When Does Marketing Happen?
Real marketing is an affirmative effort.
All of us "sell" all the time. Marketing/selling is both conscious and unconscious. When we make it conscious, as a means of creating an unconscious connection with potential clients we have yet to meet, we have a better chance of succeeding. That's a powerful message when so many lawyers still seem to wait, and even to long, for "things to come back." Such lawyers are likely to find themselves quite hungry for some time. The world of passively waiting for business to come to us will never return, if it really ever existed. Passivity does have a marketing impact, but it is usually negative. Real marketing is an affirmative effort.
Use Your Business Card
Consider the simple act of handing someone a business card. If the recipient says to you, "Once I get back to my office, I'm going to be sure to call you," you have a choice. Be passive, play "hard to get," hoping they will honor their promise, or be assertive. Or, you can suggest a mutually convenient, specific day and time for that call to be made. Write it on another business card, and hand it over. Then follow-up: Ask for the other person's business card and say, "If you're unable to call me that day, I'll be sure to call you the next day." Reaching out affirmatively like this shows that you are interested in establishing a business relationship.
Everyone Can and Should Market
Marketing is action, not a strategy. Marketing uses communication and expression of value to show how we can fulfill a need. Analyze, for example, the word "networking." It's not "net-playing," it's "work." Some have said that "marketing is a contact sport!" There is no one tactic that will cover the waterfront of opportunities to communicate with your potential clients. It becomes a question of each lawyer's creativity, time availability and - above all - predisposition. While some lawyers believe they are not marketing-oriented or skilled, I believe everyone can market, and should market, more than they do. But, people have to stay within their "comfort zone" and do the things that come naturally, within their zone of comfort, to bring in new business.
Finding the "Comfort Zone"
Many times, in my coaching lawyers, the focus becomes learning what the "comfort zone" is for the attorney and demonstrating to the attorney that he/she can work within that zone of comfort. Once the attorney understands this zone and what activities are appropriate within this zone, they are off and running, marketing in ways that they had never expected.
Using the "Comfort Zone"
Finding a comfort zone and using it are two different skills. No matter how or where you market, know who you're marketing to. Create a profile of your ideal client and develop a marketing strategy that focuses on this target, not everyone. You can increase your revenue dramatically, and conserve your energy, by focusing on the demographics, occupation, location, financials and other characteristics of clients who will give you the work that you want. Then don't just think about marketing - get out and market. Communicate with your targets to let them know who you are, the tremendous value you can provide them, and then develop close relationships with them to make them want to hire you.
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