Greentarget

Executive leadership

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Incumbent law firms have advantage in the battle for clients’ attention, but substantive content creates openings for challenger firms

Chicago, December 2, 2020 – By bringing in-person client interactions to a virtual halt, the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a digital content explosion as law firms compete for the attention of clients and prospects. A new study of in-house counsel shows that providing substantive, actionable guidance remains the best way to rise above the noise, preserve existing client relationships, and win new ones.

These findings are detailed in the report, “How to Win and Protect Client Relationships in the Age of Remote Engagement,” released today by strategic communications firm Greentarget, legal consultancy Zeughauser Group, and B2B branding agency Right Hat. The August 2020 survey of 75 in-house lawyers, including 37 general counsel, offers important guidance for law firms anticipating an extended period of remote outreach.

The survey’s top findings include:

  • Stick to Substance: 53 percent of respondents say they most want communications from outside counsel that relay substantive legal or business information. And substantive legal or business information is also most likely to generate a response from in-house counsel, especially for incumbent firms. For challenger firms, content that provides actionable guidance is the best route to sparking a conversation.
  • Incumbent Firms Beware! 68 percent of in-house counsel say communication from existing outside counsel is of greatest value, but 31 percent say they place great value on communications from firms introduced to them by friends or colleagues. This suggests a clear opening for challenger firms with the right connections and approach.
  • Pick Up the Phone – to Call or Text: Amid the age of digital communication, in-house lawyers most prefer the simplicity and intimacy of a telephone call or text. Picking up the phone affords outside counsel the chance to check in on a client personally before raising an emerging business or legal issue.
  • Stay Relevant to Be Read or Shared: More than half of in-house lawyers surveyed are willing to give communications from existing law firms (56 percent) and unfamiliar law firms (50 percent) at least a perfunctory read for relevance. Twenty-eight percent go further, saying that they appreciate good content sent from both types of firms, and they forward these communications to peers when appropriate.
  • Perspective Wanted on Pressing Legal and Business Issues: 69 percent of in-house counsel say they want content on COVID-19’s impact on the economy and their businesses; nearly as many (65 percent) want content on business and legal topics not related to COVID-19. When we asked in-house counsel to name issues they’d like to hear about from firms, diversity, equity and inclusion topped the list.
  • Forget Zoom Cocktail Hours: Seeking to fill the vacuum created by the inability to entertain clients, some firms have gotten creative with virtual social events. But virtual entertainment has little appeal for most in-house lawyers; 51 percent of respondents say they simply are not interested, and 40 percent say that they don’t want to engage with law firms in this manner.

“Establishing authority on business issues was challenging even before COVID-19, but the pandemic has forced lawyers and law firms to accelerate their digital literacy,” said John Corey, Greentarget’s founding partner. “At a time when it’s never been easier to project a message to the masses, it is more difficult than ever to really be heard. Leading with substantive, actionable content shows both clients and prospects you have a keen understanding of their challenges – and the insights to help solve them.”

“While the tools we are using to reach clients and prospects may be changing, best practices are not. Effective marketing and business development during the pandemic are still rooted in developing strong relationships with clients – relationships predicated on helping them make good decisions in real time,” said Zeughauser Group partner Norm Rubenstein. “And it’s clear that clients want trusted advisors now more than ever.”

Added Elonide Semmes, president, Right Hat LLC, “Law firms not only need to scrutinize their communications to ensure they contain actionable guidance that is scannable and easy to understand. They need to make sure that their communications feature clear, straightforward business language and compelling design that pulls the reader right to the most important content.”

What Law Firms Should Do

The report concludes with a series of recommendations for breaking through in the age of information overload, particularly given the increased flow of digital communication clients are receiving during the pandemic.

These recommendations start by reminding outside counsel that phone calls and texts are a welcome alternative to email; that evaluating content for its relevance, urgency, novelty and utility will distinguish it from the bulk of what clients are receiving; that all communication to clients and prospects should be customized; that incumbent law firms should avoid complacency; that investing in prospects can differentiate a firm seeking to develop a new relationship, and that bigger and bolder thought leadership projects – like research reports and podcasting – can show clients that a law firm is sensitive to their preferences and priorities.

