Law Firm Marketing for Leaders: Can You Handle It?
It really is lonely at the top. It doesn’t matter if you are the knot tying champ in your Boy Scout Troop or the CEO of a FORTUNE 500 company. Being the best or being in charge means that people will be coming after you. Rest assured, it will happen. One of the inevitable byproducts of success is the big target that will be firmly affixed to your back.
Why?
Human nature.
Each of us is born with the capacity to feel emotion and, in early childhood, we develop and refine our use of these emotions and our response to the emotions displayed by others.
Insecurity, jealousy, anger and resentment are often byproducts of our view of the success of a rival.
Some people see your success and they feel all of these things. A few of the more narcissistic folks will actually act on these feelings. That’s when the fun really begins.
The more successful you are, the more intense the emotional reaction to your success will be. Expect it.
And if you think it won’t happen to you because you are a “Nice Person”, just do an Internet Search for Christopher Hitchens thoughts on Mother Teresa. If someone can hate a Saint that much, trust me, someone out there will take aim at you once you have achieved a modicum of success.
So what are you supposed to do with these HATERS?
When my clients come crying to me about people who are:
1). Complaining about them to the world
2). Sending them hate mail or posting hateful things about them on the Internet
3). Spreading false rumors about them (or even bringing some old but true indiscretions to light)
I encourage them to react as follows:
Embrace the Fame
Let’s face it, if someone is attacking you, no matter how awful the attack is, your message is reaching its audience. Losers do not get targeted by anyone. Somebody feels threatened by you. Somewhere you have struck a nerve. Go with it. Shout louder. Appear in more places. Write more articles. Use even stronger language.
Remember that your goal in marketing is not only to attract potential clients but also to REPEL non-clients. You only want to work with people who have a problem you can solve and are willing to pay top dollar for you to solve it.
Publicly Identify the Emotional Dysfunction
Never attack your adversary directly as this would only serve to elevate him to your status. Instead, attack his emotional dysfunction. Talk about the evil of the emotion and not about the specific individual who personifies that evil.
Hillary Clinton did this masterfully during impeachment proceedings against her husband. During a nationally televised interview that was watched by more than half of the population of the United States, she painted the vitriol toward President Clinton as a vast right wing conspiracy.
With one statement she polarized the voting public. You were either part of that conspiracy or you were a victim of it.
Use the Attacks to Embolden Your Own Mission
Now that you have an enemy, use it (remember the enemy is the ideal not the person) to advance your position.
Personal Injury Lawyers use Insurance Companies or Big Tobacco or greedy manufacturing companies looking to make money at the cost of worker safety. Criminal Lawyers use the ruthless state-run system that chews up victims of circumstance and makes them hardened criminals. Labor attorneys use the union as a socialist enterprise that wants to drive a wedge between the workers and their benevolent employer.
Find a way to fight the emotion without picking a fight with the individual. The last thing you want to do is create a sympathetic victim.
You may be wondering why I selected this forum to share this insight with you. I will admit that this is advanced messaging strategy and an unusual law firm marketing strategy and can easily be misinterpreted by the uninitiated. The reason I share this particular strategy with you today is because I want you to think about your future. I want you to mentally prepare for the success that is coming. As your law practice (your business) evolves, and you become more successful, you will also become a target. My goal is for you to expect it.
But that begs a critically important question about your future success:
Can you handle it?
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EmailLaw Firm Marketing Requires External Orientation
What is the one quality you will find in just about every law firm’s website and most of their marketing material?
It is all about the lawyer.
This is the exact opposite of a correct approach to law firm marketing.
The best way to turn off people who are thinking about doing business with you is to talk about yourself.
Law firm marketing is about building relationships. You can’t do that by bragging.
Let me give you a healthy dose of reality:
- Nobody cares how big your law firm is.
- Nobody cares how successful you think you are.
- Nobody cares how many bogus magazines have named you Super-Duper-Lawyer-Of-The-Month.
- Nobody cares about your “combined years of experience” or about the “complex matters” you work on.
That’s not the reason people come to your website. That’s not the reason someone winds up in your office or on your telephone.
People come to you because they need help with THEIR PROBLEM.
It’s about the client. Always.
People want to know you care about them. And not in some superficial wink-and-a-nod kind of way. They want to know that you understand and feel their pain. They want to know that you are interested in helping them get out of the mess they got themselves into. They want you to help them make sense of the legal system. They want you to help them plot a course through the maze that their life (or their business) has become.
