In the last month Charlie Sheen has been grabbing headlines and airspace at a dizzying speed, and not necessarily for the best of reasons. Yet, his stock has likely never been higher. Consider that Mr. Sheen logged a Guinness World Record for amassing more than one million followers on Twitter in less than 24 hours. No less than a week after starting to post, @charliesheen already has exceeded two million followers.

It’s no matter whether you agree/sympathize with him or not, he is yet another example of how our society continues to become more and more social. In fact, I doubt he cares one bit whether his followers agree or disagree with his outlook or life style.

What Does This Mean for Legal Vendors?

Communications and marketing as we’ve known them for decades (including the evolution of email) is changing faster than we may want to accept. Mr. Sheen’s motivation/strategy for joining the Twittersphere isn’t important, but you can be certain that his future/former employers are absolutely taking notice of his following. I for one won’t be surprised to see his sitcom return to production.

The message here…if we don’t get onboard, we’ll be left behind. While it may feel comfortable to doubt the validity of social communication, particularly in the legal community, the world has changed and lawyers and the companies that provide products and services to them need to change with it.

If you haven’t yet embraced social communication, you need to join the new world order. But do so with a strategy…you can bet Charlie Sheen has one.

In all of the years that I’ve worked in the legal industry, I’ve repeatedly heard how slow business is in December. While nobody likes a party or down-time more than me, I’ve found December presents a few unique opportunities:

1. Take Advantage of the Impulse Buy – If your product or service is appropriate for impulse buyers, develop an offer that takes advantage of end of year-end tax spending. Small firms often look to increase deductions at this time of the year. Create a special offer that expires before December 31^st and send it to all of your unconverted leads. You just might be surprised at the uptick in sales.

2. Its Not Too Late to Plan – If you’ve been too busy to worry about a ‘plan’ for next year, now’s the perfect time. With the activity slowdown, this is an excellent opportunity to get some quiet, thinking time. Start big, with your overall goals, and ask yourself this question “what does success in 2011 look like?” Once you’ve got that answer, start breaking it down into the pieces and the timing. Whether you’re starting with revenue, users, clients, or income per customer/client, identify the goal and then work backwards to incorporate milestones and build your plan. Write it down…if the plan exists only in your head, the chances of success are significantly reduced.

3. Learn Something New/Do Something New – Social marketing is more than just buzz. Failure to incorporate a social strategy into your marketing program is certain to result in a negative impact on your business in 2011. But where to start? A website update, a blog, SEO, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are all viable options. Pick one…they each have their own strengths…and commit to it. Incorporate it into your plan and set aside some time to learn the benefits and figure out how to make it work for you. There’s a wealth of information (much of it free) online to help you get started.

At this point it isn’t what you do that’s important…it’s doing something! Use your ‘down-time’ wisely and when next December 2011 comes around, you’ll appreciate the results. That’s how I’m planning to spend my December slow-down.

A recent post on BtoB Online reports that despite an initiative by the CMO Council to close the chasm between sales and marketing, it continues to exist. For example, a senior VP of product marketing at one financial software company was recently quoted as saying:

“Sales and marketing are typically out of sync or—at worst—are undermining each other. Even at very senior levels where there is a deeper ownership, there can be a less-than-collegial environment.”

It’s the same old story, marketing complains that the sales team isn’t doing enough to close good leads, and sales complains that marketing’s efforts result in poorly qualified leads or inadequate materials/support. Even in smaller companies where the organizational lines are blurred the tendency is for one group to lay blame on the other.

In BtoB’s article, it is suggested that marketing staff accompany salespeople on sales calls. I couldn’t agree more…there’s nothing like live interaction to help define not only the prospect’s needs, but also clarify in the marketer’s mind the supporting information the salesperson needs.

And What About Those Leads?
Are the leads produced by your marketing efforts the right ones? It’s not about the quantity, it’s about generating quality prospects for the sales team. It’s all about working backwards, starting with results:

• How many ‘qualified’ leads must you produce to generate the desired close-ratio?
• What is the persona of a qualified lead?
• Where can you find qualified leads?

Are the numbers realistic and achievable? If not, revise your projections…don’t pad the numbers with inappropriate leads just to make the first part of the equation work.

After days, weeks, and months of developing a new or updated web presence most of us think we know exactly the message we’re sending to our visitors, but do we?

Typically, internal groups are so involved in the process that it becomes difficult to maintain perspective. And then there are the other influencers (including senior management) that want to be certain their opinions are incorporated. What if you had a low-cost method for validating your messaging?

