Lawyers who rely on traditional marketing methods are fast discovering
that many "time-proven
methods" no longer work. Lawyers could dramatically improve their
marketing results by
avoiding the following mistakes and heeding this up-dated advice.
MISTAKE #1: Relying on referrals. When you
depend on referrals as your sole source of new
business, you allow middlemen to control your flow of new clients.
You may discover that
whether you receive referrals has nothing to do with your knowledge,
skill or experience.
Instead, it may be based on your ability to return the referrals.
ADVICE: In addition to referrals, make sure your
marketing program attracts inquiries directly
from prospects. This allows you to manage your marketing
program, rather than relying on third
parties over which you have little or no control.
MISTAKE #2: Depending on media exposure. Without
question, articles in the print media
and interviews on radio and television can help you attract new
clients. But many lawyers rely
on publicity as their entire marketing program. True, exposure can
increase your credibility. But
often exposure by itself isn't enough. Lawyers routinely report, "We
were very happy with the
number of articles about our firm, but we didn't get a single new
client!" In addition to exposure,
you need something that causes you to interact with prospects.
ADVICE: Make sure your marketing program brings
about interactions between you and your
prospects, such as over the telephone or in person. Interaction is a
critical step in the marketing
process -- and the step most attorney marketing programs overlook.
MISTAKE #3: Relying on networking groups as a
primary source of new business.
Networking is a time-consuming exercise in meeting prospects and
cultivating referrals. And
while networking may bear fruit, lawyers often underestimate the time
required.
ADVICE: Pursue opportunities to meet and talk
with genuine prospects, but don't put
networking above other marketing strategies.
MISTAKE #4: Competing on low price. When you
lower your fee to attract new clients, (1)
you undermine your credibility because clients conclude your services
were not worth what they
previously paid, (2) you attract clients who will leave you when
competing lawyers offer fees
lower than yours, (Note: Clients who are loyal to the dollar are never
loyal to you.) and (3) you'll
probably lose money because the cost of attracting a volume of new
clients is often greater than
the profit you can earn from those clients.
ADVICE: Instead of competing on price, compete on
value. You're better off being the most
expensive lawyer in town and having prospects appreciate your
knowledge than being the cheapest lawyer and having prospects question
your skill.
MISTAKE #5: Delivering an incomplete marketing
message. Many lawyers believe common
marketing methods don't work because those lawyers didn't get the
results they wanted. But
usually the problem isn't the marketing method, it's the message. If
your message lacks even one
essential element, your efforts will fail.
An estate planning lawyer delivered a seminar to 84 prospective
clients, yet almost no one came
into his office for a free consultation. After I reviewed his
presentation, we added less than five
minutes of information to his program. At his next seminar, 10 of the
11 couples in attendance
requested appointments.
ADVICE: Before you implement your marketing
program, make sure you create a competent
marketing message. Without a powerful message, your marketing program
is doomed.
MISTAKE #6: Not effectively reaching your target
audience. A tax attorney who represents
doctors before the IRS advertised his services in a weekly "shopper"
newspaper distributed free
to homes. Not surprisingly, he was disappointed with the response.
Before running the ad, the
lawyer could have saved his $2000 investment had he asked himself,
"Will doctors look for a tax
attorney in a free weekly newspaper?" I don't know about doctors, but
that's certainly not the
first place I would look.
ADVICE: Choose different methods that you believe
will reach your prospects. Then test each
method on a small scale before you invest serious dollars. This way
you'll know which method is
most effective at reaching your target audience and how well it
attracts the clients you want.
MISTAKE #7: Making decisions by committee. The
quality of a marketing decision is based
on how long it takes to make the decision and how much the decision
has been watered down by
compromise. One person working alone has the potential to make good
decisions. When two
people work together things begin to bog down. And if you're waiting
for three people to agree
-- well, don't hold your breath. Marketing is like football. Can you
imagine how long it would
take if the entire team offered their ideas and everyone had to agree
before they could make the
next play?
ADVICE: Choose one quarterback to direct your
program. If you don't get the results you want,
change strategies or change quarterbacks. But don't compound your
quarterback's problems by
bringing in more people to help make decisions.
MISTAKE #8: Not taking the leadership position in
your market. When prospects perceive you
as the leader in your field, you have a substantial advantage over
other lawyers. Yet, many
marketing programs aren't designed to attain this powerful, profitable
position.
ADVICE: Look at your position in the marketplace.
From your prospects' point of view, is any
lawyer clearly the leader in that category? If not, design your
marketing program so you take
control of your niche. If that niche is already dominated by other
lawyers, create a new category
for yourself. Then promote the category so prospects see you as first
in that new area. One of
my clients created a new category and successfully dominated his niche
for five and one-half
years. You gain an extraordinary advantage when prospects perceive
you as the leader.
MISTAKE #9: Not delivering your marketing message
until prospects come into your office.
Attorneys usually have no problem persuading a prospect to hire their
services once the prospect
is in their office. But getting prospects through the door is another
matter.
ADVICE: Develop materials you can send to
prospective clients. Then create a marketing
program that uses the print and broadcast media to attract inquiries
from prospects who ask to
receive your information. When prospects call your office, you
respond by mailing your packet
and adding their names to your mailing list. This allows you to put
your marketing message into
their hands regardless of their location, rather than waiting for them
to come to your office. If
your materials are powerful and persuasive, you'll find that prospects
call you and request
appointments.
One of my lawyer clients received 426 calls from prospects after
offering his materials on a radio
talk show, over 500 calls after a television news interview, and
another 400 calls after an article
in a local newspaper.
