Legal Marketing Secrets

So how's the legal economy doing ?

So how's the legal economy doing after 2 awful years?

According to a report released by consulting company Hildebrandt and the Law Firm Group at Citi Private Bank, law firm profitability is expected to grow modestly in 2012, however, this year may prove
to be even more challenging than 2009, the report found. One consequence of the uncertain climate has been the decrease in the number of associates employed at firms and younger lawyers
having a really difficult time.

Another article noted that the U.S. economy added 243,000 jobs in January, and the unemployment rate dropped to 8.3 percent, with the legal services sector adding back 1,000 jobs in January, the Labor Department announced.

What to make of these somewhat conflicting signals?

Not sure, but my advise is to keep your expenses low, stay focused on what you enjoy, execute on your marketing plans and continue to provide outstanding service…

the rest of it is just noise. 

 

Marketing is a Learned Trait --Listen to the Experts

With a slowing economy you know you should be getting your ass in gear to market your practice more effectively. 

And as you know, I have over 140 experts and other tools to help you do just that...where you can listen to these experts as often as you like.

I wanted to let you know about another learning opportunity that's very similar to my Expert Audio Series.

Autotech has a series of audio summaries from great marketing books that you can purchase for $189. You can check it out at:  http://www.audiotech.com/dms/marketing-collection.php?

Should you purchase my Expert Audio Series rather than these book summaries….ABSOLUTELY!

But since my goal is to help you get and keep more clients and create more wealth and freedom in your career, I just thought you should know about this.

 

A Different Spin on Networking

Of all the marketing strategies you can use, networking represents the most effective method for growing your business. Ironically, to many of us, networking and building relationships are often seen as the most uncomfortable form of business development. In fact, the very idea of networking can bring forth feelings of anxiety, fear, and dread to even the most outgoing and confident professional. Shaking hands at useless and annoying networking events, mixing sweaty palms with pigs in a blanket, all in one massive business card swap is often seen as a total waste of time. Each person you meet trying to “sell” you.  Many of us would much rather visit a dentist for root canal surgery than attend a networking event.

But the fact remains that nothing gets done and your goals will never happen without the help of other people.  Dale Carnegie, the father of human relationship training, in How to Win Friends and Influence People said that financial success is due to 15% of one’s technical knowledge and 85% to skill in human relationship management.

One networking idea for introverts was described by Srikumar Rao in “Are You Ready to Succeed.”  Rao suggests you pick 5 people that appeal to you and for which you would like to cultivate a relationship. Write them a letter letting them know what you admire about them and state a specific way you can be of help or use. You might even consider sending a letter of congratulations on a promotion or award. One highly successful attorney I know would consistently send out letters of congratulations to people he read about in the paper and trade magazines. After a few years, his network exploded as did his business. This type of tactical networking requires less game playing and serves to form a network around you.

Try it and see what happens! 

 

Marketing is all About Mindset

Many of the experts I interviewed for my Expert Audio Series complained that many lawyers don’t listen or follow through on the best laid marketing plans. 

Why is this?

As a lawyer you think critically and are highly judgmental.  What’s really at play here is human nature.  Even though we're critical thinkers, primarily we're still run by our emotions.  That means that we're viewing the pain of marketing (it’s beneath our standing, appears to be begging, fear of failure or criticism, etc) as greater than the pleasure of winning (more clients, more money, freedom, cases we care about, etc).  Thus, we procrastinate, don’t follow up or just stop all together.  We’re all motivated to avoid pain more than moving towards pleasure.

Releasing these negative feelings and your mindset are more important than any marketing tactic.

One idea to conquer this emotional block is to see you as a 50 year old with kids in college, and helping care for aging parents.  You’ve just been fired, lost your biggest client or been de-equitized!  Now what?  You would figure it out as any warrior would do, with a survival instinct.  The only difference would be the time you’ve wasted.

Another idea is to vision how better you’re life and career would be if you had more clients, less stress, added more value, making a bigger impact, helping more people, making more money, and having more pleasure in your career. 

Figure out what you’d enjoy by having the positive things, and move towards creating that inspiring motivation.

 

Soft Patch for Legal Marketing

Recently there has been a rash of negative news on the legal market.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the legal industry has experienced 4 straight monthly of losses, while firms deal with a slowing economy.  Graduates can’t find legal jobs, and The New York Law Journal's annual NYLJ 100 shows a lack of growth in even the 100 largest private firms.  What’s more the outsourcing industry is putting pressure on law firms and legal departments as Pangea3, the Indian legal process outsourcer bought by Thomson Reuters last year, opened its first U.S.-based service delivery office in Dallas.

It’s really hard to figure out whether we’re in a recovery, a soft patch or headed towards another recession.  And if you’re feeling the pinch, just think about your clients.  They concerned as well as demand for services and products are down across the board.

You can only control so much in this crazy environment.  My suggestion is to pay a lot of attention to your current clients. The success of your clients needs to be your ultimate business goal. And for this to happen you need to look at every single thing you do for your clients and ask how you can do it better and with more impact...even in non-legal areas.

Help them succeed and your marketing will get results beyond what you currently can imagine…even in these challenging times. 

What Legal Marketing is Not

I hope you’re well and enjoying the spring weather, unless of course you have allergies like me.

The dictionary defines “marketing” as the act or process of buying and selling in a market.

