Greentarget

Evaluator

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For most professional services firms, periods of economic uncertainty bring a renewed focus on shoring up and strengthening existing client relationships while also identifying ways to bring more value to the organizations that have already placed their trust in your firm. In other words, client retention and organic growth take priority over new client acquisition – or at least maintain an equal footing. 

As a marketing leader, you can play a key (and maybe even surprising) role in supporting the deepening of the client relationships that are vital to your firm’s long-term well-being. After all, you’re the steward of your organization’s brand promise. And by empowering your internal relationship leaders to deliver that brand promise consistently and effectively, you can directly impact your firm’s bottom line.

To that end, here are three strategies designed to help you serve your internal teams as they work to reinforce their high-value client relationships — and a look “under the hood” at Greentarget’s formalized approach to client service. 

1. Codify Client Service Behaviors that Promote Retention

Defining and documenting your organization’s unique approach to client service is a powerful exercise and can serve as a roadmap to navigating economic uncertainty. A good place to start is among your primary relationship leads whose clients tend to be steadfast and have increased their investment in your firm over time.

Some relationship managers are truly exceptional at what they do. They anticipate their clients’ needs and always seem to be one step ahead. But do you know what specifically they do differently than their peers? And have the leaders within your organization made it clear that other client-facing members are also expected to live up to the high bar these shining stars set? 

Years ago, an advisor to Greentarget talked to us about the concept of “unconscious competence” – the idea that while it may not be explicitly documented, we had developed a “way of doing things” that was understood by most within the firm but not formally expressed. He encouraged us to formalize our approach to client service which evolved into an effort we refer to today as the “Greentarget Way” of client service.

A first step for your organization might be codifying the behaviors your high performing relationship managers regularly and consistently exhibit. Their “unconscious competence,” so to speak. To do so, try asking questions like:

  • How often do you interact with clients? What does your client work look like on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis?
  • What’s your philosophy around client service? In what ways do your behaviors align with our organizational values?
  • How do you maintain empathy for clients while also protecting approved budgets? What’s the right balance between setting and exceeding expectations?
  • How do you anticipate your clients’ needs? What actions do you take to stay ahead of their business challenges and the industry trends they’re adapting to?
  • Tell me about your best client relationship. What makes it so?

Based on what you learn, you can leverage these insights and begin to spell out the behaviors that promote trust and establish credibility. The more relationship leads you speak with, the more you’ll be able to spot commonalities and patterns across key client accounts which will allow you to create best practices that scale across your firm. And in the process, you’ll create the opportunity to position the firm’s marketing team as a valuable resource to your internal clients for insights on successful client retention and growth strategies.   

2. Underscore Your Firm’s Role as a Trusted Authority and Advisor 

It’s common for clients to scrutinize everything when they’re feeling the pressure of a challenging economic environment. After all, uncertainty can cause even the savviest business leaders to panic. And when they feel unsettled, clients may question your firm’s methodologies, attempt to pivot away from overarching priorities and strategies, and expect your relationship leaders to respond immediately to any and every top-of-mind issue they throw your way. 

Now is the time for your relationship managers to lean into — and demonstrate — your firm’s authority.

Again, this requires you to codify and champion the behaviors that help your clients see you as the high-value partner you are. When it comes to emphasizing your firm’s ability to serve as an expert advisor, these behaviors may include:

  • Taking time to deeply understand each client’s vision for the year and the strategic objectives they want to reach
  • Making recommendations and providing advice that aligns with those overarching objectives
  • Pushing back against projects and requests that might ultimately distract the client from reaching their big-picture goals
  • Keeping the client focused and centered around business-critical tasks
  • Invest in a “voice of the client” research initiative to understand the critical challenges and pain points that your firm can help address

Of course, you can also underscore your firm’s expertise by doubling down on your owned media efforts. For example, you might develop and promote a series of case studies that showcases specific ways your team used their unique positions of authority to solve clients’ trickiest business challenges. Or, you could help key leaders write articles, research reports, and other collateral to share a compelling point of view on issues that impact your industry.

