Our client didn’t feel they were winning the work they should be winning. They had had a marketing structure in place for a long time without much change, and wanted to see if something was missing. The firm grew from a somewhat small regional firm to a large firm with a national practice, a level of growth that brought new marketing challenges.

We spoke with all of the principals, market sector leaders, and others who helped with marketing, looking at different metrics such as spending and their win-loss rate.

In the process of talking to the various players, we learned they were doing a lot right in terms of positioning themselves as experts—they had built a successful practice on a national scale in focused areas—but they were struggling with business development. There wasn’t a strong business development culture at the firm, and no process in place to create that kind of culture.

We looked at possible models for structuring their marketing and business development activities, as well as how social media and PR could be integrated, and we presented our recommendations to the principals.

Our observation was that they needed someone who could oversee their marketing activities and also be capable of implementing a strong business development program. The firm has now hired a high-level business development leader, and has recalibrated the marketing group and brought in outside expertise in PR and communications.