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Message: Hi, I thought you might be interested in this article I found. With Legal Marketing You Cannot Worry About Hurt Feelings Being successful often means making people angry. Let’s face it, there are a lot of people out there who are miserable and they are content to live with their misery. Trying to help them is not only futile; it is exasperating. I am sure you have come across some of these people as you work to build your law firm. Clients who arrive in my office seeking assistance have two specific issues. In some cases they are earning less money than they would like. In other cases, the money is fine but they are not happy with the way they are earning the money. (They are working too hard. They are dealing with difficult clients. They practice in an area of the law they hate…the list is varied). When I prescribe a remedy I am always met with resistance. I have been doing this long enough to know that I need to sell my solutions to my clients. For as much as they want to get better, the things I ask them to do are so different, so out of the norm, so disruptive to the status quo, that I am immediately met with shock and resistance. Most of this resistance is set in the mind of OTHER PEOPLE. It seems these attorneys, most of whom went to school to learn how to be advocates in an adversarial process, are suddenly concerned about what OTHER PEOPLE think. Shocking, I know. Here are the three objections I hear most often when I introduce my solutions to a new client. Other People Will Reject Me This refers to your peers. Most attorneys are very concerned with what their peers will think. That is why hourly billing is so pervasive. At some point, maybe one hundred years ago, a group of attorneys decided they wanted to get paid they way plumbers, car mechanics, and factory workers are compensated. And you go right along with it. Why? Because if you do not, you will not look like OTHER PEOPLE. I also see this in your decisions about strategy. I introduce a new concept. Something that positions you as different compared to everyone else. And you resist it specifically because nobody else is doing it…. That is the point! You need to be different. Being different gives people an opportunity to make a decision based upon something other than price. Being different helps set you apart. I will Annoy Other People This one comes up when I talk about frequency of communication. Frequency builds trust. I advise my clients to communicate with their clients and prospective clients on a weekly basis. When I first introduce this concept, your head spins around and you tell me how much this will annoy OTHER PEOPLE. In reality, the people it annoys will not be good clients for you. The people you want as your client will welcome the frequent communication. I also hear this about the length of the copy we write. Sometimes it is a web page, sometimes it is a letter, sometimes it is a newsletter. The attorneys who work with me always say that OTHER PEOPLE will not read long copy. In reality people will read whatever you put in front of them as long as it is interesting. It is only when it is boring that length is a problem. Other People Will Say Bad Things About Me This is the one that makes me laugh the hardest. OTHER PEOPLE say bad things about everyone. There are people out there who said bad things about Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela and Gandhi. So what? Let them say bad things. In fact, when people begin to speak of you with vitriol, you know you are reaching new heights of success. Look at Rush Limbaugh, Howard Stern, Bill Clinton, Sarah Palin … the list goes on and on. The more you polarize, the more your message will resonate with your core audience. Here is the bottom line: You are an expert in a specific area of the law. There is a limited segment of the population who qualify to work with you. If you are using the right message and it is directed at the right people and delivered in the right way it will resonate with them. In trying to please everybody you end up working with nobody. Isn’t it time you decided to focus on creating the kind of firm that allows you to live the lifestyle you deserve? Stop worrying about OTHER PEOPLE and focus on THE RIGHT PEOPLE, the folks who are your ideal clients. The only votes that matter are the ones people cast with their wallet. If you are ready to use the right message, find the right client, and systematize your law firm, give me a call. OTHER PEOPLE will hate you for it, but you will sleep better at night if you do. Link: http://www.rainmakerlawyer.com/site/permalink/with_legal_marketing_you_cannot_worry_about_hurt_feelings/