THE 3 Ps OF LEGAL MARKETING: Three Perspective on New Business Essentials for Law Firms.

Nowadays, the legal marketer is no longer just the legal marketer - he or she is the business developer. The client service leader. And now the practice innovation specialist.

With the roles of those marketing in law firms constantly evolving, the opportunities to improve the business of law are expanding. Three increasingly popular areas of opportunity lie in pricing, project management and process improvement. Here, three LMA experts provide their perspectives on various aspects of these 3 Ps.

PRICING

Purvi Sanghvi

Director of Strategic

Pricing, Paul Hastings LLP

What can marketers do to position themselves as experts within their firm on pricing, project management, etc.? And how can they leverage their expertise once they have done so?

Marketing and business development colleagues should take opportunities to partner with the pricing or project management teams when delivering solutions for firm clients. Inevitably, they will have to work together to provide clients what they need, and by keeping lines of communication open and keeping each other involved, those outside of pricing and LPM will quickly begin to understand how these roles add value. Marketing and business development teams have the unique understandings and history about client relationships that pricing and LPM teams might not have right away. By bringing institutional knowledge to the table, the two functions will quickly begin to collaborate on how to provide better solutions.

Marketing and business development teams also often have the inside scoop on how to best work with certain practice areas or attorneys within the firm. This insight is often invaluable to pricing and LPM teams. Pricing and LPM teams often have the unique quality to help bridge the gap between financial analysis (the numbers) and the client relationship. When working together effectively, each team can lean on the others in order to provide the whole solution to the partner/client.

What is the benefit of firms working with clients with openness and transparency?

It behooves firms to be open and transparent so that the client understands the processes that we follow internally and why we make decisions the way we do. It's important for them to understand things, such as the fact that it's not as easy to get data for 'X' request because the information might be disparate and not easily analyzed. The benefit goes both ways too. In an open client relationship, the firm then begins to better understand...