It’s impossible to ignore.
The loud, obnoxious lawyer advertisements are everywhere. From lawyer billboards to a seemingly endless run of lawyer TV ads, it never seems to end. The consumer is bombarded by mass marketing by lawyers every day and virtually every hour of the day they ignore another pointless lawyer advertisement.
Here’s the problem: 99.99% of consumers have no need for your services, so your mass marketing is not focused or directed to a potential client. Consumers just ignore the endless lawyer advertisements on TV, radio and billboards because they have no need for what you’re selling.
And just ask yourself: would you hire a lawyer based on a lawyer billboard with a picture of the lawyer saying, “We fight for you”? As New Yorkers say, FUHGEDABOUDIT! And let’s face a brutal reality: very few intelligent, rational consumers hire a lawyer based on mass marketing—would you?
Where do your Best Clients come from?
It’s a safe bet that your best clients (those who listen to you and do what you tell them) didn’t find you on a lawyer billboard or radio advertisement. Your best clients did not magically show up at your office—they were referred to you. That’s right, someone you know told your client to see you.
The relationship with your new client starts with a big smile and handshake that goes like this, “Mr. Jones told me you are the perfect lawyer for my case and I’d love for you to take my case.” Somehow (almost magically) you just met a total stranger who has complete trust and confidence in you.
What Bernie Madoff can teach all of us
All of the goodwill that your referral partner has built with the new client is transferred to you (remember Bernie Madoff—though he was a criminal, he was a master at referral marketing). Just think how Madoff got started: all it took was a single referral from a prominent business person in NYC and with the transfer of trust from just a single referral source, some of the biggest non-profit organizations in the northeast were begging for Madoff to handle their investments.
The lesson from Bernie Madoff: if you earn the trust and confidence of a single referral partner, your partner will refer you to others within her sphere of influence and suddenly, the floodgates open with new referrals. It all starts with a single relationship with a powerful and influential person.
You will never make a mistake again
Even if you make mistakes (we all do), your client is understanding, forgives your oversights and just feels lucky you are her lawyer. You are a virtual god to your new client from day one and it stays that way throughout the lawsuit. You would have to mess up big time to screw this up.
But it gets even better: your referral partner has evaluated the case for merit, obtained and prepackaged the medical records and maybe sent you a case summary evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the case. You’re handed a great new case on a silver platter and your new client loves you before you even meet. Hell, it doesn’t get much better than this!
How to get the Best Return on Investment for your Money
You know your “A” cases come from referrals and the cases that you get from mass marketing are absolute junk (yes, there are exceptions, but stick with me). So, then, why do all lawyers focus their time and money on mass marketing? Is your money really spent wisely on yellow page ads, TV and radio ads and billboards? I’m willing to bet you have no idea what return on investment you get from mass marketing.
But you know that the return on investment (“ROI”) that you get from referrals blows away any mass marketing that you do. Okay, so why do lawyers have huge budgets and grandiose marketing plans for mass marketing, but absolutely no plan for referral marketing? This is truly nutty.
A Mindset Revolution for you
What if you decided to begin thinking of referral marketing as the highest and best use of your marketing dollar? Okay, sounds great, you say, but how the hell do you market to your top referral partners? Guess what, I’m doing it RIGHT NOW. That’s right, YOU are my top referral partners and I mail this newsletter to you on the twenty-sixth day of every month to stay “top of mind” with my top referral partners (I know, it’s sneaky).
And the costs of this newsletter are minuscule compared to the referrals and the fees from your referrals. Talk about return on investment: there is no higher return on investment than a monthly newsletter sent to your best referral partners (a/k/a your “Ideal Client”).
But lawyers just want to conform and do what everyone else is doing. Hell, we’re all afraid of what others will think of us and we conform our actions to what we will be accepted and approved by our peers. This is the biggest mistake you can make.
Identifying your Ideal Client
You begin by identifying the top 5 referral partners you have—write them down right now. And no, it’s not just a numbers game—think of the lawyer or non-lawyer who sends the highest quality cases to you, e.g., the cases that make the most money for you. The best cases that make you feel great you’re a lawyer and pay your bills. Guess what, you just identified your Ideal Client.
Once you know who your top 5 Ideal Clients are, you create a systematic plan for staying top of mind with them through a monthly newsletter, weekly emails, CLE seminars and workshops, tote bags full of bagels, handwritten notes on personal stationary, complimentary cocktail hours, lunch dates, and just about anything you can think of.
It really doesn’t matter what you do—just that you do SOMETHING and have a game plan in place for regularly reaching out to your top referral partners. But as crazy as it seems, most lawyers do absolutely nothing to stay top of mind with their referral partners and just keep spending their well-earned cash on the mass marketing vultures.
Say Goodbye to Mass Marketing…Forever
You think outside the box with a novel, unique marketing plan that is targeted to your Ideal Clients who know and trust you. Unlike any of your peers, you create a plan to cultivate and nurture your Ideal Clients who will refer a steady stream of new cases to you for the rest of your career…and you can say goodbye to the mass marketing vultures just waiting to grab your money.
How can we help you become more awesome?
What if there was a book about law office systems, management and marketing that leaves no secrets behind?
A book that will give you systems for every aspect of your practice, so your law firm runs like a finely tuned sports car while you’re on vacation.
Yes, a book that Ben Glass, Esq., the nation’s leading marketing guru calls, “amazing”.
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P.S.: And by the way, if you’re not absolutely thrilled with The Power of a System, just send it back to me. You’ll get your money back plus $25.00 just for reading my book (sounds crazy? Read the book!) No questions asked and no strings attached!
