Berbay's Blog: Marketing for law firms, engineers, CPAs, architects and other professional services

I recently attended a two-day “AE Bootcamp 2.0” workshop in Las Vegas, organized by the Agency Management Roundtable, which was designed to teach account executives strategy development and client problem solving.  I’ve outlined a few take-away’s below:

• What do your clients expect of you?  During the workshop, there was a lot of discussion on what the client expects from the account executive versus the firm.  After much debate, the workshop coordinators showcased the results of a national survey answering this very question:
  • Industry/market knowledge
  • Making the client’s job easier
  • Organized and dependable
  • Empowerment to make decisions
  • Passion for solving problems
  • Willingness to be treated as a consultant and vendor
  • Don’t learn on the job
• How to be a consultant and not a vendor. Business is built on relationships and there are significant differences between being a consultant for your client and being a vendor.  Consultants take the time to understand a client’s goals and strategically help them accomplish them.  Conversely, a vendor typically provides tactical services that help move that vision forward, but doesn’t act as a strategist.  Below are ways to become a consultant:

 Below are approaches you can implement to be a consultant to your clients: 

• Trust: Perceived as caring intensely about the well-being of clients and their business.
• Manage expectations: Under promise, over deliver.
• Constantly look beyond today: Don’t get stuck in tactical mode, you always need to carve out time to be strategic. 
• Empathize with the CEO: What keeps your client up at night?  How can you create solutions to help solve these problems?

Attending workshops like these serves as a great reminder about what clients expect from you as an account executive, and what they expect from their marketing/PR firm.

What do you think clients expect from you and your firm?

I recently attended an intellectual property law event “Judge’s Night Panel,” co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Intellectual Property Law Association (LAIPLA) and The Judge Paul R. Michel Intellectual Property American Inn of Court. The event afforded the opportunity for intellectual property lawyers to hear perspectives from the other side of the bench.

The panel of judges included:

• The Honorable Milan D. Smith, Jr., Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
• The Honorable Richard A. Paez, Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
• The Honorable S. James Otero, United States District Court for the Central District of California
• The Honorable Andrew J. Guilford, United States District Court for the Central District of California

Questions:

Is there any difference in how they evaluate an Intellectual Property case versus a non-IP case?

• Judge Paez believes that in the Ninth Circuit there is no difference.

• Judge Otero said that in the District Court there is a difference because litigants are willing to spend money which requires early intervention and management by the court. They first look at whether the case has federal jurisdiction. Also, some districts have their own local patent rules and some judges have their own standing rules.

• Judge Guilford of the District Court also says there is a difference. Patent cases present highly technical issues and that there are special things to consider in interpreting a patent case. Patent cases have a greater focus on expert testimony; at times, he thinks there may be too much emphasis on experts.

Why do you always see the same judges on en banc panels? This question was directed to the Ninth Circuit Court judges:

• The same 11 judges are considered for the panel each time. It is an arcane system — like a roulette wheel. Someone throws a spindle and someone cranks the bin. One judge who does the selecting and one judge acts as witness. The chief judge always sits on the en banc panel, but besides that, it’s random. Several judges have been on five panels in a year, and then haven’t been selected for a while.

• The en banc panels are heard every quarter — March, June, September and December. The panel doesn’t discuss the case until after they have heard it.

It seems that a lot of IP decisions are panel-driven. What is the impact of this? This question was directed to those on the Ninth Circuit.

• Judge Smith said that attorneys shouldn’t be concerned about a panel-driven opinion.

• Judge Paez says you should be more concerned about how the panels are constituted. Every time he is with a panel, it is a different make-up.

• Judge Smith minimized this saying in an environmental or in some criminal cases, the panel make-up might make a difference, but in an IP case, he doesn’t think it does.

• Panels are set one year in advance. The cases are distributed randomly to those panels six weeks before the panel is set to begin. Judge Smith said that just because he is in Southern California doesn’t mean he will set be on a panel in this area. The cases are bundled by area, so he could be assigned to Seattle or Alaska.

Should there be specific local rules for patent cases?

• Judge Otero said only 4 of 13 Districts have local patent rules. He is in favor of any rules that help him better manage patent litigation.

• Judge Guilford said that local patent rules would create greater uniformity and predictability. He has his own set of rules he applies. Procedural rules wouldn’t affect the outcome of the cases.

There is a perception that some of the districts’ rules influence the outcome. For instance, in the Northern District of California, there is a perception that the rules favor the alleged patent infringer.

• Judge Otero is concerned that parties are going to go to the District that seem to favor a case.

• Judge Guilford says that one size does not fit all; in some patent cases, the burden of local rules might make it more inefficient.

They also touched on the patent pilot program. There are now five judges, and the cases are randomly assigned. If a judge receives a case that is not on the patent panel, he has 30 days to decide if he wants to refer it to a judge who is part of the patent pilot program.

-By Berbay Principal Sharon Berman

“Great news,” I told my friend. “I’ve been in my first L.A. car accident.”

