Rainmaking

The best way to market your services is not advertising. It is getting in front of your target audience and building connections and relationships with the people who are most likely to become your clients or those who are most likely to refer clients to you.

However, marketing only works when you do it regularly. Plan - and make time - to do a set number of marketing tasks each week. Your tasks don’t have to be time consuming or elaborate, but you must do them. Here are some ideas to get you started today: continue

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: continue

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? continue

I talked a bit about sales in my last post on what it takes to create a successful law firm. Making sales is a necessary component to running a law firm. Without closing the deal and taking on new clients, you quickly deplete your law firm of cash. And without cash, you won’t be in business very long.

Why do lawyers (and most small business owners, in general) hate sales so much? From talking with numerous clients - and in my own experience - a lot of it comes down to perceptions of what “sales” is and a fear of rejection. continue

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.
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Virtually lawyer I’ve talked to wishes they had more referrals. Referrals generally are easier to close because they are pre-sold on your services by people that already know and like you. So, how can you get more?

The first step is to understand why might people refer others to you? It’s not because you have a slick brochure or a funny advertisement. It’s not because you send them Christmas cards every year. continue

In my previous article, I looked at how negative thinking can hold us back from achieving our goals. In this article, I’m going to look at strategies for dealing with negative thinking. continue

Most lawyers I speak with hate the concept of marketing. If they had their way, they’d just sit back and wait for referrals to flood in. They wouldn’t have to spend time prospecting. They wouldn’t have to pitch their services to people who don’t know who they are or why they are the lawyer for them. And they wouldn’t have to risk rejection. But most lawyers don’t get enough referrals to sustain their practice so they have to find other ways of drumming up new business. continue

In law school, you learned a certain way of thinking based on logic, rationale, and a healthy dose of skepticism. That may be fine for how you deal with cases in court, but it’s probably holding you back in your business. In this four part series, I’m going to talk about how you can identify and deal with the negative thinking that’s preventing you from growing your business. continue

In a previous article, I discussed your prospect’s buying process. Here, I’ll take a look at how you can align your marketing with those stages in the buying process.

Prospecting
The first stage of your prospect’s buying process is awareness. So, your first step in marketing to them is to help them realize that they do have a problem and it is important that they take action to get it solved quickly. continue