Plans don't work

  

  

  

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Anybody who has worked with partners will have spotted that they are good at analysis; particularly verbal.  When undertaking business development planning they deploy this skill with vigour – admittedly when pushed by the marketing department, but nonetheless in an impressive manner.

A typical plan

Thus a typical partner’s marketing plan – whether centred on the practice or the individual, will have a large portion devoted to an analysis of the market and client profiles.  The analysis will then continue to include the obligatory SWOT analysis, which will rarely produce any new insight.  The back of the plan is therefore devoted to a table indicating how the current marketing activities are to be diarised.  These events are usually in the 0-6 month horizon.

The plan is then consigned to the marketing team’s document management system, with the locally held copy being resurrected in time for next year’s repeat performance. 

I have therefore found no correlation between successful lawyers/practices those who undertake systematic planning. 

The alternative is to provide a greater sense of direction and involvement.  It requires the planning as well as the execution to be a team event.  And it requires an underpinning strategy to link togethet the disparate elements.

You can download a short white paper giving some additional practical suggestions. 

The more ambitious could consider exploring the world of strategy.   There’s not a lot of real strategy – as would be recognised by a corporate client - going on in law firms, but if you want a couple of well-written and pragmatic books, I suggest: