Lessons from the Cheshire Cat – why your law firm needs to know where it is before it can reach its destination

Running a law firm isn’t easy. Partners often must juggle fee-earning with management responsibilities, and it can feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day. The problem is, if you don’t take a moment to look up from your desk, you often can’t see the bigger picture or where your law firm fits in it.

“If you do not know where you are going, any road will take you there”, is an oft-cited but not-quite-accurate quote by the Cheshire Cat in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, but the underlying message still applies to partners of law firms who are trying to achieve their goals.

Without understanding where you are now, it is impossible to plan a deliberate route to achieve your desired destination, causing you to wander and arrive “somewhere” by chance rather than by intention. Not the best way to run a law firm, but unfortunately, not uncommon.

To get somewhere intentionally, you must clearly

• assess and understand your current situation, resources, and, in a metaphorical sense, your “where”
• set out your “destination” and what you want to achieve
• create a “map” to guide actionable strategies, replacing aimless wandering with deliberate, purposeful steps.

So, do you know where you are, where you want to go, and how you are going to get there? Here are a few questions you may wish to ask yourself:

Have you defined your strategic direction?

1. We have a good understanding of where our firm fits in the market, our main competitors, key target clients, and a clearly defined strategy for both the immediate and long term.
2. We know which departments need to grow and where we want to be; we just haven’t decided on a plan of action for that yet
3. We have always managed, so we will just continue as we are

What is your firm’s growth plan?

1. We have analysed our client base across all practice areas, understand who gives us repeat work and where we need to strengthen relationships, what type of work achieves the best margins, where we can make efficiencies, and what we need to do to achieve our growth plans
2. We know who our clients are, and our fee earners keep in touch with them during instructions, and we should hopefully meet our targets
3. If we provide a good quality service, our clients will keep working with us

What differentiates your law firm from the competition?

1. We have a clear positioning statement that defines our firm’s target audience, service offering and unique value proposition, which has been communicated to all partners and staff so they know how to embody and communicate it
2. We know what makes us different, although we haven’t written it down per se, and we think we’re all saying the same thing if someone asked
3. Aren’t all law firms created equally?

How do you measure your Marketing & BD ROI?

• We monitor all of our marketing and BD activity, so we know where we spend our budget delivers targeted return on investment in the form of quality prospects and client retention
• We do a number of marketing BD activities each year and think they are working well, although we don’t actually compare the activity to see if it links to client instructions or referrals
• We have always done the same events, newsletters, etc., so we can’t change that now.

Do you regularly communicate with prospects and clients outside of ongoing matters?

1. We have a 12-month plan of communication activity across a range of media (e-marketing, social media, blogs, etc.) which showcases the breadth and depth of our work, key individuals, our culture and values
2. We produce newsletters, articles and post on social media as and when time allows
3. Our clients already know us, and we have a good reputation locally, so we don’t need to do this

If your answers are:

Mainly A’s: You clearly have a good understanding of your firm, your clients, competitors, and the wider marketplace and have a proactive plan of how to achieve our ambitions. If you practice what you preach, and roll out your plans and monitor them, you should achieve your goals.

Mainly B’s: You think you know what you should be doing, but none of it is part of a plan, and you are not sure how or if you can monitor what’s working and what isn’t. You need to take an objective look at your firm, the competition, and your clients and define what success looks like. You then need to create a practical plan that can achieve these ambitions and distil it across your firm.

Mainly C’s: You are relying on the ‘If I exist, my clients will come’ theory. Whilst this may have worked at one point, the legal marketplace is much more competitive, clients are more demanding and prospective clients are more discerning before making their purchasing decisions. Whilst you have stood still, everyone else has moved on. If your competitors answer mainly A’ or B’s from the above, they will have a competitive advantage that will continue to grow.

In summary, if your partners wish to arrive at a place that ensures you achieve your growth goals, you need a strategic roadmap and an actionable plan based on proven methodologies. Without a clear vision, you cannot evaluate which strategy is correct.

At Orion Legal Marketing, we help law firms take an objective look at themselves, their overall strategy, what is needed to help them achieve it, and provide them with a practical roadmap for the future.

We do this via a “Discovery Day,” during which we undertake an appraisal of your existing business strategy and marketing environment, followed by a plan of action. By confidentially reviewing key firm information, we can provide you with a thorough analysis that highlights your firm’s strengths and weaknesses, identifies threats and opportunities, and provides a practical framework to ensure that key changes are implemented.

Once we have made our recommendations, your partners can make sound judgments based on facts rather than hunches, and you can determine where to best focus efforts and resources with more certainty. This is particularly helpful when reviewing your firm’s business plan, budgeting for Marketing and BD activities, and recruitment.

Whilst we have the benefits of over 100 years combined expertise in our team (it’s actually a lot more than that, but the real figure makes us feel old), and can base some of our recommendations on proven strategies that have worked at other law firms, our audit will be tailored to you, as every law firm should have a different strategy based on its own unique characteristics spanning practice areas, size, geography and client base.

So if you would like to discuss how we can get you and your law firm on the right path, please contact Rachel Tombs at Orion Legal Marketing on e:rachel@orionlegalmarketing.co.uk for an informal discussion about how we might assist you. We promise to put a smile on your face.