Regardless of the approach you pursue, your marketing orientation and instincts can be a tremendous asset for relationship leaders within your firm who are challenged to navigate economic uncertainty and contraction. Now’s the time to move beyond the traditional boundaries of marketing and communications by exploring new ways to serve and support the relationship leaders who drive your firm.   

3.  Create an Internal Rallying Cry Around Client Retention 

As a marketing leader, you are also your firm’s “chief repetition officer.” It’s your responsibility to continually beat the drum about your firm’s priorities and keep your team energized around your common goals. 

Setting a client retention goal at the beginning of a new year is a good start. But to achieve the results you’re after, you’ll also need to develop creative ways of reinforcing your firm’s commitment to delivering your brand promise. 

This can be as simple as encouraging your practice group leaders to carve out a minute or two in team meetings to share anecdotes and stories about how they’ve provided excellent client service. Or you might infuse every piece of internal communication with updates and reminders about your client retention goals and the specific behaviors that support them.

Whatever the case may be, look for ways to repeatedly communicate that providing excellent client service is a key strategy to thriving during a downturn and provide the examples that illustrate those behaviors.

Draw Inspiration From The Greentarget Way 

At Greentarget, we’ve spent more than a decade defining and refining the brand promise we deliver to clients. As a result, “The Greentarget Way” has become an integral part of our team culture. Every employee knows what it takes to live out our ideals when working and collaborating with clients. 

The Greentarget Way lays out a seven-step approach to client service. Each step maps to specific behaviors that members of our team are expected to embrace in their client work. For example:

PROCESSBEHAVIORS
1. Identify the problem, challenge, or opportunity• Ask “how can we help?”
• Look to peers for lessons learned and best practices
• Get uncomfortable – we are creative problem solvers
2. Understand the objectives• Ask insightful questions
• Focus on the details
• Bring a “yes…and” attitude
3. Empathize with the audience• Ask the right questions to learn everything you can about audience needs
• Stay on top of industry trends
• Be open to pivoting and changing course
• Avoid assumptions and be willing to test your theories about audience preferences and behaviors
4. Build the strategy• Take calculated risks
• Deliver fresh thinking
• Trust your reservoir of experience
• Ask colleagues for help
5. Craft the narrative• Be authentic and credible
• Work to build connections with the desired audience
• Execute with vigilance, diligence, and purpose
6. Distribute across channels• Deliver results
• Build personal connections with media, clients, and peers
7. Measure and assess• Track appropriate KPIs
• Recharge and gain a fresh perspective before the next project
• Ask insightful questions about how results impacted the client’s business

This is a brief overview of our in-depth and comprehensive approach. But now that you see what’s possible, how might you develop a similar strategy to improve your firm’s client retention rate?

We’d love to help you think through a model that will enable your firm to deepen and prioritize your high-value client relationships in light of your mission and values. So if you have questions, just reach out. 

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Challenge

Northwestern University’s chemistry department (NUChem) came to Greentarget looking for ways to better promote its research, scientists, and resources. The goal was simple: Stay competitive for top faculty and students. 

The department had more than enough talent, research prowess and pedagogical expertise to compete with the nation’s foremost chemistry departments, including MIT, CalTech, UChicago and Stanford. By fostering collaboration and supporting a diverse community of students and faculty members, the department had been at the forefront of scientific discovery for well over a century.

What NUChem didn’t have was a culture of publicizing that work to the next generation of STEM leaders or thriving businesses. So many of the institution’s breakthroughs were going underreported and uncredited. Academic leaders in the field knew the program was good — they just didn’t know how good.

Solution

When a client’s goal is to outperform its rivals, Greentarget starts there first. The initial proposal to NUChem underscored the importance of two types of research: primary research aimed at uncovering how students and faculty members viewed the department; and secondary research comparing NUChem’s reputation and promotional efforts against departments in close competition to be viewed by peers as the top chemistry department.

To help chemistry academics embrace the leading-edge marketing tactics Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management was already known for, Greentarget then developed a comprehensive competitive assessment. Its findings revealed that the department’s aversion to self-promotion wasn’t a sentiment shared by its peers. In fact, many of the institutions NUChem competes with had robust PR and marketing programs in place actively demonstrating their authority.

