In an increasingly competitive legal services market, lawyers
are investing significant money and effort to acquire new clients
and develop existing ones. But lawyers are not always investing in
efforts to discover what's working and what's not.
Based on my review of many client surveys over the years, I have
put together a quick glance at some of the common refrains from
clients about specific legal marketing and client development
tactics.
Starting on a positive note, here are some client development
efforts that are working:
Learning more about a corporate client's business. Almost every
corporate client with whom I've spoken has raved about lawyers who
invest non-billable time in learning about the client's business
and industry. Clients are generally appreciative of time invested
in visits to their corporate offices or plants for this
purpose.
Asking for feedback on how to improve. Clients of all types
appreciate a lawyer asking how he or she can improve legal service,
especially when suggestions are acted upon quickly. Asking for
feedback sometimes results in additional assignments and almost
always leaves a favorable impression on a client.
Sending out timely legal alerts and tips. Clients love it when
lawyers send timely notices of changes in law accompanied by
practical tips on what to do about those changes. However, clients
add that many firms send out newsletters now, emphasizing that the
fifth or sixth newsletter on a subject won't get opened.
Procuring references and testimonials. Prospective clients
generally like to know what others think about a lawyer's service,
especially others who are similar to them in terms of type of
occupation, legal quandary and income. They like it when lawyers
provide references or written testimonials from existing
clients.
Providing quantitative data related to your experience. Both
prospects and clients like to hear how many matters or cases you
have handled like their own, what the average cost was per matter,
how long it took to close each matter and what happened as a result
of the representation. Clients looking for trial advocates like to
know the range of possible dollar outcomes to any controversy, and
clients needing transactional representation like to know how often
a firm closes transactions quickly without stalling negotiations,
killing deals, or suffering post-closing lawsuits or claims.
Clients are not shy about stating their opinions on marketing
failures either. Here are some of the more frequent types of
feedback given by prospects who failed to become clients after a
visit with a law firm:
The lawyers failed to distinguish themselves from their
competition. Professional marketers would call this a "value
proposition" failure. Clients want to know why you are the best
choice among any number of competent choices they could make. This
places a burden on the lawyer to know the competition, but that
burden is no different than the burden placed on any other service
provider.
The lawyers talked too much about themselves. Clients who say
this want to have more of a dialogue than a sales pitch. They are
interested in hearing about the lawyer's competence, but they want
to know that the lawyer is interested in them and their problems
too. As a client in one survey said, "a pitch on competence is
about the lawyer… a pitch on relevance is more about the
client."
There was just no chemistry. This comment reveals the failure to
make a personal connection. A client must trust you to hire you,
and they must like you to trust you. Nearly 100 percent of
prospective clients have told me they prefer to like who they hire,
and more than half have said they must like the prospective legal
hire.
They disrespected my time. This comment arises after a lawyer
shows up late for a meeting, takes a call during a meeting or
otherwise wastes a prospect's time. To paraphrase what one CEO said
to me, "You are lucky to get 10 minutes of my time. So when a
lawyer shows up late, goes over time or interrupts the meeting, he
is toast."
The firm was not going where we are headed. This feedback is
relatively new in legal surveys, and comes mostly from corporate
clients who are forward-looking in highly competitive industries.
They want to know that a firm is keeping pace with them on
utilizing technology, mastering process improvement, executing on
diversity initiatives or otherwise keeping pace with a
fast-arriving future.
These are just some of the many things clients have to say about
what works and what doesn't in legal marketing and business
development.
John O. Cunningham is a writer, consultant and
public speaker. As a lawyer, he served as General Counsel to a
publicly traded company and to a privately-held subsidiary of a
Fortune 100 company. For more information about his work in the
fields of legal service, marketing, communications, and management,
check out his website and blog at: johnocunningham.wordpress.com.