The latest article on my pet project Legal Marketing Reader is now live. Getting Marketing and Business Development on the Same Page, authored by Robert Buday, Bernie Thiel, Susan Buddenbaum, and Tim Parker (from the Bloom Group and the Alterra Group), maps out how business development and marketing folks can be more effective through collaboration and distinct roles.
The issue, they say, boils down to this:
“Regardless of their marketing and business development models, most professional firms are not playing the same game on the same team, using the same game plan, or keeping the same scorecard. By game plan, we mean they aren’t pitching the same services and bringing the same “point of view” to market at the same time.”
Clearly, collaboration is critical to marketing and business development effectiveness. But how?
Solving the problem, they say, begins with creating a multidisciplinary team that is organized around a specific campaign that brings to market one point of view at a time.
The team for the most successful firms looks something like this:
- A marketing generalist skilled in managing large-scale programs and events who can act as the overall project manager of the campaign
- Editors and writers who are experienced in communicating management concepts and writing about them in a compelling way
- A public relations professional who can communicate the point of view to appropriate media and analysts
- Digital media experts who can leverage Internet-oriented channels
- Business developers who sell services covered by the campaign or who can act as a liaison to the broader business development community
- Fee-earning professionals who are knowledgeable about the content on which the campaign is based
For a wonderfully in depth explanation of this approach, based on their own research, please check out the full article here: Law Firms: Getting Marketing and Business Development on the Same Page.
In tough times, it is the firms that invest in integrated marketing systems that will benefit in the long run.
As the editor of Legal Marketing Reader, I send the authors at big “Thank You!” for contributing this article.
