Earn More. Work Less.
This isn’t an attorney but he offers a cogent explanation of how social medial should fit into an attorney’s marketing mix. What’s that? You don’t have a mix? Oh my, you really should have a mix. . .
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Q: How do I bring in quality clients fast? I think the best way to bring in a steady stream of [type of] clients is to find a good referral source. What should I do?
A: Referrals are the BEST source of quality clients, but they are usually not the FASTEST. It takes time to build relationships, earn trust, develop a reputation.
If you can compensate those sources (i.e., referral fees to other attorneys, if permissible), or work out other kinds of alliances (paid advertising, cross-promotions) where the source has a more immediate incentive for working with you, then you could get some quick business.
Of course your clients are the first place to look. They should be willing to refer, but they may not be able.
Generally speaking, nothing is faster than advertising (except publicity, but you have limited control with that). Cost is obviously an issue. You could try writing for targeted publications and speaking and networking at targeted events. You’ll get access to the right markets, at no cost, plus the unspoken endorsement of the meeting holder or publication, and if you get your message in front of the right people, you will get clients.
Remember that you are always marketing to at least two separate markets: prospective clients and prospective referral sources. One is not necessarily better than another, nor faster.
Q: How do I know if I’m targeting the right market?
A: A market is only as good as your ability to communicate with it. Do prospects have an organization you can join? Meetings you can speak at? Publications you can write for or advertise in? Can you find centers of influence in that market with whom you can network?
Most lawyers look at their services first and then look for people who need those services. Better is to find a market with a need, then look for ways you can satisfy that need.
Start with professionals and business contacts you already know. What markets do they serve? What unresolved needs do those markets have? Find the market first, then work backwards.
You’ll have greater success giving people what they WANT, which may or may not be what they NEED. Find out what people want and then look for ways to help them get it.
Where did your clients first find out about you? Chances are it was one of the following:
Whatever brought you clients in the past is probably something you should continue to do in the future.
Do it in more places, do it more often, do it better, and you should bring in more clients.
But no matter what other marketing strategies you use, the cornerstone of your marketing efforts should be based on getting more referrals.
Referred clients are the best clients. As a general rule, they come to you pre-sold. You don’t have to convince them to hire you, to pay what you ask, or to follow your advice.
Referred clients tend to be better clients, too. They are less likely to complain and more likely to come back to you again and again. And, because they were themselves referred, they are far more likely to refer other clients to you.
Lawyers who get a lot of referrals tend to have the most profitable (and enjoyable) practices.
Use other marketing methods to bring clients to your attention if they suit your style and budget. But build your practice on a foundation of referrals.
Referrals from clients are the easiest to generate. But while clients may be the most willing to refer, there are usually limits as to how much–or how often–they CAN refer.
Non-client referral sources may have the ability to refer you a lot of business, but they may not (yet) be willing to do so.
You need strategies to deal with both situations.
For clients, the simplest strategy is simply to stay in touch. Clients who don’t have anyone to refer to you today may have referrals tomorrow. Your objective is to be "in their minds and their mailboxes" when that occurs.
For non-client referral sources–attorneys, other professionals, business owners, and so on–don’t count on merely letting them know what you do. You may get some referrals that way, but your best sources are likely to come only after you have built relationships with key centers of influence.
Building those relationships doesn’t necessarily depend on your ability to refer them business. Do it if you can, but if you can’t, you can either
Relationship marketing means helping others first, without demanding or expecting anything in return. It means finding out what prospective referral sources want and looking for ways to help them get it. Put aside what you want for now, and help others, FIRST. Try it and watch what happens.
Zig Ziglar said, "You can get anything you want in the world by helping enough people get what they want."
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I received a letter from a probate lawyer who is seeking referrals from large PI/Med Mal firms who need guidance in wrongful death and minors’ compromise cases. He and his partners had compiled a list of law firms and written a letter they intended to “mass mail”. The letter introduced the probate firm, described their capabilities, and requested referrals. He asked for my opinion of this strategy and letter.
I liked the idea of targeting specific kinds of cases from specific firms, (assuming they had reason to believe those firms didn’t have in-house capability to handle those matters), but I didn’t think their plan to mass mail letters would be effective.
One-shot mailings like this are unlikely to generate any business. About the only chance you have is to reach someone at precisely the time when he or she has a case they need help with and they don’t have anyone else to refer it to. While that could happen, it makes more sense to begin to build relationships with lawyers (anyone) who DON’T need your services at the moment and do what you can to be the one they think of when they do.
Marketing, especially referral marketing, is a process, not an event.
Here are some of my additional comments and suggestions:
** If you’re going to contact a cold list, you need to do something to get a response so that you can continue to stay in touch with them and win their trust, over time. I’d recommend offering to send a “Free Report” that educates them on the issues they need to be aware of so that (a) they can do a better job for their clients and (b) be better able to avoid malpractice. This will be a benefit to them and position you as an expert. You can also offer a free phone review of their case. If the list is short enough, you could SEND the report and make a second offer to get them to respond (so you can stay in touch). The second offer could be a second report, a checklist, a form, or anything else.
** I’d suggest that you find people you already KNOW who can refer you to the people on your list, OR to people who may know them, OR to people who may know people who know them. Then, you can contact these lawyers with the name of a mutual contact. Much more effective.
** I’d also consider working towards having a colleague (in this case., another med mal lawyer) write (sign off on) a letter in which they endorse your services to their fellow practitioners. They’ve used you, they recommend you, they trust you, etc. This is the strongest kind of letter you can send.
** Letters do a have a place, but, I’d prefer to see you call. You want to build relationships with these potential referral sources, and to do that, you need to talk to them.
