eTips 2005
Marketing mindset |
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Too often, marketing is subdivided into a series of programmes, task, and tools. But the most effective business development so often comes from having a "marketing mindset". |
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Louder than your size |
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What clients and markets "know" may not be quite so.
Our research on behalf of professional service firms has turned up hundreds of examples of decisionmakers - substantial purchasers of expert legal services - "knowing" things that just aren't so, often to the detriment of an incumbent hardworking professional team.
Conversely, a few firms are much "louder than their size". Put another way, they "punch above their weight". |
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Eight ways to get press coverage |
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Too many lawyers and expert professionals believe that press is not for them - either because quality media coverage is the province of the big end of town, through fear of sensationalism, or concern about professional image. |
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Beware boilerplate |
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If you've taken the trouble to write something really good, you definitely don't want to waste it. (Lawyers call reusable documents "precedents" - marketers call them boilerplate.) But, beware boilerplate that is so generic - or, coversely, beautifully crafted for one particular purpose - that it's ill-fitting for this time. |
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Educating is selling |
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Teaching may be the pinnacle of selling. Educating the world at large, your target market, referral sources, clients, and prospective clients about why they need what you can expertly do for them is the highest and purest form of marketing.
An education approach really helps with need recognition. If your market doesn’t know it has a problem - or isn’t aware of the extent or impact of the problem it confronts - it isn’t ready to buy expertise to solve the problem. |
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When referrals stop |
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Referrals are a great way for professionals to grow their practice, and there are lots of things you can do to stimulate them. From most sources, referrals are intermittent - they ebb and flow with the cycle of business, busy-ness, and contact. But sometimes referrals slow down - or worse, stop completely - and you are left wondering why. |
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New business welcome ! |
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Too often, professionals send so many “I’m successful and busy” messages, they signal that getting more business isn’t important or even necessary. If you want more business - for yourself or your firm - check you’re sending clear signals. |
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Tender debriefing |
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If you've gone to the effort and expense of tendering be sure to debrief - win or lose - on the outcome. If there is an opportunity for face-to-face debriefing, take it.
(It's only fair that large legal consumers who invite tenders offer debriefing and feedback to tenderers, whatever the result.) |
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Superstardom |
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Much like showbiz, in almost every legal and other professional field, there are a few superstars. If you want the benefits of superstardom – recognition, choice of work for the best clients, price premiums, handsome financial returns, and exceptional bargaining power – then “earn” it.
Here’s how to get on the superstar track. |
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White paper marketing |
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White papers - research-based articles, opinion pieces, and fleshed-out case studies - are a great way of warming up prospective clients and referral sources.
By embodying your knowledge and track record in a white paper - creating IP - you generate interest within target markets, warm-up prospective clients, and add value to client relationships. |
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Recognition and awards |
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Public and industry recognition of your achievement through an award is a great boost for your marketing. |
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Preparation makes perfect |
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No matter how clever a professional, you'll put in a better performance - at a pitch, prospective client meeting, beauty parade, or whatever - with a little preparation.
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Website insights |
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With the ever-growing popularity of the internet as an information source, it is vital to have the right presence on the world wide web. |
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Recruitment ad rituals |
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Any contact of your brand with the wider marketplace is important. It sends key messages about your firm. Too often, recruitment advertisements are forgotten - they're made "poor relations". These ads in newspapers, magazines, and the net should not be treated any differently from placing a direct promotion. |
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Advertising context |
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Advertising is about delivering brand messages as well as stimulating action - right away, or in the future. |
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A picture speaks a thousand words … |
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We all know that a simple picture can convey much more than a few words - sometimes more than a lost of words. And we’re often encouraged to substitute pictures for words, to convey a big, complex, and powerful message quickly and clearly. |
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Be copy conscious |
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While consistency counts when it comes to copy, it is also important not to sound like you are out-of-tune and from the middle ages.
Consider these ideas when you next put pen to paper in the persuasion frame.
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Choosing the right font |
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Poor selection of fonts and point sizes can make legal documents heavy-going, especially for your clients. |
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Contemporary selling messages |
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Selling messages get tired and dated, especially if built around fads.
Every so often, take a close look at your key selling messages to make sure they’re tuned in to contemporary management concerns and priorities. Show how you can help to solve problems of importance today. |
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Proposing with pictures |
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We all know the power of a simple picture to convey much more than a few words. Here are some tips to help you choose the right pictures for your tenders and proposals.
Pictures may convey a “thousand words” - but not necessarily the same thousand words to everyone. |
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Newsletter no nos |
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A newsletter is a great way to stay in touch with clients, suppliers, and contacts. But gaining readership can be difficult, especially if your newsletter or communication is unappealing and cluttered to the eye.
