In-house Panelists Rebuff Lawyer Marketing

Last April 25, the Virginia Lawyers Weekly hosted the third in their series of Breakfast and Business Law sessions where a panel of in-house counsel face an audience of lawyers interested in their business and discuss what makes them hire (or fire) lawyers and law firms.

Deborah Elkins’ fine coverage is right here. She reviews the conversation and her information is valuable, if not particularly different from what we hear generally at presentations like these in various forms. In-house counsel differ individually, but corporate legal services buyers have remarkably consistent characteristics among the services and professionals they consume.

The most startling revelation of this particular set of in-house counsel to me was their admission that they were very difficult, if not downright impossible, to get in front of to pitch our services. Not only do they have disdain for the various marketing tools that many of us produce and champion, but they are insulated from new lawyers and firms by the press of current business, their own staff and the way they buy services, generally by Request for Proposal or other administrative procurement processes.

The only positive suggestions centered on the activity in industry groups and the ability of lawyers to penetrate those groups with expertise through presentations and publications. In this way, it was very much an “old school” mentality, where the encounter of knowledge demonstration could produce inclusion in the next stage of buying behavior. However, it does reinforce that there is no substitute for face-to-face marketing, despite the convenience and speed of relationship building through social media.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Don’t you agree?