Thank you for your suggestions for topics you would like me to write about. I’ve noted many ideas for future blog posts. Keep ’em coming. I’m always open to ideas, although I can’t promise I will use any of them.
I want to address a matter that came up with a couple of subscribers with whom I exchanged emails.
The first is from an immigration attorney who is setting up joint ventures with other lawyers and wants to know how to determine “who does what” in the arrangement, and what to do when one party turns out to do more than the other.
My answer to him was probably less than satisfying. In essence, I said that each deal is different and that all you can do is talk to your would-be JV partner and write down what each party is expected to do. If there are any issues about one side doing more than the other, you discuss it. If you can’t work it out, you move on to someone else.
There is no cookie cutter. You negotiate it. Talk it out and write it down. If things go sideways, don’t worry about it. One deal with a great outcome can more than make up for 20 deals that fizzle out.
A second subscriber, an engineer, says he struggles with marketing and wants me to point him to the “optimal marketing system”.
It seems that both subscribers want some kind of push-button system they can use in their practice. But there is no perfect system. Not even close.
We’re in the people business, and there is no one size fits all. People are flawed and emotional and mercurial. They don’t always know what they want.
Marketing legal services is messy. It’s more art than science. In fact, I told the engineer to stop thinking like an engineer and start thinking like an artist.
An engineer or a lawyer tends to look at what’s in front of him and what he can do with it. An artist, on the other hand, sees what’s not there and figures out a way to create it.
This is why I say that a marketing plan is only a place to start. It gives you direction, not a blueprint. Things change constantly and we have to be flexible enough to change with them.
I suggested to the engineer that rather than wrestle with all of the options available, he should choose something (anything) and do it. Then, he should see where he is and choose something else.
He told me about a great outcome he had in a case recently and about the nice things the client said about his work. I suggested he write down what was said and ask the client for permission to use it as a testimonial.
A place to start.
You need to know where you want to go with your practice, and then take action to move in that direction. Along the way, the variables may confound and confuse you, but as long as you know where you want to go and you keep moving in that direction, you will get to the next stop.
Of course once you do, you will check your heading and set sail once again.
The Formula helps you create a simple marketing plan. Get it here
