You’ll notice that in the headline to this post (or email subject if you are reading it as an email), I use the term “prospective clients” and not “prospects.” That’s because lawyers don’t use the word prospects. Prospects are for sales people. Lawyers have clients and everyone else is a prospective client.
Minor difference? Perhaps. But it’s important to show people you understand them and that starts with speaking the same language.
This morning, I received an email inviting me to join a group. The group describes itself as “An exchange where businesses source legal services.” Some of the benefits of the group:
“Free online project management tools allow you to collaborate with your customer, create project schedules, upload files and receive feedback effortlessly. [company] handles all payment and invoicing on your behalf.”
I don’t really understand what they do and I’m not really interested in learning more. Their email told me everything I needed to know: they don’t know the first thing about lawyers.
If they did, they wouldn’t say things like “collaborate with your customer”. They’re clients, bub, and we don’t collaborate with them. When we get hired, we don’t call them projects. Before I even consider uploading files, I’ve got a million questions you’ll have to answer, and even then, I’d have to think about it. And, thanks for the offer, but we like to take care of the invoicing and money ourselves.
So, from concept to terminology, I knew I wasn’t going to waste any time looking into this.
In marketing legal services, you really need to know your patient.
The Attorney Marketing Formula is for attorneys (and by an attorney). See it here.
