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Q: My firm has told me that rainmaking and client development are important. When things are slow at the office, it’s easy for me to market my services, but when things heat up, I can’t seem to find the time. How can I be more consistent in my marketing efforts?
A: Your quandary is one that many lawyers face whether they are associates, partners, or sole practitioners. It is difficult to both market and keep up with a heavy workload. However, rainmaking is an increasingly important component of associate and partner evaluations. Therefore, lawyers need to learn from entrepreneurs that creating and executing a marketing plan is one of the most important activities they can do.
How can you make time for marketing when you barely have time for lunch? First, understand an essential truth about marketing: people send business to those they like, know and trust. Because strong relationships are the basis for business development, it’s impossible to maintain these relationships if you only pay attention to them when your workload is light.
The good news is that with only a few simple steps, marketing is something you can do even in the busiest times. What’s important is that you engage in some form of marketing activity on a regular basis, not how much time you put into marketing each week.
To get started, we suggest that you create a simple marketing plan that includes some basic information. This will allow you to pick and choose from a menu of marketing activities depending upon how much time you have. Your marketing plan should answer these questions:
Who is your ideal client?
What differentiates you from your competitors?
Where you will go to network?
What other activities, such as speaking and writing, will you do to market your practice?
Now create specific, targeted goals. How many relationship-building lunches do you want to have over the course of the year? Do you want to sit on any boards? How many speeches would you like to give? How many articles do you aim to write?
The more specific you can be, the better. Remember, you are creating a menu of options so you can select the marketing activities that suit the time you have available. Maintaining marketing momentum is not about how much time you spend marketing when you are crunched at work, but rather making sure that marketing is on your radar every week no matter how heavy your workload.
If you’re preparing for a trial, for example, you can still take a short break to call a colleague and set up a lunch date for a time when both of you are free. You may also be able to attend an evening board meeting, or spend ten minutes researching some venues where you might speak. These activities take very little time but nonetheless allow you to maintain your marketing momentum by keeping marketing on your radar.
When you make a commitment to marketing even when business is booming, you’re establishing a habit, which is always difficult in the early stages. Once marketing becomes a part of what you do each week, however, you will find that the rewards you reap will make your initial efforts worthwhile.
