Lawyer Marketing - Positioning To Comptete
This is the final chapter in our series on business development priorities and tactics.
- - Remember that job performance is a key part of marketing. Be more than competent; be “a pleasure to work with.” Your co-workers may not be at the firm forever. Some of them can become clients. Others can become referral sources.
- - Look for opportunities to help colleagues at the firm develop business. They’re likely to return the favor. Such “cross-selling” requires that you be attentive to in-house contacts who may not manage the kind of work you do, but who could be useful to other lawyers at the firm.
- - Write lists and set deadlines. Prioritize tasks like the ones enumerated above and in previous columns on this topic. Try to accomplish at least one task every week.
It’s a practical agenda with specific steps any committed professional can take - simple enough steps, perhaps, to deprive lawyers of excuses for inaction.
September 18th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Of course, this doesn’t apply to all lawyers, but many don’t have a high acumen for business. Upon further research, I’ve learned throuh attorneys and law career advisors that law schools teach attorneys how to think like lawyers, but not as businesspeople. Actually, it wouldn’t take much for attorneys to bone up on the needs of businesspeople by merely responding in ways they would want for themselves. I recommend returning phone calls, learning basic business principles for consulting clients and stop thinking the law profession operates contrary to other businesses. There are unique features that make the legal profession unique and different, but that applies to almost any profession requiring a level of competency. The most effective attorneys realize they are in the security business. Clients hire attorneys for security and peace of mine—it’s a service industry.
Edward Brown
Core Edge Image & Charisma Institute