A full version of the report is available here. For more information, contact Lisa Seidenberg at lseidenberg@greentarget.com or (312) 252-4108.

About Greentarget

Greentarget is a strategic public relations firm that helps leading law firms, accounting firms, management consulting, real estate and financial services organizations create unique positions of authority through skillful participation in the conversations that matter most to their key stakeholders. With 60 professionals in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and London, Greentarget combines earned media, research and market intelligence, content and publishing, digital strategy and amplification, and special situations counsel to help clients grow market share, attract leading talent and achieve a higher purpose. For more information, visit www.greentarget.com.

About Zeughauser Group

Zeughauser Group is the firm of choice for legal industry leaders seeking to increase competitive advantage and profitability, enhance market position, and strengthen organizational culture. With partners who have served as former generals counsel and as law firm chairs, managing partners, and chief marketing officers, Zeughauser Group advises clients on strategic planning and growth initiatives, including mergers and acquisitions; on best practices in marketing, branding, and business development; on client feedback programs; and on law firm management and governance, including organizational models and their assessments. For more information, visit www.consultzg.com.

About Right Hat

Right Hat is a leading B2B branding agency that helps law firms develop powerful go-to-market strategies. We are passionate about helping firms inspire buyers to want to learn more. We collaborate closely with our clients to deliver bold ideas and stunning websites, ad campaigns, thought leadership programs and business development tools. For more information, visit www.righthat.com.

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How do you capture history as it happens? When the coronavirus pandemic’s full effects became clear in March, History Factory began its COVID-19 Corporate Memory Project to capture Corporate America’s reaction in real-time and provide insight into how other organizations are responding to the crisis.

In this episode of Authority Figures, host Aaron Schoenherr and History Factory Managing Director Jason Dressel discuss the COVID-19 Corporate Memory project, rising above the noise of standard thought leadership, and how every organization will have its COVID moment.

Aaron and Jason will discuss which organizations are communicating effectively during the pandemic. But they’ll also discuss how technology continues to change corporate history efforts. 

Episode Highlights

1:30 – Jason discusses his background and introduces History Factory.

2:31 – A deep dive into the COVID-19 Memory Project and what Jason and his team discovered.

5:49 – Aaron asks Jason to elaborate on the connection between authority and organizational responses to social issues.

7:16 – Challenges in creating the COVID-19 Memory Project and capturing the nation’s definitive moments as they happened. 

8:48 – Jason explains how an organization’s history supports its own notion of authority. 

10:25 – Examples of organizations that have exhibited authority amid the COVID-19 pandemic and social unrest. 

13:30 – Jason describes how every organization will have its “COVID moment.”

15:21 – The role digital archives played in creating the COVID-19 Memory Project. 

16:42 – How technology has impacted responses to 2020’s major events versus those of the past. 

17:39 – Jason reflects on the powerful impact a tangible document holds in a digital world and provides first-hand examples.

21:25 – Aaron and Jason discuss how organizations and leaders have effectively expressed authority in their actions.

Subscribe to Authority Figures on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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It is time for business leaders to develop enlightened positions on social issues that are also authentic, constructive and on-brand for a new generation of ‘citizen consumers.’

To say that 2020 has been a challenging year would be a gross understatement. 

But the unprecedented chaos and confusion, our annus horribilis, has delivered a string of revelations for business leaders – revelations that will have lasting implications.

One of the most profound: Leaders in the private sector can no longer comfortably avoid taking an unambiguous and very public stance on what had been traditionally viewed as “social sector issues” such as climate change, racial injustice and economic disparity. 

The reason is simple enough yet – still – not widely accepted: Social challenges are business challenges. From the violent union struggles and workers’ strikes of the late 19th and early 20th centuries; to the Great Depression and Cold War eras; to the civil rights and women’s movements of the 1960s and 1970s; right up to the #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter protests of the current day, business leaders have, time and again, been assigned a hard but necessary task, and that is to design strategies to respond to wide-scale social conflicts that impact those who produce and sell products and services as well as those who consume them – i.e., people.