Problem Solved

In a post last week, Entrepreneur Daily Dose identified a new app that allows you to get the input you need to verify visitors are receiving the proper messages. This new app, called Clue, lets you quickly set up an interactive test, creating a unique URL that you can share with customers, clients, employees, and other influencers. It’s simple and easy for everyone. You’ll ask them to take a 5-second test, you’ll receive valuable feedback about the site…and best of all, it’s Free!

I tried Clue on the LVS website with a very limited sampling just to make certain it worked, and it does. The test is live for 24 hours, and takes just seconds to set up. You’ll be assigned a unique URL for both the test and the results. Simply send the test link to a group of contacts and monitor the results. One caveat, the test captures a static image, so if your page contains flash or other animation, only the initial image will be included in the test.

The Results

While Clue can’t help you develop your messages, it can certainly confirm whether or not they are being received by your target audience.

Creating or updating a website is often the catalyst for an in-depth analysis of your positioning.

Earlier this year, we wrote about our experience updating our website. Take a look at When is a Website More Than a Website? for the process we used (we treated ourselves as if we were clients) and some of the issues we faced. If we’d known about Clue then, we could have used it to help speed our efforts.

In the most recent ChangeThis manifesto, Intelligence Multipliers, Liz Wiseman shares her findings from a two-year study of corporate leadership styles. She begins by defining ‘Diminishers’ as corporate managers that can’t see beyond their own capabilities to utilize the maximum value of the people around them. ‘Multipliers’ on the other hand, have the ability to challenge their teams and create an environment of intelligence and challenge.

How do Diminishers differ from Multipliers?

Diminishers survey their world and see a limited supply of intelligence. They have the “I’m the only one that can do it right” mentality, and as a result, they discourage the people around them to shut down and they stifle creativity.

Multipliers believe in their people and encourage thinking. They look beyond their own capabilities, recognize, and even appreciate the genius of others. Multipliers challenge their people to think outside of the box and invest in their successes.

Is There Really a Difference in Performance?

Wiseman’s research has shown that Multipliers consistently get 2X more from their people than their Diminisher counterparts. Just think what you could do with twice your resources! In these times of reduced budgets and staffs, you can actually double your output without adding more staff. And in times of prosperity, Multipliers will be able to scale and take increase corporate intelligence and capabilities much faster. Typically organizations, large and small, have both types of leaders. The differences become readily apparent when you view the results of the different departments or working groups.

Over the years, I have been the beneficiary of working with a couple of Multipliers and a number of Diminishers. I’ve known the exhilaration of being challenged to produce at the highest possible level, and I’ve known the frustration of being shut down.

Why does it seem Diminishers are more prevalent? I think it’s because it is easier and safer to be a Diminisher. But if building your success is your priority, take a look in the mirror. If you see a Diminisher staring back at you…it’s not too late to make a change.

In 1992 after a seven-year career as a litigation paralegal, I decided to move into the world of marketing and selling to lawyers. I knew instinctively that my time “in the trenches” would serve me well as I went to work developing messaging and selling technology software to lawyers.

Having spent three months on a law school campus earning my paralegal certificate, I saw first-hand how law students were converted into lawyers. What I didn’t realize until I entered my new career was how many of the same factors that go into legal training influences the way lawyers buy legal products and services.

Why is the legal vertical so challenging?

1. Law School Creates Lawyers – Like medical school, the competitiveness and demand on law students fundamentally changes their personalities. From LSATs to applications, the competition starts before the first day of class. Drop-out/failing rates and class ranking struggles pervade the psyches of students forcing them to focus inward and manage their time selfishly. The better the school, the higher the class ranking, the better the job at graduation (especially in a tough job market). That competitiveness continues into the firm environment.

2. Law Firms have a Different Business Model – A carry-over from the law school mentality, law firms are a bastion of individuality and competitiveness. Rather than pulling together, law firms are made up of pockets (practice groups) that invariably distrust each other. David Maister’s article Are Law Firms Manageable? first published in The American Lawyer, addresses the issues of distrust and competitiveness, and how they impact firm values.

3. Competition is the Name of the Game – The law school process encourages critical thinking and teaches students to advocate every side of an argument. There is no right or wrong, only winning and losing arguments. Three years of arguing in law school, and it’s no wonder lawyers challenge every claim a vendor makes. As consumers, they question ‘the biggest’ and ‘the best’ and they are risk adverse. Few lawyers want to risk trying something new for fear of making a mistake and suffering the scorn of their peers…in short, they’re not early adopters by nature.

