Archive for the 'Client Service' Category

Your Marketing Plan Should Address These 3 Groups

Your marketing plan is more than just advertising your services. It should include the actions you will take to inform others about what you do and prove to them that you can do what you say you can. When you create your marketing plan, think of how you can reach these three types of people: (Keep reading →)

How to Differentiate Your Services

When people buy your services, they are hiring you as their trusted advisor - someone who is knowledgeable, trustworthy, and experienced. Yet hiring an attorney can be a very risky endeavor for someone who doesn’t have much legal experience.

How can they be sure they are making an informed decision about which attorney is right for them, can do what they say, and will provide the best value for their money? In other words, why they should they pick you to help them over all the other options available to them? (Keep reading →)

3 Pillars of a Successful Law Firm

I’m often asked by lawyers looking to start their own practice, or those who have just gone out on their own, what it takes to establish a successful law firm. In law - just like any small business - there are three areas you must master if you want a successful law firm. These are:

Develop a Niche
Today’s general practice attorneys are barely scraping by. That is because today’s clients demand specialists. They don’t want a lawyer that has done a couple of cases in every practice area out there. They want someone who handles their specific problem. They want someone who has handled cases for clients just like them and have proven over and over that they can get the job done.
(Keep reading →)

Understanding Your Client’s Buying Process

Rarely is marketing a one time event. It is not a quick fix or magical formula to flood you with new clients for little investment on your part. Rather, it is a series of interactions you have with prospects as they try to solve their problems. There are a number of steps people take before they decide to buy something. (Keep reading →)

What Clients Value Most

With the current trend towards cutting costs, FSTE 100 firms are looking to reduce their legal costs. A recent Legal Week article cites some good tips on how law firms can combat the price crunch to add value.

The most important out of 12 criteria? “Understanding the client’s legal requirements in a commercial context.” Unfortunately, when clients grade their firms, this ranks 7th, emphasizing the need for law firms to understand their client’s business.

(Keep reading →)

Determining Client Net Worth

An article in this month’s Direct Magazine discusses how B2B service firms can approach determining customer value. The example included is a print/mailing house, but the model can be applied pretty well to B2B law firms.

(Keep reading →)

How Not To Acquire Clients

In a rather bizarre (imho) case in New York, it appears that a young lawyer from one law firm pretended to be a partner in another law firm and intercepted calls from prospects. He then got them to sign retainer agreements with his law firm…

» Price of stolen law clients: $1.4 million

5 Ways You Can Better Serve Your Clients

The level of dissatisfaction with lawyers is at an all time high. A recent study of 600 Corporate Counsel from BTI Consulting Group found that there is a big gap in what clients expect and what law firms deliver. They then asked clients what ‘client focused’ meant to them. (Keep reading →)

BTI reports a 5% drop in customer satisfaction among top law firms

BTI has done a number of market research studies on major law firms. Most recently, they interviewed more than 180 Corporate Counsel of Fortune 1000 clients from August through October 2003. Some of the more interesting things the survey found include: (Keep reading →)

When to Say No: Ways to Select and Reject a Client

This is an article I found as I was doing some research, but it does a great job of explaining why you should be picking and choosing clients rather than taking anyone that comes your way. (Keep reading →)