LMA Strategies - May/June 2017 - 22

to the partnership. This helps candidates
better understand what is expected of them
and how they will be measured. It can also
help protect a CMO from being pulled in
too many directions by individual partners
as they assume the role.

Clients, Clients, Clients
While each firm might articulate a CMO's
objectives differently, a pervasive trend is
that firms want someone who drives revenue and profitability. This is reflected in
the increasing use of "BD" or "client" in job
titles, such as chief business development
officer and chief client officer. It is also
evident in CMO job descriptions that define
the role's primary objectives as acquiring
new clients, growing fees from existing
clients and increasing profitability.

mann, a legal consultant and partner at
Zeughauser Group. Highly profitable firms
are focused on targeted client development
as a strategic priority, and successful CMOs
are driving those efforts.
"Identifying clients of strategic importance and helping to grow their size,
strength and profitability across the platform is the most meaningful opportunity
most CMOs have to directly influence sales
and the firm's financial performance," Zimmermann says.

What About Marketing and
Communications?
As client development and profitable
growth move to the top of the list, I fear that
some firms are starting to see areas such
as marcom and PR as "hygiene" activities

More than ever before, CMOs are at the
table or even leading their firms in strategic
planning. The pressure can be intense and
the rewards substantial.
In fact, most CMOs I speak with want to
focus more intently on clients and profitable
growth, but they also need to juggle many
other responsibilities across the marketing,
BD and communications mix - not to
mention the effort they need to put into developing and managing their talent. CMOs
are therefore well positioned to see how all
the different components of marketing, BD
and communications should come together
to achieve revenue and profitability results.
CMOs who have the most traction at
their firms have moved away from "keeping
the trains running on time" type of tasks,
such as planning events and managing
social media, according to Kent Zimmer22

that are not directly attributable to revenue
generation and therefore not top priorities
for their CMOs. These firms may not fully
appreciate that a broad range of marketing
and communications plays an important
role in enabling deep client relationships.
For example, thought leadership, traditional
and social media coverage, rankings and
client events - just to name a few - all
contribute to shifting the perceptions of a
firm and potentially increasing consideration of its lawyers, among both current
and prospective clients. The key, in my
view, is for firm leadership to align this
broad range of activities toward a common
set of business development objectives.

STRATEGIES / THE JOURNAL OF LEGAL MARKETING ◾ MAY / JUNE 2017

By contrast, companies tend not to look
at "BD" in the same way that law firms do.
"Corporations usually have marketing, sales
and communications as distinct functions,"
says Laura Saklad, chief administrative officer of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.
One of the reasons that CMO positions are
hard to fill and turn frequently is because
of the range of demands on their time and
vast skillsets they need.
"It's hard for one person to perform at
the highest level across all these areas,"
Saklad says.
As a result, Orrick broke the traditional
CMO responsibility into three distinct roles:
chief client officer, head of global strategic
marketing and chief communications officer.
All three report to Saklad and work closely
with the firm's chair. "We're finding that
these three roles, collaborating closely with
partners in senior leadership and with one
another, are able to really drive meaningful
progress," Saklad says.

So You Wanna be a CMO?
I think it's a good time to pursue a law
firm CMO role. With all of the change and
upheaval in the industry, firms need to
focus on strategy and respond to changing market conditions. This isn't just about
competitive positioning and desired growth,
it's about survival. More than ever before,
CMOs are at the table or even leading their
firms in strategic planning. The pressure
can be intense and the rewards substantial.
But like building anything of quality, it takes
time and requires patience.
"It doesn't happen in a few months,"
Lamar says. "It's like turning an aircraft
carrier. It could easily take 12 to 18 months
to show traction."

Greg Fleischmann is director of
global marketing at Baker
McKenzie.



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of LMA Strategies - May/June 2017

Contents
LMA Strategies - May/June 2017 - Cover1
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LMA Strategies - May/June 2017 - Cover4
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