The Power of Preparedness: Handling Threatened Legal Action with a Marketing Mindset
Preparing for Threatened Legal Action in Inbound Marketing
It may seem odd to consider how to prepare for possibly being threatened legal action when planning an inbound marketing campaign. But by integrating legal preparedness into your go to market strategy and sales funnel development, you can ensure that your customers are buying legitimately, not because of unethical business practices. In that regard, the legal and marketing functions are intertwined. And, if legal action is thrust upon you, you need a plan to minimize the damage. This damage can extend far beyond a monetary award – it can impact corporate reputation and brand value. Whether you’re just starting out or scaling rapidly, now is the time to think about how the two aspects of the business correlate and integrate them into revenue operations (RevOps).
Leveraging my years of experience working alongside sales and marketing organizations at various technology companies and with channel partners, I recognized that the integration of these departments into RevOps and into SalesForce.com provided an opportunity to implement legal integration at the ground level. This was in addition to the risks that the marketing team would inadvertently create for the company. I also had the chance to have a conversation with Joe Lopez, the founder of Loft Innovation, which provides a suite of solutions designed to help folks like me scale revenues for SaaS and enterprise level companies.
Lopez started his company to address an unmet need: risk mitigation, including legal ramifications, within the sales funnel, particularly for companies that use RevOps and SalesForce.com. Lofts’ solutions incorporate sales automation, contract lifecycle management, and legal management solutions. These products and their integration into the sales and marketing funnel help to identify potential legal red flags early on, such as:
The idea here is that you have an immediate response to a potential lawsuit threat, including the ability to automate certain processes so that from a cost perspective, it will be reasonable to respond and you’re armed with enough information to mount an effective defense. For example, you could define specific terms or actions related to a lead and identify the legal issues beforehand and establish a process to remediate any violations before they reach the final contract stage. Or you could build out the legal situation into your business process in a way that designates an escalation path that involves key players on both the legal and sales/marketing teams.
As for how to integrate this approach, Lopez suggests starting with a central repository for all of your leads. Then, you can prioritize those leads based on the potential for a conflict. You can track the legal issues and use contract lifecycle data to identify needs for legal review and approval. Based on this approach, you can mitigate legal risks and know in advance whether the risk is high enough to walk away from or never even begin pursuing a lead.
As you think about this, consider some practical applications for your own business. Are you aware of any internal policies that encourage or tolerate legal risks? Do you have an action plan if you know about a potential copyright infringement? Have you seen other teams develop major legal issues that you were brought into last minute?
With the right preparation and action plan, your next marketing initiative doesn’t have to end up in the litigation line.
