Legal Marketing: Putting Your Clients First for a Valuable Practice

Most lawyers are technicians; they want to provide legal services but cringe at the necessary step of selling them. There is a negative connotation of sales and marketing in the legal field. Lawyers often feel like they are trying to convince a potential client to pay for something he or she does not really need. But what if lawyers began to think of marketing as a network of trust and sales as connecting a person with legal needs to the right lawyer? While many lawyers would embrace this as an idea situation, few know where to start. What steps should solo and small firm lawyers take to ethically and effectively sell their services?

In this episode of The Un-Billable Hour, Christopher Anderson interviews networking expert Bob Burg who wrote a book about successful marketing techniques called "The Go-Giver." Burg describes a different sort of marketing in which the lawyer provides value to the consumer in the form of comfort and trust. By shifting the focus of the practice to the consumer's needs, the lawyer creates an environment in which people want to pay him/her for the legal services they already need. In order to do this properly, Burg explains, the lawyer must recognize five "laws of stratospheric success," or systems for evaluating the success of their practice: value, compensation, influence, authenticity, and receptivity. These laws are based around the idea that authentically and genuinely putting others first will inevitably be profitable for a valuable legal practice. Burg does not mean giving away services, however. He encourages lawyers to do some research; ask happy clients what qualities about the service they found valuable build upon those qualities for future marketing techniques.

Bob Burg is a sought-after speaker at corporate conventions and for entrepreneurial events. He has written the well known business marketing books Endless Referrals and The Go-Giver. His latest book is entitled, Adversaries Into Allies: Win People Over Without Manipulation or Coercion which discusses how to master the art of Ultimate Influence. Bob is an advocate, supporter, and defender of the Free Enterprise system, believing that the amount of money one makes is directly proportional to how many people they serve.