Marketing a Litigation Support / eDiscovery Department within a Law Firm: The “Marketing Mind-Set”, Part 2
October 12, 2011
Last week, we started talking about the right “marketing mind-set” for a litigation support / eDiscovery department. Here are a couple more mind-set adjustments you may need to make:
- Stop thinking of your group as a department within a law firm. Instead, think of your group as a “stand-alone business” – specifically, a service business.
- Stop thinking of the attorneys and paralegals in the firm as your co-workers. Think of them as your clients.
There’s a really good reason for thinking like this:
It’s appropriate for a litigation support department.
Unlike other departments in the firm, attorneys can choose whether to use your department or not. Unlike most other departments in the firm, you have competition. Attorneys can’t go outside the firm to have invoices generated. They have to use the firm’s accounting department. They can, however, go outside the firm for litigation support services. They can turn to consultants and litigation support / eDiscovery service and product providers. You need to take steps to ensure that your department is their first choice.
What does this mean – to operate as a stand alone business -- in practice? There are three key things you need to do:
- Stay focused on promoting your offerings to litigators in the firm – both litigators who are using your services and litigators who are not yet using your department.
- Make it very easy and painless for your clients to work with you.
- Stay focused on delivering premier customer service to your clients.
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to give you tips and suggestions in each of these areas.
We’d really like your input on how you’ve approached marketing in your firm. How much marketing do you do, and what’s worked well for you? Please share any comments you might have or let us know if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.
