“I hire for cultural fit. It’s the most important thing to me. How do I test for that?”

Every one of my clients talks about the importance of organizational cultural fit when they add new BD and marketing professionals into their teams. It is one of the first things they tell me when we talk about a potential hire.

Consideration for an organizational cultural fit is one of the hardest pieces to be successful on when hiring a BD or marketing professional; or, in fact, any professional. What exactly is cultural fit and how do you successfully hire a professional who is culturally aligned to your firm?

Cultural fit is hard to define. At its core, it’s about ensuring all of your professionals share the same beliefs and values that your firm and leadership have established; put simply, it’s “the way things get done around here”. In some firms, it means hiring entrepreneurial professionals in an environment that encourages creativity and risk-taking. In some firms, it means hiring professionals who thrive on competition in a driven and hierarchical environment. In some firms, it means hiring professionals with a more formal and conservative style in a firm where convention and tradition is key. Importantly, each firm is different, so each hire will be different.

Before we address “what” to ask, the “how” is key. Adjusting how you interview (see my previous blog on this topic) and really doing away with an overly formal process allows you and your candidate the opportunity to speak, listen and share. People are unique individuals who have points of view, stories to tell, a particular type of sense of humor, and different perspectives to relate on work and life. Getting into these things allows you to really see what a person is like. The technical questions need to be asked, of course. But then cultural questions - like these below - help you consider whether you are culturally aligned:

• What career moment did you learn from that you would pass on to a more junior employee?
• If you had an extra day in the work week, what innovative topic would you explore?
• What would your close colleagues share about your approach?
• In your ideal team who do you need above, beside and below you to perform at your best?
• What’s your reaction to the saying, “Do first, ask for forgiveness later”?

These types of questions tell you information about what is important to that professional, and why it’s important to them. They also touch on their journey and their upcoming goals and – dare I say – dreams. You will then have a much clearer picture about your professional and whether your values are aligned. 

“I’m a solo marketer at a small firm and I’m hungry for the ‘big law’ experience. What do I need to be aware of with this career move?”

I love working with solo marketing and BD professionals who come from smaller firms. Why? They are typically resourceful, relationship-minded and client-centric professionals. They have also had to be solutions-focused in an environment with minimal marketing and BD leadership, and with little to no resources under and around them.

But I find some of the small firm solo marketing professionals in my network feel that they may not have what it takes to go up against their bigger firm peers. And yet, many big law firms seek out skills unique to smaller firm candidates.

There are certainly pros and cons to working in both small and large firms. As an eternal optimist, I focus on the pros, but I am aware of the cons. After this, my best advice to the solo marketers seeking a bigger firm is to leverage the things that make you different to your competition (not the things that make you the same). Firms like different. They embrace that perspective and seek it out. And, if you are a great cultural fit for them, then it often does not matter what size of firm you are coming from.

As a person who spent her early years in smaller firms before also getting hungry to work in the bigger firms, consider this as you contemplate your ‘big law’ move:

• As the solo marketer, you will have likely either set, or helped to set, the strategic direction of the marketing and BD effort at your firm. Think about all the consensus building you had to do for that. Use this example when interviewing to show your input and influence.
• Think about what resources you have had to use to help you do your role. For example, some of the administrative professionals, or outside vendors, or firm consultants. You will have helped to manage those people. You can talk about your skills in delegating and managing on a shoestring budget to get results.
• Consider which partners you have worked with. (Likely all of them.) From named equity partners to executive committee partners to junior partners. Each has a different focus and a different set of BD goals. Working within all of this shows you can flex your style and capability and then execute for different causes. 

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As you all know, professional services marketers and BD’s love to share and learn. In that spirit, I’ll be continuously updating this post with common challenges and solutions that I hear from my network. Check back each month for new ideas.

 “I lead the marketing team in my firm and I struggle to keep my senior BDs challenged.”

Proactively managing team members is a hard nut to crack. Not only does your management style has to change and resonate with each individual team member, you have to do this on top of your day to day technical remit. Here’s two tactics to help ensure your senior BDs are engaged and challenged:

(1) Add to their duties a responsibility around client relationship management. Specifically, empower them to have their own relationships with the firm’s clients as a means to enhance the client experience overall. Some senior BDs and their firms then feel comfortable introducing revenue targets around new business that is brought in as a result of these relationships. Apt senior BDs ready for this challenge love the client facing role and responsibilities and feel like they are contributing to the firm at a much higher level.

(2) Give them their own team or people to manage. Odds are you have too much on your plate already, so let the tier below you take some of that burden. Managing people requires a different skill and leadership capability that your senior BDs can learn from you and sharpen as they get more comfortable. 
 
 “We’re hiring a BD professional, but the candidates we’re seeing don’t have enough ‘true BD’ experience.”

The words “business development” mean something different in each firm, and sometimes even to different people in the same firm. There are also numerous ways BD is practiced and executed. For example, the preparation of proposal documents versus responsibilities around bringing new clients into the firm. Often, the gap between the candidates and hiring manager expectations is related to different definitions of the catch-all term “BD”. As a hiring manager, you need to specifically spell out what the role entails to attract the type of BD-focused professional you’re seeking. Consider these two tips:

(1) In the job description, explain the proportion of time that will be spent on each task and get specific about this apportionment. Additionally, try to define what you mean by BD. This tells the professional applying to your role exactly where the time will be spent, and that it will – in your case – be spent on true BD initiatives and projects. True BD professionals will be drawn to a role that shows it has true BD.

(2) Look at the potential of the BD professional in addition to what they have done. What I mean by this is just because a candidate hasn’t done something you were expecting, doesn’t mean that they can’t do it. Consider what happens if you hire a candidate who can do your role perfectly, where is the challenge in that role for them? Similarly, do you have the capacity in that role to expand it and grow it to accompany the candidate’s learning curve? 

“I’m a solo marketer at a small firm and I’m hungry for the ‘big law’ experience. What do I need to be aware of with this career move?”

I love working with solo marketing and BD professionals who come from smaller firms. Why? They are typically resourceful, relationship-minded and client centric professionals. They have also had to be solutions-focused in an environment within minimal marketing and BD leadership, and with little to no resources under and around them.

But I find some of the small firm solo marketing professionals in my network feel that they may not have what it takes to go up against their bigger firm peers. And yet, many big law firms seek out skills unique to smaller firm candidates.

There are certainly pros and cons to working in both small and large firms. As an eternal optimist, I focus on the pros, but I am aware of the cons. After this, my best advice to the solo marketers seeking a bigger firm is to leverage the things that make you different to your competition (not the things that make you the same). Firms like different. They embrace that perspective and seek it out. And, if you are a great cultural fit for them, then it often does not matter what size of firm you are coming from.

As a person who spent her early years in smaller firms before also getting hungry to work in the bigger firms, consider this as you contemplate your ‘big law’ move:

• As the solo marketer, you will have likely either set, or helped to set, the strategic direction of the marketing and BD effort at your firm. Think about all the consensus building you had to do for that. Use this example when interviewing to show your input and influence.
• Think about what resources you have had to use to help you do your role. For example, some of the administrative professionals, or outside vendors, or firm consultants. You will have managed those people. You can talk about your skills in delegating and managing on a shoestring budget to get results.
• Consider which partners you have worked with. (Likely all of them.) From named equity partners to executive committee partners to junior partners. Each has a different focus and a different set of BD goals. Working within all of this shows you can flex your style and capability and then execute for different causes. 

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