But the program’s biggest shortcoming was social media. Not only did Northwestern’s five peer universities maintain an active presence across multiple social media platforms, but their individual chemistry departments did as well. This gave NUChem’s competitors the opportunity to solicit success stories from within their departments and share them with a wide audience. And as industry publications and associations covered these stories, NUChem’s competitors were able to amplify them on their own social channels. Their social media presence also enabled other departments to drive engagement among current students, alumni and faculty — a crucial step toward achieving world-class reach and influence.

Impact

By showing NUChem how their peers were winning the reputation battle — and crafting a unique social strategy on their behalf — the department was able to counter. In less than two months, NUChem’s LinkedIn audience went from zero to twice that of its closest competitor.

More importantly, chemistry leaders were the ones engaging, with professors and publications mentioning the department more than any other in the competitive set during the first month of the campaign. For academics with an ultimate goal of being the top chemistry program in the country, there was no better proof point than the attention and respect of their peers.

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It’s no secret that law firm profits and productivity slipped last year, as 2021’s legal bonanza gave way to a more challenging stretch in which many firms found themselves with too many lawyers, and not enough work to go around.

Demand for legal services dropped 1.9% in 2022 compared to 2021, while expenses increased 7.9%, according to Wells Fargo’s Legal Specialty Group. Some law firms have already laid off lawyers and staff, while others may be considering reductions.

Last year, when the war for lateral talent still raged, we recommended that firms emphasize culture over profits in their legal media interviews as a way stand out in an environment where strong financial performance was the rule.  

But as legal demand dries up while expenses climb, law firms need to adjust their messaging accordingly. Below, we outline considerations as firms prepare for those discussions.

What to Expect During the Interview

Economic uncertainty continues dominating headlines and will be a recurring theme in conversations between legal media and law firm leadership. Expect questions about how your firm plans to navigate the unpredictable financial environment in the coming year, from reining in expenses and headcount to balancing fiscal restraint with the need to invest in technology and talent.

With law firm mergers gaining momentum after a pandemic-era dip, legal reporters may ask whether your firm is open to a combination to grow headcount, expand its regional footprint and/or expand capabilities. Smaller firms and those with softening financial results should prepare for questions about potentially being acquired by larger or more prosperous firms.

The legal media knows your firm’s expenses increased last year, but you can talk about how they grew in 2022 and how you plan to manage them in 2023. On a more granular level, expect journalists to ask how your firm dealt with overcapacity last year – and how it plans to address the issue in 2023. Are you instituting programs to fill lawyers’ unused time through expanded pro bono work or business development initiatives?

Headcount Reductions

Nobody wants to talk about this. However, the legal media has widely covered the firms that have already reduced their headcounts in 2022 and 2023, and reporters will not shy away from questions around this topic.

If your firm plans to lay off attorneys and staff, make sure to announce those reductions internally before discussing them with members of the media. Keep in mind that any memo sent to lawyers and staff will be leaked – so when drafting the announcement, have your external audiences in mind, too. 

If your firm has already reduced its attorney or professional staff ranks, interviews can help contextualize those decisions by framing them around your firm’s overall 2022 performance and strategy for 2023.

Real Estate, Technology and DEI

Where and how lawyers work will also be top of mind. Hybrid and remote work continue to be topics of interest. Firms should expect questions about changes to in-office policies and whether they remain open to fully remote hires.

Reporters will likely ask about firms’ physical footprints, too. Firm leaders should plan to discuss any changes in office space, and the adoption of strategies like hoteling. If your firm has a hiring strategy for 2023, this interview offers a great place to share it with potential talent.  

Leaders should also expect questions about their firms’ technology investments. Has your firm splashed out on new software or platforms in the past year? Does your firm plan to scale back technology spending in the coming year?