About a month ago, I was rear-ended on my way to work. Fortunately, no one was hurt and no damage was done, so we exchanged information and parted ways. When I received a voicemail from the other party’s auto insurance company asking me to call them back and confirm that I wouldn’t be filing a claim, I was more than happy to oblige – until I heard the last part of the message:

“Please call me back and reference the incident number: #2312465132132154913454134213…”

No, that’s not the actual incident number. I don’t know the real number because it was roughly twenty digits long and spat out at a rapid-fire pace. But it reminded me of experiences I’ve had with businesses that inadvertently constructed obstacles to communication with potential customers.

That being said, below are three tips to tear down common communication barriers between you and potential clients:

1. Have a “Contact Us” section prominently displayed on your website.
   According to a recent Nielsen report, the average U.S. Internet user views 2,803 web pages a month, and spends just one minute looking at each of them. If a potential client isn’t able to find something useful in under a minute, he or she is very likely to leave your website and visit your competitors instead. To combat this, give your visitors an easy way to contact you in case they have questions, whether you display a link to your information or just simply incorporate it into your page design.
2. Be accessible over the phone.
   How many times have you hung up the phone in frustration after your call was transferred for the fifth time? How many times have you left a message for a person who never called you back? The reality is that the people in need of your services may not always have the time to play phone tag with you. Unless they have a strong reason to pursue your services, potential clients may be inclined to choose a more responsive firm, especially if they are under pressure to secure an offer. From day one, show a client that you are reliable and accessible.
3. Keep track of important information so that potential clients don’t have to.
   If you do need to transfer a lead to another person in your firm, be sure to summarize the situation for your colleague and pass along any notes you may have taken during your initial conversation. Make a copy of this information and keep it on file. Don’t expect the potential client to be able to reference case numbers or recall industry-specific terms. Tracking this information streamlines communication. The potential client begins to view you as their trusted advisor, increasing the chances that they will engage your services.

I still haven’t returned the auto insurance company’s call because they made it difficult for me to communicate with them. Avoid this situation with potential clients by taking time to think about the communication barriers you may have inadvertently constructed.

“Things are getting better and will continue to do so,” was the overall sentiment expressed by a panel of investment bankers at a recent Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) meeting.

“Investment Banking Panel: Examining the M&A Landscape” featured:

John Martin of GE Antares moderated.

A summary follows:

Where do you see the marketplace?

What about financial restructuring?

What are the hot industries?

The panel:

• The U.S. is seeing a pickup in industrial markets, in areas such as auto building products. There is a lot of activity in technology and software.

• In Asia, it’s industrial and tech software that are hot. In China, the hot markets are media and entertainment, and they want to come to the U.S.

• Real estate is out of favor everywhere, as is post-secondary education, which was busy in 2008 and 2009.

• Anything related to the alternative energy markets, such as screens for fracking, is busy. They are seeing huge multiples.

• Food is in favor now; last year it was on the sidelines.

• You have to be in South America. Brazil is a very busy market. They are seeing a lot of deals coming out of Australia.

The panelists’ other thoughts:

The panel:

• When the banks stopped lending, alternative capital stepped in, and is very quickly going where it’s needed.

• Strategic buyers have to be optimistic about their business, if they’re buying another business.

-By Berbay Principal Sharon Berman

Google Places, launched in September 2009, allows business owners to update and manage their physical business location information for free. Google has created this vital tool as a means for businesses to gain exposure to the 97 percent of consumers that are searching for them online. To create Google Places, Google merged its Google Maps service with organic searches (listings on search engine results pages that appear because of their relevance to the search terms, as opposed to being advertisements). Below, we’ve outlined some tips for creating and making the most out of your listing.

How it works. Google Places provides search results for geographical-based search terms. For example, if I use Google’s search engine to look for “bake shop,” Google Places provides me with a number of bake shops located fairly close to me, each with a Places page that brings up its phone number, address, pictures, hours of operation, website, reviews by other Google users, etc.

It’s fast, free, and easy. Getting listed on Google Places only requires three steps. First, submit your information to Google. This should include your basic contact information as well as any videos/photos, if you have them. Second, Google will verify the listing by sending you a postcard or calling you. Third, wait for your listing to show up.

To create your firm’s Places page, Google will crawl the Internet looking for related information from third-party sources such as Yellow Pages or Yelp.

Once your listing is confirmed, you will need to fill out important information regarding your hours of operation, types of payment accepted, and additional details. This not only helps customers get to your page, it also helps with organic rankings by creating a content-rich listing.

It’s that easy? Yes – well, at least it used to be. When Google Places first launched, a business could simply submit a listing and see its name appear in the top local search results within a week. Nearly three years later, businesses have recognized the undeniable value behind Google Places, making it all the more difficult to appear in the top search results. To increase your chances of appearing at the top, remember that Google likes content-rich pages. The more information you give Google, the more it will favor your page.

There’s an app for that. Google Places has its own app on iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android operating systems, which means your business will receive free exposure to the millions of people that are using smartphones every day.

Follow these easy tips to create a Google Places listing today and start receiving free exposure to your prospective customers.