When you sit down to write the copy for your website or when you sit at your computer to write your monthly newsletter, write it from the perspective of the client. Speak to the things your client is feeling. Speak to his needs. Help him learn how much you truly understand his situation.
Here is a little piece of advice I give every one of my “big ego” clients when we first start working together:
You don’t get rich by telling people how great you are. You get rich by helping people realize how great they can become.
Law Firm Marketing and Your Business
Most people want to go to sleep tonight and wake up in the morning smart, rich and thin. They want the formula for the magic potion they can drink that will make this happen.
Lawyers are no different.
Many lawyers will hire Social Media Gurus, Search Engine Optimization Experts or a Public Relations Flack and expect to have thousands of clients lining up outside their office door by the end of the week.
It doesn’t work that way.
You can’t just plunk down a couple of bucks for the “all the clients you can stand” option at the local buffet.
Sorry.
No matter what anyone says, there is no way to make this happen overnight.
But there is a way to build a client base and establish a reputation as a good lawyer in the process.
Here is the three step formula:
Step One: Do excellent work.
Yeah. It’s true. You have to represent your clients well. You have to get the best result possible for them. You have to do everything legally, morally and ethically possible to help them. There is no avoiding this. You must be a good lawyer.
Step Two: Embrace business ownership.
As a lawyer you have a responsibility to your client (see step one). As a business owner you have an additional responsibility to yourself: To make money. These two things are not mutually exclusive. You can be professional, charge fair fees and run a profitable business. If you cannot come to grips with this concept, go to work for a big law firm.
Step Three: Set up systems that allow you to be the CEO of your law firm.
You will severely limit your income if you spend 100% of your time practicing law. You love the law. I know. You went to school to practice law. I know. You only feel validated when you are doing the work required to resolve an issue for a client. I know.
The big problem arises when you run out of hours in the day. You see, at some point, you will run out of hours in which you can complete the work. This means you need to have systems in place that help you complete at least fifty percent of the work that will flow through your office. These systems will involve other people. There will be delegation and there will need to be accountability.
Yes. You read that correctly. You will need to manage people and processes if you want to grow your law firm.
How do you set up these systems? What do they look like? How do you hire the right people? How do you get them to perform the necessary tasks perfectly and consistently? How do you ethically attract enough clients to support this added infrastructure and make a healthy profit?
These are the questions that can be answered by a true expert.
I’m not talking about someone who can “get you on the first page of Google”. Or someone who can help you get 3,000 ‘friends” on Facebook.
I am talking about an expert who can sit down with you, listen to your goals for your law firm and your life and help you design a plan to make them a reality.
I am talking about someone who can help you put that plan into motion and make adjustments along the way.
You need a business strategist to help you build a business. But you have to take action. You have to admit that you want to build a successful business.
Not everyone does.
If you are one of the few lawyers who have the guts to embrace business ownership, you owe it to yourself to take action.
8 Words That Make All The Difference
“I’m sorry I have not been in touch.”
Those eight simple words are the best way to begin a communication campaign with your clients, past clients and potential referral sources.
I know you probably don’t receive as many referrals as you deserve. In most cases, this is a not a reflection of the quality of your work. It is a reflection of your lack of communication with the people most likely to give you referrals.
Your clients want to refer others to you. Unfortunately, they just don’t think about you all of the time.
The easy remedy to this situation is to remind them (frequently) that you are still here, still practicing law, and still providing the same fantastic service.
This is a tricky proposition.
You want to communicate with potential referral sources frequently but you do not want to be annoying.
Here are three ways to do that:
1). Send out a weekly email newsletter. This is a cost effective way to stay in touch with people who could potentially send you business. Many lawyers are intimidated by the suggested frequency. They initially feel that weekly communication may be too much. I assure you it is not. As long as your email is interesting, your clients will welcome it. Use the phrase: “Sorry I have not been in touch” in the subject of your first email.
2). Remember birthdays. There are three elements that go into getting a great referral. A person must know you, like you and trust you before they refer business to you. Your clients trust you or they would not have worked with you in the first place. If you send them a card on their birthday you will deepen your relationship with them. This simple step of remembering and recognizing them on an important day in their life will go a long way toward building your relationship.
3). Host a client appreciation event. One of the first things eliminated from the budget during difficult economic times is the office holiday party. This is a mistake. You should host an event, at least once each year, to recognize your clients. This doesn’t have to happen during the holidays. It can be anytime. In fact, it is often best to have this event during a time when there are no other competing events to distract from its significance. A simple gathering of clients with light food and drink is a terrific way to build good will.
