Coffee is for Closers

How many lawyers subscribe to law firm marketing services expecting clients to show up with wallets open?
One of the interesting things we hear from clients is that even though they're getting plenty of leads through their network subscription, they're not getting much actual business because other lawyers are beating them to the punch or "stealing their leads".

To Compete Against other Law Firms you Have to be able to Close

It's no different from other types of advertising in any other industry. Clients are not going to show up with wallets open asking for your help (well, ok, not ALL of them will). They're going to shop around, talk to different attorneys, consider their budget, feel out lawyers personalities, qualifications, etc.
If you're not making an effort to sell yourself, and show a potential client that you're their best option, another lawyer will.
Here's an interesting blog about selling your services to clients through a "consultative approach". Aside from all the "rainmaker" comments, it's a good read.
Not all lawyers are good at selling, but making an effort to, at the very least, talk to potential clients about their problem and offer some typical solutions used in previous cases is an easy way to develop some trust with your leads.

Meow meow

Optimize Your Online Marketing Spend with Offline Biz Dev

I overheard a phone conversation with an attorney who's taken a good approach to purchasing a large number of leads, even though many were not the type of case he prefers.
Often times, the complaint many lawyers will have with the results of their online marketing spend is they receive a large number of consumer inquiries regarding cases that they are not interested in pursuing.
One remedy is to focus your spend in such a way that you're only purchasing the types of leads you want. The problem is, when it comes to marketing anything online, the more constraints you put on your traffic, the more expensive it will be per lead.
Back to the phone call. This attorney was purchasing a large quantity of leads, even though many of the calls an online inquiries he was receiving were of little interest to him. But what he found, was that they were of interest to many of his colleagues.

Online Marketing Meets Old Fashioned Business Development

Every lawyer knows that a big part of an attorneys job, whether a solo practice or (even especially) at a large firm is business development. It's one of the things that's probably not taught in law school, but should be part of the curriculum.
In order to stay in business, a firm has to generate new clients. One of the ways attorneys or law firms do this is biz dev with other firms. Developing relationships with other practices, and throwing business both ways is a great way to maintain a steady flow of business.
If you're purchasing media online and developing business, why not refer those cases you don't want to another firm that does? Keeping up a varied circle of attorney "acquaintances", and sending business their way once in a while, is a sure fire way to convert unwanted leads into new business later down the road.
Don't forget to ask for referrals in return. Just a simple question, "if you ever get a case "x", thats my specialty", after referring some business to an attorney is all it takes. Keep tabs on the fruit of your relationships. If you find that some attorneys take your business and never return the favor, keep track of that and adjust accordingly.
By actively working offline and online to generate new business, you can maximize your ROI with very little time spent marketing yourself.

Ruf ruf

Sniff Out Every Lead

When someone throws me a bone, I take it every time. If you're paying a lead generation company to deliver you prospective clients, you should do the same right? 

I overheard a conversation in the Experthub office today regarding a consumer email concerning our service. "Jon" had found a few lawyers near him and elected to contact both of them regarding an immigration problem.

Attorney 2 (I'm working backwards on purpose) sent "Jon" an email with a quick overview of his firm, as well as a brief, personalized paragraph responding to his inquiry. Nothing too time consuming, just a quick 20 second response.

Attorney 1 (The first attorney to contact the lead) elected to send a completely generic email with absolutely nothing about the original inquiry. This email included the phrase "Call Me Now!" at the bottom. When "Jon" called, he was greeted by a secretary who insisted he couldn't speak with the attorney unless "Jon" gave her his credit card number for the $25 phone consultation fee. 

Instead of giving up his credit card  number, he waited for a response from Attorney 2. He soon got it, called, and hired Attorney 2 to help with his Immigration problem.

Now, both of these immigration lawyers have similar subscriptions, and pay about the same amount. They're getting the same number of leads, roughly the same number of profile visits, etc. So essentially, they should be getting the same amount of new business from their marketing spend. Which do you think is spending their money more wisely?

Now, I could be getting ahead of myself; maybe there is good money in phone consultation fees, but somehow I doubt it. Or it could be he has so much business that he doesn't need/want anymore cases. Then why pay for marketing services?

In a business where one or two cases can be the difference between profitable marketing spend or money thrown away, why wouldn't you spend at least a few minutes to ensure that each lead is serviced? It seems a waste to spend the money to get through all the steps of online marketing (traffic generation, lawyer impression, profile click, inquiry, completed lead) just to fumble a good lead at the last moment when it's in your lap.

I don't know, maybe I'm missing something. This is somewhat out of my area of expertise. Any lawyers reading? Want to fill me in?

At least Jon got what he was looking for.

Ruf ruf