Expecting people to buy your published material or products will be the death of your business! The traditional one-way publishing model or business-centric thinking is no longer acceptable or profitable. According to Mark Rousseau, general manager of Findlaw/Lexpert at Thomson Carswell, “You need to find out what the customer’s needs are and develop products and services to address those needs in order to be successful in today’s business world.”
Take, for example, Mark Rousseau’s growth mandate of 30% compound growth over the next 5 years. How do you plan to accomplish this? According to Mark, they are undertaking a number of business development initiatives to meet his division’s growth objective.
Thomson Carswell acquired Lexpert Magazine in 2004 from businessman and publisher John Alexander Black and hired Mark Rousseau, who has more than 20 years of publishing experience, to run and grow the business. Since then, the size of the staff has doubled from 15 to 30 employees. According to Mark, “the only thing that has changed is billing and IT, which has been centralized with Thomson Carswell operations.” The business operation of the publication itself has remained intact.
Always thinking of ways to grow the business, Mark Rousseau has shifted his advertising focus to include potential new advertisers in the business-to-business and luxury goods categories. This makes a lot of sense when he realizes that the average annual income of a corporate reader is over $150,000!
If you want to be seen as an industry leader, be the first to do something different! Lexpert is leading the way by planning and presenting the first Rising Stars awards program this November for the top 40 Canadian corporate lawyers and leading private practice lawyers under 40, in association with The Globe and Mail. This innovative thinking has also spawned other innovative initiatives. According to Mark Rousseau, their business development course pilot program was so successful last year that they are planning to run six one-and-a-half day business development courses in 2006. Each course will be taught by a leading attorney in a specific area of practice. with his/her own unique course material for up to 30 corporate advisors and senior executives.
Building strategic partnerships is not a new idea, but if you can leverage your partnerships like Lexpert has done with the two national dailies in Canada, the National Post and The Globe & Mail, you too can have a captive audience of top business executives in return. for current and relevant news on corporate deals. Once a week, articles from Lexpert’s Big Business column appear in the Legal Post section of the National Post; and coming soon, a new agreement with The Globe and Mail effective October 1, 2006 will further help Lexpert’s clients reach their target market of Canadian business executives.
Lexpert, now part of global information powerhouse Thomson Corporation, understands the importance of leverage. Through joint initiatives with its US sister companies Thomson West (the largest legal information provider in the US) and Findlaw (a popular US legal internet site), Lexpert has been able to enter successfully to the US legal market and reach 15,000 US corporate lawyers. Leading US lawyers with their magazine. They now send out 25,000 mailings twice a year in the US market with the help of their US brethren, to provide valuable exposure to their Canadian advertising clients and increase the magazine’s readership beyond Canadian borders.
With a growing base of web-savvy clients, Mark Rousseau also plans to have everything in print available online and has a team of web developers who are revamping their corporate website at http://www.lexpert.ca to improve the browsing experience of its users. . For example, if you are a corporate attorney, you will be directed to view information on the site that is relevant to you.
Certainly, Lexpert is no stranger to launching successful products on the legal market. Its print publications such as “Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory”; “Lexpert/American Lawyer Media Guide to the Leading Top 500 Lawyers in Canada”; “Lexpert/CCCA Directory and Yearbook”; and “Lexpert Law Student & Associate Recruitment Guide” have been well received by their intended markets. Even their highly anticipated online product Deal Monitor, currently in development and due to launch later this year, is set to be another big hit, as this product promises to address the needs and demands of their key customers.
With the help of Thomson Financial and Thomson West, this database will consist of Canadian and US based corporate deals going back 5 years. This online subscription tool will have analytical capabilities like trending with historical data, custom search capabilities, and the ability to produce custom charts and much more. According to Mark, they are not a magazine but “a vehicle to help their clients grow their business.” They contribute much of their success to the close relationships they have developed with their clients.
For those starting a publishing business, he recommends focusing on the web, as the print publishing industry is saturated and a difficult model to build and maintain. It also suggests that you get audience-generated content to ensure your post is read.
The moral of this story, no matter what industry you’re in, finding out what your customers’ needs are and developing products and services to address those needs is the key to your company’s success and profitability.
Article Summary of Best Practices for Business Development:
– Find out what your customers’ needs are and develop products and services to address those needs
– Create a solid business plan to help achieve your company’s growth goal
– Research the demographics of your target audience to expand in the right direction
– Be the first out of the box with something new in your industry
– Create opportunities to let your customers demonstrate their expertise
– Form and take advantage of strategic alliances.
– Invest in developing products and services that your target market needs and would pay for
– Create a company website that is easy to navigate and provides a good user experience
– Have your products and services available online
– Focus on building partnership relationships with your customers
– Research the industry you are thinking of entering
– Survey your customers or potential customers to get new ideas.