Lawyers.

Accountants.

Consultants.

They’re professionals.  They’re smart.  Their expertise is important, but their work is often done behind the scenes; helping clients make tough decisions and navigate complex issues.

At least, until they woke up one morning and discovered they’re in the media business.  Okay, they’re not polishing their dance routine for American Idol, or being chased down Rodeo Drive by Paparazzi, but certainly they’re in the business of being quoted in the Journal, or speaking on the conference circuit, or publishing articles; and appearing in video online.

This is pretty cool (especially for the articulate and charismatic).  They’re experts and they want to let the world know it.  The idea is to get their name out there, and then brace for an eager throng of clients, clamoring for their autograph at the bottom of a big, fat client contract.

But that’s about as likely as an enduring Hollywood marriage. Unfortunately, the media business that covers the topics professional services firms like to talk about and informs their clients is confronting the same thorny problems as the “mainstream” media.

• Declining circulation.
• Falling viewership.
• Decentralized control of content, as represented by YouTube, Twitter and the blogosphere.
• A radical paradigm shift in networking represented by Facebook, LinkedIn and others.
• Weakening of media copyright protections, via digital piracy.

Mainstream media companies are struggling to deal with the collapse of their traditional revenue models.  Capturing eyeballs no longer automatically leads to an influx of consumer or advertising dollars.

Similarly, professional services firms are faced with a host of new challenges for marketing their firms. Two demons hamper their progress: channel proliferation, meaning a dizzying choice of places to make their voice heard; and audience fragmentation, meaning its challenging to figure out where their potential clients are focusing their attention any more.  All this makes it maddeningly difficult to figure out how to make their firm and their professionals into stars.

It helps to be clear about where they are directing their efforts. Professional services firms marketers should be asking themselves:

• Which trade publications should we be trying to appear in?
• Which conferences should we speak at?
• With whom can we partner for a Webinar?
• How do we use blogging, podcasting, YouTube (and other video channels) to change the nature and format of our dialog with clients and prospects?
• How do we expand and manage networks via LinkedIn?
• And all these questions naturally lead to a more important query: if we do these things, will our clients really pay attention?

Ponder the following factoid, based on our PracticeView tracking of the marketing activity of nearly 200 leading law accounting and consulting firms in 2009.  Those firms delivered over 70,000 marketing communications items such as press releases, articles, whitepapers, webinars, conference speeches etc.  That’s more than 250 new attempts to gain clients’ attention and interest every single business day.

Essentially, clients are likely suffering from too many messages, dispersed too widely across too many information channels. Clients are already bombarded as consumers – now they’re getting the same overload in their business lives! They are, as a consequence, missing information about the genuinely relevant and powerful insights firms have to offer.

So what to do?

Here are some key questions to answer, and keep on answering, as a means of focusing a firm’s “media” programming:

1. Who is our audience?
2. Which issues do they care about?
3. In which subject areas do we genuinely have something relevant and insightful to say?
4. How do we comment in a way that distinguishes us from our competitors? (Of course that means we need to know what their media programming is!)
5. Which media sources does our target audience pay attention to?
6. In what format do our target audience members like to get their media these days (print, web, audio, video, bite size, in-depth analysis)? Are they open to something new or different?
7. In the age of Google how will clients find our programming?
8. How will we know if anyone read, listened to, or watched what we had to say?

In the age of information overload, it’s crucial to learn to use information in a smart, tailored way.  In a crowded marketplace, indiscriminately firing “content” into the marketplace is unlikely to deliver meaningful results.  Just like mainstream media and advertisers, professional services firms need to spend time carefully gathering market and competitive intelligence that will guide their activities. They need to consider very carefully not only which media outlets to target, but exactly how to target them. They also need to be willing to experiment and try new things.

While this may sound daunting the upside is that this new environment creates opportunities for highly specialized niche programming.  With careful planning and execution they can turn their firm’s thought leaders into media stars within their chosen fields.

Of particular note is the increased participation of accounting and consulting firms in recent months as the prospects of policy becoming law increase.

If you are focused on serving the Health Care industry, are you part of the conversation?

Chris Koch over at ITSMA (the IT Services Marketing Association) suggests that “Thought Leadership is Dead“. While I wouldn’t go that far (indeed many professional services firms are still producing high quality, research based content that would meet the standard of thought leadership) I certainly agree that the term “thought leadership” has been used and abused.

The “problem” with thought leadership stems from the diversity of content that professional services firms publish and how that content informs, educates and engages clients and prospects. Firms produce newsletters, client alerts, white papers, research studies, podcasts as well as share insights and expertise via conference speaking, webcasts and through the media. This activity covers a wide range of topics from a variety of perspectives. The majority of this content is almost certainly not thought leadership. But that doesn’t mean that those activities aren’t worthwhile.

Firms can provide value to their clients and prospects in a number of ways, such as:

• keeping them up to date on news and developments relevant to their business and roles
• helping them understand the implications of those developments and suggesting potential courses of action
• sharing their insights and expertise on handling other issues and challenges that arise in the regular course of business

This material will rarely be cutting edge.  It may be relaying information that is readily available elsewhere and providing guidance that is accepted wisdom or simply good practice.  Clients and prospects may be receiving similar content from competing firms.  But this information still plays a useful role as a resource for clients and prospects as well as reminding them that you have the knowledge and expertise to help when the need arises.

