It's all about the client - Mishcon de Reya

It’s all about the clientElliot Moss offers insight into Mishcon de Reya’s new business developmentstrategy and reveals why selling should be less about what firms offer, andmore about what clients need.When I left a high profile rolein the advertising worldto go in-house with mythen former client, Mishcon de Reya(Mishcon), my aim was to bring moreof the commercial ‘client-first’ thinkingto the firm, which has historically(and successfully) relied on lawyerssetting the path for marketing activities.The firm saw the value in taking itsmarketing activities to the next level andhoped hiring someone from a non-legalbackground would help them achievethis goal. The marketing team neededto be part of the business of the firm,rather than merely supporting itPrior to joining the firm, I workedclosely with Mishcon, helping themto refine their positioning in thelegal market place. In my capacity asmanaging director of the advertisingagency Leagas Delaney, I led the projectthat involved looking at what thecompetitive set said about themselves,what insiders believed Mishcon wasabout, what clients felt about thefirm and what the firm’s managementbelieved it was in business to do.The process unearthed two simpleobservations. First, firms talk a lot aboutthemselves and what they offer. There isvery little mention of clients and whatthey need. Second, the way in whichlaw firms articulate what it is they dois almost identical. Take the copy fromone website and replace it with anotherand you will be hard pressed to noticethe difference. All firms are ‘partner-led,meritocratic, value-motivated, innovative’and so on. The opportunity, therefore,was clear: develop a positioning that istrue to the spirit and capability of thefirm that is externally client-focusedrather than internally focused andexpress the difference in a fresh and lessclichéd use of language.Great products need great marketingElite law firms have not hired marketingprofessionals of the same calibre astheir lawyers. If consumer goodsmanufacturer, Procter and Gamble,had taken that approach and allowedthe intellectual strength to lie in theirchemists, or sportswear retailers, Nike,had allowed their shoe designers toretain full control of the direction ofthe company, then we probably wouldhave heard of neither. Somehow,most law firms are convinced thatonly lawyers understand what theydo. I understand this position, andhave heard it recounted many times,even in the few months since I havebeen Mishcon’s director of businessdevelopment. But I worry aboutits implications. Indeed, I see itsimplications as I look at the elite firms’literature both online and off.What this has led to, therefore, isa dissonance between the productsand services that lawyers actuallydeliver, and the way in which they aremarketed. The marketing is generallyinferior to the product and I imaginethis reinforces the lawyer’s belief thatmarketing people simply don’t get it. Anintervention is required. Imagine if alaw firm hired a team full of marketingexperts of the same calibre as Procterand Gamble, Tesco supermarkets ora professional service firm like BDOStoy Hayward or business consultancyAccenture. I am not suggesting that the16 October/November 2009

Case study: Mishcon de Reyamarketing talent isn’t with some lawfirms, however I’m not convinced thattheir advice is actually being listened toand acted upon.An appetite for changeI joined Mishcon because it was clearthe management of the firm wantedto dramatically improve the way thatit marketed itself. They believedthat someone with over 15 years ofexperience in the communications andbusiness-development world would beable to help transform their marketing.This belief, I know, is unusual in theindustry – it takes an entrepreneurialattitude to make that decision in thefirst place, and to continue to back upthe proposals for changing the profileof the team and the marketing output.Creativity applied to everything we sayand do is now central to the businessdevelopment ethos at the firm.The process has been straightforward:the first step was getting everyone toagree that:•We want to be focused on fosteringa ‘client first’ culture:•Talking about ourselves is not goingto help us differentiate;•We will be ruthless and singlemindedin our pursuit of beingclient focused at every touch point;•We want to articulate our position ina fresh non-clichéd manner;•We will hire talent that is going tochallenge the status quo;•We will bring in a range of differentskilled people to deliver against thevarious complexities that marketingand developing a professionalservice firm encounters; and,•We will use external experts whereappropriate to deliver internal andexternal communications that aregenuinely ‘best in class’ and that areas good as the best of other nonlegalcompanies.Structure and process need to be right,but they won’t solve the problem alone.Structures have to be elegant andprocesses need to be both workable andsimple to understand. However, thesefeatures alone do not guarantee theright results.Getting the best out of thosepeople already involved with businessdevelopment has been a critical part ofthe plan. Four lawyers at the firm nowwork closely with the rest of the businessdevelopment team; Lisa Hommel ispractice development director workingacross all the practice areas; SusanFreeman, a real estate partner, alsofocuses on business development; MilesGeffin, a legal director in family, is thepractice’s professional support lawyerEmplployoymementSememininarBusiness CardLawSoft ContactSporting EventCase ReviewCommercialTraransactionLawSoft CRMRegular WorkLawSoft’s integral workflow engine ensures more of your contacts turn into clientswww.pilgrimsystems.cominfo@pilgrimsystems.com+44 (0)131 555 9700One Database, One Supplier, the Whole Solutionwww.legalmarketingmag.com 17

