Your Email:
Your Name:
To:
Subject:
Message: Hi, I thought you might be interested in this article I found. The Foundation of Law Firm Marketing The foundation of business development is good communication. This means sending a message that is received and acted upon. In order to motivate the receiver to take action, the message must be relevant and it must be delivered in a way that will resonate with the target audience. There are four primary audiences you must engage regularly with your communications efforts. These are the groups of people who are responsible for bringing your firm 90% of your business. These groups are: 1. Suspects 2. Prospects 3. Clients 4. Evangelists Here are some details about each group to help you determine how to engage them. Suspects are people who you think have a need for your service. Here are some examples: For an immigration attorney a suspect is someone from another country who wants to live in the United States for an extended period of time. For a divorce attorney a suspect is someone who is thinking about leaving his/her spouse. In the world of the litigator, a suspect is someone who is seeking justice as the result of a perceived wrong-doing. Suspects don’t know who you are or what you do. They fall into this grouping because they MAY have a need for your services. Prospects are people who have expressed a need for the services you offer. They have called you or requested information from you. Prospects may or may not have a sense of urgency about resolving their issue. The key is that they have identified themselves as being interested in your services. Clients are people who have paid for your services within the last calendar year. If they have not paid they are not a client (I realize there are pro-bono clients but we are not addressing them in a business development context). Evangelists are your referral sources. They are clients who work with you multiple times and/or refer you to others. I would also put referral sources (other attorneys) into this category. Good business development begins with understanding the people who are in each category. Each of these groups is at a different point in their relationship with you. Your communication should be designed to advance people from one group to the next. Think of it as climbing a ladder. You want suspects to climb up to the next rung on the ladder and become prospects. You want prospects to climb up and become clients and you want clients to climb up and become evangelists. This happens almost exclusively through education and relationship development. Suspects become prospects when you educate them on the need for your services. Prospects become clients when you educate them on the need for urgency in taking action on their situation. Clients become evangelists when you deepen your relationship with them to the point of intimacy. Here is an example: Jack Long is a trust and estate attorney in Dallas, TX. Every month he does a no cost seminar for the clients of a local insurance agency. About 20-25 people hear him speak on the importance of having a will and the value in hiring an attorney to help you prepare one. At the start of his presentation the folks in that room are people Jack suspects may need his services. After each presentation, about 3 or 4 people come up to Jack and ask him questions. He stays until the last question is answered and he immediately follows up with the people who sought him out. These folks are prospects. Of the 3, 4 or 5 people who contacted Jack after the presentation, one or two usually hire him to draw up their will. They become clients. When Jack brings them on board he lets them know that he also provides other services such as a living will and a durable power of attorney. If his new clients don’t have Jack provide those services, he will continue to educate them (through newsletters, events and other forms of media) on the importance of those instruments. Jack also hosts quarterly client appreciation events, sends out a monthly printed newsletter and a weekly email newsletter. These communications tools are often passed on to other people as his clients become evangelists. (Jack encourages his clients to bring their friends to his client appreciation events). Great communication is one of the keys to success in any business. Effective business development starts with matching the right message to the right market. Suspects need a different message than prospects. Prospects need a message that is different than the message you deliver to your clients. Get the message right and deliver it to the right market and your revenue with grow exponentially. How will you engage each of these groups of people in your law firm communications? You should have a plan that includes multiple messages delivered via multiple media for each group. If you don’t, you need to call me right away. 888.692.5531 Link: http://www.rainmakerlawyer.com/site/permalink/the_foundation_of_law_firm_marketing/