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• Position: Schmidt Marketing Inc. - Sally J. Schmidt

THE QUESTION: If you were to start your legal marketing career today (as opposed to 15 years ago), what would you do differently?

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Sally J. Schmidt

Thinking back to when I started my law firm marketing position, I can't believe how much has changed, particularly the myriad ways that technology now supports marketing. Our efforts to track marketing-related information were rudimentary and cumbersome. It took awhile to figure out what information was and, more important, wasn't being captured, how it was (or wasn't) being reported and what the time and billing system was (or wasn't) capable of doing.

Then it seemed to be one step forward and two steps back; for example, changing the client intake process to capture the sources of business or the interests of the clients took months to accomplish and then another year to produce data. Still, if I were starting over today, on Day One I would begin to implement more systematic efforts to capture and report information to support marketing decisions, establish benchmarks and measure marketing ROI. Regardless of whether the firm had invested in a CRM or other support tools, I would work with IT and accounting to set up methods to measure everything.

Sally J. Schmidt is president of Schmidt Marketing, Inc.

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Heather Gray-Grant

Going into my 20th year of legal marketing, I have very definite ideas of what I would do differently.

1. Take shorthand in college. My hands have aged 10 years in advance of the rest of me.

2. Take a course in behavioral psychology, although to be honest, nothing can really prepare you for working with a partnership.

3. Go for an MBA earlier in my career. Lawyers need to see accreditation, and I never wanted to get an LL.B. (J.D. for our U.S folks).

4. Get legal counsel before signing any work agreement. I've been lucky to work with very supportive firms, but I've learned over the years how much I can actually achieve through a very detailed work agreement.

5. Line up mentors within and outside of the industry. I was five years late in starting, and I can't help but wonder how much more powerful it might have been to have started sooner.

6. Have a personal development plan to ensure I know precisely what I need to learn and experience and how I will be attempting to make this happen. Doctor, heal thyself.

7. Read and live by two Stephen Covey books: "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" and "First Things First." These help focus an...