Case study: Mishcon de Reyaand, Alexandra Fawcett, a solicitor inthe public advocacy group, focuses ondeveloping the practice.Additionally, the department’s linkwith the firm’s knowledge managementteam and the information services (IS)function has been strengthened. Therestructured teams now sit together ineach practice area; business developmentand professional support lawyers sittogether with IS people hot-deskingaround specific tasks.New talent by designThe new team is a collection oftalented individuals from notablyvaried backgrounds – most of themhave not previously worked in thelegal sector. Together, they cover allthe critical bases for developing andexecuting a strong marketing andbusiness-development strategy.from professional network business,Winmark, where she led the generalcounsel network. She understandswhat drives general counsels, whatthey are looking for, and has personalrelationships with many of them. At atime when off and online communitiesare so important to businessdevelopment, hiring someone with sucha profile is critical.The new position of strategicanalyst, filled by Charlotte Bienvenufrom Hilderbrant managementconsultancy, was created to delivergenuine business insights into ourwork with current and future clients.Insights that would ensure that aclient felt we wanted to understandtheir business before we offered legaladvice in a vacuum. She has a Mastersin International Law – so again shepossesses an affinity with the law.strategy to life. This will manifest itselfonline and off, in media, our pitchapproach, our approach to productdevelopment and marketing, ourfocused approach to client development,our approach to building meaningfuland useful communities for ourclients and referrers to be part of,and, of course, in a concerted internalcommunications drive. We will betough on ourselves and measure theeffectiveness of what we do. None ofthis can happen unless the team is partof the business of the firm rather thanmerely supporting it.Going forwardThe future will require us to changethe solutions we think are right today.The pace of both technological andeconomic change will require us torethink our specific solutions. TheCreativity applied to everything we say and do is now central to the businessdevelopment ethos at the firm. Structure and process need to be right, but they won’tsolve the problem alone.The new business developmentmanager for litigation and privateclient, Verity Roberts, is from leadinglegal insurance broker, The Judge. Shecomes with a deep knowledge (equal ifnot more than most lawyers) of theseinsurance products, as well as a goodoverview of most of the elite law firms– having met the majority of them overthe past year. She has a law degree anda natural affinity with, and interest in,the law.The new business developmentmanager for corporate and employment,Faye Gardiner, is from a leading UKbrand consultancy, FutureBrand. Shehas experience of branding, clientmanagement and business development.She also has a law degree and anenthusiasm for, and interest in, the law.The new senior businessdevelopment executive in corporate andemployment, Jenny Stebbing, comesUnderpinning all this new talentthe talent that already exists within thefirm to deliver against the importantwork that requires a pre-existing insideknowledge of how a law firm functions.This includes submitting entries todirectories and awards as well asgraduate recruitment processes.Connection to the businessThe team, once assembled, would onlywork well if they not only understoodthe business of the firm, but they alsoplaced themselves ‘in the hub’ of firmbusiness processes both physically(there is no central area for the team –everyone sits in the practice areas) andintellectually. I am asking a lot of theteam. I want them to understand whatclients really need beyond what we andthe lawyers might think they need.We will be engaging in a numberof areas that will bring the ‘client-first’messaging will change; the form inwhich we engage in pitches willchange; and, the nature of the productswill change. But what will not changeis our client-focused approach. Thatwill define how we articulate whatwe do and how we behave towardsour clients and prospective clients.By definition, our clients’ needschange rapidly; many of them have anentrepreneurial mind set. We alwaysstrive to understand this because ourunderstanding will lead to deeper andmore profitable relationships withclients. Our mantra is shamelessly stolenfrom Procter and Gamble’s simplestarticulation of their approach: ‘theclient is always the boss’. As long as westick to that, we’ll be okay.Elliot Moss is business developmentdirector at Mishcon de Reya. He can becontacted at elliot.moss@mishcon.com18 October/November 2009