Pitfalls in law firm marketing

Marketing and marketeers are still much misunderstood by Lawyers. Quite simple Marketing is the means for bringing the services available to those who can make use of them. The cockerel’s bright plumage attracts the hen for the particular service which he has to offer. By analogy we have to make ourselves attractive to our actual and potential clients.

Marketing is not selling still a dirty word but it leads to it. We can create the opening through marketing but it is still important to effect the closing.

Lawyers will take to Marketing an academic discipline but they still avoid selling which ultimately provides their livelihood. Those who are prepared to get their hands dirty and close the deal are a valuable albeit despised commodity in our firms.

As frustrated academics once we take the plunge we tend to love Marketing and cannot have enough of it. However Lawyers are trained to think from the specific to the general. Thus we naturally go initially to detail and try to work backwards to principle.

In terms of Marketing this is wrong. The best Marketing is strategic and is designed to complement the Law Firm’s strategic plan. It should be a means to an end rather than an end in itself.

From the Lawyer’s perspective the Marketing of goods seems relatively easy. You have a product and you can package it to attract the would be customer. Legal services are intangible. How best do you market them?

It is not merely enough to attract clients but we need to keep them. Doing a good job obviously helps. It goes without saying that doing a bad job is likely to lose the client. There is little point in attracting them through the front door if they then disappear out of the back door in disappointment.

You must remember that your competitors will be targeting your clients as well. Cherish them. Build relationships with them. Go even further and make them in effect your partners. Partnering is something which evolved from the Total Quality Management quest. Even if you do not subscribe to all that T.Q.M. has to offer there is a lot to be said for the partnering principle.

The problem with marketing is that it is expensive both in terms of time and money. We all have limited budgets with regard both. It is therefore essential to spend on Marketing as wisely as possible. Construct your detailed budget in advance and try to adhere to it. The budget should cover both cash and time. Effectiveness is everything.

Should you really spend money on corporate image-style Marketing? What are you seeking to achieve? Very often this is ego-spending in some sort of misguided attempt to keep up with Jones & Co. the competition. Why are you promoting your firm’s image? Is it likely to be effective in producing new clients? The answer may be that you are enhancing your corporate image with a view to better recruitment of trainees and mature Lawyers. If that is your reason it can be a valid one.

Surveys have shown that the most effective marketing is to your existing clients. You need to stop them drifting away or being seduced by the marketing efforts of your competitors. Stay as close to them as possible.

We all find that for many clients we are not the Lawyers for all seasons. By adroit cross-selling we can attract more work from our satisfied clients in different aspects of the Law. We need to introduce our partners to our clients and sing their professional praises. A narrow or small-minded attitude is self-defeating in this respect.

Many of us receive a substantial part of our work from professional referral sources. It is necessary to consider who they are and why they send us work. Some seek reciprocation but a surprisingly large number do not. They are content to pass over responsibility for their clients in legal respects in exchange for a job well done. We are all well aware that if we recommend a fellow professional and they do a good job they will be thanked. Conversely if they do badly we will be blamed. That is the principle on which many of our instructions from professional sources are based.

We must therefore learn to “massage” those sources by exceeding their clients’ expectations and taking care of them brilliantly. Let them know the full range of services that your firm has to offer and who actually offers them.

Marketing for new clients is exciting. We are all natural hunters. However it is expensive and it goes without saying that most of the clients we hunt will have to be extracted from the clutches of other lawyers. This is not always so easy. You have to be lucky to time your assault to coincide with the moment that the potential client becomes dissatisfied with his or her existing Lawyer. You probably have a better chance of making money at roulette.

We all need new clients but seek them by referral from your existing clients or fellow professionals. Involve your firm in beauty parades in the knowledge that there are losers as well as winners. Perfect your skills but also be prepared to accept disappointment in the search.

In your Marketing budget try not to use too much of your resources in the heady search for new clients but use your time and money in retaining and expanding your existing client base.

So many Lawyers still do not understand the principle of differentiation or the unique selling point. What does your firm have to offer which distinguishes it from the pack? This question is often met by blank stares. If you have no U.S.P. Go out and develop one.

This lack of differentiation is often reflected in brochures the first marketing tool which I propose to dissect. Reading a stack of Law Firm brochures is one of the best cures for insomnia known to man or woman. “We are proud of our 150 years unbroken service to the local community”. Our departments are partner-lead and we offer a proactive and responsive service to our clients”. The list of clichés is endless.

Clearly every firm needs a brochure but it is something where expenditure should be limited. Cut out expensive designers glossy paper and many colours. It is after all little more than an extended visiting card and it is rare that you can pin-point a new client’s arrival from a reading of your brochure.