Prepare for questions about potential retrenchment in other areas – including diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), which many firms prioritized after the social and racial reckoning of 2020. Reporters may ask about what measurable progress you made against those commitments last year, and whether your firm plans to cut or pause its DEI and/or talent development initiatives amid profit pressures. Consider sharing your organization’s DEI targets and how you plan to meet those goals in the coming year.

Reflect on 2022 – And Map Out What’s Next

When preparing your talking points about 2022, think about how you would characterize the year at a macro level. Be prepared to talk about the practices, regions and industries that drove growth last year, and where your firm saw shifts in demand. This is a great opportunity to discuss notable matters from 2022, so ensure you have those details on hand.

During these interviews, firm leaders can discuss their strategy for 2023. Any major investments your firm plans for the year – office openings, new practice group focus, ancillary practices – should be shared here if possible.

Explain where the firm will focus this year in terms of practices and initiatives, as well as areas where you will be creating efficiencies. Where do you anticipate increased demand? Leaders should plan to talk about practices that may be ripe for growth, such as bankruptcy and restructuring, data privacy and security and regulatory.

With the economic outlook for the legal industry still uncertain, firms can find value in being transparent about financial results, strategic plans and cultural considerations – topics that will resonate with current employees and potential talent.

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Source: CB Insights

Look familiar? As a PR pro who develops content for professional services firms, it certainly does to me.  

Yet the above didn’t take weeks of focus groups, client calls and multiple rounds of editing to produce. Instead – at the behest of CB Insights’ CEO – it was written in less than two seconds by ChatGPT, the new AI-powered chatbot that has made headlines since its public rollout last November. 

Those headlines might have you think that jobs like mine will go the way of the VCR. In my view, though, the real issue isn’t that AI can do my job. Sure, AI can help get things started, draft great SEO headlines, and effectively regurgitate basic information and summaries. But as numerous critics have shown, ChatGPT’s content is rife with inaccuracies and wooden prose – not to mention it’s really bad at jokes.  

Perhaps most importantly, however, it is unoriginal by design. In formulating a response based on its ingestion of existing content on the internet, ChatGPT is essentially just “giving you some text that statistically is likely to represent the consensus view on whatever topic you ask it to comment on.” It’s no surprise CNET articles written by AI have come under fire for plagiarism.

An increasingly AI-powered content marketplace poses particular risks to professional services firms, who, with their stiff, jargon-filled language, already tend to sound alike. And not having fresh content could have real consequences: as our 2022 State of Digital & Content Marketing Report shows, more than two-thirds of respondents (71% of in-house counsel; 69% of C-suite members) cited articles from thought leaders as a critical factor when it comes to researching firms for potential hire.

In other words, if your insights or messaging can be easily imitated by ChatGPT, then why should anyone choose you?

To establish yourself as a true authority, you’ve got to go above and beyond the consensus view to create content that is unique, relevant, newsworthy and, above all, useful. Here are a few writing best practices to help rise above the noise – and outdo anything produced by ChatGPT.

Go deep

In determining whether a certain text was written by a bot, a new app, ChatGPTZero, uses two indicators – one of which is “perplexity.” In a nutshell, the more complex a text, the more likely it was written by a human.

The temptation for professional services firms might be to make things more technical, complex, and jargon-ridden. That’s not the answer. While some more arcane language can be helpful – for example, to signal your expertise to certain target audience – remember that the broader goal is to make your content useful and engaging for busy readers.  

One way to split the difference: be specific. Focus on a particular angle of a particular topic geared at a particular audience. Then deploy specifics to tell a story that makes a complex issue come alive: Frame the piece through a particular news hook, case study, or example; quote experts, cite relevant research or historical documents; use hypotheticals to put the reader in your shoes.

That’s what Jennifer Hull, a client of ours at Berkeley Research Group, did with a recent piece on crypto. Instead of writing a broad take on a subject that has saturated the internet for months, she focused on accounting standards for crypto assets – an emerging, niche issue in the space – and outlined key challenges and unique guidance using specific, timely examples (without being overly technical or dull). After the piece appeared in BRG’s ThinkSet digital magazine, it caught the attention of Accounting Today, which subsequently published a slightly adapted version for their site.