Let me give you some thoughts as to what marketing is not…

1. Marketing is not about you.
2. Marketing is not something you do when revenues are down or you lost a key client.
3. Marketing is not effective unless it’s tied to a vision or a dream.
4. Marketing is not quick.
5. Marketing is not effective unless tied to measurable results.
6. Marketing is not something you do in a vacuum or outside of a “system”.
7. Marketing is not solely something you do to get “new” clients.
8. Marketing is not selling.
9. Marketing is not a brochure or a fancy website.
10. Marketing is not something solely devoted to the “logical” part of your brain.
11. Marketing will generally not “close” the deal.
12. Marketing is not something you do at your desk.
13. Marketing is not sleazy or a waste of your time.
14. Marketing is not something you delegate to someone else.
15. Marketing is not the last thing you should do after all of your work is done.
16. Marketing is not effective unless you’re passionate about what you do and the solutions you provide.

Just a few thoughts.

Stay well.

Legal Marketing and Valentine's Day

While writing my book and interviewing hundreds of legal marketing experts, I have come across many unusual tactics to get publicity and business.

But one really caught my eye this past week, when I learned that Rusty Webb, a divorce lawyer from Charleston, W. Va, recently awarded a women a free, uncontested divorce, not including costs, (cheap o) on Valentine’s Day.   

Loretta T. of Huntington was the lucky contest winner due to her compelling story about her husband and why she deserved to win the contest.  “Ms. T. was ecstatic when she learned that she was the winner.” 

Each year on Valentine’s Day, Mr. Webb gives away a free divorce to the person whom he considers most worthy based upon the compelling story they make via internet application to the firm’s website: rustywebb.com.  This is the fourth year of the giveaway.

This story reminds me of a billboard for a divorce firm out of Chicago that went up a few years ago with a blunt message: "Life's Short. Get a Divorce.''

The billboard, sponsored by Fetman, Garland & Associates, Ltd., a firm that specializes in divorce cases, featured the six-pack abs of a headless male torso and tanned female cleavage heaving forth from a black lace bra. They eventually were forced to take down the ad, but they certainly got a lot of publicity before it was removed.

So what does this say about legal marketing? 

I’m not really sure…

except next year...

I won’t forget to  get my wife flowers on Valentine’s Day!

It's Time to Give...and Get Going

The international consulting firm Hildebrandt Baker Robbins just released its 2011 Client Advisory.  The report predicts that law firms will enjoy only modest gains -- "lower single-digit rates" -- in profits per equity partner in the wake of a two-year lull in demand for legal services and that the industry will not be returning to pre-recession revenue levels anytime soon.

At the roughly 182 firms surveyed, the advisory shows, demand for legal services was down by less than 1 percent through the first three quarters of 2010 after dropping by almost 4 percent during all of 2009.  As a result, the author predicts firms need to employ innovative methods of cost cutting and achieving efficiency just to attain modest profitability.  How?  One way, is further reductions in the equity partner ranks.  The dreaded " de-equitization”…a fate worse than death, especially when many of these folks have high mortgages, have kids in college or are caring for aging parents.  That’s why marketing is so important, even for equity partners who are excellent lawyers.

Another article I want to bring to your attention is by my friend and one of the experts in my Expert Audio Series, Stacy Clark. Her excellent article entitled: “20 Free Services Lawyers May Want to Offer to Clients” can be found at: http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202478384419&_Free_Services_Lawyers_May_Want_to_Offer_to_Clients

Stacy reminds us that just in any other relationship we have, you have give before you get.

Very good advice.

Legal Marketing and Persistence

The last blog post talked about how limited beliefs will hold you back from marketing and business development success.  As you know, just like everything else in life, the biggest obstacle to success is our own belief systems.

This was brought home to me when I recently spoke to a lawyer who was feeling rejected due to his marketing efforts and a guy I met yesterday at a CLE class who recently lost his job.  Both had made overtures to various prospects and employers but they were not getting any response. 

So rather than continue to feed those prospects with good market data that shows they had the solutions to the prospect’s problems, they stopped following up.  We all suffer from this type of thinking.  (My dating life when I was single is a testament to this.)  No one likes to be rejected and no one wants to be a pain in the ass or appear desperate.

I have a friend who practices health care law and a few years ago he targeted a new health care system that had just consolidated.  He wrote to the General Counsel and got no response. Undaunted, he continued to write and send market based data that would help the General Counsel do his job better and be more successful. This process went on for 2 years without a response, until one day he got a call and was asked to come in to discuss one of the articles he had sent.  The GC admired his persistence and even commented on how his current lawyer failed to advise him of this important information.

He now represents the health care system and his revenues from that particular client are substantial. Moreover, the GC introduced him to other attorneys and business executives in the healthcare field and he was able to generate referrals and new clients.

If you provide prospects with valuable market information, rather than product information about how great you are, people will respond and not feel that you’re annoying or desperate. 

The only question is how much do you want their business and how persistent are you?

 

Legal Marketing and Your Belief System

As we enter 2011, you know it’s a good time to start getting serious about business development.  Before you begin to develop your plan, you might want to take a moment to analysis your belief systems about marketing.

If you believe that marketing is hard, that you don’t have the time, that it’s unprofessional, that you’re not very good at it, or that the competition is just too great, these limiting beliefs will thwart your success.  If you think marketing is sleazy or a waste of time; or you’re too introverted or old/young to get clients, your beliefs will guide your behavior and sabotage your efforts. 

As a lawyer, your mind is programmed to be skeptical and judgmental.  This to will harm your changes of success.  Acknowledge these and other limiting beliefs you may have about marketing and client development and find a way to move threw these to re-program your mind for success.

How? 

By concentrating on the benefits and service you provide.  You may be the best at what you do but it doesn’t do anyone any good if they don’t hear from you.  Express to people how you can help them make money, save them money, provide them peace of mind, help them obtain what they want or enforce their rights...and do it in an emotionally satisfying way. 

People need your help to their legal problems, so get out of your limited beliefs and go help as many people as you can.