This is one badass excuse for not marketing – “It’s been six months since I won that big case for my client. Why hasn’t SHE called ME?”
I heard that quote directly from an attorney. IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO WIN ! It never occurred to him to continue the relationship, offer to share the trial tactics with her in-house law department, co-author an article within the client’s industry publication, or invite the teams to a celebratory dinner. Do you get the message here?
“I always miss the new litigation” is one of the most self-sabotaging excuses for not marketing that I have heard from attorneys. It is easy to solve. You and your practice group attorneys need to monitor court decisions, pending legislation, and new litigation theories. Lawyer marketing means keeping your clients and prospects ahead of economic and industry trends. Invite the marketing and library professionals to engage. Assign your law firm practice group members to tracking journals, organizations, and media and report.
As Sir Richard Branson is fond of saying, “Opportunities are like buses. If you miss one, another will be coming along.” [If you keep your eyes open.]
British Airways got a real boost from this marketing and business development ad, “Emails Don’t End in Handshakes.” It today’s highly competitive market for professional services, one-way electronic communications do not win new clients nor retain current clients. That is why in our marketing and business development keynotes and seminars, we emphasize the absolute need to build trust through personal relationships.
Just as we teach specific tactics to create partnering relationships, we must realize that there are specific behaviors on our part that can further our relationship with them or destroy it altogether.
As “emails do not end in handshakes” emphasizes, in business development, it is critical to go where your clients go. If your clients, prospects and suspects will be attending an industry or ACC conference, be there to reinforce the relationship. Ask them to be on panels with you or co-author an article. Learn more about the charitable organizations that are important to them. If a prospect is speaking at an upcoming event, attend it even if the subject matter is not in your particular specialty area.
Business development does not occur simply by offering an engagement letter. Closing skills begin with the first contact and involve following up, building the relationship, understanding their business, business brainstorming and offering ideas before ultimately asking for the business. In other words, being face-to-face, even if only occasionally, is how you win and keep clients. Indeed, to grow business, emails do not and will not end in handshakes.
For a complimentary 15 question Rapid Marketing Assessment of your firm or practice area, acolman@closersgroup.com
Grow your new business development in just five minutes a day.
MOST FIRMS who approach us looking for business development and sales training want fast results. Many of them are surprised when we say that a firm’s bottom line can grow by dedicating five minutes a day to a simple plan. This is especially true for smaller firms whose principals may not have someone dedicated solely to relationship-building and business development.
On the flip side, adding this uncomplicated five-minute- a-day strategy can lead to unexpected rainmaking. Even if people believe in you, and even if they believe you’d be a great hire, business partner, vendor, or whatever, people need to be reconnected with and reminded that you’re there.
If you spend five minutes a day for a year that is at least 250 business development “touches”. And if you are in a firm of 30, and each attorney does 250, that’s 7,500 touches per year. Wow!
THE ACTIONS themselves will take longer, but by dedicating just five minutes per day to generating new business, you will be mapping out a course marked by true efficiency and will be on the road to accelerating business growth.