Thought leader: Simply the best?

Anne Malloy Tucker reports

There’s no question about it – optimising your marketing systems and organisational structure is now not just a desire, it’s a necessity. It’s quite likely that marketing leaders are now expected to be more efficient and to communicate the results of your efforts based on specific metrics and hard data. That’s a plate full of trouble potential if your underlying support structure is built on anything less than a fully-integrated and optimised service delivery model. This, of course, begs the question as to what exactly constitutes a ‘fully integrated and optimised model’ and, as is often the case with professional service marketing in general, there is not a ‘one size fits all’ solution. Firms are inherently different. Strategies are different. Budgets and resources allocated to marketing and business development within the firms are different.
What is similar, however, is the need for marketing to directly link to, and support, revenue generation and client relationship-building activities. But there are certain core principles. These include alignment with the strategic goals of the organisation, defined roles and responsibilities, formalised business-development systems and processes and, optimisation of technology and client relationship management (CRM) data.
As an example of aligning departmental structure to strategy, one effective approach is to employ a three-tier model that focuses firm-wide marketing support at one level, practice or industry business development support at the next level, and geographic support and execution at the third level. This model assumes that the marketing, business development, communications and public relations functions are part of an integrated infrastructure and that strategy is driven by practice and informed by geography, not vice versa. While everyone is part of the ‘client service support’ effort, the roles and responsibilities are different.
Clear definition of roles and responsibilities is also critical. Brand-building initiatives are most effective when focused firmwide; business development initiatives at the practice or service level. Initiatives need be carefully coordinated to avoid duplication of efforts or worse, confusing or cross-purpose activities that are counter productive and can result in doing more harm than good.
At the core of supporting revenue-generating activities is the notion of standardised systems of measurement. These include referral-tracking, client relationship opportunity monitoring, new business intake updates, communications tools and event tracking, to name a few. The closer business development initiatives are aligned with marketing initiatives, the stronger both are likely to be. Business development successes inform future marketing efforts and the impact of marketing initiatives can be reflected in specific business-development results. You need good client feedback and market research to link the two – undertakings that should be on the top of any marketing strategic ‘to do’ list, regardless of the opportunities or challenges presented by any economic climate.
Lastly, there’s our old friend the CRM system: it may require significant resources to launch and manage, but for firms of any size, you simply can’t do long-term effective marketing or business development without it.

Anne Malloy Tucker is chief marketing officer at Goodwin Procter. She can be contacted at amalloy@goodwinprocter.com