There was a time when the C-suite grudgingly stepped up to meet an obligatory commitment to social responsibility simply to stay clear of bad publicity – and to keep the CEO out of the proverbial hot seat. But things have changed – dramatically. There are new, earnest expectations, articulated and memorialized by Business Roundtable in 2019, for businesses to true up on social responsibility in the belief that what is good for the planet and the society upon it is, in fact, good for business.

Therein lies another challenge for business leaders: How does a company effectively develop and communicate a position on key issues in a way that is constructive and not just reactive or performative? And is it even possible to do this while staying on-brand?  

Answering that question, nearly a decade after Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer said CSR should be framed as a shared value that will deliver on unmet social needs, is more pertinent now than ever.

“I see this [conundrum] not as a dichotomy, but as a continuum with different poles,” said Caroline Grossman, executive director of the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. “At one end, CSR is about positive impact on the planet’s most pressing problems, and at the other end it’s greenwashing. Risk mitigation falls somewhere in the middle.” 

Getting to a meaningful place on this spectrum is about asking questions, sometimes tough questions – the most interesting of which focus on understanding why this new approach to key issues is, actually, good business.

Drawing from the Past – and Other Industries

Companies, specifically C-suites within those companies, should incorporate key questions as a strategy exercise or strategy reorientation. 

This approach has become increasingly common across industries, said Grossman, whose research center supports people committed to helping solve complex social and environmental problems. “Some dramatic examples are companies founded on innovation that itself has the potential for outsize impact.”

Take plant-based meat. Grossman points out that Beyond Meat had a successful IPO last year and, as of this writing, is trading well above the offering price (even after a recent plunge). Impossible Foods, based on current research, is not planning an IPO but continues to attract investors. Both companies are also drawing attention from companies like Walmart, Kroger, Burger King and Amazon, and McDonald’s just announced a new “McPlant” line for 2021.

“I don’t think these retailers and restaurants stock plant-based meat because of CSR but because they think it is good business,” Grossman said.

Tables Have Turned

In the latter part of the last century, the most successful American corporations were uniquely positioned to drive consumer habits. One need only think of Nike, Google and Apple when it comes to what is now socially expected of us when it comes to deciding what athletic shoes we should wear, what email service we should use and what smartphones we should palm.

During the last six months, however, there has been a noticeable shift. After a ponderous and reactive response in the first weeks of the pandemic and then widespread protests, the social – social concerns, social issues, social anxieties – became a bigger influencer of big business. 

As a placard at a Black Lives Matter protest in Chicago this summer read: “no justice = no peace and no profit.” [Emphasis added.]

Ideally, however, business leaders are not acting solely out of financial self-interest. Recent events should be spurring them to consider the concept of social responsibility as a vital part of business – an essential, indeed intrinsic, component nested within any for-profit enterprise. 

Currently, there is strong support from consumers and investors for positive social/business impact. in Aflac’s 2019 CSR Survey, 82% of consumers said that companies bear responsibility for “making the world a better place,” ahead of the 75% who selected “making money for its shareholders.” Nearly all investors surveyed, unsurprisingly, placed importance on making money for shareholders (93%), but a similar portion of investors said that making the world a better place was important.

“I believe every business is inextricably linked to social responsibility. It is now part of our culture,” said Diane Primo, CEO of Purpose Brand Agency, an award-winning public relations, branding and digital marketing firm. “Even asset managers, investment bankers and financial giants are evaluating companies that do not comply with extensive ESG matrices.”

Primo’s insights reveal something else. Present-gen consumers have awakened to the fact that they hold real power – buying power – and they are quickly giving way to what will surely be a new demo for the 21st century: citizen consumer.

“What consumers care about, and how much they care, is redefining social responsibility,” Primo said. “Shared activism in combination with digital engagement is shifting culture quickly. We witness shifting perceptions as Black Lives Matter and COVID-19 spread and corporate responsibility evolves.”

This “evolution” was one of the reasons GreenHouse and Greentarget, in partnership with LAB/Amsterdam, launched Immediate Frontier. An independent research and innovation initiative, it was designed in part as a model for leaders to better see how to engage with the concept of CSR in a new, more holistic, less compartmentalized way. 

