By Nick Weston and Barry M. Schneider

Mr. Weston leads the firm of Nicholas Weston, Lawyers & Trade Marks Attorneys, in Melbourne, Australia. His major practice areas – litigation & arbitrations, trade marks, commercial, land and private client services – address both business and personal needs. He is a member of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center’s List of Arbitrators and Mediators and also the Center’s Domain Name Panel. He can be reached at mail@nicholasweston.com or +61 1300 132 551.

Mr. Schneider is a principal with SAGE PDI, Inc. (www.sagelawyermarketing.com), and a veteran business development advisor for lawyers and law firms, as well as other professionals. The editor-in-chief of Originate!, he can be reached at bschneider@sageprofessional.com or 214-315-3212.

Nick Weston knows all the mistakes you can make in business development, and then some.

Back in 2005, as the head of a new boutique IP firm based in Melbourne, Australia, he muddled through the business development side of things. He was a good lawyer and at first that seemed enough. But he realized that a lot of things were wrong with that notion…the kinds of work he was doing, the motley mix of clients, the waste of time and money on sporadic activity, too broad a practice…and too narrow.

So he learned how to change all this, a bit by looking around for good lessons, but mainly by the hard lessons of trial and error.  His firm, Nicholas Weston, has now been ranked two years running (2008 and 2009) by the World Survey from Managing Intellectual Property Magazine for 'Trade Mark Prosecution' and 'Trade Mark Contentious'.

Preparing to Originate So who are you? Clarify and offer up your distinctive and most valuable expertise. Making it real: don’t tell them, show them what you can do. Deflating the big tent: dedicate yourself to niches where you can shine. We must be doing well; we’re pretty busy: upgrade the mix and the pipeline to stay healthy. Let’s do what the other guys are doing, and we’ll be fine: don’t waste money on imitative marketing. The local, not the express: go beyond the immediate borders of your practice. Don’t be such a gentleman: let them know what you can do. Try leveraging: expand options by working with others.

Here is what he had to say about eight errors he used to make in marketing (THEN) and how he’s changed his ways (NOW). Perhaps by his good example, you can avoid suffering through many of these errors yourself.

1. So who are you?

THEN

We were unable to articulate what we did. We kept looking at ourselves from an inward-looking technical standpoint: we do legal work; we do transactions and litigation, we are pro-active fixers. But we hardly made it clear to ourselves, let alone our potential clients, what kind of clients we were looking for and why they should want to hire us.

NOW

It took a while but we realized we had something special to offer in the IP area, a truly distinctive set of skills and experience, a group of appreciative clients and some real expertise. Now we are tightly focused as “commercial and litigation lawyers who get IP, without the price-points of the big firms.”

That’s turned into a strong value statement for us:

The firm cultivates its reputation as a powerhouse niche firm able to handle complex work, but with a lower cost base than large firms, and no difference in quality. The firm has extensive experience in national and international matters. Our comprehensive business practice cuts across the "top-tier" practice area mind-set to provide complete solutions without over-servicing or double handling.

Now, no one has to wonder what we do best and the value they will get from us.

2. Making it real

THEN

That technical inward looking point-of-view held us back from truly differentiating ourselves. We used to just say we were qualified, by telling others, in effect, “By the way, all our lawyers are also qualified trademarks attorneys.” As if that told any meaningful story at all, particularly about our culture of taking the work very seriously but not ourselves.

NOW

We now make ourselves different by USING these qualifications…not telling, but showing. In our marketing, we show how our unique experiences enable us to deliver legal help of great value to our clients. We make the benefits real in terms our prospective clients can apply to themselves. We try to deliver this information in a way that is almost enjoyable, or at least, as painless as possible because that is the same way we like to work.

For example, the firm began using WebTMS, a client-centric browser-based trade marks portfolio management application that features the same infrastructure powering major US and UK law firms, and Fortune 500 corporate IP departments.

Plus, we make our qualifications real by delivering thought leadership in pieces we present on our blog and other outlets. We publish the Australian Trade Marks Law Blog (via Lexblog) to communicate with U.S. law firms and others seeking a reliable source of information and commentary on Australian Trade Marks. Many of these articles are re-published through content aggregators Lexology and Mondaq which feed customized legal intelligence to corporate counsel law departments and law firms. The articles range from formal case summaries to whimsical pieces such as the “Nicholas Weston Tattooed Brands Global Survey 2009.” The survey gained coverage in national daily newspapers and various legal publications, then went viral on international IP related websites and blogs.

3. Deflating the big tent

THEN

Another failing was our just being way too broad and general in the type of clients we sought out. We realized we were working for lenders, developers, mom and pop stores, but our best clients were none of these. We were chasing business for the sake of business; mostly we were chasing our tails.

NOW

We finally understood we were a boutique practice, different from most small firms because of a specialized and sophisticated know-how. So we narrowed our attention to those companies whose in-house people were highly educated buyers of legal services, those who could appreciate the difference we brought. We realized also that our best clients came from specific industries, particularly in the creative and technology sectors and sectors being transformed by technology. So we determined to dedicate all our marketing efforts to those niches, those industries and buyers where we could be a valued player, not just a plain vanilla one.

4. We must be doing well; we’re pretty busy.

THEN

We felt very content to have a lot of work to do, but it really was work for a single client, one who represented 70% of the practice. And that meant a lot of our eggs were stuffed into one basket; the risk was enormous. Even worse, busy with one client, we ended up stuck at our desks doing the work, just as if we were their in-house lawyers who didn’t need to worry about where the next piece of work was coming from.

