Co-customer marketing builds relationships and sends a clear message. Imagine you are the senior intellectual property counsel for a Fortune 100 company. Every law firm within two continents of your head office has begun posting comments, sending out press releases, and publishing articles on the latest landmark ruling; as of this writing, it would be KSR v. Teleflex. There’s an article in a national magazine written by someone from the Smith firm. Someone from the Jones firm has an article in the local legal paper. However, another publication has an article co-authored by the general counsel of a major manufacturer and partner of the Thomas firm on the possible effects of KSR on business and legal management.
There is a good chance that the attorney general’s article will be the first one that you, as an in-house attorney, will read. There’s an equally good chance you’re assuming the Thomas firm represents that company. And, there’s a very good chance you’re also assuming that GC thinks the Thomas firm world lets his good name run in the same vein.
Seems obvious? So why don’t we see more co-written articles? Are customers resistant? One should not think so as it is also just good marketing for them. And, if you offer to do the first draft of the article, the added benefit to the client is that it’s good marketing with relatively little effort.
Here is another example that approximates a recent situation I observed. A partner at a law firm was being profiled in a legal trade publication. Among his major accomplishments is a stellar litigation record on behalf of XYZ Company. During and after the interview, the partner (and his PR firm) urged the reporter to call the AGC at XYZ, not only for quoteable endorsement, but to learn more about the amazing things the client has done internally. to deter lawsuits and reduce internal costs. When the article was finally published, it was about both the client and the law firm, and both benefited equally.
Greatness by Association
To be sure, law firm marketing is not an “us or them” proposition. You can hire in-house consultants and even CEOs as part of your own marketing and business development efforts. They will usually appreciate the request because they also want to be marketed.
Maybe the in-house lawyer is looking for another job and a little notoriety wouldn’t hurt. Or perhaps greater public prominence is politically beneficial in terms of his internal career path. The client may want to highlight the fact that, as in our example above, theirs is the last company in their industry that a smart plaintiff’s attorney should target.
Periodically, certain in-house legal officers emerge as spokespersons for the in-house sector. In the past, such spokespersons (my own memory goes back to Robert Banks at Xerox in the 1980s) have given speeches, written articles, and spearheaded programmatic efforts to articulate what they, as internal advisers, expect from external advisers and how, in general, internal services should evolve.
Right now there seems to be room available for another domestic market leader to emerge. Could that leader be one of your customers? Imagine the marketing benefits your company would gain if you helped it fill that space, especially if your “partnership” became widely known through joint appearances at conferences, for example, or some of the articles mentioned above.
The benefits of the relationship are obvious. Even more important in some respects, by being an identifiable part of the client’s efforts to define and implement new professional standards, you become part of the solution to whatever problem is being discussed. You are now part of a collective campaign, a tight-knit community of buyers and sellers, to improve law firm billing practices or discourage frivolous lawsuits or enhance diversity in the legal profession or in a client’s own industry. The relationship that is generated with the client is very pleasant. The message you are sending to old numbers of other legal service buyers and decision makers is a very, very nice one.
A lot of opportunities
Remember all the favors customers have asked you for: “Take a table”…Donate a silent auction item…Sponsor a hole in a charity golf tournament…Offer a summer associate position to the daughter of CFO at Cornell Law … Make a donation to the GC Law School Alumni Fundraiser.
All of these requests more or less help the clients’ own marketing with little direct benefit to you, but they don’t hesitate to ask. So don’t be shy around them, especially with requests that, as we’ve seen, benefit them at least as much as you do.
We’ve mentioned professional events and publishing as two obvious standout examples of how to market together. But there are other places that will also enhance your relationship and send a valuable message about the company and about you to the broader market. Two in particular deserve mention.
Community Service Projects
First, community service projects offer a number of opportunities, particularly welcome to clients if their businesses sell things to that community. Some community service projects provide a bigger, more national bang for the buck—Habitat for Humanity comes to mind. If there are pro bono awards events, invite the customer to sit at your table.
Diversity
Second, diversity initiatives are highly appreciated by many buyers of legal services. Explore ways for you and your client to contribute to or jointly support non-profit organizations that encourage diversity (for example, Minority Corporate Counsel Association). Don’t be discouraged if your company’s diversity numbers are disappointing. There’s nothing wrong with acknowledging that one of the reasons for their increased involvement is to improve the company’s diversity hiring efforts.
The above examples remind us that joint marketing with customers, like all marketing, is ultimately about delivering value. As we like to emphasize, the person you are marketing to should be better off as a result of doing so, regardless of whether or not they invest in their services as an immediate result. Through co-marketing with customers, this “value proposition” operates in a uniquely multifaceted way.
Worth
“Value” is delivered to the market through the content of a speech or article – this is a problem that plagues our industry, and this is how a corporate expert and outside adviser assess it.
“Value” is simultaneously delivered to the community and to the profession as a result of specific actions, such as pro bono efforts and diversity initiatives.
The “value” is delivered to your customers because they have their own serious marketing agendas. By joining you in efforts to help the profession, your own industry, and the community at large, you directly advance those agendas.
For the law firm, leverage is powerful: You create tangible credibility in the face of invisible corporate decision-makers, even as you take a single major client relationship to a whole new, collaborative level. It’s a no-brainer. Call a client today and brainstorm projects.
