As an in-house legal marketer I am always challenged by the partner who is “too busy to market.” Her plate might be too full (at the moment). He has family obligations outside the office (always my personal excuse). However, one day they’re going to wake up and wonder “where have all my clients gone?”

I learned early on in my career that marketing and business development are not about today, they are about tomorrow. It’s about keeping that pipeline filled. It’s about knowing that when your big class-action, that you’ve been billing 95% of your time to for the past three years, suddenly settles, you’re not left in the lurch. Ask yourself, what would you do if you #1 client is acquired, or your key-client contact is promoted or retires?

Yes, you’re too busy to market. I’m too busy to market. We’re all too busy to market. But, we need to do it EVERY DAY nonetheless.

I’ve asked some of my colleagues to offer their suggestions as to how they encourage their “too busy to market” partners to market.And, SHOCK, I’m not even going to bring up social networking. We’re going Old Skool today!

Here are a few suggestions from me to kick things off:

Offer to collaborate with your key contacts.
If you are writing an article, presenting at a conference, get your key clients’ input and advice on your outlines, themes, etc. This automatically elevates your client into your inner-circle. This blog post is a prime example of this.
Continue Reading Too Busy to Market? We Don’t Think So

It’s the end of the year and as an attorney you are most likely sitting behind a closed office door trying to 1) bill, bill, bill to hit your numbers; or 2) collect, collect, collect to hit your numbers.

In between all of this closed-door time, I have a few simple “marketing” suggestions you can

There’s a legal marketing “guru” out there who loves to bash Twitter. First of all, Twitter isn’t for everyone, but it is an incredibly powerful tool for many others. To completely dismiss a marketing/business development tool because of your personal perceptions, or lack of knowledge, is shortsighted and shows, to me, poor “

In this blog you will find marketing and business development advice primarily from my perspective. I’ll have some guest bloggers with alternative voices, but the main voice here is mine.

I am always happy when I run across a new voice to share with all of you. I very much enjoyed reading this article Commentary:

The question of the day over at AmLaw Daily is “How essential is a CMO?” For those of us who have worked for, under, or near a CMO the answer is “depends.”

An essential CMO is a forward thinking, strategic person who will be able to balance the needs of the partnership at a 40,000