Tell me your marketing message. Tell me how you can help me. Show me why I should hire you instead of any other lawyer.

Go on, tell me. I’ll give you a minute.

One minute? You can’t convince someone to hire you in just one minute.

No, probably not. But it doesn’t take longer than that to show a prospective client how you can help him and interest him enough to ask you to tell him more.

What does a prospective client want to know? He wants to know that you do what he needs done. You have the skills and experience to help him achieve a desired result.

He wants to know about the process. If he hires you, what will happen? What will you do, what will you expect of him? How long will it take?

And he wants to know that he can trust you. You’ll work hard for him, keep him informed, and be available when he has questions.

What about fees? Yeah, he wants to know about that, but that’s not number one on his list. (If it is, he’s not the right client for you.) Show him that you have what he wants and when he asks to see more, you can talk about fees.

You need a message you can deliver in just a few sentences. Those sentences will get your foot in the door (and eliminate the clients who aren’t right for you).

The key is to crafting an effective message is to make your message as simple as possible. Start long. Include everything. Then cut out everything that’s not essential, reducing your message to the most important points. And when you’ve done that, make it simpler still.

So simple, a child could understand it.

So tell me, why should I hire you? I’ll give you a minute.

It’s easier to sell legal services when you know the formula

When you get together with other lawyers, at a bar function, in the courtroom hallway, or anywhere else, what do you talk about?

Do you talk about cases and clients? Do you rap about the law? Do you talk about sports or the weather?

One thing I’ll bet you don’t talk about is marketing.

Yes, I know you’re not like most lawyers. You read me, after all. You “get” that marketing is important and valuable and you work at it. But can the same be said of the lawyers you speak to every day?

Many lawyers are uncomfortable talking about marketing. They don’t want anyone to know they do it, fearing that it makes them look weak and unsuccessful. So marketing isn’t talked about in polite company. Marketing isn’t cool.

Silly, but can you tell me this isn’t true?

Here’s the thing. I believe that the lawyers who are most attracted to marketing, and aren’t embarrassed to admit it, are the lawyers who need marketing the least.

If you like marketing, or at least you respect it and actively work at it, the odds are you’re already doing well in your practice. The lawyers who look down at marketing tend to be the ones who need it most. They are either uninformed, in denial, or resting on their laurels. They are unaware that they are living on borrowed time.

We can differ and debate the different types of marketing. Some lawyers advertise, some don’t. Some are aggressive, some are willing to sacrifice results in deference to image. That’s okay. What’s not okay is pretending that marketing is beneath you and can safely be ignored.

One reason it can’t be ignored is that every attorney is already “doing” marketing, whether they know it or not.

Remember, marketing is everything you do to get and keep good clients. Everything. Any attorney who believes that clients relations isn’t marketing, for example, or that they don’t need to work at it, is fooling nobody but themselves.

When you talk to other attorneys, bring up the subject of marketing. It’s good to compare notes. See what’s working for them and what’s not working. Ask them what they’re doing to get more traffic to their website, for example, or get their former clients to send referrals.

If you get a blank stare, or if your attorney friends don’t have anything positive to say about marketing, it might be time for you to get some new friends.

If your attorney friends are open to learning, tell them to start here