Write with voice

AI-powered content doesn’t typically read as coming from the voice of an individual in all their complexities. That said, neither does a lot of professional services firm content.

Examples like the bland mission statement at the top of this post should serve as a wake-up call to write with voice and personality.

  • Ask yourself: Why should I be writing this vs., say, 100 other intellectual property attorneys –or a robot?   
  • What do I uniquely bring to this topic from my professional experience or personal history?
  • And finally: Can I write like I speak?

To do so, tell stories. Use specific references. Deploy humor, charm, emotion. Draw on your own experiences. Read your piece out loud and ask yourself if it sounds like a human (you!) wrote it.

Vary sentence length and rhythm, too. The other indicator ChatGTPZero tests for, after all, is “burstiness,” described in this recent NPR article as the human tendency to write “some longer or complex sentences alongside shorter ones. AI sentences tend to be more uniform.”

Consider the apology email written by Andrew Benin, the CEO of Graza, a startup that makes squeezable bottles of olive oil. When holiday orders arrived late and badly packaged, he dashed off an 835-word, profoundly human email with this kicker:

“I hope that you stick it out with us on this crazy ride, because damn is Graza tasty, loveable and fun to use…As a small gesture (and keep in mind this email is going out to 10s of thousands of people and we are an 11 month old 5 person business LOL), I’ve created a code wewillgetbetter for $4.43 off any future order (this is truly what we can afford!)”

Authentic, clear, raw, charming, and written in an inimitable voice, the email received a 78% open rate and a resoundingly positive response. Other executive communicators should take note.

Say something new

If ChatGPT’s responses are essentially Frankensteined mashups of existing content – that cuts off (for now) in 2021 – the simple solution is to create something new.

That reinforces our longstanding advice to thought leaders. Don’t just repeat the consensus or tell people what they already know; instead have a unique point-of-view that advances the conversation. To do so, follow these three steps:

1). Frame your topic as a “how” or “why” question. This helps push past a simplistic summary of the issue to a more meaty analysis of why there’s a problem and/or how to address it. It also invites a particular audience and naturally raises the stakes. For instance, to start writing this article I wouldn’t say: I want to write about ChatGPT’s influence on professional services firms. Instead, I’d try: How can professional services firms stand out in an increasingly AI-powered content landscape?

2). Evaluate what’s already been said about the topic. This is where you play ChatGPT – do the research and see what’s already out there. Has what you want to say already been written? If so, try refocusing your question: Is there a more particular audience you can address? A more niche issue that hasn’t gotten as much attention? A timely news hook that can help reframe the piece in a fresh way?

Alternatively, look to yourself: Do you have a unique response to existing solutions? Different solutions to the same problem? A new or more illuminating way to articulate it?

3). Discover what you can uniquely add to the conversation. The key word here is “add.” Don’t contribute to the noise. Engage with what’s already out there and make sure you’ve got a unique and timely contribution. That’s where the two points above come in: leverage your unique expertise, experiences, and voice – and keep the conversation moving forward, not backwards.

Above all, ask yourself: Is this relevant? Newsworthy? Novel? Useful?

That’s what another client of ours, JTC Americas, did in a piece last year about the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Despite a flurry of talk about new CRA reforms, the group noticed one element was missing from the conversation that also aligned with its objectives as a specialty fund administrator – namely, that the Opportunity Zones program could help community banks receive CRA credits. By drawing on their unique expertise, they were able to add to a timely conversation about CRA reform in a way that only they could.

The more things change, the more things stay the same

ChatGPT might help with some basic elements of writing. But it won’t change the fact that the most compelling thought leadership, messaging, executive communications, and web copy is generated by real people – thinking human beings with a unique voice, perspective, and expertise.

As The Atlantic’s Annie Lowery wrote in a recent column:

“As a rule, when companies can substitute machines for people, they will.… But even if ChatGPT can spit out a pretty good paragraph on AI, it can’t interview AI and labor experts, nor can it find historical documents, nor can it assess the quality of studies of technological change and employment. It creates content out of what is already out there, with no authority, no understanding, no ability to correct itself, no way to identify genuinely new or interesting ideas.”

