The Legal Intelligencer Blog

Positioning Yourself and Your Firm as a Subject-Matter Expert

By Beth Rosenfeld, Lisa Peskin and Brynne Tillman 
Special to the Legal

How much attorneys know and how good they are at what they do are key factors when clients choose whom they want to represent them. These same things are equally important when lawyers consider which colleagues they will refer business to.

One of the most effective ways to appeal to potential clients is to position yourself and your firm as a “thought leader” in your area of expertise. When one can share insights and interest in a topic, you engage others and attract them to you. There are two things to consider when taking on a subject-matter expert role. First, you must have good original content that your target reader will find interesting. Second, your audience must be composed of potential clients and referral sources.

Let’s tackle the content first with three considerations:

• Identify the things that matter to your potential clients and the attorneys who already refer business your way. Ask around. What topics in your area of expertise would draw them in? What information would be a valuable takeaway from your article?
• Keep it simple, engaging and short. You don’t have to give them all the details of the topic. If they want more, they can reach out to you.
• Invite people to take a next step. Be sure to end all your content with a “call to action.” Invite them to share their thoughts, concerns and/or perspective. They can email, call you or simply request more information on the topic.

Regardless of how great your content is, if no one reads it, there is no impact. Assuring that your information gets in front of both potential clients and referral partners is of equal importance to creating good content in your messaging.

Following are some suggestions on how to get your message in front of the right audience:

• Participate on panels and get involved in speaking engagements targeted to your potential clients and referral sources. Chambers, associations and networking groups are always looking for speakers on new topics.
• Publish articles in law reviews, journals, research guides, papers and online resources. Media channels are always looking for great content.
• Blog. Have a consistent content stream that speaks to your clients. Keep your ideas simple and offer actionable steps. The goal is for the reader to walk away thinking not only was your article an interesting read, but that it made an impact upon how the reader will think and react to relevant situations after reading your blog. When this occurs, credibility is instantly created and you become a top-of-mind thought leader. Similar to writing an article, when blogging, always include a call to action asking the reader to connect with you.
• Weekly/monthly emails can have significant power with your existing network, yet, again, keep it simple. This is a great way to share your blog, upcoming events and industry insights that your target client cares about.
• Social media, though rarely an exact science, is a very effective way to rapidly distribute your message to a large audience. Be cautious to choose your media carefully. If your prospective client is an individual and your firm focuses on estate planning, divorce, family law, medical malpractice, PI, etc., you may want to have a Facebook presence. If your expertise centers on companies or corporate law, LinkedIn is likely your best outlet. Posting to your status will keep your current connections aware, but posting your content to groups will get new eyes following your content.

The bottom line is that the more you get your message out and position yourself and your firm as a subject-matter expert, the more new cases, new clients and new referral sources will come your way.

Beth Rosenfeld, Lisa Peskin and Brynne Tillman are members of the Business Development University legal sales team.

Client Marketing for Attorneys

By Beth Rosenfeld, Lisa Peskin and Brynne Tillman 
Special to the Legal

One of the best ways to grow a practice is through client marketing. When we visit our clients there are five things we are looking for to leverage the relationship:

Additional Business

We want to ask the right questions to uncover new opportunities with the same client. For example, if you are a patent attorney, identify other projects and discuss all legal needs and timelines. Probe and directly ask to be a part of the new project(s).

Internal Introductions

Depending on the size of the client you tend to work with, there are often additional contacts within the company who also have legal needs. Ask your clients if there are other departments you should be talking with to explore additional opportunities to work together.

External Introductions

Asking your clients for referrals can be very effective in growing your client roster. It is a simple question: "Mr. Client, do you know of anyone who could potentially benefit from my legal expertise?" The challenge with this can be that your client doesn't know who they know that would make for a good introduction.

This is where you can maximize the power of LinkedIn. First, connect with your clients on LinkedIn. Next, analyze your client's connections. Finally, select four or five people who would make great introductions for you and your firm. Once those appealing connections have been identified, approach your client by saying: "Ms. Client, I noticed that you are connected to five professionals on LinkedIn whom I would like to meet. Can I run those names by you?" Most likely, from the five introductions you request, you can count on one or two actual introductions.

Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials can be a great asset in the pursuit of new clients. However, many attorneys do not take the time to write case studies and request testimonials. The best time to ask for a testimonial is directly after a client expresses how grateful they are for all of your hard work. As soon as you receive this type of compliment, it is appropriate to ask: "Mr. Client, I sincerely appreciate your kind words. I am currently in the process of building my LinkedIn profile and if you are willing to write a brief synopsis/testimonial of your positive feedback, I would greatly appreciate it. May I send you a recommendation link from LinkedIn to simplify the process?"

Vendors

Identify your client's accountants and other professionals that they work with and then reach out to introduce yourself to those people. These are great relationships to develop and grow as the two of you obviously target similar clients and can potentially make great referral sources for one another.

Simple steps, big results. Client marketing just might be the most effective way to grow your practice.

Beth Rosenfeld, Lisa Peskin and Brynne Tillman are members of the Business Development University legal sales team.

Making the Effort to Network the Right Way

By Beth Rosenfeld, Lisa Peskin and Brynne Tillman
Special to the Legal

Networking is not something that is accomplished at an event; it’s a process. Many attorneys tell us that they’ve tried to network and it hasn’t worked for them. When we ask what they’ve done, they usually tell us that they went to a few events, got nothing out of them and then stopped going. This is not how the process works. It can take years to build up your network to a level that translates into new business. There are no shortcuts to building relationships. Like most things that are worth doing, the process of networking takes time, effort and dedication. Farmers do not simply plant seeds and wait. They nurture their future crops with water, food and fertilizer and take an active role in helping them grow. This same effort is required to develop and cultivate sources of new business in order to make them flourish and bear fruit. There must be an overall long-term plan, and you must stay dedicated to it.

