Building a Better Mousetrap: A Model for a Lawyer’s Business Plan
By Steve Nelson

As a legal search consultant, I have often advised lawyers on how to prepare a business plan. For lawyers contemplating a move into a law firm, particularly from government, such a plan is almost de rigueur, as firms need to be convinced that this particular attorney has the ability and the desire to develop business in a competitive market. But lawyers contemplating making a move should not be the only ones who should be developing such a plan. Given the increasing emphasis that firms are putting on business development, such plans should be written or revised by all experienced lawyers in private practice, whether they be mid-level associates or partners. Indeed, some firms are including yearly preparation of such plans in their professional development programs.

This article will outline a five-step methodology that can result not only in an effective business plan, but also can offer a head-start for practice articles and presentations that lawyers can use in marketing themselves.

1. Why Will They Buy?
Unfortunately, many of the business plans that we see have a misplaced emphasis. Lawyers tend to begin those plans in a self-directed way: what skills do I have to offer, or what will I do to develop business?

It may be useful to analogize this to the old standby low-tech product, the mousetrap. It would make no sense to market a mousetrap by emphasizing its particular mechanism. Consumers are not likely to be interested in the intricacies of mousetrap technology. Instead, they will buy a mousetrap when they believe that (a) they have a rodent problem and (b) a mousetrap will solve it.

Rather than falling into the trap of trying to sell what they are, lawyers first have to focus on the needs of the consumers of legal services. Therefore, legal business plans should first address the legal issues driving the market, written from a client’s perspective.
This should be a general outline of the issues that clients in general face, rather than a full analysis of a particular issue. For example, a telecommunications regulatory lawyer might need to talk about the convergence of various technologies ant the fact that historical barriers to entry into lines of business have all but broken down.

2. Who Will Buy?
This portion of the business plan focuses further on who (what companies or individuals) are clients or potential clients, and what they care about with respect to the issues raised above. (In other words, who has a rodent problem and what are they looking for in a solution?)

The plan needs to be specific enough to catch a prospective client’s attention. As a result, the abovementioned telecommunications regulatory lawyer may need to analyze the aspects of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that affect local exchange carriers, a white-collar defense lawyer may need to delve into compliance issues faced by health care companies, and a corporate/securities lawyer may point out issues that private companies may be ignoring when they prepare for an initial public offering.

3. What Will They Buy?
In many ways, this is the toughest part of the business plan. Here we are trying to determine what kind of mousetrap will best solve the customers’ rodent problem. Again, putting oneself in the clients’ shoes, the lawyer needs to ask: What expertise is the client looking for?

This part of the plan should focus on what attribute the client should look for when making hiring decisions.

This, of course, will be keyed to the individual lawyer’s expertise or background, and may emphasize why previous service in the government might be helpful to the client, or why experience on a particular type of deal is critical. But one should not stray into a selling mode yet.

For more junior lawyers, this section might have to focus more on what the client is looking to get from a firm, rather than from an individual. This is advisable not only because many associates have not yet developed the wealth of expertise to fully answer the “why they buy” question, but also for political reasons.

4. Why Will They Buy It From You?
Finally, we get the recitation of the personal attributes of the lawyer - of how his or her mousetrap matches up perfectly to the customer’s requirements. This should be an honest forthright description of the background and expertise of the lawyer. A few hints here:

• Avoid academic-related accomplishments that might have impressed firms during the hiring process, but which generally do not impress clients.
• Include organizational activities that might be relevant, such as American Bar Association positions or outside networking activities. Clients often find such activities not only relevant, but also indicative of the stature of the profession. They also are impressed with lawyers’ involvement with the industry group.
• Include any involvement with issues of importance to the client base, including former government service.
• Don’t mention the competition. This may seem obvious, but we’ve seen business plans that seek to insert the author into an elite group of attorneys practicing in the field. Not only does this appear arrogant, but it runs the risk of offending someone who feels that some of the members of the elite group don’t belong there.

5. How Do You Get Them To Buy It From You?
This step addresses how we get customer’s attention and convince them our mousetrap is the ideal solution. Another misperception that we see in legal business plans is an overemphasis on networking. Networking is only an initial stage in the marketing process. So becoming active in a local technology committee may pay off down the road, but really should only constitute a minor aspect of a business development plan. Instead, this section of the business plan should focus on a plan to communicate with prospective clients so they can learn more about why they need to buy “your mousetrap,” and why they need to buy it from you. Speaking and writing engagements are of course central to this strategy, but one has to determine where to speak and where to write. This is where the “Who Will Buy” analysis can be helpful.

But formal speaking and writing assignments are just part of the equation. One can get as much value by being quoted in newspaper and magazine articles as writing them. A business plan should include a strategy on how to be helpful to reporters writing articles (suggesting angles for stories, etc.).

In addition, in this era of e-mail and the internet, there are now more ways to get a message across to prospective clients. The business plan should address such vehicles as direct mail, newsletters, email listserves, and internet postings as methods to communicate with clients.

As a complement to this section, a prospect list should be prepared. While this should include client contacts where there is an existing personal or business relationships, the list should also include other individuals/companies that have a significant interest in the issues that have been outlined in the business plan.

A business plan is not just a recitation of where someone will speak, or what articles they will write. It is an integrated document that serves as The State of the Union for someone’s practice area. If done properly, it can provide some guidance as to where to focus marketing efforts both for the individual, and for the firm involved. Moreover, a good business plan can make the job of preparing substantive articles or presentations much easier, because much of the work will already be done.

Steve Nelson is Managing Principal at The McCormick Group, an Arlington, VA-based executive search firm. This article was originally published in the May 2000 edition of the Professional Development Quarterly. Steve can be reached at 703.841.1700 or at snelson@tmg-dc.com.