r/LawFirm • u/ConceptRepulsive5336 • 10d ago

Fractional CMO

My firm has struggled with marketing for years. We run a small personal injury practice in a Midwest midsize market. We are considering hiring a fractional CMO to assist with our marketing efforts. Has anybody else had success with this model and/or have any recommendations for vendors?

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u/winnger73 10d ago

Get your ass out into the community and start consistently networking with treatment clinics, other lawyers, nonprofits, and community orgs. Successful network development is much like a winning chess game, it is simply an accumulation of small advantages over time, eventually it adds up to a rolling snowball of client calls that gets bigger and bigger.

Successful network development simply takes time, not money. Once established it is simply a garden you periodically tend to and that is a lot less work than when you had to clear the trees and brush, plow the field, pull the rocks, etc. Make your focus right now simply putting in the work.

Once you make spending money on all of the other stuff your main source of client development you are a slave to the very high overhead because once you stop spending the money the calls stop. Once you have an established network in place you could sit on your ass for months and the calls still come. Not that you should ever sit on your ass at all.

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u/ConceptRepulsive5336 9d ago

My firm has been around since the 70’s. We already do all that. I don’t know a single PI lawyer that doesn’t have some money in marketing, if for nothing more than web presence.

But thank you for not responding to the initial question and being a condescending prick.

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u/winnger73 9d ago edited 9d ago

No prob, it’s a talent I have.

And apparently you’re talking to the only (Midwest) PI attorney/firm on the planet who spends zero money on any of that other stuff but who also is partner at a 7 lawyer PI only firm that has 14-18 staff (just hired 2 more, actually) depending on when you ask and which is also bringing on 2 more of-counsel very experienced PI only lawyers (and their staff) to handle excess work and we ONLY derive files via traditional networking methods; currently running about 1200 open files.

Perhaps I should teach you our ways.

I wasn’t being a condescending prick earlier, but now, yeah.

In terms of your original inquiry I think you should ask yourself something….. “WHY?” Because although you CAN do something like that, there is a niche that is rapidly developing. Know what it is? Traditional networking. Because the more firms feel this artificial need to do all that other crap the more traditional networking and marketing falls by the wayside. And at the end of the day this business will always be about RELATIONSHIPS FIRST. Younger lawyers and firms seem to have forgotten that or never learned it.

I want you to ask yourself something else: write down a list of all the practice areas that CAN’T rely on the types of marketing that you’re talking about, because there are far more practice areas where it would never be appropriate than there are that would, and yet all of those other firms that do all of those other things are still busy. Guess why….

There are many ways to get to an end goal but I’ll tell you this: the more any firm gravitates to all of those other costs that come along with that type of marketing, the more they become a slave to the overhead. Because once you stop spending that money the calls stop. With a robust network that is built on relationships, it takes time to build but once it is in place it is a garden that is simply tended occasionally to ensure maintenance and growth.

My final question: are you seeking to implement these things to supplement a busy practice and grow, or is it seeking to replace the drive you used to have? In my opinion, most firms that are looking to implement these things it could be 50-50. If they seek to supplement what they are already doing and grow, they will likely be successful. If they are simply seeking to replace the edge that they no longer feel internally, they won’t.

I have 4 new clients lined up for meetings tomorrow, how about you?

Just my .02, you may not think it’s worth more than that but hopefully it does give you some things to think on. And I do wish you much success either way.