My first position after leaving the law firm was as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for a legal technology company that developed and marketed case/practice management software. From the onset, we knew we had to overcome aging Luddite managing attorneys, and reasoned that within a few short years, younger more technologically inclined lawyers would move into decision-making positions and advocate for more technology. Along with our competition, we truly believed that as younger, more tech-savvy attorneys worked their way up the ranks, they would embrace productivity enhancing technology, and by the new millennium, every attorney would use practice management software.

And yet even today, only 33% of attorneys use case/practice management (according to the 2010 “Perfect Practice® – Legal Technology Institute Case, Matter, and Practice Management System Software Study” conducted by The University of Florida Law’s Legal Technology Institute, link unavailable at this writing).

What we failed to understand at the time was that the demands placed on young attorneys to perform require them to narrowly focus on the issues at hand. Most young attorneys enter the practice of law in subservient roles and are required to use whatever technology their firms use. Their goals are limited to getting the job done, and as they mature and move through the ranks, they remain focused on getting the job done, and not on how to do the job better.

This is not to say that lawyers will never embrace technology fully. It is to say that there are factors unique to the legal industry that impact buyer behavior. As sellers of legal products and services, we need to hone-in on the specific buying characteristics of this unique market of buyers and craft messages to address their needs and the drivers that most influence them.

I’m not a wine snob…I just love the taste of wine (mostly big reds like Zinfandel, Malbec, & Sangovese). I won’t pretend that I’m particularly educated; I just enjoy drinking what tastes good to me.

‘Vin-yet’ is the phonetic spelling for vignette. But to me it also means ‘time for wine yet?’ So, I think it’s very appropriate for a laid-back (SoCal) Friday post. I’ll try to keep my wine drinking to a minimum until I’ve finished writing my post in the hopes that it will make sense, but there are no guarantees! My partner, Debra Baker, and I do some of our best work over Friday lunches…and wine.

Since Fridays kick-off weekends, I thought it would be a good time to muse about my love of all things wine and my other great love…the legal market.

Most often, I’m drawn to wines with interesting titles or unusual label designs. The wine has to taste good, but the passion and quirkiness of the winery are important to me too. It winemakers can have fun with their products and not take themselves too seriously, that adds to my experience.

Here’s an example: Last weekend while shopping at Hi-Times in Newport Beach, I couldn’t pass up a bottle of ZINZILLA, labeled “A California Monster Zinfandel.” It’s produced by members of the Parducci family, pioneers in the California wine business. One glance at the label says it all! Bold, fun, even outrageous!

Besides a really drinkable Zinfandel, what can we learn from ZINZILLA?

Believe in what you do, deliver outrageous products & services, and most of all…have fun while you’re doing it!

Selling products and service to lawyers has never been easy, and it’s never been more challenging than it is now. The legal vertical is such a dynamic market, with the constant turnover of decision-makers, disruptive innovation changing the way law firms operate; it’s not easy to construct and deliver messages to cynical buyers. But without our products and services, law firms would not operate at any level of efficiency. For years as a member of the legal ‘vendor’ community and as a consultant, I’ve thought we’ve lacked a say.

What are we missing?

A Forum – New companies entering the legal vertical stumble along, forced to figure out the legal market for themselves, while seasoned veterans struggle to optimize ROI. Imagine the intelligence we can share with ‘newbies’ and veterans alike.

A Resource – Short of a few national tradeshows and conferences, we lack a community meeting place where companies providing products and services to the legal market can join together to discuss news, topics, and challenges we face in both the short term and long term.

A Voice – How many times have we heard ‘no vendors’? It’s our job to change the perception that vendors/providers are only interested in selling…after all some of the greatest minds in legal are ‘vendors’.

When NALV (the National Association of Legal Vendors) imploded in the early 1990’s, it was long before it was fashionable to acquire a domain name. A recent Google search turned up an acronym dictionary that still lists the legal vendor version, but that’s about it…the URL, nalv.org, belongs to the Nigerian Association of Las Vegas! The point is, it’s been well over 15 years since the legal vendor community has had a centralized meeting place to openly discuss the issues facing and transforming our businesses.

While we won’t change negative ‘vendor’ perceptions or solve issues overnight, LegalVendorAdvisory (LVA) is dedicated to helping shape the legal profession and starting conversations between ourselves, the market, and the organizations/publications serving the legal community. A big goal and one that will take time.

To start, this blog will discuss high-level issues facing us as well as addressing our marketing and business development challenges. And, to make sure we have a little fun along the way, I’ll be dedicating Fridays to a lighter post that incorporates my love of wine (drinking it) so keep an eye out for my Friday Vin-Yets.

So, if you provide products and/or services to lawyers, join us and share your opinions.