One of the stand-out sessions at the Lawyer event last week featured a stellar line-up including: Tricia Weener (CMO- Linklaters), John Parkinson (Director of Business Development & Marketing- Blake Morgan), & Mark Valentine (Senior Director, Business Development & Marketing- Mayer Brown).  The session was well moderated by Jon Brewer (Senior DealCloud Growth Director- Intapp).

Jon set the scene by suggesting that loyalty from clients has really diminished coupled with the fact that 'on average, there are eleven stakeholders needed for every purchase'.  This and a number of other factors, has now meant that many marketing leaders and the CMO's role at firms is revenue linked.  

How can MBD leaders turn client insights into actionable strategic direction?

Mark suggested that firms have to dive deep into multiple buyers and into the procurement teams.  Client feedback is also key, and clients must be serviced from the follow-up.

Trish hasn't yet been a year in the legal space and suggested that insights must be gleaned from deep client feedback which is more aligned from her time in banking at HSBC.  A mix of external and direct client listening should be adopted to gain the right insights.  Trends can then be visualized and customer loyalty metrics such as NPS (Net promotor scores) give a good idea of client relationships.

John talked through staying close to clients from a business development perspective and understanding what keeps them up at night.  You can then tackle any problems early on.  At Blake Morgan, they use NPS to feed into promotion, so it is really important as a metric.

What methods work best to capture and louden the voice of clients across the firm?

Trish talked about how important it is for Marketing and BD teams to be client-facing and therefore understand what the client's problems are right now.  This also then helps across law firms as it means MBD functions are seen more as a value add instead of a cost center.  

Trish also talked about the importance of cross-selling and collaboration across the firm, which enables buy-in.  Exec sponsorship also helps massively with this, but ultimately, the BDM function can be one of a connector.  Any success should be celebrated across the firm.

Mark agreed that BDM must connect people.  There are challenges in larger firms, especially with different cultures and strategies.  At Mayer Brown, for instance, not all the BDM team are client-facing.  This is a behavioral change piece and Mark suggested sometimes looking from outside the industry when hiring can also change this mentality.

At Blake Morgan, John talked about the BDM team being super hands-on, which leads to them being the glue throughout the firm.  He also suggested that they have looked to collaborate with other law firms and BD teams to add even more value to clients.  This is made easier through networks.

What are some examples of success in aligning global MBD functions to ensure consistent client-centric delivery?

John stressed the importance of understanding the competition and asking clients which other firms they rate and why.  John also talked through the opportunity to use the MBD team to actually start the qualification of potential leads.  It is a win-win in terms of lawyers being more equipped to provide valuable advice and the MBD team getting the value add.  

At Mayer Brown Mark talked through how they spent a long time building the brand of the individual lawyers so that they aren't the same as every other law firm.  Mark also highlighted how they are leveraging AI through their innovation team to drive efficiencies and consistency.

Trish highlighted a simple win is to make sure that the actual MBD teams are collaborating.  This means actually meeting and collaborating in person to encourage open lines of communication.  This can then be mirrored throughout the firm.  Data is also massive to be consistent and client-centric and Trish pointed to the fact that from what she has seen, law firms are behind other industries.  Firms should become data first, but it is critical to have a process to go with it.  This is mirrored with the use of AI, in her opinion.