Bolster your strategic plan using multidisciplinary teams. An industry team can raise the firm's profile within an industry segment and a client team can focus on the firm's top existing clients to strengthen loyalty and provide opportunities for repeat business. The end result: a boosted organizational culture, a differentiation tactic in your firm's marketing and accomplished strategic goals.

A law firm's marketing and business development efforts are all about strategic focus. However, it can be difficult – if not impossible – to find a single focus that effectively encompasses the myriad activities of a multi-practice firm.

As a result, many firms are taking a more practical approach – creating a number of multidisciplinary teams to craft and implement strategic plans within targeted segments of the marketplace. The majority of large law firms have adopted this approach – and it is becoming popular with mid-size and smaller firms as well.

These can be industry teams that focus on raising the firm's profile and market share within an attractive industry segment. These can be client teams that focus on satisfying – and getting more work from – existing clients.

Less formally, there can be project teams assembled to work on a particular matter and pursuit teams formed to respond to a particular RFP or pitch opportunity.

"The single best reason to form teams is that today's business clients expect them," said Linda Hazelton. "Many clients of law firms routinely form teams for their own best customers.

"In addition, law students and laterals see industry and client teams as an opportunity for mentoring and an indication of a collaborative culture," said Hazelton. "Savvy law firms are not only creating teams, but touting them as distinguishing assets on their Web sites."

Hazelton is chief marketing officer of Jones, Walker, Waechter, Poitevent, Carrere & Denegre (www.joneswalker.com), a Gulf South firm with more than 200 lawyers. She discussed client and industry teams in a presentation to the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Legal Marketing Association, held April 10 at The Oxford Hotel in Denver.

Teams can be a hard sell. "Many lawyers are solitary thinkers who prefer to work alone rather than as a member of a team," said Hazelton

"Among studies of college-educated individuals, lawyers tend to score on the extreme high end for characteristics like autonomy, skepticism and urgency (feeling pressed for time)," said Hazelton. "They tend to score on the low end for traits like sociability." (Hazelton credited these results to the research of Dr. Larry Richard of Hildebrandt, who tested thousands of lawyers in order to reach these conclusions.)

As a personality type, lawyers are comforted by structure. "Providing reports and meetings in the 'right' amount – not too little, not too much – can help your team initiative succeed," said Hazelton. "They are also impressed by successful precedent. If you can use a team to accomplish an important goal, showcase your success."

In addition, each law firm's unique culture can either reward or penalize collaboration. "Where the billable hour is the primary measure of success (and personal productivity is everything)," said Hazelton, "there is little motivation for non-billable investment in the building of client teams.

"With a strong accountability structure in place – where team members do what they say they will do – law firms can succeed in building a client team program without making changes to their compensation system," said Hazelton.

Industry Teams

An industry team is focused on raising the law firm's profile within a defined and attractive industry segment. Usually, this is a segment where the firm has already achieved some measure of success that can be used as a solid platform for additional growth.

"Quite a few lawyers are possessive of their existing clients and can be reluctant to engage in any effort that involves sharing," said Hazelton. "In industry and pursuit teams – where there is no established 'ownership' of the client – attorneys seem more willing to work together to develop something new. As a result, industry teams can be a good way to introduce the team concept to your firm."

Industry as well as client teams should cross disciplines, locations and ranks (including partners, associates, staff and even outside consultants). For accountability and credibility purposes, they should report ultimately to senior management. They should establish an agreed-upon means of communication – whether a sophisticated portal or simple e-mail groups.

Once formed, an industry team should precisely define its industry segment and conduct competitive intelligence. "This is where marketing support is invaluable," said Hazelton. "Technology has made it much easier to collect data on an industry and the law-firm competitors within that industry. Marketers can digest this information and present key findings (with raw data attached) to team members."

This information is then used to devise measurable goals and an action plan. "An industry team CRM system is essential," said Hazelton, "so that you know which clients and individuals are within the team's target universe and so that you can track contacts, advances and successes as they occur."

Teams must agree up front on responsibilities and division of labor among the team leader, team members and marketing support. "Meeting minutes should clearly state who is responsible for which action step – and when it should be completed," said Hazelton. "Reminders should go out prior to the next meeting. Those who miss deadlines should be coached to encourage compliance – or replaced."

Client Teams

A client team focuses on the firm's best existing clients. "The client team can set the goal of maintaining the loyalty (in an increasingly competitive environment) of a client, acquiring a greater share of the kind of work it is already doing for the client, or cross-selling new practice areas to the client," said Hazelton. "Ideally, it will do all three."

As mentioned above, client teams can be tricky in a firm culture that rewards lawyers – by design or otherwise – for jealously guarding their own clients rather than sharing what they know with a team.

Do not start out with too many client teams. Typically, more than 80 percent of a firm's revenues comes from only 20 percent of its clients. Depending on the size of the firm, this group can include 10, 25 or even 100 clients. Do this analysis. Focus on one or two of these – or perhaps on a smaller client with excellent potential.

"When designing either industry or client teams, do not bite off more than you can chew," said Hazelton. "Teams are not costly in terms of money, but they can be costly in terms of time – especially administrative time. It is a career-damaging mistake for marketers to over-promise and under-deliver."

Once a client has been selected, conduct an in-depth client interview to find out their level of satisfaction and their needs. Many informative articles and consultants can help with this process. Change your procedures as necessary to improve client satisfaction. Create a practice group/client need matrix to determine which additional services you could reasonably provide. Offer to create a client extranet site and keep it posted with internal and external resources of value to the client. These processes should be ongoing.

"To know if your client team is being successful, set goals and measure your progress towards these goals," said Hazelton. "Track whether the matter mix for a client is aging. Measure realization and track gross revenues from each practice area. Track the number of types of work you are doing for the client.

"Finally, compare revenue growth for clients with teams versus clients without teams," said Hazelton. "I think you will be pleasantly surprised."

In an environment where many law firms are concerned with succession planning, client teams can be an excellent way to foster firm-wide client loyalty. "Clients who have many touch-points within a firm are much more likely to continue the relationship – even when a prominent 'relationship partner' leaves or retires," said Hazelton.

It is virtually impossible focus an entire law firm on a single set of business development goals. It is much easier when a firm divides in order to conquer – creating nimble teams to concentrate on growth within a particular industry segment or for a particular client.

"Formation of teams is a lot of work," said Hazelton. "However, experience shows that the rewards can far exceed the difficulties. In my opinion, few things we marketers do are as central to the future of our firms."