Newsletters are usually started with enthusiasm but the necessary repeats are an untimely drain on resources. You have unwisely stated that you will publish quarterly all your Lawyers are over-burdened with work at the relevant time and there is nothing much to say. Small earthquake in Turkey?

Far better than Newsletters with their regular commitment are occasional bulletins specifically targeted to your client base and based on something useful to the client. In all your publications remember to stress benefits to the client rather than the services which you have to offer. Market through the clients’ eyes rather than your own.

Bulletins of this nature segmented by client needs pre-suppose the existence of an adequate database within your firm. How many of us try to produce something useful but despite hours spent achieve very little more than a Christmas card address list? A good database is a good marketing tool and is worth a lot of effort to construct. Keep trying.

Articles in the Legal Press impress other Lawyers. In other words they are an ego-trip rather than a Marketing tool. Articles in the Trade Press conversely can be effective as part of your industrial specialisation. In other words instead of the standard division into functional departments you have put together groups of Lawyers on a multi-disciplinary basis to specialise in the affairs of particular groups or industries. This pre-supposes knowledge of the group which can be acquired by reading the Trade Press or attendance at Trade Conferences. This is a highly recommended form of Marketing segmentation.

Many of us are trained to talk if only in Court. Speaking at general seminars can give a powerful impression of competence to potential clients. Equally if we are bad speakers it can give a powerful impression of incompetence. If you have something to say but poor delivery get training.

An even more effective weapon in the Marketing war is the internal seminar in your own office premises. Choose a mix of existing clients some of whom are prepared to sing your praises and potential clients. Blind them with your ability on your chosen topic. The choice of topic should be based on the two aspects of fear and greed. If the client does not do what you advise he will suffer in his pocket. The opposite of this is that if the client does do what you advise his bottom line will be enhanced.

Are your staff and premises fit for the purpose? Good Marketing consists of responsiveness from the partners down to your lowest paid employee and back again to the partners. Do your premises furniture and stationery create a consistent Marketing ambiance? If not examine everything and make sure to achieve the required homogenity.

Money spent on effective and well-produced seminars is money best spent. You will be demonstrating your specific knowledge and its practical application to the clients’ problems. If that was not your intention when you started preparing your Paper tear it up and start again.

Who markets in your practice? Very often a partner will tell you that a Marketing Director has been appointed. That is no excuse for abdication. Effective marketing is carried out by the front-line troops the partners and other Lawyers. Marketing professionals are only there to facilitate assist and provide good support generally.

Entertaining and sponsorship can be great fun but they are not particularly effective marketing tools. In the social season many of us stagger in a drunken haze from sponsored tent to sponsored tent. We end up with a generally diffused rosy glow of well-being to the Organisations which invited us but can we remember which was which? Translate those feelings to the people whom you invite and you can well understand that this may not be the most effective use of your Marketing time and money.

If the implementation of your strategic plan cries out for advertising then advertise but remember the water dripping on a stone effect. For advertising to succeed you need to do it regularly. Depending on the chosen medium advertising need not be expensive. It is a good way of attracting retail clients but relationship-building is more difficult as that particular type of client tends to be attracted next time round to another firm’s advertisement. The City Firms go in for tombstone advertising in the financial and quality Press. To my mind tombstone connotes death and death is not an effective marketing tool.

Why are we so afraid of surveys? The client satisfaction survey can be a most powerful weapon in the marketing armoury especially if our clients see us acting on adverse responses and actually mending our ways. Lawyers are by nature insecure or perhaps insecure people become Lawyers. Either way we fear giving our clients the opportunity to express their criticisms just in case they are wider and deeper than we anticipated. Fear not but learn to correct your mistakes. In a Marketing Survey you can put in the client’s mind the fact that you would like referrals. It is surprising how many of our clients are blind to our needs unless we express them.

Surveys can be conducted on a cheap and cheerful basis or the best but most expensive will be carried out for us by outside consultants. A happy medium will be the use of your Marketing Professionals if you have them to approach your clients on a face-to-face basis. This is far more effective than a written satisfaction survey although the latter is much better than nothing.

Marketing should never be a chore but ought to be enjoyable. It is a chance to be creative with a view to getting ahead of the pack. At worst it is a way of standing still. It consumes time which could be spent on fee earning and money which could end up in the partners’ pockets. That is essentially a short-term view as hopefully good marketing will produce an enhanced and far more happy practice. Remember to differentiate yourself from the competition and above all market strategically and concentrate your resources to best effect.