Some business leaders are ahead of the curve, Primo said.

“Public companies are already undergoing significant change,” she said. “As powerful consumer action groups team with investment groups to modify sales and reduce capital flows, change will happen – and quickly.”

X (and Boomers) Includes Y and Z Now

The fact that more leaders are willing to tackle issues that would not have seemed relevant to a for-profit entity’s business goals previously seems all the more natural, indeed necessary, as one contemplates another revelation: These social issues, now front and center, are leading the way to entirely new value propositions for corporations – and serving up impressive business outcomes.  

But present-gen leaders – Gen Xers and, in some cases, Boomers – shouldn’t bear this burden alone, nor are they capable of taking it on, experts suggest. Next-gen leaders deserve a seat at the table. 

Grossman, who teaches a CSR course at Booth, said young leaders take a long view and have sprung into action when it comes to the pandemic and helping Black-owned businesses.

“The next generation is demanding that business does things differently,” Grossman said. “[They’re] challenging leadership to take issues of diversity, equity and inclusion into account.”

Students are eager to jump in to think about social issues in a business context, and vice versa. And, Grossman said, the leaders at companies that sponsor the course at Booth are listening to fresh, new perspectives and straight-up challenges that students bring to the experience.  

“It’s critical for me to connect with all of [Rustandy’s] stakeholders – students, faculty, alumni, social sector practitioners and business leaders,” she said. “But it turns out that it’s the students who always ask the toughest questions.”

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In the age of information overload, connecting with an audience requires knowing exactly what they want – and how to give it to them.

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The idea was straightforward but big: Identify the norms that govern the ways we work and the spaces we work in to better understand how those norms shape workplace wellness. The goal was to help corporate America reduce employee burnout, attract talent and build healthier organizations.

To accomplish this, Greentarget and two partners planned to convene a roundtable of experts from an array of industries through the new Immediate Frontier initiative. On February 4, we announced that the roundtable would happen in late April.

In between, of course, the world changed on us.

Without the ability to bring a group of experts together and amid the chaos of the abrupt work-from-home transition, we seriously considered spiking the project. But then we realized that finding solutions around work, wellness and space had just become more important than ever.

We just needed a new approach – so we created one. We call it qualitative, consultative research.

And that approach is fueling Work, Wellness & Space, the inaugural research offering by Immediate Frontier. The project, which is a partnership between  GreenHouse::Innovation and Greentarget in special collaboration with Learn Adapt Build (LAB)/Amsterdam, launches today.

How We Got to the New Approach

If our task became more important in March, it also became more difficult. Decision-makers around the globe didn’t just face an economic disruption in the wake of COVID-19, they also faced momentous questions about how work would continue in the months and years ahead.

We could have pivoted to a traditional quantitative survey, but we knew (even from brief conversations with decision-makers in March) that direct conversations would be the best way to thoroughly explore attitudes and opinions. We considered a video roundtable, but finding a mutually agreeable time when many participants were dealing with critical business issues seemed tone-deaf and unlikely to work.

Instead, we set about a series of one-on-one qualitative interviews with experts in commercial real estate, architecture, medicine, design and several other fields. But from the earliest moments of our earliest conversations, we saw that these weren’t just interviews. They were consultative discussions.

How the New Approach Works

A good analogy is traditional beat reporting, in which a reporter, after months or years covering similar topics, develops knowledge bordering on expertise, enabling her to ask better questions and write more fully developed, insightful stories. Over the course of two months, our team began that journey through a combination of seeking out top experts, asking informed questions and knowing our stuff better every day.

We pulled this off through close collaboration with our Content & Editorial Strategy team, which has a strong background in journalism, and our Research & Market Intelligence team, which has years of experience in qualitative research. The new approach also benefitted from the willingness of our research participants to hop on Zoom within a few days’ notice.

This all led to something we hadn’t expected, something we think we can replicate. While providing guidance in research reports is something we’ve done for years, we were able to test possible guidance before findings were released by bouncing one expert’s view off others. And by bringing actionable insights from one related field to another – e.g., telling a commercial real estate executive what we heard from a healthcare executive and discussing why and how that mattered – we connected some interesting dots.