MISTAKE #10: Not marketing to your practice
mailing list. Your mailing list is your own
personal area of influence. It should contain the names of all your
past clients, current clients,
prospective clients and referral sources.
ADVICE: Make sure you mail your newsletter at
least quarterly. And don't think that you must
make your newsletter an 8- or 16-page treatise. A simple educational
letter of even one or two
pages works just fine. Your newsletter's size is not nearly as
important as how often you mail it
and the value of the information you present.
MISTAKE #11: Taking marketing shortcuts. Lawyers
who achieve success often trim back
their marketing programs hoping to save money by eliminating the bells
and whistles. What they
often don't realize is that many of the so-called "bells and whistles"
are not bells and whistles at
all. They are the essential components that make their programs work.
An attorney hired me to refresh his seminars. When we kicked off
his program, he attracted 247
prospects to five seminars, an average of 49 people at each program.
His calendar filled up
almost overnight. After six months, he took his marketing in house
and began cutting corners.
Within 90 days, his results were as dismal as they had been before he
called me.
ADVICE: When you shortcut your marketing on the
front end, you shortcut the number of new
clients on the back end. If you want to streamline your marketing and
determine if any steps
might not be needed, start slowly and track your results. Be careful
not to cut away the steps that
are responsible for your success.
MISTAKE #12: Not making marketing a priority.
For most lawyers, practicing law is their
highest priority. When they get busy, they often reduce their
marketing efforts because they need
that time to work on their clients' behalf. They operate under the
false hope that their momentum
will attract new business long into the future. But when they cut
their marketing efforts, they
actually shift their marketing into neutral. As a result, inertia
takes over and things slowly coast
to a standstill.
ADVICE: Make marketing a priority for you or
someone in your office. Or hire an outside
consultant so you make sure the work gets done. Don't turn your
marketing on and off like a
light switch. Keep your program in gear so you always attract an
ongoing flow of new clients.
MISTAKE #13: Writing an intricate marketing plan
that becomes impossible to carry out.
Many marketing plans look like jigsaw puzzles with dozens -- even
hundreds -- of pieces. And
while the plans might work, most lawyers and their staffs don't have
the hours needed to
administer the plans.
ADVICE: Make sure your marketing plan is built on
simple steps that have proved to be
effective and efficient. In my 24 years in marketing, the most
profitable, efficient and effective
method I've found is education-based marketing.
MISTAKE #14: Never completing -- and therefore
never implementing -- your marketing
plan. Many lawyers get so caught up in gathering facts that they
never stop designing their plan.
They collect data, add more steps, collect more data, revise their
plan, collect more data....
ADVICE: Implement your plan at the earliest
possible moment. A poor marketing plan that is
up and running is infinitely more profitable than the "perfect plan"
that never gets off your hard
drive.
MISTAKE #15: Delaying your marketing program
until your cash flow improves. More often
than not, lawyers who use this reason never start marketing because
they aren't aware that their
logic is backwards: Their cash flow won't improve until they start
their marketing program.
ADVICE: Maintaining an effective marketing
program is the most important investment you
can make. Why pay for an office and staff if you don't have enough
business to justify the overhead? Start your marketing program now so
you have an ongoing flow of new clients.
MISTAKE #16: Carrying out a marketing program
that does not achieve the four essential steps
for success. Your marketing program must (1) establish your
credibility, (2) generate interactions between you and your prospects,
(3) gain your prospect's commitment, and (4) maintain
your client's loyalty. Programs that don't achieve all four steps
will fail.
ADVICE: Any time you evaluate a marketing
opportunity, consider how well that method will
accomplish these steps.
MISTAKE #17: Promoting your services. When you
promote your services, you take on the
role of a salesperson hawking his wares. This method, called
selling-based marketing, undermines your credibility and causes
prospects to question whether they can trust you.
ADVICE: Instead of promoting your services,
promote your knowledge by educating prospects.
Education-based marketing gives prospects what they want, information
and advice, and removes
what they don't want, a sales pitch. It attracts prospects who come
to you because of your knowledge, skill, judgment and experience.
DEAR ATTORNEY: I hope you don't make these costly
mistakes. And I hope you don't make
the many more mistakes I didn't list here.
To win at marketing, you don't have to be the biggest player or
have the biggest budget. All you
need is a simple, proven marketing method that gives prospective
clients what they want,
information and advice -- and removes what they don't want, a sales
pitch. That's precisely what
my method of Education-Based Marketing does because I designed it that
way. That's why the
American Marketing Association featured my method on the front page of
its national
publication, MARKETING NEWS.
The marketplace is a mine field of bombs, razor wire and attack
dogs. Everywhere you turn, you
can get hurt if you don't know which steps to take -- and which steps
to avoid. And one thing's
for sure: Everybody out there wants your money.
Over the past 24 years, I've developed my marketing method into a
finely tuned system that
avoids costly mistakes and helps my clients achieve their goals.
If you have 24 years -- and plenty of money -- you can inch your
way through the mine field, as
I did, one step at a time. No doubt, a few bombs will blow up in your
face. And an occasional
attack dog will sink his teeth into your leg. But, if you're lucky,
you'll survive.
If you don't want to wait 24 years -- and if you want to avoid
costly mistakes -- I invite you to
call me. I'll help you turn the mine field into your personal gold
mine. You can reach me by e-mail at trey@treyryder.com or by calling
1-800-876-5788. Thanks!
Trey
This web site is provided as an educational service
by Trey Ryder, LLC. If you have questions
or comments, you're invited to contact Trey at trey@treyryder.com or
1-800-876-5788.
All contents on this web site Copyright © 1996
by Trey Ryder, LLC. All rights reserved.