Clients Isolate 9 Core Brand Factors

BTI research with more than 13,000 C-level executives isolates 9 core branding factors impacting differentiation and hirability. These factors fit into 3 categories:

1. Client's Choice, including: 

• Client recommendations
• Being included on client short lists 

2. Premium Value, including:

• Delivering premium value 
• Positioned for bet-the-company work 
• Being a long-term survivor

3. Innovation, including: 

• Movers & shakers—making changes to improve the client experience
• Technology innovators
• Client service innovators 
• Firms changing to deliver better value 

In the world of law, BTI found 18 law firms enjoy substantially better branding than all other law firms—earning a place in The BTI Brand Elite 18. These firms include:

1. Skadden 
2. Jones Day
3. Baker & McKenzie
4. Kirkland & Ellis
5. Morgan Lewis
6. Sidley Austin
7. Latham & Watkins
8. DLA Piper
9. Click here to see all 18

Core branding in professional services is driven primarily by behaviors—with clients relying on direct and indirect experience to shape their opinions.

Interested in how the Big 4 rank in these 9 factors? Subscribe to the Buzz in the upper left of this page and be one of the first to know.

Marketing (Mis) Alignment: Close the Gap Between Marketing and Law Firm Leadership

Marketing speaks a different language than law firm leadership. Today's session at the ALA Annual Conference highlighted how core thinking differs between marketing and business development and law firm leadership, and provided lessons on closing the gap to boost performance. Using the results of brand-new joint research between members of the Association of Legal Administrators (ALA), the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) and The BTI Consulting Group, BTI President Michael Rynowecer discussed how law firms quantify marketing success, return on investment and top-line versus bottom-line results.

Click here to download a copy of the presentation.

Click to read more ...

Leveraging Big 4 Consulting Best Practices to Bolster Your Business Development Strategies

Closing out the 2013 LMA Annual Conference to a packed room yesterday, panelists from Deloitte Services LLP, Ernst & Young and Thomson Reuters Elite discussed what legal marketers and business developers can learn from their colleagues in consulting, and what they see for the future of professional services marketing and business development. BTI Principal Marcie L. Borgal Shunk moderated the discussion which ranged from client service and client feedback to branding, company culture and big data.

Click here to download a copy of the presentation.

Click to read more ...

Law360 Quotes BTI CEO Rynowecer on Budgets and Budget Overruns

5 Surefire Ways to Lose a Client

(A Law360 except by Keith Goldberg)

Law360, New York (March 27, 2013, 8:19 PM ET) -- While losing a high-stakes case might sour a lawyer's relationship with a client, plenty of other missteps can prove far more deadly, attorneys tell Law360.

Clients are likely to seek new counsel if they feel their current counsel doesn't respect their relationship, whether it's through overstuffing a legal bill, falling off the radar for days at a time or not doing homework on client business…

Attorneys say budgeting smart is a must. For example, if you're the lead partner on a matter, you'd better be in on every high-level strategic decision, but leave mundane tasks such as discovery to associates or contract attorneys. Don't send multiple attorneys to a deposition if only one is going to be doing all the talking…

And if you are going to blow your budget, don't wait to let your clients know until sending them their final invoices, experts say.

"Generally speaking, your clients are more tolerant of overrunning a budget if they know ahead of time," Michael Rynowecer, president of the BTI Consulting Group Inc., told Law360. "If you see it coming, that's treated completely different than if it's a surprise."  Continue reading at Law360.

Client Service Leaders Boxing Out the Competition

Law firms whose clients see them as being best in client service enjoy:

♦  30% higher profitability
♦  7% rate premiums across all staff levels
♦  35% higher client retention

Despite these convincing numbers, few attorneys truly shine for their dedication to client service delivery. In BTI’s much anticipated release of The BTI Client Service All-Star Team for Law Firms 2013, clients name 307 attorneys for their client service excellence.

Breaking onto this list – and earning clients’ unprompted nominations – becomes more difficult as past Client Service All-Stars hold strong to their positions as client service leaders.

Click to read more ...