Legal Tech Needs a Go-To-Market Strategy, Report Finds

In legal tech talk, a go-to-market strategy is not exactly the same as a "go-to" guy in basketball.

Since it's the NBA playoffs, we're going to talk basketball first. Maybe we're talking apples and oranges, but you know legal tech didn't make up the term "go-to" first.

When you're talking b-ball, hoops, buckets, the go-to guy is that player you can count on to score. Throw him the ball, and everybody get out the way. Legal tech apparently doesn't have one of those.

Go-To Market

According to a survey of 100 senior executives in the tech industry, most legal tech firms don't have a go-to-market strategy. In their words, they don't understand "what to sell, how to sell it, and who to sell it to."

It breaks down like this:

• Most respondents had no idea how profitable their products or practice areas were
• More than half reported "some level of disconnect" between sales and marketing
• Firms of all sizes revealed "a lack of clarity" regarding the identity of their buyers

Bottom line, the survey showed that legal tech firms are struggling. They have something special to sell, but they're not sure how to do it.

It's not a big surprise either, given the law business has traditionally been slow to adapt to technology. Although lawyers are catching on, they often don't know how to make money with it.

Go-To Strategy

Since we're still talking sports, "Moneyball" was the greatest baseball movie ever -- maybe after "The Rookie," or "The Natural." The point is, "Moneyball" is about how the Oakland A's used analytics to field a championship team without breaking the bank on high-cost players.

Likewise, law firms can find a motherload of legal tech online for free. That might be part of the reason legal tech is struggling to sell its products or services.

It should all work out in the end -- some winners, some losers. The next go-to guy might be a robot anyway.

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