A little over 10 years ago when I became one of the first Sales Directors at a law firm, measuring the effectiveness of marketing and sales investments was basically unheard of in the law firm world.

Right now, I’m preparing for a presentation at the 19th Annual Marketing Partner Forum, a presentation with Jim Stapleton, Silvia Hodges and Adam Severson titled “Building Reporting: Marketing and Business Development Metrics.” And, I’m realizing that a subject that was once rarely discussed has become one of the hottest topics in law firm sales and marketing circles. In 2001, law firm marketers talked about how many brochures they produced, articles they placed, organizations they sponsored, lawyers they got into directories, and how many Client CLE events they planned and staged. In 2012, law firm marketers are talking a whole new lingo: number of leads in the pipeline as the result of an event, what percentage of those leads become clients, how much revenue does each average new client represent, what is the dollar equivalent of earned media placements, how many click-throughs result from a blog post, and on and on and on.