The Virtual Lawyer
Published: 2021
Pages: 130
eBook: 9781787425262
The Virtual Lawyer examines the new virtual ways of approaching marketing and business development, explaining how you can continue to strengthen your existing relationships, boost your visibility in the markets you serve, and generate the new introductions and new opportunities you’ll need to grow your practice whilst working remotely.
It is of course an understatement to say our lives have changed massively since the end of March 2020. The restrictions that have had to be brought in to control COVID-19 saw almost all of us forced to work from home, only connected to our colleagues and clients by Teams, Zoom, and Facetime.
At the time it looked like this was going to be a six-month blip. We’d ride it out then things would start to go back to normal and we could carry on as we were.
We all now know that is definitely not the case. As I started writing this book in late October 2020 we had started to see a slight return to the office - albeit in shifts to maintain the required social distancing - and face-to-face meetings over coffee or lunch were starting to creep back in. However, it now looks as though in the short-term at least the restrictions will get tighter before they relax again.
But you know all this. What does it have to do with business development?
Way back in March, a lot of law firms pushed business development to the bottom of their priorities. Work had to come first. And, as we can’t do business development the way we always have, there was no way to keep it going even if we wanted to.
The only problem is, if you don’t do any business development, you are not going to generate the new work required to sustain your practice. You are also going to put yourself at high risk of losing the client relationships you have worked so hard to build. This meant we had to quickly come up with new ways to do business development from home. We had to adapt our approach by using the tools that were available to us. We had to replace physical business development with virtual business development.
The Virtual Lawyer examines those new virtual ways of approaching marketing and business development, explaining how you can continue to strengthen your existing relationships, boost your visibility in the markets you serve, and generate the new introductions and new opportunities you’ll need to grow your practice whilst working remotely.
The book uses a three-step model, designed to take us from where we are today to where we need to be in the future, whatever that future ends up looking like. These three steps are React, Refresh, and Return.
Table of Contents
| Cover | Cover | |
|---|---|---|
| Title page | i | |
| Copyright page | ii | |
| Contents | iii | |
| Executive summary | vii | |
| React | viii | |
| Refresh | viii | |
| Return | viii | |
| About the author | xi | |
| Part 1: React | 1 | |
| Chapter 1: How to keep doing effective business development while we can’t meet in person | 3 | |
| Why do you need to adapt your personal business development plan? | 3 | |
| What are the alternatives? | 4 | |
| Replacing traditional networking | 6 | |
| Replacing client meetings | 10 | |
| Replacing hospitality | 11 | |
| Replacing seminars | 13 | |
| What if I’m not comfortable with technology? | 17 | |
| Chapter 2: How to continue to develop your principal relationships virtually | 19 | |
| Create a list | 20 | |
| Have a plan | 20 | |
| Active listening | 22 | |
| Keeping your conversations moving forward | 24 | |
| How do you remain visible virtually between your planned meetings? | 25 | |
| Chapter 3: How to penetrate new markets virtually | 29 | |
| Step one: Focus | 29 | |
| Step two: Create your “murder wall” | 30 | |
| Step three: Action | 35 | |
| Step four: What gets measured gets done | 36 | |
| Chapter 4: Practical planning – how to create an effective 30-day plan | 39 | |
| Part 2: Refresh | 43 | |
| Chapter 5: Adapt, improvise, overcome – adopting a more flexible approach to marketing and BD | 45 | |
| What are your non-negotiables? | 46 | |
| What can you adapt, improvise, and overcome? | 49 | |
| When do you need to adapt, improvise, and overcome? | 52 | |
| Chapter 6: Formulating a personal BD plan that combines the best of the old with the best of the new | 53 | |
| How do you manage the reintroduction of the best of the old? | 54 | |
| How do you retain the best of the new? | 57 | |
| Chapter 7: The perfect opportunity to refresh the way you do business | 61 | |
| Why do you need to act on this insight? | 62 | |
| The four pillars of a successful organization | 63 | |
| Chapter 8: Refreshing the four pillars of your firm | 67 | |
| People | 68 | |
| Promotion | 71 | |
| Finance | 72 | |
| Chapter 9: Practical planning – how to create an effective 90-day plan | 79 | |
| Part 3: Return | 83 | |
| Chapter 10: What do we know about the future? | 85 | |
| Buy, sell, and communicate – externally | 86 | |
| Buy, sell, and communicate – internally | 89 | |
| Keep moving forward | 93 | |
| Chapter 11: How can we prepare our return to the future? | 95 | |
| A rapid return | 96 | |
| A slow return | 96 | |
| A volatile return | 96 | |
| How do you choose the right tactics? | 97 | |
| 1. What do your clients know? | 98 | |
| 2. How do your clients operate? | 99 | |
| 3. What do your clients do? | 101 | |
| 4. How do your clients feel? | 101 | |
| 5. How do your clients communicate? | 102 | |
| What can you do today? | 103 | |
| Chapter 12: And finally… | 107 | |
| Successful implementation | 107 | |
| Avoid the usual mistakes | 107 | |
| Involve the firm’s key stakeholders | 109 | |
| Measure your progress | 110 | |
| Review and refresh your plan | 110 | |
| Successful motivation | 113 |
Douglas McPherson has had a long career in marketing and business development within professional services. For the last ten years he has been a director of Size 10½ Boots Ltd, a specialist BD agency that works solely with law firms, accountants, intellectual property firms, and barristers' chambers, helping them find smarter, easier, and more effective ways to grow their practice. This book brings a lot of his most recent experience together, most specifi cally in terms of finding ways for clients to adapt their marketing and BD so they can continue to grow despite the current restrictions and a tough and uncertain trading environment.