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Marketing minutes |
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Many lawyers and expert professionals juggling lots of competing tasks struggle to allocate significant chunks of time to business development as often as they'd like.
But all of us - no matter how busy - can take "marketing minutes" just about every day.
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Branding basics |
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Branding is a basic, yet vital, way to distinguish your firm from the vast array of your competitors. But it needs to be deployed effectively to be of great value.
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A convincing interview performance |
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Putting in a convincing performance at a panel interview or other competitive selection forum is largely about preparation.
Here's a small selection of questions to help you role-play and prepare for your next interview.
(This particular set of questions relates to public sector legal provider selection - you'll find lots more useful tools on our website including those relating to other industries.) |
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More marketing mindedness |
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Last week's eTip outlined how a tiny amount of time in doing the "little extras" will:
increase client satisfaction
encourage more work
yield referrals
cement valuable and satisfying relationships.
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Powerful firm identity |
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Your reputation and identity impact every area of your professional practice. Creating a powerful firm identity is crucial to how you tell your story and differentiate yourself and your firm from a host of competitors. |
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Leveraging identity |
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Last week’s eTip covered how identity impacts your professional practice. Identity is different from image. To be powerful, identity must be completely congruent with your strategy. |
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Brief writing |
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Preparing a clear, detailed brief will guide your marketing advisers, business development coach, agency, or strategic consultant. It can make or break some projects. |
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Be marketing minded |
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Being marketing minded means investing energy and a small amount of time in doing the "little extras" which, over the long run: increase client satisfaction; encourage more work; yield referrals; cement valuable and satisfying relationships. |
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Camp out with clients |
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Wherever possible and feasible, spend time "camping out" in the offices and facilities of your business clients. |
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Cohabit with your client |
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Cohabiting with a client - temporarily "living with" your client to work on a project - turns conventional logic on its head.
It can pay huge dividends to forsake your comfortable, convenient habit of holing up in your own offices - especially for intense, pressured, time-critical projects. |
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Coming under fire ? |
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All professionals face the prospect of coming under fire - mostly from clients, but also from regulators, media, the public, and government. Perhaps scrutiny or criticism is deserved. Perhaps it's even long overdue. But maybe it's unfair, unbalanced, or even hypocritical. |
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Proving you're the right choice |
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Clients needs are ever-changing. |
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Compelling selling |
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You know you can deliver excellent results. You know a business which would gain great benefit from what you can do.
Your challenge: how do you turn your potential into results for them? How do you create a compelling argument for the business to swing into action with you?
Here are some ideas to make your selling more compelling. |
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Do your due diligence |
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Effective business development for lawyers and other expert professionals is much more about leveraging synergies and “fit” than mere persuasion.
Business development requires time and resources. It’s all about making good choices about where to invest scarce time, energy, and financial resources. |
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The challenge of being uncomplicated |
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Uncomplicated is both a great attraction and a serious challenge in the 21st century. Today’s successful professional has to be sophisticatedly uncomplicated: easy to deal with, elegant in their simplicity, attracting attention for being different.
Simple, uncomplicated professionals will be winners. |
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The journey to uncomplicated simplicity |
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Uncomplicated means simplifying for the client, for suppliers, outsourced services, so the community enjoys relating to the professional and firm. Sophisticated simplicity and uncomplicating is a significant challenge. It’s easier to increase complexity. |
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Coaching stars to dazzle |
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Professionals doing well - especially those high-performers at the top of the tree - often become isolated from important realities.
They may be shielded from the headaches and challenges of those further down the pecking order lose of touch with information which is “unspun” and thoroughly reliable. |
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Make it client-centric |
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Whether proposing, writing an executive summary, presenting, pitching, or simply trying to persuade a prospective client to entrust you with their work, you will present a much more compelling argument if you make it “client-centric” rather than “your firm-centric”. |
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Get organised for success |
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We all like to tell ourselves that it’s our cleverness and charisma which leads to our business development and client relationships success. |
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Buyer's remorse |
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Do your clients ever suffer from buyer’s remorse ? |
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Executive summaries with impact |
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Dozens of techniques can be used to improve the impact of your executive summary. Here is a small selection. |
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Avoiding buyer's remorse |
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If you observe symptoms of buyer’s remorse in your client, take immediate action. (Better still, anticipate and proactively engage the issue and avoid the problem, rather than waiting to overcome it.) |
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Business development personalities |
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It was once widely espoused that professional service salespeople, or rainmakers, were born rather than made. Maybe it was so.
But the successful business developer of the early 21st century isn’t the same breed - possibly not even the same species - as some of the hot-shot rainmakers and in-firm powerbrokers of the 80s and 90s. |
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