TinkerX

The basic point is that people remember personal experiences much more strongly than broad-band media productions or celebrity sponsorships.  I think that’s certainly true.

I remember a conversation I had with one of the top attorneys in a large firm’s labor and employment group. Most of the firm’s biggest clients had come to the firm through the labor group, despite the fact that the litigators there outnumbered labor lawyers by about three-to-one. I asked him why he thought so many of their large, long-term clients had "come in through the labor and employment door."

"Because," he responded, "labor and employment law deals with matters that are very close to the heart and guts of a business. One you earn someone’s trust on that type of work… one they open up the files on those matters… they’ll come to you with anything."

I thought that was a very wise, very insightful observation.

And, as a hard-core, manipulative, always-on-the-make, marketing-type-bastard, I thought to myself, "There’s a good reason to always have a labor and employment group at a firm, even if it’s not your key practice area. Even if you run it as a loss leader. You can use it as a ‘front door’ to  earn the trust of clients and then, hopefully, do lots of other work for them."

Please forgive me for being so calculating. It’s what I’m paid for, don’t-cha-know.

Anyway… that observation — about labor and employment work — is right on the money (so to speak) about experiential marketing. Creating a bond with clients is one of the best ways to establish long-term relationships that will yield fantastic returns on your investment in time. Much more efficient and effective than many types of advertising and other forms of marketing.

And many lawyers do a great, great job at this. They know their clients’ businesses inside and out. They understand their industries. They "get it" when the business climate changes. They keep an eye out for their clients’ competitive issues. They are proactive. They don’t play "yes man" games, but will sometimes risk losing business in order to do the right thing… which, in the long run, will solidify a good client relationship more than almost anything else.

In short, lawyers are often amazing relationship managers. Which makes them fantastic experiential marketers. And there are things that marketing managers in other industries could learn from them. I know I have. What have I learned about experiential marketing from lawyers?

• Active listening — How to really shut up and pay attention. Lawyers need to do that in order to practice law. Marketers and agency types rarely stop talking long enough to really listen. We should do that more.
• Balancing efficiency with effectiveness – I’m often a slave to efficiency; the belief that faster is going to be better. It often is. But not always. Lawyers have taught me that sometimes when you start off going more slowly, more carefully, in the end… things get done sooner.
• Face-to-face beats virtual – Blogito ergo sum. I am a man of the age; I have more clients that I’ve never fleshmet than those that I have. But there is a bond that comes from shaking hands and sitting down for coffee or lunch. From sharing "face time." Maybe this will go away once a generation of people grows up with the forms of virtual communication we have now. But, at the moment, eye contact still adds value.
• Long-term thinking – How many jobs have a "partnership track?" How many companies boast employees with 30 and 40 year tenures? I don’t just mean the partners, but the staff. Many firms have secretaries and facilities people who have spent their entire lives in one office. The idea makes me itch, but for some… it’s great. And it’s great marketing.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not getting sappy in my old age. Lots of lawyers still get lots of the the experiential marketing stuff wrong. The big desks that separate them from their clients. The imposing lobbies that look like they were decorated by Attila the Mum. The "client entertainment" programs that consist entirely of "boy sports." But they "get it" a whole lot better than many of the practitioners in retail marketing.

So… if there’s anybody out there in retail land — marketing directors, agency management types, account support people — who would like to learn a thing or two about how to build up their skills in experiential marketing, you could do a lot worse than spend some time shadowing a successful labor and employment lawyer.