Digital White Papers

23 WWW.ILTANET.ORG | ILTA WHITE PAPER MARKETING AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT The Motivation To Adopt CRM use it. But without wide-scale adoption, it is essentially useless at the organizational level, which was the underlying promise of the intelligent future state. If given a do-over, many law firms would not invest in a CRM, opting instead for a less expensive, low-frills database or maybe a free solution. Not that the future state is suddenly less desirable; there are serious doubts whether widespread CRM adoption is achievable. What about the small percentage of firms that have figured out CRM adoption? What are they doing? While most law firms are still plagued by inefficiency –– the same level of inefficiency that warranted the massive initial CRM investment –– some are operating in that future where relationship intelligence flows freely, from the real-time dashboard in the corner office to the pre-meeting intelligence delivered to the BD representative's smartphone. Marketing and BD Teams with Intelligence Let's examine a few ways in which marketing and BD teams thrive at firms with access to relationship intelligence across the organization. The Marketing Function: » Proactively builds the firm's brand by using data to engage in timely interactions with the people and communities that maer » Uses contextual cues to create and deliver relevant, useful messages that add substantive value for clients, as opposed to mass messages which primarily are created for a persona » Creates event-based rules that enhance each contact's experience with your firm at scale, from onboarding to advocacy The Business Development Function: » Combats the convergence trend by using data to pinpoint the firm's most viable cross-selling opportunities » Builds compelling cases for cross-servicing clients while doing away with the discovery and qualification meetings that waste colleagues' and clients' time » Identifies business opportunities where partners and lawyers can start conversations from a position of strength A Recruiting Edge If you are a highly skilled marketer or BD professional, would you work at a law firm where accessible, comprehensive data empower you to build an impressive portfolio and advance your career or a firm where holding data hostage and guesswork are the norms? There is no comparison. Why would a respected BD pro or rainmaking lawyer work at a firm where she routinely gets shot down in baseless internal meetings when she could work where access to data allows her to build business cases proactively that ensure productive discussions from the start? As more firms create data-rich environments, talented marketers and BD professionals will gain leverage because they no longer will work in environments that do not facilitate achievement. We can also assume that the next generation of data-embracing lawyers will prefer the collaborative environment. JODY GLIDDEN Jody Glidden brings almost 20 years of experience in the enterprise software field to his role as CEO of Introhive. In his previous roles, he was the lead on pioneering global enterprise technology products for Fortune 500 companies, and he frequently speaks on technology trends of the future. Contact him at jody.glidden@introhive.com.

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