This third in a series of Invisible Marketing tactics presents two approaches which are not quite “invisible” but are often overlooked by attorneys. The first is:

DURING SPEECHES, HAVE OTHER FIRM MEMBERS IN THE AUDIENCE WORKING THE CROWD. Make sure you introduce your colleagues from the podium and indicate that they and you are available to answer questions, send featured articles, discuss opportunities, etc. You are there to do more than “educate”, you are also there to “generate.”

One of the most frequent mistakes so often observable at dinners, receptions, etc. is that instead of mingling, attorneys from the same firm congregate together.

AT PARTIES, DINNERS, HOSTED EVENTS - DO NOT TALK TO YOUR OWN FIRM’S ATTORNEYS.
Recently, I attended a law firm hosted/sponsored workshop at which over 125 clients and potential clients had breakfast and then listened to a 1 hour CLE presentation. Of the 10 firm attorneys present, 9 sat at the same table. By adding their non-billable hours, advertising, promotion, powerpoints, handouts, facility and food cost, etc. $12,500.00 was thrown out the window.

Once we reviewed this waste, a new approach has been implemented. Each attorney is now assigned 2 non-clients to meet and greet. Each attorney is assigned to a table. And each attorney is introduced from the podium by their speaker/colleague. And of course, if a client is present, invite them to sit with you. They could become your marketing supporter in talking with non-clients seated at your table.

“WHAT’S NEW?”, when asked by a past contact or by a good client, opens the way to talk about:

* a recent firm success,
* a highly regarded article written by a colleague,
* or asking if they have heard about a new piece of legisltion.

The response should not be “the work keeps piling on,” or “same old same old.” You can’t believe how many times I’ve heard these two. Use the question to subtly market. And for those of you who want to respond to the question by stating that your daughter recently won a gymnastics tournament, do both. But take advantage of this invisible opportunity to market the law firm.

“WHAT DO CLIENTS REALLY WANT?” is the one key question to constantly ask yourself and your partners, when determining what to put into a proposal, how to organize a casual dinner conversation or building on client retention. Another way to phrase it is:

“Why should I hire your firm?”

Talk about strategies employed, case examples that worked, unique contributions to engagements. Integrate into these components firm background and your team’s experiences. A recent BTI survey indicated that:

* They do not want to know how many offices you have.
* They do not want to know where you went to law school.
* They do want you to know about them.

For example, we all know that great work and referrals are the 2 best sources of future business development. But complaints, yes complaints, are another great source of business by building a strong relationship. If a client calls and complains that something is not going well with a current engagement, they want to keep working with you. So fix it, fix it fast, and remind them periodically that you fixed it fast by ending a periodic conversation with “just want to make sure we are meeting all of our targets,etc.”

Another invisible marketing tactic is to ask clients why they switched to your firm. At the right time in an engagement, you might learn what they are happy with, and what problems the previous firm had. You can build on the success and avoid the problems.

Next time we’ll address two more invisible marketing tactics:

* “What’s new?”
* What do clients really want?”

Here is the magic of implementing such a system: associates, and seniors, and newer partners are motivated to further your firm’s business development and business generation efforts and as a result, the pipeline expands. A strong pipeline will help to offset the financial ebbs and flows of the economy in the future.

Relationships are the key into the Red Zone. Make training and bonuses in this arena part of your law firm’s culture, rather than an extraneous project. Rewards beget more effort in winning new business, which translates into a bigger bottom line, even in lean times such as these.

• “They spent most of the time talking to themselves, not to us.”
• “What a complete lack of respect, let alone interest - one was using a Blackberry, one answered 2 phone calls during our meeting, and one was a potted plant.”
• “There were 2 of us and 6 of them.”
• “I found that off-color joke offensive”
• “They agreed to take a table at our favorite charity but no one showed up.”

Got the message? DON’T DO THAT!

> Get help with improving relationships with clients

It usually take a good three weeks to develop a good impromptu speech—Mark Twain

An opportune way to allow newer attorneys to cut their teeth in an industry is to develop opportunities for them to participate in speaking engagements. Under the guidance of more senior members of the firm, they can receive good exposure with current and potential clients. Use the law firm marketing department to research professional conferences in which to sponsor or participate one to two years in advance. Here’s why it is essential to the marketing mix: The more speaking engagements and seminars you conduct and participate in, the more opportunities your attorneys have to make contact with new targets and new possibilities to enter the Red Zone.

Turn Seminars into ‘Web’inars

Don’t just record the events on camera for prosperity. Arrange in advance for the rights to use the footage from the seminar, trade show or association event for future use on the firm’s website to broadcast the helpful information worldwide. Doing so will enhance the richness of content and credibility of your corporate site. Opportunities for exposure abound on the Internet, both from a client relations and potential media relations opportunities, as reporters covering a particular area of law increasingly use the net to find sources on the subjects they cover. As an extra measure of exposure, email a link to the seminar to existing and potential targets along with a brief note.

The launch is a press release. The rollout is the real meat and potatoes of merger marketing. It requires an in-depth knowledge of your own resources in terms of people and expertise. Those resources can be tough enough to identify at your own firm.

In a merger, it requires an assiduous cataloging of what the two firms bring to the table. It should confirm the wisdom of the merger.

How do you show - not tell - the marketplace that your intellectual and professional platform is indeed broader and deeper? New sub-specializations can be defined and marketed. Articles on legal or client industry issues should be co-bylined by lawyers from both merging firms. Talk about mergers in general, using your own as one example. Even years later, partners from the two original firms can still share their experiences at conferences, meetings, etc. - and by so doing implicitly remind the market that their own experience is an example of how it is done right.

Well, what do people care about? While marketing in a merger situation is not conceptually unique, it is exponentially more complicated because now you must refine the message and re-identify the messengers across multiple fronts. These fronts encompass the capabilities of the merging firms and the altogether new capabilities that the merged firm presents.

With this premise set, our next column will focus on how you show - not tell - the marketplace that your intellectual and professional platform is indeed broader and deeper.

Remember, good follow up starts even before you make physical contact with your target.

Preparation: The Huddle

• Organize the follow up before the event, ascertaining who your firm’s primary targets are.
• Preview handout materials and anticipate who might be attending.
• Match the right attorney with the right potential client based on practice area and expertise.

Then, Don’t Drop the Ball:

• With every personal connection you have made at the event, organize a follow up system to maximize the good will you have cultivated. Forget email in this situation. Instead, stay at the top of their minds with a personal, hand-written note sent no later than three days after the meeting.
• Conduct a post-event review of attendees, their titles, industries and buying power. Then create a checklist on how to effectively follow up on each viable lead.