The Result

This approach has fueled a research report – the first chapter of which we’ll release today – covering a bevy of work, wellness and space issues. As decision-makers around the world think about what their offices will look like, how workspaces will function and how employees’ wellness can be reimagined, the work we’ve done through qualitative, consultative research has provided an important perspective on what appears to be a generational inflection point. It has also afforded the ability to iterate and advance the conversation as the impact of the pandemic evolves in tandem with the release of our research report chapters.

We believe our findings could help pave a way forward – one that perhaps leads to greater workplace wellness. We’ll release the results each week between now and Labor Day.

We hope our insights spark broader conversations that help decision-makers at a critical time and that improve the interplay between work, wellness and space for years to come.

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It’s the first week of March and on your commute to work you read that new cases of the coronavirus were identified in the United States.

Some days later, you receive an email from your boss that the office is closed and that you’ll be working from home for the foreseeable future.

Working parents wonder what they’re going to do with their children – how am I supposed to be their teacher and lead this conference call? – and millennials, thought to be ‘comfortable in their usage of digital technology,’ cringe at the notion of virtual happy hours.

“At least it’s just temporary,” most of us thought.

Yet fast forward 15 weeks and here we are, many of us still at home, reflecting on how far we’ve come, how our routines have evolved, and whether this will be our new normal. The fact of the matter is that for many of us it will be. In a recent survey conducted for our client, Littler, 50 percent of employers said they were considering requiring more employees to work remotely to reduce physical office costs, and most said they were amenable to accommodating work-from-home requests.

And contrary to what we’d feared in the pandemic’s early days, what many are finding – despite this monumental evolution – is that people at work have remained collaborative, innovative, and creative.

How? At least for us here at Greentarget, we can chalk it up in large part to our core values. Here’s a glimpse at how we’ve applied them to our new work lives.

  • Work Hard. Embracing a work-life balance – when work is literally in your own home – may seem more challenging than ever, but we willfully accept that challenge by remembering that we are fulfilled and energized by embracing serious work on serious issues and achieving results that exceed expectations. As part of Greentarget’s commitment to wellness and in an effort to recharge so we can reengage purposefully, we hold quarterly yoga and mediation sessions for all employees, among a slate of additional wellness initiatives.    
  • Be Authentic. At Greentarget, being authentic means that we listen with empathy, and seek to understand each other, our clients, and the world around us. The need for compassion, particularly for those struggling to balance the needs of their families and work, has never been greater. Offering to dive in or lend a hand when a colleague needs to pull away for a few hours isn’t deemed cumbersome, it’s simply our dedication to one another.         
  • Embrace Curiosity and Drive Creative Thinking. The shift to work-from-home, while it may have been familiar to a handful of organizations, was novel to many. Businesses and individuals alike found themselves searching for new ways to learn, grow and challenge conventions. At Greentarget, we’ve launched a completely virtual internship program, have ditched the conference line and replaced it with video meetings, and held an informative webinar for nonprofits seeking to have their COVID-19 story heard, just to name a few examples.
  • Embrace the Stretch. The last several months have pushed us outside our comfort zones, introducing new routines and habits, but that discomfort has fueled growth. In April, each member of the team submitted a picture of how they have been embracing the stretch during their time in isolation. From learning how to play the keyboard to setting up an indoor 9-hole golf course, it’s safe to say we have a pretty fun and creative group.
  • Grow as Individuals and as a Team. Despite adversity, we can surely say that we’ve come together to ensure we continue to deliver the service and counsel our clients have come to know and expect, and we’ve grown as individuals, as a company and as a partner to our clients as a result. To celebrate, the team has been challenged with individually growing an herb – cilantro, chives, dill, mint, oregano, etc. – provided by Greentarget, which will be used for a cooking or cocktail competition once the shoots start coming in. We also put together ‘The Greentarget Cookbook’ last month, where everyone submitted their favorite recipe – who doesn’t benefit from that?!   

Sure, COVID-19 and the subsequent stay-at-home orders brought confusion and frustration, but it also taught us that even as businesses evolve, corporate values – if they’re a true reflection of your business and your employees – should always ring true, both inside and outside the office.   

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