NOW

We had to build the practice up, with a goal of ensuring that no one client represented more than 20% of our work. That meant focusing on the “in” end of the pipeline in two sectors: trademarks and technology, and putting on good people to build capacity. Then we got away from the desk and began to work our connections, while doing a number of activities to generate leads.

Some examples of what we did to change our mix:

• Asked our ‘frequent filers’ to refer one medium sized, closely held business (like them) to us;
• Visited existing clients for whom we had acted in discrete matters and took them through our skill sets in other practice areas;
• Started a newsletter to flag issues and tell clients about our successes;
• Increased our commitment to pro bono, by agreeing to serve as chairman and legal back-up for novel charity Karma Currency Foundation, an online provider of charitable gift vouchers;
• Strengthened my interface with a core sector and market by agreeing to serve as chairman of bio-pharma Agenix Limited, a company listed with the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) with operations in the US, Singapore and China.
  

5. Let’s do what the other guys are doing, and we’ll be fine

THEN

We figured every lawyer was advertising in the yellow pages so we better do the same. We took out reasonably sized ads there in three adjoining states. In return for this investment, we got just two useless phone calls. That was a clear waste of money, and no wonder when you look at all the other lawyers there who’ve convinced themselves they need to have a shingle out on the yellow pages.

NOW

It turned out that using time wisely, not money, and focusing in on the kind of business we wanted paid off. We didn’t want wasted expenditure, and we certainly didn’t want just any work that wandered over the transom.  The kind of high quality work that valued the qualities we can bring to a client didn’t come that way. It came from meaningful connections with people who could directly see what we brought to the work. And those connections mainly came from building word of mouth referrals via our clients and patiently growing our network of other lawyers and associated professionals.

6. The local, not the express

THEN

When we cultivated referrals, we kept a distinct local/Australian range. Our know-how and reach seemed limited to this country. But that meant we were missing high-quality business as it was really conducted, across borders and globally.

NOW

The only way to operate, we realized, was in an international context. Accordingly, we redefined the scope of our trade marks practice as a premier Australian and International Trade Marks Programme.  We then expanded our reputation and connections in various ways. First, through our blog and republishing of articles, we got word out about our expertise. Then we built up our global networks by participating very actively in some key associations, and further sharing our expertise. These included:

• International Trademark Association (INTA), with more than 5,800 member companies and firms from more than 190 countries (where I serve on the ADR External Partnering Subcommittee);
• ITechLaw, a worldwide organization providing educational and networking opportunities in technology law; and
• the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center. In 2008 I managed to be appointed a member of the Center’s List of Arbitrators and Mediators as well as to the Center’s Domain Name Panel. WIPO is an agency of the United Nations promoting an effective global IP system. As a Domain Name Panelist I gain high visibility and contacts by deciding disputes under the “Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy” (UDRP) and the “.au Dispute Resolution Policy” (auDRP) the mandatory arbitration procedures for deciding competing claims to domain names, to determine whether a domain name registration should be transferred, cancelled or the status quo maintained.
  

7. Such a gentleman

THEN

It is fair to say that I was quite reserved, not willing to take a chance on a business development opportunity or to engage in self-promotion. I am not shy but simply figured that good work would become known, and word would spread without my pushing myself and my firm forward.

NOW

From “reserved” I moved to “pro-active” and am now “shameless.” I don’t hesitate to underscore my firm’s qualifications and experience when the situation arises. And I seek out opportunities to make the business case for hiring us even stronger. It’s not a question of vulgar bragging, but a realization that:

• others can’t know what you can do for them unless you actually make a polite point of telling them,
• clients and prospects actually expect you to make your value clear, and
• if you can articulate yourself in a way that can be understood and get your name in front of them several times, you will be top-of-mind when they have a need for your esteemed services.

Did I mention that I am from Nicholas Weston Lawyers & Trade Marks Attorneys, email: mail@nicholasweston.com, telephone +61 1300 132 551?

8. Leveraging

THEN

All our efforts were by our people and using our own people. So we kept bumping up into the limits of our own contact base and clients, and the limits of our own conservative imaginations when it came to good marketing ideas.

NOW

The jury is still out on this one, but we’re just gearing up co-marketing efforts with others. As an example, Nicholas Weston acts for a few large industry associations and buying groups, so receiving an introduction to their members and an endorsement from head office has become a fertile source of new business.

Making Your Mark

Perhaps now you can move on, with my mistakes in mind, and keep from too much error in your personal marketing. Or perhaps you’ll just be empowered to make your own monumental blunders and egregious mistakes, more advanced even than these.

But the key thing is to keep trying and, most of all, observe what is happening in your practice with a critical, lawyerly eye. Treat your business development as you would a legal argument. Look for impact and effectiveness, keep it focused, and critique yourself severely. Market habitually. I learned as a young rower to work on the process and the result will take care of itself: if it is not working, consider where you are doing wrong…and start doing something different and better. That way, in the future, you won’t find that your THEN is still your NOW.

© 2009 PBDI/SAGE PDI. This article comes from the August 2009 Issue of ORIGINATE!, the online monthly newsletter (with ongoing support resources) dedicated to helping individual lawyers develop business successfully in order to build their careers. Our September 2008 anniversary issue is complimentary; otherwise articles are usually available to subscribers only. Find out more about subscribing at www.pbdi.org/originate.