Instead, writers could think of ChatGPT (in its current form, at least) as a tool that can free them up from more mundane content production to focus on complex, in-depth work. Thought leaders should do the same.

“In many ways, AI will help people use expertise better,” MIT economics professor David Autor told Lowery. “It means that we’ll specialize more.”

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Following the widespread racial reckoning of the past few years, legal and executive decision makers are paying closer attention to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) issues than ever before. It’s no surprise, then, that these leaders are looking for useful content to help them navigate an increasingly complex set of DEI-related challenges and initiatives within their organizations–especially given the heightened focus on environmental, social and governance factors. 

But Greentarget’s latest research shows decision makers aren’t finding the depth and breadth of DEI guidance they need from their professional services providers.

This presents a tremendous opportunity to position your firm as an authority on this evolving and complex subject. Crafting thoughtful content that demonstrates your firm’s understanding of DEI pain points and challenges— and how those differ between legal and C-suite executives — can spark conversations with clients seeking to advance their organizations’ DEI agendas. And if your own progress on this front is especially compelling, it can reinforce your authority and even serve as a roadmap for clients to follow.

To that end, here are three content strategies to champion a DEI-focused sea change at your firm and beyond.

1. Collaborate With Diversity Chiefs to Create Your Recruitment and Retention Narrative 

According to the 200 executives we surveyed for Greentarget and Zeughauser Group’s  inaugural State of DEI Content Report, in-house counsel and C-suite executives are seeking actionable guidance on how to recruit and retain diverse talent. In fact, 69% of law firm CMOs said that clients ask for content around this topic more than any other.

However, our research found those same decision makers think their professional services providers have room for improvement when it comes to advancing their own DEI goals.

While CMOs tend to link those internal challenges to a shortage of qualified candidates, diversity officers say firms could move the needle by expanding their recruitment strategies and looking beyond traditional talent pools. Retention plays a significant role in improving DEI metrics — especially at leadership levels. After all, if junior and mid-level associates leave, they never have a chance to advance into managerial and senior positions.

Tell a Better DEI Story

CMOs need to collaborate with diversity officers to advance an authentic and compelling DEI narrative — one that moves beyond optics and percentages.

Like clients, diverse candidates want to see what the numbers say about DEI at your firm. And they want to see more representation of people who look like them in your content. But more than that, they want evidence that your firm is serious about creating and maintaining an inclusive and welcoming culture. Your current employees want this, too.

By working closely with your firm’s chief diversity, equity and inclusion leaders, you can:

  • Uncover and highlight ways your firm is maximizing contributions from individuals in traditionally underrepresented groups — and help them to secure strategic work
  • Elevate diverse subject-matter experts through earned media, thought leadership, and publishing efforts that showcase a range of perspectives in your content
  • Create narratives that foster a stronger ethos of belonging and support

It’s important to avoid a “check-the-box” mentality here. Your content should reflect a genuine commitment to growth. Achieving this kind of authenticity requires you to demonstrate a willingness to listen to people whose lived experiences differ from your own.

Once your firm has walked the walk in this area, you can more effectively help your clients address their own recruitment and retention challenges.

2. Communicate a Broader DEI Value Proposition to Stakeholders

As the chief marketing officer, you shape how your firm is seen by your stakeholders. Through the lens of your organization’s mission and values, you make the case for the value proposition your firm offers to the world. As one GC put it: “Marketing has the credibility and expertise to tell stories about the journey of the underrepresented so that they are in a position to secure more strategic work.” 

Deepening your commitment to DEI while also advising clients on their most pressing DEI priorities bolsters your value and strengthens your position as an authority. 

How? Our 2022 State of Digital & Content Marketing Report shows that corporate legal and C-suite executives look for — and trust — expert advice in the form of articles, webinars/conferences, research reports, and traditional media. Meanwhile, editors and reporters at traditional media outlets want diverse sources to bring richer and more varied perspectives to their journalism. That’s historically been a challenge in areas such as business and financial media, where “expert” voices have typically been white and male. 

