Articles
Many of us went to law school never thinking that we’d have to market our services. We’d rather undergo root canal surgery than spend our precious time marketing and selling. Just the thought of it causes an allergic rash to mysteriously appear all over our bodies. Can’t we just be left alone to “practice”? After all, isn’t practicing difficult enough?—the long hours, demanding clients and time constraints, firm politics, and dealing with opposing counsel on every nit. And with the escalating pressure to bill hours, how do we find the time to market?
Practicing is hard. With over 1.1 million lawyers in the United States alone, competition is fierce. Globalization, consolidation creating mega firms, increased utilization of request for proposals (RFP), budgetary caps on fees, practice groups switching firms to go to the highest bidder, marketing of legal service plans, self-help legal guides, mass demotions at large firms, de-equitization of partners, outsourcing legal services overseas, and new technology that commands 24/7 attention are all altering the legal landscape. Practicing law may be a profession, but today’s law firms are run more like businesses than ever before. And like their counterparts in the business community, revenues and earnings drive major decisions.
Being a good lawyer or legal tactician is simply not enough anymore. If you really want to succeed in today’s environment, you have to become a rainmaker and market your solutions. It is the only way you’ll be in complete control of your professional destiny. Sure, you could bill an outrageous number of hours, become a national expert in your area of the law or even a partner in a large firm, but these factors will no longer guarantee your financial and personal success. Deep down inside you know this to be true—unfortunate perhaps, but true.
Change Your Attitude
Getting started is the most difficult part. We need to shift our attitude. Many of us see marketing as demeaning, and a waste of our precious time. We dread the very idea of it. Yellow page ads, obnoxious late night cable commercials, or costly glossy brochures all seem to gratify an attorney’s ego rather than sell real benefits. Most of us disdain the legal marketing spectrum—on one end, professional garbage about the impressive “image” of the lawyer; at the other, raunchy ads about getting the client massive amounts of money for injury claims. Worse, they all look alike.
In truth, most of us dislike marketing because we were never taught how to do it in a professional and personally fulfilling way. I can assure you, though, that marketing your solutions can be easy and enjoyable, especially if you implement these ideas.
Eight Simple Steps Will Help You Effectively Market Your Services
1. Ask yourself some important questions: what do you want to do with your legal career; where do you want to do it, and what do you want your professional life to look? In other words, explore what inspires and motivates you, what activities you love to do, what environment you want to do them in, who you want to serve, and what you want your professional life to stand for. Without these answers, marketing will prove useless and boring.
2. Adopt the mindset of a rainmaker. You need to think about rainmaking as your most important activity and that having a list of profitable and loyal clients is your most important asset. To achieve a marketing mindset, expand your value proposition and awareness into the relationships and assets within your business and sphere of influence. You already have what you need to become a master rainmaker; you just have to leverage your existing assets for the opportunities that await you.
3. Get help. You’re not a marketing expert. Coaches, consultants, books, and experts are all waiting to help you get started. If you want to cut years off your learning curve, cut down on failures and save thousands of dollars, get the expert advice you need.
4. Plan. The key ingredients of any marketing plan include: (i) strategic planning, (ii) tactical execution, and (iii) follow-up. Woody Allen may believe that half of life’s success involves just showing up, but real achievement comes from preparation and follow-up. You can’t take a shotgun approach to marketing; it’s not like power lunching or attending a dreaded networking event. Just as you wouldn’t prepare for a deposition or trial without a plan, you also need a marketing plan. You need to address your long and short-term goals, strengths, niche, and what you want out of your business. Your strategy should be laser-focused and measurable.
5. Get someone to do the grunt work. Apply the 80/20 rule and spend the brunt of your time on the most important clients and matters. Your secretary or a virtual assistant can help write letters, call clients, send out articles and press releases, and help you build a client database. There is no way you can do this alone, nor should you depend on the firm’s marketing manager.
6. Do a little client development every day. Call that old client who you haven’t heard from. Send an article of interest to a new prospect. Devote part of every day to marketing and you’ll soon see these seeds flower.
7. Follow up. Most marketing plans fail because there is no follow up, and we don’t realize it until it’s too late. Use a “ladder” or “drip” multi- contact approach: show people that you’ve been there for them and that you’re the “go-to” person they need and want.
8. Have fun. Practicing law is difficult: don’t make marketing a chore. Choose marketing tactics that you enjoy and are easy or you won’t follow through. Be targeted and optimistic that you’re going to meet the people you need to advance your career and cause. With only a few simple disciplined actions every day, you’ll find the kind of success you want. Executed properly, marketing will become like a second skin as your leads, relationships, and opportunities begin to grow exponentially.
Who knows?—you may even get rid of that rash.
