Which is, more or less, the question I’ve come to ask about law firm management in general, and marketing in particular. And I’ve come to the conclusion that most law firms prefer that nobody gets serious about applying mature marketing strategies to the practice of law or really examining the basic business models underlying the industry.
Because if a few firms started taking it seriously, the rest might have to as well.
Over and over and over, I see examples of legal marketing that confirm my suspicions. I don’t mean that firms aren’t spending money on marketing — there’s plenty of that going on. In fact, many firms seem to believe that the more money they spend, the less attention they have to pay to marketing issues. And that’s the real currency that determines how successful your marketing will be — how much attention, time and energy the attorneys are willing to put into the business.
Lawyers want to be lawyers. That’s why they went to law school. That’s great. The practice of law is incredibly demanding, both intellectually and emotionally. The vast majority of lawyers I’ve known and worked with are smart, hard-working, honest people who want to make a positive difference in their clients’ lives and businesses.
They just don’t know jack-bunnies about marketing.
Which, if they let marketing people run the marketing aspects of the firm, wouldn’t be much of a problem.
Lawyers, though, often behave as if their understanding of the complexities of the law should make them excellent business managers, executives, trainers, mentors, planners, (cooks?) etc. Any decision concerning the firm needs to be reviewed, changed, tampered, battered, buttered, tweaked, bonked and approved by at least one (usually many) partners. And because lawyers are smart people, they assume they know more about marketing than their CMOs.
Don’t get me wrong — partners are the owners of the firm. They need to be involved in many of the decisions about the strategy and planning of their business. But the best of them understand that the management of a firm is much different than the practice of law. The very best even rely on the advice and skills of people with experience in various management areas. The problem is, there aren’t many firms whose management falls into the "very best" category.
Why don’t more law firms undertake serious marketing programs? Because it’s hard work that isn’t lawyering. Most lawyers would rather spend 100 hours (in a row) on a legal project than 1 hour on a marketing task. It’s what they love, and what they’re good at.
They also haven’t been convinced about the value of good marketing.
And that’s the fault of us in the legal marketing community. We haven’t provided enough justification for taking marketing seriously. For whatever reason — sometimes inexperience, sometimes frustration, sometimes survival — we get stuck picking out holiday cards, acting as adjunct caterers, putting logos on stress balls and various other "marketing stuff" that, frankly, doesn’t matter at all. We push to get projects approved without understanding the ROI. We bad-mouth the "caste" system that puts lawyers miles above staff, and then turn around and take our own staffs and secretaries for granted. It’s our fault as well as the lawyers’.
In most other industries, the seriousness of marketing is taken for granted. The idea that you could, essentially, ignore it or treat it like an idiot step-child would be anathema.
Marketing is serious. It’s about business, money, time, happiness and life. If you care about any of that stuff, you should care about marketing.
Stumble it!