Referrals are the lifeblood of any law firm marketing plan. Last week I shot a DVD for my clients that outlined 15 ways to attract more referrals. Watching this video and then taking consistent action on just one of these ideas could double the size of their law firm.
Think about it: If each of your current clients referred you one new client, your practice would grow by 100%.
Implement the three strategies I outlined above immediately. They are wise investments of your time and money and they will help you grow your business rapidly.
A Quality that Cannot Be Copied
It is easy to imitate someone else.
Once you become successful your competitors will try to imitate you in order to achieve similar success.
My clients regularly find out that someone has copied their website design, or the article they wrote for the trade journal or attempted to secure a position similar to theirs in a local civic organization.
There is one quality that most of these losers will never be able to imitate.
I call that quality an “action orientation”.
Real winners, people who enjoy consistent revenue growth, year after year, regardless of the economic conditions, have a bias for action.
They do not sit around and wait for things to happen. They make things happen. They take the initiative. They move forward aggressively.
People who copy cannot do this. They need to wait for you to move and then they need to dissect your movement.
If you want more clients you must act. If want to be successful you must act on your own. Take some risks.
This is the one thing that separates the winners from the losers.
Be aggressive. Take action.
Legal Marketing: Keep Your Pride Out of It
One of the benefits of getting older is learning from experience. I guess they call it the wisdom that comes from old age. Even though I am far from old, I have always embraced the knowledge I have acquired as a result of making mistakes.
The more I think about it, the more I realize that the temporary pain of making an embarrassing mistake is exactly what I needed in order to sear the learning into my mind.
It’s like getting a vaccination. You inject a dose of the disease into the bloodstream so that you can prevent a full blown outbreak. A little stupidity, if caught early on, can help prevent a lot of stupidity later in life.
Unfortunately there is one type of mistake that is painful even in the smallest dose.
About fifteen years ago I started a new job with significant responsibility. The job was packed with pressure and it required technical knowledge as well as people skills. Having managed people before, I was more concerned about acquiring the technical knowledge necessary to become proficient.
The people who worked for me were excellent at the technical aspects of the business. And they were willing to teach me what I needed to learn. But I refused. I wanted to learn these skills for myself. I was afraid that if the employees taught me, their boss, about the technical aspects of the job, they would not respect me.
Boy was I wrong.
I struggled to learn the technical aspects of the role from manuals and videos. I made numerous mistakes in front of the employees as I tried to bluff my way though each day. I damaged my reputation within the ranks of my people until finally, after a long painful period of time, I asked for help.
I could have shortened the learning curve. But something got in my way. That something is the one thing that holds many people back.
What was this powerful force that prevented me from acting in my own best interest?
Pride.
My pride manifested itself in the fear of embarrassment associated with asking for help.
My own foolish pride kept me from growing as a leader and as a businessperson.
Now that I am older and have seen pride hold me back a few times in my career I know to ignore that feeling and ask for help when I need it.
That’s the message I have for you today. Ask for help and shorten the learning curve when you do not know what you are doing.
Think about it:
You didn’t wake up one day, decide to start practicing law, read some books and saunter down to the courthouse.
You went to law school. You learned the rules of procedure. You acquired the skills necessary to be a professional.
Yet when it comes to client attraction you try to figure it out on your own.
All of a sudden, when it comes to the lifeblood of your law practice —attracting great clients—you have decided to “wing it”.
Why?
Pride.
Most lawyers are afraid to ask for help with business strategy or marketing. They feel they will look foolish if they reach out to an expert and learn from his experience.
Only 2% of the attorney population makes seven figures per year. Know why?
Because they do not know how to run their law firm like a business.
Job number 1 in every business is to attract and retain clients.
Don’t make the same mistake I made.
Swallow your pride and reach out to me today to learn how your investment of a little time and money can provide a huge return during the rest of your career.
Attracting clients doesn’t have to be difficult. Call me and find out why 888.692.5531.
Smart is Good But Tenacious is Better
An interesting discussion developed among a few of my clients last week at one of our law firm marketing and business strategy sessions.
The issue of intelligence came up. Someone said: “Have you ever noticed how many smart lawyers wind up with no money?”
This lead to a conversation about business acumen vs. raw intellectual horsepower and it was an opportunity for me to get on my soapbox, yet again.
