Why do some law firms get a huge return on their marketing and others get little or none?
Not knowing the answer costs you time, frustration, and takes money out of your pocket. This uncertainty causes some firms to hold back on marketing. For others, it leads to a scattershot approach. A Managing Partner client of mine calls this “throwing money at the wall.”
Either way, your law firm suffers the same fate: slower grow, lower profitability, and a take whatever kind of business you can get mentality. Not the results you are looking for.
Success requires more than better execution. You must focus on the right priorities
Fortunately, there is a better way. A way that turns your marketing into a Virtuous Cycle that keeps getting better over time. It seems counter-intuitive at first, but it gets easier and more natural each time you do it. The quote a very successful lawyer client of mine, “Pretty soon, it’s part of your firm’s DNA.”
You know how you deliver great results for your clients (the tasks you perform). What’s fuzzy are the actual reasons you get selected. In my many years of working with law firm owners, I’ve found Client Satisfaction Surveys with their constrained answers are rarely helpful for this.
Insights gathered from interviews – if they are done right – are incredibly actionable. They go to the heart of how you connect with your Best Clients . . . while they are still prospects.
Listening to your clients is important. Asking them the right questions is even more important.
Yes, it’s “Your Relationship.” But it’s so much more.
“Value,” “experience,” “expertise,” even “a client-centered culture” mean different things to different people.
Clients think from their perspective not than yours.
How you think: “Our experience deeper and more valuable than other firms.”
How your client thinks: “We can do X because of your expertise in A, B, and C.”
The difference is more than semantics. Adopting someone else’s perspective is unnatural. What is very hard to do abstractly becomes easy with reverse-engineering.
Any statement you preface with “us,” “we,” or “our” is talking about you. If your competitors make similar claims—and they probably do—you are not differentiated.
At the beginning of a project, I frequently create a quick win by having the client flip their messaging. The same words, just turn the result into the subject of the sentence. Amazing results for a bit of mental effort.
It really is that simple. Thinking like your Best Clients streamlines the entire business development process, makes it accessible to more people, and creates natural alignment across marketing and sales.
One client reports he now knows certain words have special meaning. When a prospect says one of these words, he knows they are “magic words” indicating the prospect will be a great client. BD conversations that used to take two hours and only he could do are now a crisp 15-minute conversation everyone at his firm does.
Supported by Science
Buyers and sellers typically misunderstand the role of emotion and logic in the buying process.
According to research at the University of Texas, establishing an emotional connection with the buyer is critical.
“The earlier you make the emotional connection the better, because once the buyer has decided they like a particular option. . . their thinking falls in line with their emotions.”
We think the buying process looks like this:
1. Establish criteria & look for options
2. Evaluate options against criteria
3. Determine best choice
4. Make decision
The actual buying process is more like this:
1. Create an emotional connection. The fastest and most effective way is to demonstrate alignment with the buyer’s goals. Not merely understanding, but shared goals.
2. Pre-Decision. The buyer makes a largely emotional decision they want to work with you.
3. Post-Hoc Rationalization. The buyer cherry-picks facts to create a logical case supporting the Pre-Decision.
4. Yes. If they find sufficient information to support their Pre-Decision, they are ready to say “Yes.”
Don’t dismiss the role of emotion when it comes to your very logical clients. There’s research on that too.
“People who lack emotions because of brain injuries often have difficulty making decisions at all.”
You can facilitate your client’s Pre-Decision by thinking in terms of:
How THEY define success
What THEY care about
How THEY see your impact on their business
This is a case where theory and practice recommend the same approach.
Get Better Results
A consistent flow of clients is good. A consistent flow of your Best Clients is better.
Being able to attract a consistent flow of your Best Clients is a gamechanger.
When you attract more of your Best Clients, the impact is broad and deep across your business.
Revenue and Profitability
Shorter sales cycle
Higher margins
More and better referrals
Better strategy is a force-multiplier: for every aspect of your marketing: brand, web site, digital campaigns, PR. Even sales-specific activities.
A High-Performing business is a saleable business
More attractive place to work: because you have more great clients and projects.
Bruce La Fetra is a consultant at Eastwood Strategy Advisors, where he focuses his efforts on guiding lawyers, consultants, coaches, and other professionals who want the personal and financial rewards of working with better clients while spending less time selling. Those he works with have called Bruce “The Client Whisperer” because he reverse-engineers their best client relationships, helping their businesses thrive.