Thought leadership moves beyond this by using original research, analysis or perspectives to generate new thinking on a topic or issue.  It should stimulate clients thinking by challenging their assumptions and helping them  to see issues in a new light.  Ideally it will trigger a conversation – but as a minimum it should register your firm as thought leaders in the minds of clients.

So thought leadership, when done right, can play a vital role in building client relationships and growing the reputation of the firm.  But thought leadership should be recognized as a component of the client relationship and marketing process not some kind of higher plane that if attained obviates the need for “lower” level activities.  Firms should resist the temptation to badge everything they produce as thought leadership (muddying the waters for true thought leadership) and recognize there is also client value in the “blocking and tackling” fundamentals of producing client focused content.

We spend a lot of time on law firm and other leading professional services firms websites as part of our research activities.

During our online travels we’ve noted some relatively basic issues from the “user” perspective that at best are putting firms in a bad light and at worst are losing those firms potentially high value client leads.  Here are some of the common issues we encounter:

Broken links/missing content. A very common issue (and there are simple tools to monitor this).  I can think of few things worse from a website marketing perspective than to have content that a potential client is interested in not actually be available.  It’s the online equivalent of failing to turn up for a meeting or return a phone call with a prospect or client.

Non-functioning content databases. Similar to the issue above.  For example I got the following error yesterday from a top 25 law firm when trying to access their client alerts – it’s still broken today.

Server Error in ‘/’ Application. Request timed out. Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code. Exception Details: System.Web.HttpException: Request timed out. Source Error: An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below. Stack Trace: [HttpException (0x80004005): Request timed out.]

Navigation and Search. Helping users navigate to relevant content based on their issues, their terms (i.e. taxonomy) and their thought process rather than how the firm compartmentalizes its practices and content would be a big step forward. Search on most websites (not just law firms) is pretty bad but there are good practices and excellent technology out there for those willing to invest in the user experience.

Firms invest significant dollars in their websites and the content (newsletters, webinars, whitepapers etc.) that is posted to those websites. Failing to make that content readily accessible is a potentially huge waste of those investment dollars.

Poor website housekeeping may be punching a big hole in your lead generation pipeline.

Is your website leaking $$?

New York, NY, May 26, 2009 - Llesiant, the technology leader in on-demand executive intelligence, and Muzeview, a competitive intelligence and research firm for professional service companies, today announced they had joined forces to create the most extensive and easily-navigated knowledge base of thought leadership from top management experts, journalists, and commentators around the globe.

Called Executive Insight, this customizable service draws on Muzeview’s collection of more than 60,000 thought leadership items (white papers, surveys and articles, podcasts, Webinars and blogs) from 120 leading law, accounting and consulting firms, including Accenture, Baker & McKenzie, CapGemini, Clifford Chance, Deloitte, IBM, McKinsey and Mercer. The service also incorporates management news and analysis gathered by Llesiant from more than 40,000 newspapers, magazines, academic journals, newswires, and other research sources worldwide. The combined database includes an archive of information going back two years.

By combining Llesiant’s broad range of global business news gathering and analysis tools with Muzeview’s meticulously collected thought leadership content, executives can now track the latest management trends, as presented by leading professional service firms, academic institutions, and business publications. This unique, web-based, intelligence tool gives executives instant access to an unparalleled knowledge base of thought leadership and allows them to filter the content in a more precise way than possible with conventional search engines.

“By joining forces with Muzeview and using the latest technology, we are able to provide one-stop access to the best management thinking in the world, even nuggets of wisdom buried deep in the Web,” said Lou Celi, President and Chief Operating Officer of Llesiant. “Not only does this service offer an extraordinary source of management analysis and best practice to senior executives, it also provides unique competitive intelligence to professionals trying to reach them.”

To meet the needs of busy executives, Llesiant’s next-generation software tailors the filtering of thought leadership precisely to the specifications of the executive end-user: by company, industry, topic, country, content source, or even competitor. Further, it formats the filtered content in any executive format – from custom alerts, newsletters, and dashboards to microsites, intranets, and extranets.

Executives will be able to use the database to:

• Examine latest management trends and topics that will affect their business.
• Identify corporate best practice and competitive strategies in key industries.
• Benchmark their management approaches with other leading corporations.
• Track the latest management thinking in their area of expertise or corporate function.
• Prepare in-depth reports or presentations incorporating latest research.
• Monitor thought leadership initiatives of professional service firms.

“In a challenging economy, executives need the most relevant and up-to-date intelligence to help them make the right decisions,” said Paul Gladen, President of Muzeview. “Our joint offering with Llesiant will greatly enhance the ability of business, government, and non-profit managers to access relevant commentary from the world’s leading law, accounting, and consulting firms. This partnership also offers professional service firms the potential to position their thought leadership in front of the right decision makers at precisely the right time.”

“We are delighted to be working with Muzeview,” added Lou Celi. “We see this new management database as yet another important addition to our Thought Leadership 2.0 portfolio of services.”

