Sun 12 Feb 2006

It’s not rocket science. So why do so many firms fail to join up their marketing and recruitment strategies, ask Phil Jepson and Tim Percival
Unless they are purely opportunistic, law firms develop marketing strategies based on achieving growth by winning new business from existing clients and new business from new clients. Obviously, unless the firm has significant overcapacity, this will generate the need for new people and new skill sets, for one or more of these reasons:
· to cope with increased volume;
· to offer new or specialist services;
· to provide the right level of credibility to attract the work;
· to provide the right level of experience to service the work effectively.

Firms cannot afford to let the ink dry on their marketing strategy without doing a recruitment ‘reality check’. It won’t work if the right people can’t be found. Some of the most successful firms have built up their practices from a low base by concentrating on their recruitment strategy. A major UK firm had no more strategic direction, a few years ago, than deciding on going for a ‘flight to quality’. They hired the best they could find, and work followed – in droves. It is better to have a clearer idea of your own marketing strategy, but this demonstrates what can be achieved through good recruitment alone.

There are clear benefits from dialogue between those responsible for business development and those responsible for recruitment. It gives direction to the recruitment process and performs a reality check on marketing ambitions. It is better still if recruiters are involved in discussions leading to formation of strategy for business development.
Through this dialogue your recruiters can:
· inform you about the recruitment market and to what extent the strategic aims of the firm are feasible in recruitment terms;
· provide insight into the strengths and weaknesses of competitors.

Law firms spend between 2-10% of their fee income on marketing. The priority for this spend is usually to develop reputation and win more business. Yet many marketing people and partners dismiss, for example, the importance of legal trade publications, conferences and training media when it comes to communications and PR efforts. While the client audience may not be strong, the recruitment audience – your potential employees or partners – is very strong there.

Marketing can be directed to raise profile in priority for recruitment areas. If a new recruitment strategy involves attracting personnel of a higher or different grade than in the past, a partnership between HR and Marketing to produce a communications campaign aimed at potential recruits can be tremendously successful. It is much easier to recruit in a particular business area if the firm is known for or has a reputation for that type of work. Less directly, but more imaginatively, one large regional practice recently made strides in its recruitment programme by aiming to attract city lawyers into the countryside by communicating the lifestyle benefits of joining.

It may not be rocket science, but there are real advantages to weaving together your marketing and recruitment strategies, and getting the marketing team and recruiters to work in support of each other. Take expert advice.

This article was written by Tim Percival (Business Development Director, Keoghs) and Phil Jepson. It was originally published by In Brief Magazine in 2002.