Being deliberate about elevating and promoting diverse subject matter authorities in your external comms and content strategy underscores your organization’s breadth of talent and experience. And it’s a powerful way to distinguish your firm in the market.

3. Tailor DEI Content to Your Audience’s Needs

Creating content that’s centered around your own firm’s DEI initiatives is undoubtedly valuable, especially since it’s a way to establish your credible POV. But producing content that addresses the range of pressing DEI topics and issues with which clients are grappling today is arguably what they will find most useful.

Our research shows that key decision-makers unanimously want more content on DEI issues. But understandably, the types of content they’re looking for differ based on the role they hold in their firm.

What the C-Suite Want from DEI Content

Chief executives and management teams think about DEI in broad terms. As such, they tend to view the issue as they would an operating plan — something that requires goals, milestones, and metrics in order to make and measure progress. Since much of their DEI agendas are board-driven, they want advice on developing tangible KPIs so they can report quantitative progress.

You can meet their unmet need by infusing your owned media content strategy with guidance on issues such as how to incorporate DEI as a strategic priority and who should be involved in developing and implementing key initiatives.

What In-House Counsel and Other Departments Need

By contrast, corporate legal officers and other leaders who are responsible for implementing DEI initiatives are looking for detailed, tactical advice to help them carry out their firm’s strategic vision. For example, legal officers want advice from law firms on the “right” way to focus on social justice and speak out on sensitive social issues. 

Other DEI topics that resonate with in-house counsel include:

  • How to create affinity and/or peer mentoring groups to foster a deeper sense of belonging and grow diverse leaders
  • Ways to broaden recruitment practices to attract a wider pool of qualified candidates
  • How to clear the path for members of underrepresented groups to share their ideas and feedback
  • Strategies to increase buy-in and support from mid-level managers and employees across the organization

Despite these different priorities, C-suite and legal department leaders alike need to understand this important truth: Using a business case alone to justify DEI initiatives can actually erode their effectiveness by undermining underrepresented groups’ sense of belonging. Therefore, it’s also important to reinforce the moral aspect of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

In other words, your content strategy should emphasize that caring about DEI is not just good for business. It’s the right thing to do.

Start a Smarter DEI-Focused Conversation

Creating a truly equitable and inclusive workplace — and communicating about it effectively — can be a challenging and messy process. And we all know that real, meaningful change doesn’t happen overnight.

You, your firm, and your clients will undoubtedly face difficult conversations and navigate challenging circumstances along the way. The team at Greentarget can help you participate skillfully as you seek to direct a smarter DEI-focused conversation at your firm and beyond. Just reach out — we’d love to hear from you.

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Prior to his arrest, Sam Bankman-Fried’s attempts to explain the collapse at FTX did little to reassure or assuage his audience and stakeholders. Nor did they inspire confidence in the company’s ability to rebound from its downfall. Rather, by over-explaining his position, SBF seemed intent on proving that FTX lacks (and apparently has always lacked) any sense of organization, discipline, or accountability.

Allegations of fraud aside, among Bankman-Fried’s mistakes is his insistence on behaving like a classic tragic figure. Like Shakespeare’s King Lear or Arthur Miller’s Willy Loman, Bankman-Fried appears to be unaware of how the world sees him. Yet he can’t seem to stop trying to convince everyone that his own flawed vision of himself is just and true.

What SBF needs (or, rather, needed) is a fool, just like the fool in King Lear’s court — a brave and discerning advisor who’s close to the center of power, able and willing to speak the truth that no one else can. If you’re a PR or communications leader, you’re uniquely suited to meet this need at your organization.

What Executives Can Learn from a Fool

In King Lear, the Fool is not merely a court jester. Sure, the Fool cracks jokes at the expense of the king. But the fool is there to do more than entertain. This character sees through the artifice of the king’s self-delusion and uses irony and wit to force King Lear to look in the mirror and face the consequences of his behavior. 

The Fool is loyal to his ruler, for sure. He has the king’s best interests at heart and knows his strengths and weaknesses better than anyone. The Fool uses his position within Lear’s inner circle to try to protect the king, continually warning him of the folly of his poor decisions.