There are a few things attorneys can do prior to an event that will help their networking efforts be more productive right away:

1. Do some homework before the event. Occasionally you can see a list of those who have registered online and you can make a list of the people you’d like to meet. You can also plan to go with a networking partner, learn about what type of people each of you wants to meet, and make introductions for one another throughout the event.
2. Show up early and look at all the name tags. Identify whom you’d like to meet, and even ask the host if he or she would introduce you to a few select people.
3. Go into the event looking for networking partners like CPAs, not just prospects. This is a great opportunity to build relationships. We call this fishing with a net vs. fishing with a pole. When we are prospecting for our next client, it is one pole, one line, one hook, and you might catch one fish. When you seek out strategic partners that can introduce you to into their network, it is like fishing with a net.
4. Categorize the business cards you collect. Consider marking cards with a 1, 2 and 3 – a 1 means just connect on LinkedIn, 2 means connect on LinkedIn and schedule a phone call, and 3 is connect on LinkedIn and schedule a face-to-face meeting. Simple, yet a good way to keep things organized.
5. Schedule follow-up meetings right there. Many of us have our schedules on our phones and can save a future step by requesting a meeting and placing it on our calendars while still at the event.

Networking does work, but it takes a good plan of action, follow-up and consistency.

Beth Rosenfeld, Lisa Peskin and Brynne Tillman are members of the Business Development University legal sales team.

Identifying Activities for Business Development

By Beth Rosenfeld, Lisa Peskin and Brynne Tillman
Special to the Legal

Most attorneys don’t have a plan for business development. In fact, in addition to billable hours, lawyers frequently get stuck responding to dozens of emails, returning calls and putting out fires. Inevitably, business development activity falls to the bottom of the "to-do" list and days or even weeks go by without any prospecting activity at all. One of the challenges for many attorneys is identifying what time and activities are necessary to meet their objectives for business development. Here is a great way to help your firm develop an activity plan:

• Determine your revenue goal for the next 12 months.
• Subtract out expected billable hours from existing clients.
• Divide that number by your average billable client dollars, which will provide you with how many new clients you will need to hit that goal.
• Determine your personal close ratio (client proposals to new clients).
• Multiply that number by the number of new clients needed. This number is equivalent to how many proposals you will need to make.
• Determine how many prospective client meetings become proposals and multiply that number by the number of proposals needed, which will provide the number of prospect meetings you will need to hit the revenue goal.
• Determine where most of your business has come from. Who/what are the sources of past business? Who/what was the source of your best clients? Who/what are effective prospecting resources for your firm?
• Allocate specific time on the calendar for business development and treat it as a client. If a client were in front of one of your attorneys, they would not be distracted by the emails, phone calls and fires.

Schedule time, even if it's a small amount of time, to focus on business development without distractions.

Beth Rosenfeld, Lisa Peskin and Brynne Tillman are members of the Business Development University legal sales team.

The Source-of-Business Analysis

By Beth Rosenfeld, Lisa Peskin and Brynne Tillman
Special to the Legal

When you went to four years of undergraduate school, three years of law school and spent months preparing for the bar, did you ever think you would end up being responsible for business and client development? Balancing the time and efforts involved with finding new clients, while still effectively serving the current ones, is critical to the success of most attorneys. For this reason, Business Development University will be contributing regularly to The Legal Intelligencer’s blog to provide you with ideas, tips and strategies on how to increase your revenue opportunities.

Over the next several months, we will cover topics such as:

• Client acquisition activity plans
• Effective networking
• Maximizing LinkedIn for warm introductions
• Client marketing
• Leveraging strategic alliances and center of influence
• Blogging to position yourself and your firm as the expert
• Getting your message and blogs out virally through Twitter and LinkedIn
• Running an effective client meeting
• Planting seeds (positioning yourself in comparison to your competition)
• Overcoming objections
• Defined next steps – perfecting the close
• Time and territory management

So, here we go … our very first recommendation is to take 30 minutes to identify where your current business is coming from – we call this a “source-of-business analysis.” Once you know where your current business originates, it is much easier to identify what time, resources and activities are required to meet your growth goals.

Start with making a list of all the business you had in the last 12 months. Break it down by:

• Reoccurring client matters
• Existing clients – new matters
• New client matters
  • Referrals
    • From other attorneys
    • Clients
    • Centers of influence
    • Board members
  • Strategic partnerships with other professional groups, i.e., medical organizations, insurance companies, accounting firms, etc.
  • Speaking engagements
  • Articles/blogs
  • Networking events/groups
  • Sponsorships
  • Social media
  • Advertisements

If there are any additional sources from which previous business has originated, add those to the list as well.

One of the first and most important steps to developing new business is to analyze the sources of your current business. Once this initial and vital analysis is complete, the next steps to increasing business development will be easier to identify and significantly more effective.

Stay tuned for our next blog where we will discuss developing a client acquisition activity plan.

We are open to questions and topic requests. If you would like help getting started on your own source-of-business analysis” or assistance with any other business development related challenges, feel free to contact BDU at [email protected] or call 877-310-1370 ext. 117.

Beth Rosenfeld, Lisa Peskin and Brynne Tillman are members of the Business Development University legal sales team.