Building business development cultures that thrive.
Hello Thrivers,
““Your brand isn’t what you say it is. It’s what they say it is”
-Marty Neumeier, author of the Brand Gap
Many law firm owners don't fully appreciate the connection between their firm's brand in the market and revenue flowing into their firm. They might work hard on cutting costs inside the firm, but rarely stop to look outside and consider how perceptions of the firm in the wider marketplace are affecting their bottom line financial performance. In other words, they’re ignoring the 3 R’s: reputation, relationships and revenue.
What are the 3 R's?
The 3 R's should be the foundation of any law firm’s marketing and business development strategy. Think of them like Guiding Principles. Consider them when formulating your whole-of-firm strategy. They also work on a team and personal level.
Reputation: means staying on message and being consistent in the market with your brand message and campaigns. This is vital to avoiding confusion or looking stale. Reputation is all about getting your content out to the right people, in a way that those markets need to hear it. One way to understand it is to think of your firm's reputation as your brand.
“Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room”
-Jeff Bezos, Founder Amazon.
Relationships: specifically, the quality of the relationships between all the people in your firm and people outside who make-up your markets. That's primarily existing clients, prospective clients and referrers. You want your people to be creating relevant new relationships to generate work-in-door. And when they do, you want them to make a positive impression about your firm and the work you do.
Revenue: is the outcome. If you take care of your brand in the market and keep it up to date, and you devote time to building the right kind of relationships, then revenue will flow. * See model below.
The three R's comes from a strategy known as Account Based Marketing (ABM), a way to combine sales, marketing and communications to deliver maximum results. Ignoring the three R's can result in sending mixed messages that confuses your market and gives competitors an advantage.
The 3 R's can form part of a whole-of-firm strategy, or be used to guide the development of team strategy. They can also be used by individuals to check in and audit how they are measuring up personally.
One way to do this is to conduct a 3 R's scan. Grade your performance from 1 - 10 on how strong your reputation is in the markets you care about. What about new markets? How strong are your relationships? What is your revenue – on target or could be better? Then make an assessment of how you might address any gaps or celebrate the wins!
One useful step that usually flows from this assessment is identifying strategy gaps, whether whole-of-firm or relating to an individual brand. That means you may need to do a 360-brand review and re-position in the market to get back in touch with your brand story and align your brand to the shifts in the market.
If you are looking to implement this work in your firm it is vital to partner with the right experts – those who understand professional services and can provide the tools and insights you need. This strategic approach, can really put some pep in the step of your entire team and is a great lens through which to strategise around marketing and business development. If you have any questions or need assistance feel free to reach out to me at sally@sallyking.com.au.
THANK YOU
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