Where’s the Fool at FTX? 

In an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin, Bankman-Fried said there was no one at FTX who challenged him. If his account is to be believed, not a single person advised him of the missteps his company was taking. No one was responsible for monitoring risk or alerting higher-ups that what they were doing was dangerous or wrong. (Of course, perhaps someone did try to speak out and SBF was simply unwilling to listen. Lear ignored his Fool, too — and it led to his undoing.)

The result? FTX is bankrupt. Bankman-Fried has resigned as CEO. He lost his personal fortune and the fortunes of others. Many of those who previously lauded SBF’s ingenuity have disappeared. And SBF has pled not guilty to allegations of fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering — underscoring his commitment to proving that his vision of himself is true.

It’s impossible to know if things would have turned out differently for FTX had someone seized the Fool’s mantle. But the lesson here is that every king (or CEO) needs someone who’s willing to play the wise Fool, especially in the face of a PR maelstrom. 

Here’s why PR leaders are uniquely suited to play this critical role. 

You Know How to Shape Messages Your Audience Will Accept

Of all the executives in the CEO’s sphere of influence, PR and communications leaders are closest to the organization’s audience. On good days, you’re the person who’s carefully crafting messages that resonate with the public and advance your organization’s strategic goals. On bad days, you know which messages stand a chance of breaking through the noise to reach and reassure your stakeholders. Therefore, you know what your audience will accept as credible, and what it will find disingenuous. 

As much as they may want to, CEOs can’t kill a negative PR story or otherwise spin their way out of a crisis. They also shouldn’t blindly take legal counsel’s advice to stay silent (although, in SBF’s case, silence would likely have been the better strategy). 

It’s your job to help your CEO communicate responsibly in the midst of any PR challenges your company may face. If you don’t believe what the CEO is saying, you know your audience won’t either. And because it’s your responsibility to protect your firm’s reputation, you have an obligation to rethink any messages that ring hollow or — worse — untrue. It’s not about doing the right thing from a moral perspective (though it is…), it’s about doing what’s best for the company’s reputation.

To play the Fool effectively, you’ll need to:

You Understand How the Firm Should (and Should Not) Respond to a PR Crisis

Following the FTX collapse, the only information Bankman-Fried offered led many reasonable people to draw one of two conclusions: either he’s a criminal or he’s profoundly incompetent. Whichever conclusion you drew, he certainly did little to repair his image, or restore the reputation of his company, or at least slow the erosion of either. 

True, he apologized. But a shallow demonstration of contrition without meaningful insight into what went wrong or what he’d do differently next time doesn’t mean a whole lot to people who’ve lost everything. Bankman-Fried provides an excellent example of how CEOs should not respond to a PR crisis. 

During a crisis, PR counselors remind their CEOs that:

  • Now’s the time to set ego aside
  • Bad stories are probably inevitable, but good PR can make bad stories less bad
  • Statements framed in default corporate-speak alienate the audience further — now is the time for authenticity and vulnerability 
  • Crises are an opportunity to fix what is broken within the organization
  • It’s ok to punch back (purposefully) against false claims, misinformation or carelessness 

PR firms have spent decades creating effective crisis communications playbooks for a reason. Your CEO might want to break with convention to share her or his desired message. But there should always be a thoughtful strategy behind the approach your organization takes.

Play the PR Fool to Direct a Smarter Conversation at Your Firm

The downfall of FTX — and SBF’s subsequent media tour  — provide an extreme example of a badly handled crisis. And though the whole situation is a train wreck you can’t help but watch, there are valuable lessons here for CEOs as well as PR professionals.

CEOs must create space for trusted advisors to tell them the truth — even the hard truths they don’t particularly want to hear. And PR/communications leaders must be willing to play the Fool — especially when, like King Lear, their CEO seems bent on folly of another sort  (whether they’re aware of it or not). 

Greentarget can help you put a PR plan in place that upholds and protects your firm’s reputation. There’s no need to speak truth to power on your own since we’re here to help.

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