The Benefits of an Experience Management Platform

The following is sponsored content from ikaun.

In the LMA webinar titled “How Law Firms Are Leveraging Data for Business Development and Marketing,” Kalisha Crawford, director of marketing and business development at Ropers Majeski, and Jason Noble, president of ikaun, shared practical takeaways on how law firms can leverage their existing resources to drive better business development and marketing initiatives.

It’s no longer enough for law firms to rely on using manual spreadsheets to manage the firm’s experience for requests for proposals (RFPs), pitches, award submissions, and marketing and business development purposes. During the webinar, Crawford and Noble discussed specific ways to automate a law firm’s experience management by using a cost-effective experience management platform (EMP). There are considerable benefits an EMP provides, including, but not limited to:

• Significant time savings: An EMP decreases the time it takes to respond to RFPs and to prepare for pitches, beauty contests, proposals and other marketing and business development outreach.
• Lateral hiring: An EMP can be used to identify and spot patterns and trends in workflow, hours, cases and matters by lawyer. This information can be sorted by type, industry, location, jurisdiction, etc. It can also be used to assess where work is growing; where to focus marketing, messaging and investments; and where new lawyers might be needed.
• Lateral integration: Once new lawyers are hired by a firm, it’s important to implement a lateral integration plan. An EMP can help quickly identify which of the firm’s current lawyers (beyond practice group leaders and members) may have similar clients or complementary experience. Internal introductions can be made early on to facilitate synergies.
• Referral source database and development: Adding lawyers’ top three to five incoming and outgoing referral sources into an EMP allows a firm to track the work sent to various firms and the work originating from outside referral sources, including lawyers and other providers. This information and data are valuable to help nurture and strengthen referral source relationships and to demonstrate and increase reciprocity.
• Panel and client reviews: Annual or periodic meetings are required by some law firm clients, often as part of the clients’ preferred outside counsel panel or the client’s outside counsel guidelines. Law firms using ikaun’s EMP report that they easily track and pull reports for the clients’ KPIs, as well as data on how the firm has performed for their matters and cases — including metrics and other information — in an efficient manner.
• Internal communications: An EMP can be used to efficiently create firmwide newsletters; identify, announce and celebrate wins internally; help prepare for firm meetings, town halls, retreats and practice group meetings; and orchestrate other internal communications initiatives.
• Internal reporting: Tracking RFPs, the number of wins and losses, cases and matters and their revenues that have resulted from each winning proposal is much easier and faster using an EMP, rather than doing so manually. Additionally, most law firm marketers provide reports to firm management — ranging anywhere from weekly to annual in cadence — regarding the results and return on investment (ROI) of RFPs, among other marketing and business development efforts. Using an EMP to compile this information can aid in staying organized and ultimately save time in creating such reports.
• Firm operations: Because EMPs can be tied to the firm’s time and billing systems and financial platforms, law firm leaders and marketers can quickly see which lawyers may be working too many hours and which lawyers could use more work. Leaders can then make an informed decision and act accordingly.
• Strategic planning: An EMP vastly enriches the strategic planning process, as most firm-related information is available in an easy-to-use dashboard. In addition, an EMP allows law firms to detect possible issues that could negatively impact client relationships and firm income. For example, an EMP can show revenue patterns for key clients over time. If a key client’s work or realization is reducing, identifying that fact quickly is critical so the firm can act or adjust accordingly.

To learn more about the benefits of an EMP, as well as best practices for data management to make more informed decisions for business development initiatives, watch the webinar here. For more information, please contact Jason Noble, president of ikaun, at jason@ikaun.com.

If you plan to attend the 28th Annual Marketing Partner Forum (Aug. 18–20, 2021) or the 2021 LMA Annual Conference (October 22-24, 2021), please reach out to or connect with Jason Noble; ikaun is a sponsor of both events!