Find a reason, and call. The reason could be because you want to interview them for an article, you’re doing a survey for your newsletter or blog, to invite them to your free seminar, to offer them a copy of your new report or a subscription to your newsletter. It could even be to simply introduce yourself and find out more about what they do.
You’ll hit it off with some of them and follow up with coffee or lunch. You only need a few good ones to start, then you can leverage those relationships to gain introductions and endorsements to others.
Q: My mailing list has 2,000 names on it and it’s getting costly to mail. What can I do reduce my mailing expenses? Should I cut down the size of the list?
A: Ultimately, you have to determine whether your mailings are producing a profit and the only way to know this is to rigorously track response. If you aren’t at least breaking even, you should make some changes.
You can reduce mailing costs by:
But marketing professional services is a process not an event and tracking results can be elusive. How do you know that someone who has been on your list for three years but never hired you won’t become your client (or refer your next client) next month?
The answer is you don’t know. Therefore, I would err on the side of keeping people on your list. But I would segment the list and create different mailing categories.
Your best clients or referral sources, for example, should hear from you more often; monthly is not too often. People who have never hired you or referred to you, however, might hear from you only once or twice a year.
Your BEST source of NEW business will always be people who have hired you or referred to you in the past. Spend more on them.
In a recent post, How to make people like you, I said that a positive attitude is a key to getting people to like you, especially when dealing with people facing stressful situations. Being liked may not be first on the list of traits you associate with success in the legal field, but countless studies demonstrate that people prefer to do business with people they know, like, and trust. All things being equal, clients will choose you and referral sources will refer to you, because they like you.
Let’s face it, even litigators benefit when juries, judges, adjusters, and opposing counsel like them.
Books like The Likeability Factor: How to Boost Your L-Factor and Achieve Your Life’s Dreams by Tim Sanders and 25 Ways to Win With People:How to Make Others Feel Like a Million Bucks by John C. Maxwell and Les Parrott substantiate this and offer specific strategies for achieving greater likability.
Maxwell and Parrott say the way to make people like you is to make them feel good about themselves when they are with you. One way to do that is with something Maxwell calls, "The 30-Second Rule: within the first thirty seconds of a conversation, say something encouraging to a person."
Maxwell learned this from his father who taught him that when you make contact with people, instead of focusing on yourself, search for ways to make them look good. It could be saying thank you for something they have done for you or someone you know. You might praise them on an accomplishment, or offer a word of encouragement as they work towards a goal. Or you might simply compliment their appearance.
Maxwell encourages us to ask ourselves, "What positive, enouraging thing can I say to each person I will see today?"
With whom is your next appointment? Who will you be speaking with later today? Think about what you could say to them that will make them feel good about themselves, and say it.
This may feel uncomfortable, at first, but give it a try. What might surprise you is how good you feel making others feel good about themselves.
It’s just over a month since I began blogging. Here’s a quick self-evaluation:
THINGS I HAVE DONE WELL
THINGS I NEED TO IMPROVE/DO MORE
An excellent article on doshdosh.com, "How to influence social media users" presents a step-by-step plan for doing just that and has applicability to any kind of online networking.
Many of the web sites mentioned I’ve never heard of let alone visited, but they influence millions. So much to learn in this new world. . .
No, I’m not talking about cloning. (Sorry. Couldn’t resist.)
Psychologists tell us that the most important ingredient for success in personal and business relationships is “liking”. The more people like you, the more success you will tend to have.
The Law of Association says that people associate how they feel about you with how they feel at the time they meet you. If they are in a good mood when they meet you, they tend to associate those good feelings with you and, as a result, be more inclined to like you.
“If you want to be liked by a person, try talking to him when he is in a good mood or excited about something. These feelings are anchored and associated with you, and this person will then come to have positive feelings toward you,” says David J. Lieberman, Ph.d, author of “Get Anyone To Do Anything.”
Most people meet an attorney under times of stress and difficulty. Your challenge, then, when meeting new clients is to make them feel hopeful and positive about solving their problems and about the future. As early in your first meeting as possible, you need to make them feel that “everything is going to be alright”.
That ties into another psychological principle cited by Dr. Lieberman as being a factor in “liking”: positive attitude. “We all seek, like, and admire those who have a positive, happy outlook and perspective on life. Why? Because that is what we all want,” he says.
Don’t worry. Be happy. Get folks to like you.
I use "Google Alerts," their free, automated service, to notify me when anything appears in their database about me, my web sites, or subjects I’m interested in. You should, too.
Find out if someone mentions your name or your firm name in a web page or blog post.
Keep track of news in your practice areas.
Stay abreast of items that mention your clients or prospects, by name, or their industry. Show them you care about them by judiciously forwarding links to that information.
Another way to use Google Alerts is to track information about key people with whom you want to network. You might make a list of key vendors, suppliers, or professional advisors to the types of clients you target. Alerts will allow you to follow what they are doing. For example, if a consultant publishes a new article or gets an award, you can write and congratulate them, offer comments on their article, or propose a joint marketing effort.
The possibilities are endless.
For more information on Google Alerts, go to http://www.google.com/alerts
Want to know how to get more referrals? It’s easy. All you have to do is use these MAGIC WORDS:
"Can you help me?"
People like to help. Ask them to do something and chances are they will. You can ask for referrals, of course, or something much simpler and non-threatening, like help in building up your newsletter mailing list.
Here’s another way your clients could help you:
“Would you help me with my practice? It won’t cost you a cent, and you’ll be doing me a big favor. Just take ten of these reports I’ve written and pass them out to your friends or family (clients/customers). I’d really appreciate your help.”
Even if only one in ten actually passes them out, you can quickly get your "expertise" into the hands of a lot of people, along with the implied endorsement of the client or referral source who distributes them.
Simple. Inexpensive. Powerful.
