ILTA White Papers

www.iltanet.org M/BD professionals can help position KM initiatives around the organization's efforts to win and service clients. brochures, proposals, press releases, survey submissions and countless other messages that communicate the value of what their organization has to offer, helping the firm get noticed by existing and prospective clients. Similarly, these same M/BD professionals can help position KM initiatives around the organization's efforts to win and service clients through messaging that illuminates exactly how the new tool or process ties into the business cycle and, in effect, impacts the ever-popular bottom line. To demonstrate, consider how these shifts — an increasing interest in efficiency, the alignment of KM priorities with the organization's business goals and effective messaging — impact the long-standing challenge of implementing an experience management system to which attorneys actively contribute. The idea is to weave a story around the firm's efforts to generate business and, ultimately, fees from both new and existing clients and then connect the experience management initiative to each step of that business cycle. Use a Story To Launch a KM Journey The story opens with a company looking to hire outside legal counsel with plans to issue a formal request for proposal (RFP). The firm's first step is to attract that company's attention in order to be included in the 22 ILTA White Paper proposal process. The ways in which companies seek out legal counsel are changing. Sure, referrals and existing relationships are reported as the most frequently considered factors in the selection of outside legal counsel. However, market research indicates that more decision makers are doing their own research to determine which firms to invite into the proposal process, and they are using platforms like Google and LinkedIn as their search tools. Including dynamic experience content on public websites is one way to push a firm to the top of those search results. To be sure the decision maker can fully appreciate the experience content, it can't be buried in the fourth paragraph of a two-page bio or vaguely referenced in a practice description. Offering decision makers experience content that is current and compelling is critical to ensuring they immediately recognize how the firm's experience and results relate directly to their needs. This recognition is what will get a firm invited to the dance. Winning the business is the next step in the journey. This requires a concise, compelling RFP response that explains exactly how the firm's resources and experience will benefit the client — doing so in a way that outshines the competition. This includes identifying the right team, highlighting the most relevant experience and pricing the work in a way that meets the client's needs, as well as supports the firm's financial goals. An experience management system can help locate the resources with the most relevant experience to be included on the

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