow-up at all after the first rejection!
2. PR is a "credentialing activity" more so than an "awareness activity" and it takes as little as 3 quotes in respected publications to equal the trusted value of an actual referral by a peer, which is the number one activity for receiving hiring consideration.
3. To GCs, feature articles about an attorney or the firm are only slightly more valuable then ads. This is due to the fact that they are not clear about how subjects for features are chosen and a sense it has little to do with actual merit (unlike being quoted as expert).
In Practice
Entering The AttorneyHiring Zone
Maximizing Peer Referrals & Scoring In-Person Meetings
Mastering the Touch: Thought Leadership
Laying the Foundation: Awareness Activities
• How do you encourage peers to refer business to your firm?
• Stepped-up personalized attention is key.
• Client service
• LinkedIn and social media connections
• Surveys
• Third-party commentary
• Byline articles
• Press mentions
• Client alerts
• Awards and rankings
• Advertising
• Sponsorships
• “Pay-for-play” media and speaking opportunities
• Key is creative, client- or industry- centric advertising.
Current Marketing Best Practices Involve “Appropriate
Touching”
Social Networks
Facebook created the “poke” button to spur friendly
connections on the social network.
Professional Networks
Fostering professional relationships, which lead to
hiring, requires the professional equivalent of the “poke” –
appropriate touching.
The Market: What Advanced Firms Are Doing
• Paradigm Shift at Most Sophisticated Law Firms.
• Business Development “Analysts” Being Employed.
• Proactive, Industry-Specific Campaigns.
• Comprehensive Business Intelligence.
Market & Business Intelligence
• Example of comprehensive market intelligence available for law firms to target business development campaigns to specific industries.
• Market intelligence memos from ShiftCentral include daily news articles, statistics of interest, companies in the news, etc.
• HBC also regularly prepares litigation/corporate review and analysis memos, and LinkedIn analysis of key in-house counsel and C-Suite executives, to prepare clients for meetings with prospects.
Creating Opportunities
Energy spent generating interviews leading to third-party quotes should be shifted to generate speaking
and publishing opportunities.
Doing so will generate more of everything over time.
• Focus on narrow, niche issues.• Position your talent as “experts.”• Create blogs, white papers, webinars
podcasts, etc. around an issue.
Benefits:• Strategic• Easy to Measure & Manage• Relevant to Management• Attracts Clients• Material for Reprinting and Distributing (PR-
Fueled Biz Dev)
Think in Campaigns
These aren’t just nice placements. They are excuses to connect with people. Use them as valuable
selling tools that create, influence, and maintain lucrative relationships.
(Create only what is worth reprinting and sharing.)
Leverage Success
Branded Content
Bringing expertise to the market is made safer when firms do it through branded
and strategic content.
Talent can walk; firm-owned,
branded content can’t.
For Immediate Release
• Make getting the info easy. • Give reporters options. • Don’t hold back
information they are going to get in time anyway.
• Recognize the credentialing power of your prospects’ social networks; a reprint from an unknown media outlet referred by a “friend” can be more powerful than one from the Wall Street Journal he finds on his own.
Social Media
The whole idea of social media is not so much to promote yourself, per se, but to:• PROMOTE THE IDEAS THAT ARE VALUABLE TO WHAT
YOU DO.o Question, therefore, is: HOW to become part of OTHER social
networker's stories (i.e., the online dialog that swirls around news and events);
• Do that by identifying the people that are relevant to the people you want to influence, and enabling them with content that is: EASY TO SHARE.o And relax, because that's fundamentally still all the things you're
good at: developing relationships by pitching really worthwhile and interesting stories that are EASY TO TELL.
The Web
1. Consider the Opportunity: The web has radically transformed the way we get our news, and every day, more and more people are relying on alternate online sources (websites, blogs, social networking sites, etc.) to obtain information.
2. Target Properly: If you're going to do social media, do it correctly and be strategic - or you'll sell yourself short, so target the right bloggers, Twitters, and other outlets that are relevant to your purpose.
3. Package it Up: Give bloggers and others a rich array of information by offering other experts' to speak to; give links to other compelling websites, articles, and related graphics, etc.
4. Pitch it: Contact your targets and share the credible, compelling, creative content you've put together.
5. Push it: This is the key. Once the story appears, what do you do with it Share it with other bloggers and other outlets. Get them to pull it apart and re-report it.
6. Circle Back: Make contact with the original outlet and let them know everything you did to promote their work. By showing the value you added they'll want to work with you again.
Compensation Survey
Compensation Survey
Case Study:Madison Ave Insights
• Launched a creative, strategic blog on target industry issues.
• Format brings in the industry with weekly Q&A blog posts on high-level industry issues.
• Social media strategy.
• Sending direct messages and emails with blog posts of interest, blog launch announcement, etc.
• Conducted industry survey to coincide with the blog launch.
• Coordinated blog launch around leading industry event.
Evangelize SMART Leadership as a Biz Dev Tool
Transform Your Firm’s Reluctance into Expectation. Make It See Sharable, Measurable, and Relevant Thought
Leadership as an Opportunity Rather than an Obligation.
Questions & Answers
John Hellerman
Hellerman Baretz Communications LLC202.274.4751
[email protected]: www.linkedin.com/in/johnhellerman
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