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Message: Hi, I thought you might be interested in this article I found. Inside The Mind of The Client What are your clients thinking before they make a decision to hire a lawyer? If you knew the answer to that question you would be able to influence the decision of everyone who inquired about your services. Right? Well, today is your lucky day. I am going to give you a glimpse into the mind of your client. I am going to help you understand his thought process right before he engages a lawyer. Before you immediately shut down (I know, your practice is different) I want you to remember that this information is not just based upon my work with a few hundred lawyers and their clients. It is also based upon a decade of study of public opinion and decision science. People are people. People make important decisions in predictable ways. This information is critical to your success as a lawyer. There are three conditions that must exist (within the client’s mind) for him to pick up the phone and engage you: The client must know you. The client must have the desire and motivation to handle his situation now. The client must trust you to act on his behalf or advise him. If these three conditions do not exist, you will not get hired. And this is true for every practice area and true in every attorney/client relationship around the world. Let’s look at each of these conditions and how they apply to you. The client must know you. In the mind of the client, perception is reality. If you write articles on a topic, people will find you when they are doing research. If you speak to groups of people on a topic, people who are interested in that subject will be in the audience. If you appear in the media, some people will see you. If you establish relationships with influential people in the community, they will introduce you to potential clients. You must be visible. This means you must do some marketing. If the client doesn’t know you, he cannot hire you. You can market to one person at a time (networking, face-to-face sales, develop a referral network) or to many people at once (advertising). There is no other way to become known in the community. The client must have the desire and motivation to handle this situation now. Most people have no sense of urgency. It is human nature to ignore a problem or wait until the last minute to handle an issue. Don’t believe me? Talk to a criminal lawyer who handles DUI cases or talk to a tax lawyer who handles IRS issues. People procrastinate. Your job is to convince them that ignoring their issue will make it worse. Regardless of what the issue is. People move fast to relieve or avoid pain. Help them feel the pain of procrastination and they will act. The client must trust you to act on his behalf or advise him. When it comes to important decisions, people want to work with an expert. People look for evidence to justify the hiring of an expert. This evidence can be: information on a website, an anecdote told by a happy client, a story in a newspaper, the list goes on and on. The key is to establish your credibility in the mind of the client. Notice that there is no discussion of money in these three conditions. You may be wondering why. People only use money as a determining factor when they have nothing else on which to base their decision. If a prospective client has a problem you can solve, and he has the desire and motivation to solve it and he believes you are the best lawyer for the job, he will hire you regardless of your fee. Lawyers who believe the above statement will always make more money than lawyers who don’t. Guess which ones are my clients… Link: http://www.rainmakerlawyer.com/site/permalink/inside_the_mind_of_the_client/