Climate change affects firms’ management and revenue

 
In her article, Powered Up: Climate Change Work Fuels New Business for Texas Firms in the April issue of Texas Lawyer, Jenny B. Davis addresses how the climate is not only changing how attorneys practice, but what they practice as well.

Global warming is now much more than just a blip on the radar as “…Texas firms have been mobilizing to capture this climate change business. Over the past few years, many of the biggest firms have done this by creating specific climate change practice groups.”

Energy producers are facing changing business and legal climates, as well as changes to the natural one. As a result, “lawyers on both sides of the bar say they’re profiting from new types of deals, new types of litigation and the promise of what may be an entirely new regulatory system.”

Clearly, opportunities in environmental law – on all sides of the issue – are going to grow for some time.

At the same time, attorneys are adopting more environmentally friendly business practices, developing and implementing green initiatives. Thompson & Knight’s new offices in a Dallas building still under construction are designed to be “eligible for certification under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System.”

That’s a big commitment, but more simple practices can yield great results as well. According to Elisabeth G. Anderson, practice and industry marketing manager for DLA Piper, the firm has stopped buying bottled water and “installed filtration systems next to kitchen-area faucets and outfitted conference rooms with old-fashioned pitchers.”

Fresh, pure water and a touch of old-fashioned class… I like it and I’ll be the clients do as well.

Fixed action patterns are the shortcuts we take to make decisions

 
Behavioral patterns govern most of our activities.

These shortcuts make life easier, which is why we acquired them in the first place. If we had to analyze every aspect of every situation, our species would have died out long ago. So, they allow us to quickly and accurately evaluate, analyze, and make decisions based on past experience.

These choices are usually right – or the patterns that trigger them would have disappeared from society. However, they also have the potential to cause problems for us, especially if we’re not aware of them.

In Influence, Mr. Cialdini relates the story of a jewelry store owner in New Mexico. She had an inventory of turquoise jewelry that had not sold well during the tourist season. Before leaving on a trip, she left a note for her assistant to mark the jewelry half off. When she returned, she wasn’t surprised to learn that all the jewelry had been sold. What did surprise her was the fact that her assistant had doubled the price instead of halving it.

This fixed action pattern is based on the idea of “you get what you pay for.” In a situation where the tourists were unfamiliar with how to evaluate turquoise, they went with the conditioned pattern of expensive equals good.

It’s easy to see how fixed action patterns are both a blessing and a curse. The store owner benefited from selling the jewelry with a much higher margin, but at the same time, the tourists paid more for it than they should have.

Confronted with someone who knows how to make these triggers work to their advantage, we’re all susceptible.

I’m equal parts disturbed and excited by this concept. As a writer and marketer, I delight in crafting communications that say exactly what I want and – hopefully – motivate people to act in the way I want.

At that same time, it’s a little creepy that we can be so susceptible to manipulation. It can happen to us and we won’t even know it, unless we’re on our guard and aware of these fixed action patterns.

Creating a successful marketing strategy

 
One of the most difficult challenges in creating a successful marketing plan is to look at your firm from the consumer’s perspective – “consumer-centric” marketing. Consumers are more marketing-savvy and cynical than ever before. And, to a great degree, it’s our own fault. In our never-ending quest for growth and profits, we bombard consumers with marketing messages by the thousand. Our own efforts have numbed them to what we want to tell them, which – as you can imagine – presents some challenges.

After your business plan, the marketing plan is the most important document you can create for your firm. It’s the nuts and bolts of what you’ll do to keep your practice alive, well and growing.

Consider where you’d be if your firm should suddenly lose its biggest client. Do you have the cash reserves to stay afloat while you find another to replace it? What if it takes six months or a year? Isn’t it far better – and wiser – to keep the pipeline full by developing and implementing a marketing plan now, rather than waiting for a crisis?

A good marketing plan will do just that.

Your clients ask, “Are you green?” What do you say?

 
Somehow, when I wasn’t looking, environmentalism hit the mainstream.

I’ve always been environmentally conscious, as long as it wasn’t too much of a burden. But now, it seems we’ve reached critical mass and if you’re not green, it could cost you clients.

So, what does it mean to be “green?” Different answers are appropriate to different situations, but there are basic things all of us should be doing, both as individuals and as businesses to earn the green label.

To get on the green bandwagon, if you haven’t already, your firm should start with the basics, like recycling.

• • Do you recycle paper, plastic and cans?
• • Is the company that shreds your documents recycling the paper?
• • Are you printing and filing multiple copies of documents that could be saved electronically?
• • And, although you’ll probably want nice paper for your letterhead, are you using recycled paper for your drafts and other documents?
• • If you really want to lead the charge, modify your branding strategy to include being green and print everything on 100% recycled paper.

I’ll be reviewing several resources in more detail to provide additional ways to be more green. In the meantime, get started. You might even want to get the jump on your clients. Tell them about your plans to go green and invite them to join in. There’s nothing like peer pressure to get things done!

Why people respond the way they do

 
I’m re-reading Influence Science and Practice by Robert B. Cialdini. The first time through was enlightening to say the least – and I’ve been in marketing and advertising for 30 years. It was also a little disturbing to read how much power others can have over us, not to mention the power we can wield over them…

So, if you’ve ever wondered why you respond positively or negatively to a request, or why others do, this book is a must read.

Cialdini combines research with practical personal experiences to illuminate the basic types of compliance – reciprocation, consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity – and how “…their enormous force can be commissioned by a compliance professional who deftly incorporates them into requests…”

Great trial attorneys and negotiators in all areas of business know these techniques, perhaps intuitively. It’s really an extraordinary talent and amazing to watch someone who does it well, as long as you’re not the intended victim.

Unfortunately, we often are and if you find that’s the case, there’s plenty you can do to turn the tables. I’m reading it again to refresh my memory. And because I believe it should be in everyone’s library, there will be much more to come…