August saw a new Tiger Team convene as part of Briefing magazine’s summer series, in partnership with Pinnacle. Each session sets out to address the biggest challenges ahead for law firms and getting the tiger treatment this time was business development
Briefing’s co-CEO Rupert Collins-White was joined by the marketing and client development director at DWF, Zelinda Bennett; business development and marketing director at Weightmans, Sarah-Jane Howitt; commercial director of Kennedys IQ, Mike Gilpin; director of quality, risk and compliance at CMS, Patrick Torti; and head of Ashurst Advance Digital, Tara Waters. Completing the group was Pinnacle’s CEO in the US Bob Beach.
The basic premise was this: unable to meet and greet in person, how can law firm marketing and business development professionals find new ways to connect with existing and potential clients, identify and create opportunities, and convert this activity into revenue?
What unfolded was a really textured, insightful discussion that explored, amongst other things, how firms are balancing a return to marketing fundamentals as well the embracing of new routes to market
- how firms are giving serious consideration to how they best sell their services, both from a people/salesperson perspective and from a product/commodity perspective
- how all parts of the business need to support one another to maximise sales opportunities
- how firms need to be ready to adapt in the face of clients who are themselves having to change at an unprecedented rate.
Interestingly, a lot of progressive work on the BD front appears to have been going on pre-pandemic, so Covid didn’t necessarily alter thinking, more accelerated it. With the old ‘in person’ world likely to still be a year away for marketing professionals, it will be fascinating to see just how far they get in the interim.