Will Your Dog Eat the Dog Food? – Law Firm Marketing

New and Improved?

Almost every day there is an advertisement offering a service or product that is new or improved, such as Will Your Dog Eat the Dog Food? Or Have you tried our new combination of juices? And even Take our test drive for free??? And believe it or not, selling a new service, entering a new market place, or offering reminders of what your firm does so well, are managed and marketed in much the same way. In law firm marketing or business development for consulting services, recognize you are entering a new “beachhead” market.

But We Offer Legal and Professional Services…

“But we are professionals, and not selling hard goods.” Yes you are, but new business development for professional services such as law, accounting, architecture and engineering have the same elements needed for success. To quote Bill Aulet (author of Disciplined Entrepreneurship), “. . . before you invest large amounts of time and money, make sure the dogs will eat the dog food! And, oh yes, make sure the dog’s owners (or friends or primary/secondary clients) will PAY for the dog food.”

Referring back to previous columns, remember you should have already:

• Clarified market segmentation
• Identified your end user
• Developed and quantified your Value Proposition
• Know who the competitors will be
• Mapped and quantified client acquisition costs
• Tested your key assumptions
• Measured the results

Testing for Law Firm Marketing or Business Consulting Services

This test marketing for law firm marketing, accounting firm business development, consulting services new business growth is critical. Prior to a full launch, you must determine if prospects and clients will engage your new or refined services and actually pay for them. Are they working as intended? Are clients referring new prospects to you? Is your team consistent in their business development efforts and presenting the same core story? Are you seeing trends to take advantage of or are they leading to unexpected challenges?

The final step will hopefully be following your beachhead success and refinements. The new business development efforts will be successful.