 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
January 15, 2001
By Roger Bloom
A member of your firm leaves to go in-house with an up and coming life sciences company. A year later, when that burgeoning company needs to go out of house for top-tier services that your firm provides, will you get its business?
That depends on several things. It depends on what other firms may be vying for the contract, how well your firm’s proposal and presentation are handled, whether the company’s CEO likes your representatives. These are all variables your firm has dealt with many times in the past can handle well.
But you may not ever hear about the opportunity or get in the door to present and meet the CEO if you don’t stay in contact with that former colleague. And that is something that most professional services firms do not handle so well.
In fact, in most firms, it’s just hit or miss. Sometimes, a former associate or partner will have one or more friends at the firm that she keeps in touch with. Sometimes not.
But in recent years, firms have begun realize that an alumni pool can be a significant source of business and have begun to develop programs to tap that potential.
Ernst & Young recently reported that its alumni program generated $100 million in new business over a two-year period. Sure, you might say, but how many E&Ys are there? OK, how about this: the law firm of Cooley Godward in the first year of its alumni program generated 10 business leads, twice its business plan target, and $500,000 in new business, an initial return several times its investment in the project.
Although there are many decisions that must be made in shaping an alumni program to a particular firm’s goals and culture, they have just two or three basic components: a registration-required website or portal, periodic events, and perhaps a newsletter.
The website is probably the most important and certainly the most flexible and potentially dynamic aspect. Former and, in many cases, current employees provide contact and other information that is available to all other registrants. It’s up to each registrant how much information to give out. The website includes firm news, news about alums, and a calendar of events. Other features can include everything from a listserv where registrants can post messages to a job board where they can post job openings or their resumes.
Alumni events are an important part of a coordinated program. Face-to-face interaction is a relationship-marketing cornerstone, and many alums love the opportunity to chat with current firm members and catch up.
“One thing that surprised us was that a number of alums were willing to travel across the country in order to stay connected with former colleagues,” wrote Cooley Godward’s chief marketing officer, Ellen Taverner, in a recent article.
A newsletter repackaging some of the firm news, alumni news and calendar from the website along with some unique content can go out periodically to the entire list of former firm members, not just website registrants.
More advanced alumni projects are integrated with outplacement, continuing education, and recruitment programs.
To be sure, there are plenty of questions to address, including:
- How complete and comprehensive is the firm’s current database of former members?
- How to handle former members who now work for competitors?
- How to handle former members who left on bad terms?
- Who has access to what information?
- What is the mechanism for registrants to contact each other?
- Should former staff be included?
These questions will be answered in different ways by different firms, but they all can be addressed satisfactorily.
In a fluid economy where today’s junior partner can be tomorrow’s client or referral source, the time and effort given to maintaining an alumni network can be paid off many times over.
|
|
|
|
|
