A sage lawyer once told me, "It takes ten satisfied clients to counter the negative effect of one unsatisfied client. Finding, making and keeping satisfied clients is everyone's job. But it's your job as the chief marketer to lead us, because your #1 job is to be the voice of the client across the firm."
First Things First.
That simple statement still rings true—the effective chief marketer speaks for the client. Any firm that gets this, gets it. The role of the CMO only gets complicated when management committees, marketing partners and even chief marketers themselves do not understand or exploit this fact.
To further complicate matters, these same parties often have different goals, criteria or even personal agendas that remain unspoken. More often than not, the CMO job description isn't worth the cost of the paper it's written on. As a result, the CMO becomes a one-trick pony working to satisfy the highest compensated voice instead of the most important voice –the client's.
Despite the competing static, chief marketers must first learn how to tune into and represent the voice of the client. They must possess the people skills and patience to deliver those client imperatives to every level of the firm. As activists, they must help law firms, across departments, find and meet the unique needs of the diverse client base. The client voice must be prominent in management affairs and service development—from the receptionist to the accountant, from the managing partner to the practice chair, and from the associate to the legal assistant.
The two most important questions a firm can ask its CMO are, "Can you be the voice of our clients across the firm?" and "How can we support you in that role?" Finding, making and keeping satisfied clients is everyone's job; making it happen is the chief marketer's job.
But that job requires new skills and strategies. .
New Skills Required For Success.
"Marketing is the act of connecting customers to products or services," says Jeremiah Oywang, senior analyst at Forrester Research, Inc. Despite that seemingly obvious truth, traditionally many chief marketers have focused just on building brands and go-to-market strategies. These responsibilities aren't going away, but in a number of areas change is creating new priorities and responsibilities.
A proliferation of touch points exists today as in no other time, changing the way clients' research and engage law firms. The low-cost, timesaving, "facts-only" sales approach isn't going to fly in a time where instant access to relatively trustworthy information is available online via user generated content, citizen journalism or a person's social network.
The ability to build the firm brand across this increasing number of channels is critical. Today's CMO must play a more active role in shaping the firm's public profile, managing delivery methods that involve technology and building new capabilities within the marketing department. Some CMOs may see a need to restructure their teams to address these new capabilities or rely on outsourced social media services for placement, content optimization and training.
The Empowered CMO.
One law firm partner, addressing cost-cutting strategies during the current economic downturn, recently said, "Marketing. It may not be very effective. But relax, because in most firms it is not very much money either. Even if you wiped it out entirely it is unlikely to move the needle on cost savings sought."
Conversely, wipe out a marketing team led by an empowered marketer and it would definitely move the needle—in revenue lost.
Empowerment is not about personal power. It is having a well-thought out blueprint for the castle and the authority and resources to build it. As Liz Pava, consultant and former AM Law 50 CMO, puts it in "How to Get the Most From Today's CMO" (Law.com, August 6, 2008):
"There is no one right job description, title, reporting structure or pay scale for today's law firm's head marketer. What matters most is that the responsibilities for the various elements in the marketing mix are aligned with authority, all are clear as to who in the firm is accountable for what, and the structure facilitates forward movement as defined and measured by the particular firm."
The demand for higher value and client-centric, service-oriented approaches make the CMO's job more complex. However, three things implicitly rule how well they will function in their role:
- How responsibilities and authority are set forth,
- The percentage of operational vs. strategic responsibility, and
- The degree to which they can assimilate the business needs and firm culture.
Today CEOs and executive committees are pushing hard for growth in a shrinking market and looking (or should be) to more effective marketing efforts. Finding a CMO with the full range of necessary skills is not always easy, and talent churn is a reality. Placing new leadership in marketing roles is expensive. Only when law firm leaders seriously begin to value the role of the chief marketer as the client's voice, agree upon and articulate goals and expectations, and provide a well-designed structure that supports achievement will chief marketers have a real chance to make a difference, be effective, and earn their keep.
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