About MUZEVIEW, LLC
Muzeview is a research and consulting firm, helping clients grow by converting market and competitive intelligence into decisions and actions. Muzeview’s clients are primarily professional services firms, but also include clients from outside the professional services sector who understand the importance of market trends and ideas and of demonstrating insights and expertise as part of their sales and marketing activities. Based in Missoula, Montana, Muzeview is living proof that in the age of globalization it’s not where you are but what you know and how you do it that matters. For more information, visit www.muzeview.com.

About LLESIANT
Llesiant (www.llesiant.com) is a technology leader in organizing, filtering and delivering intelligence for business and government. Llesiant offers Relevance 3.0, a next-generation platform for both providers and users of information. Llesiant’s platform includes an automatic content indexing service, a comprehensive taxonomy of business, law and government, a patent-pending taxonomical search engine, and a custom publishing tool that supports multiple formats and syndicates over 40,000 global and local sources of information. Llesiant is a software-as-a-service company headquartered in Austin, Texas with offices in New York City and representatives nationwide. www.llesiant.com # # #

If you would like more information about this service, please call Jeremy Eagle at 646-786-1866 or email at jeremy.eagle@llesiant.com

Or

For Muzeview, please contact Helen Atkinson at 718-288-5833 or email at helenatkinsonPR@gmail.com

But the reality is this is happening and it’s happening more often and in many more ways than you may have realized.  In today’s hyper-connected world professional services firms can be talking to your clients 24×7.  Consider the following scenarios:

• A GC is reading WilmerHale’s alert “EU Proposal on Regulation of Alternative Investment Fund Management” while on a trans-Atlantic flight
• A CFO has logged into Deloitte’s tax webcast “U.S. and Canada: Bridging the Great Divide“
• A head of HR is listening to Mercer’s podcast on “Preventive steps an important part of H1N1 response” while driving into work
• A CTO is rubbing shoulders with consultants from Tata Consultancy Services at the “Houston CIO Executive Summit“
• A CEO is reflecting on the Harvard Business Review article by Bain consultants Eric Almquist and Jason Lee entitled “What do customers really want?“
• A Chief Risk Officer just got a Linkedin connection request from an old colleague who is now a risk management consultant at Protiviti

Any one of these executives might be influenced to pick up the phone, send an e-mail or at least be open to a meeting with one of these firms that has demonstrated they understand the client’s business issues – and have insights on how to help the client succeed.

“Only the Paranoid Survive”

As Intel founder Andy Grove famously said “only the paranoid survive“.  In a competitive marketplace law, accounting and consulting firms need to proactively gather competitive intelligence and respond to the marketing and relationship development moves of their competitors. Begin by asking some of the following questions:

• Do we know what our client’s key issues are?
• Do we know which of our key competitors are talking about those issues?
• Are they talking about the same issues as us?
• Do we have something relevant and different to say?
• Are they talking about different issues?  If so, should we be talking about them too?
• Are there issues we’ve spotted that no one else is addressing?
• Are our competitors doing a better job than us of talking in the language of the client’s industry and business?
• Have we considered that other professionals (who are not our direct competitors) are offering solutions to the client’s overall business problem that marginalize our involvement as advisors (and reduce our fee potential)? For example, who is a client with an employee pensions issue talking to? Their CPA? Their employment attorney? Or a benefits specialist from a consulting firm such as Mercer or Watson Wyatt?
• Do we know where (physically, in print, and online) our competitors are communicating their insights?  Do we know which of these venues our clients frequent?
• Do we know which professionals are building a name for themselves as true thought leaders in our key specialties?
• Is our thought leadership leading? Are our communications, speaking engagements, digital media and other relationship development activities putting us front of mind or behind the curve?

Firms that fail to get answers to these questions risk waking up one day to discover their nightmare is real.  And it may end up being worse than they imagined.  They may find their prized client isn’t just talking to another firm but working with that other firm on an important new engagement.

Rest assured that other firm didn’t get there by chance.

Are you leaving your client relationships to chance?

It’s now 4pm.  Do you know who’s talking to your clients?

Thought provoking post and comments on Kevin O’Keefe’s “Real Lawyers Have Blogs” blog on whether a law firm needs a website.

You can read my thought on the topic there too.

We were certainly of the opinion that law firm websites matter when we created the Law Firm Web Presence Index – and the response from law firm marketers since we began publishing  has helped confirm that thought. But recent survey by Wicker Park Group of the web habits of general in-house counsel provides even more definitive evidence of the importance of law firm’s websites:

“100% of respondents indicated that they always review a firm’s website when evaluating and purchasing legal services”

Read the rest of their release here, which also highlights the importance of having a website with compelling content.

Rob Leavitt at “Reputation to Revenue” has a couple of great posts on thought leadership.  I couldn’t make  the points any better than Rob does, so I heartily recommend you head on over…

Thought Leadership IS Business Development, or at least it can be

Stress Test for Thought Leadership: Are you ready?

Feedback from the session was very good so I hope you’ll take the time to tune in (although apparently my audio volume was a bit low from time to time – sorry about that….).