One of the things I harp on with my clients is the fact that persistence beats out intelligence every time. If you are an adequate lawyer (meaning you do a good job for your clients) and you are persistent in you approach to marketing, you will develop a practice that is financially successful.
Too many lawyers implement a marketing strategy and then give up before making adjustments to it to ensure success.
Persistence is the most valuable quality in law firm marketing and it is a key to success in life.
Poor Law Firm Marketing is Like Throwing a Party With No Guests
It was awful.
When I was in college I moved into a new apartment during my senior year. To celebrate my move I invited about two dozen of my friends to my house to watch a basketball game.
I went to the store and got a platter of assorted sandwiches. I stopped at the bakery and got a cake in the shape of a basketball. I went to the distributor and purchased enough adult beverages to make sure everyone had a good time. I borrowed chairs from my neighbor and I set them up so that everyone had a great view of the television.
Then I waited. And waited. And waited.
By the time the buzzer sounded to end the game, I felt pretty lousy. I rationalized that the people I thought were my friends must have suddenly stopped liking me.
A few days later I found out that wasn’t the case at all. You see I invited these people over at the last minute and most of them already made plans for the evening. A couple of them got stuck at work and one of them didn’t have my new address or phone number.
My poor execution during a critical part of the party planning process lead to a disappointing result.
I see this all the time in law firm marketing.
A lawyer will try one form of marketing and in doing so he will leave out one or two critical components. This leads to disappointing results and the lawyer decides marketing doesn’t work.
In my case, I learned a valuable lesson in party planning. But I had to learn through trial and error.
In the case of the lawyers, many of them totally give up on marketing and stick to “waiting for the phone to ring.” They do this because they don’t want to relive the painful experience of marketing failures from the past. Trial and error is just too costly.
There is another way.
Reach out to someone who has experience and follow their system. Call a law firm marketing expert.
You don’t need to go through the pain of trial and error over and over again. You don’t have to compromise on the quality or quantity of clients in your law firm because you do not know how to “get marketing to work.”
The timing is right for you to develop the law firm you deserve.
It is one thing to be sitting in your living room by yourself watching a basketball game. It is something altogether different to be sitting in your office, day after day, waiting for the phone to ring.
There are dozens of ethical, effective, efficient ways to attract clients. All you need to do is take the first step and get started. Call me today to learn how easy it can be. 888.692.5531
Video is a Competitive Advantage in Law Firm Marketing
The Internet can be a useful law firm marketing tool. If used correctly, Internet marketing can be targeted, effective and produce a high return on investment.
But the Internet has become one of the most competitive forms of advertising media available to attorneys. And it has become overrun with people who will take your money and do little to help you.
One of the best opportunities in law firm Internet marketing today is the use of video.
Here are three reasons why every attorney should incorporate video into law firm marketing IMMEDIATELY:
Video Develops a More Personal Relationship with the Website Visitor
People who watch you videos feel as though they know you personally. This has been happening for years with television personalities. It is now possible for the everyday person to develop a similar relationship with the viewing audience.
Make a few videos each month, post them on your website and, over time, you will notice a difference in the type of clients you attract. Your clients will be less skeptical and more willing to do business. They will feel as though they already know you.
Video Enhances Your Credibility
Adding video to your website is similar to doing a mini-speaking engagement. Any time you speak to a group of people you have the benefit of the enhanced credibility that comes with taking the stage. You can leverage and multiply this advantage by using video on your website.
Video Offers an Advantage with Search Engines
You still have the opportunity to be a law firm marketing video pioneer. There are few people using video effectively. Entering the world of video marketing now will allow you to leverage the power of search engine optimization for your videos.
Search Engine Optimization is complicated and expensive. Video offers you an opportunity to move to the top of the search engine listings, but you must get going. Law firm marketing will undoubtedly turn to video quickly in the near future.
The Best Part of Law Firm Marketing
The best part of law firm marketing is having the ability to say “No” at any time.
If you have multiple ways of generating leads and multiple ways of attracting new potential clients and if you are good at getting clients to commit to working with you, you can afford to turn away business.
Turning away bad clients is a necessity.
- Bad clients take up more time than good clients.
- Bad clients frustrate you and your team.
- Bad clients force you to make bad decisions.
- Bad clients take your focus away from growth.
- Bad clients make you reactive instead of proactive.
The best reason to develop solid law firm marketing systems is to be selective in client acquisition. It provides you with freedom of time and freedom of choice.
Saying “No” puts control of your future in your hands.
