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Please consider this free-reprint article written by:
Henry Harlow
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Article Title: Lawyer Marketing � How You Create Breakthrough
Success
Author: Henry Harlow
Word Count: 1263
Article URL: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=75587&ca=Marketing
Format: 64cpl
Author's Email Address: henryharlow[at]cfl.rr.com (replace [at]
with @)
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Lawyer marketing and the �manager�s mantra� go together. Never
heard the manager�s mantra? The �manager�s mantra� is an
important variable in successful legal marketing. The manager�s
mantra is �If you can�t measure it, you can�t manage it.� Well,
that is nice Henry and how will that help me?
Most attorneys have some sort of referral network (if only a
small one) however; attorneys really don�t know how to manage
their lawyer marketing so that their referral network expands.
The first step in this expansion is to know where you are and
then you can figure out how to get to where you want to go.
Yes, it is important to understand the geographics,
demographics and psychographics of your referral
sources/clients for sure and you need a lawyer marketing
management system. By understanding more about how to manage
your legal marketing referral sources, you can grow this
referral network and boost your attorney marketing efforts with
less work on your part.
What Your Expanded Lawyer Marketing Referral Base Delivers To
You
What does having this lawyer marketing management system in
place mean for you? If you are working your legal marketing
referral sources well, you are building a base that will make a
significant impact on your bottom line, as I am sure you know.
You will be sent more business and be able to retain more
quality business that will in turn send you more quality
business. You will have an easier time saying no to mediocre or
poor cases and holding out for top dollar cases. You can even
pass on work that simply does not appeal to you personally if
you know that your lawyer marketing referral base will
consistently deliver.
Professional marketers know the process of wooing a referral
base involves creating �know, like, trust, relationship,
credibility, and top of mind awareness (TOMA)� with your legal
marketing referral sources. I think you see the benefits
clearly so lets move on to giving you the management tool to
make it a reality.
Measuring a Lawyer Marketing Referral Base
Lawyer marketing is not always and exact science and that does
not keep us from keeping statistics. The �game� of legal
marketing will be improved just like keeping statistics in
baseball, football or hockey improves performance. The tool we
will use consists of four basic lists to measure your legal
marketing referral base as it exists currently and see where
your attorney marketing time needs to be focused thus putting
your resources into those referral sources with the potential
for the most return.
The first list is called the �Top 20� List. If you only have a
few lawyer marketing referral sources, obviously, it may only
be the Top 10 or even the Top 2 List. But the first objective
after listing your top lawyer marketing referral sources is to
increase the list to 20 if it is not there already so that is
why we call it the Top 20 list. In order to qualify for the Top
20 List, a referral source must have sent you X amount of
business in the past year and has hit that level consistently
over the last three years. Depending on your practice area, X
may be one, two, or three very profitable cases. For example,
if you are a PI lawyer you might consider X to equal the
referral of at least one case that netted the practice over
$25,000 in contingency fees (or set the benchmark higher or
lower as you see fit). If you practice residential real estate
then X might equal someone who sent you a minimum of 3 closings
per month (again you can set this benchmark higher or lower
depending on your current situation). Bottom line here is
whether for PI, estate planning, family law, or real estate
legal marketing, you will know what level is appropriate for
your Top 20 level of lawyer marketing attention.
The second list is the �Farm Team� List. Here we are using a
baseball metaphor of your Top 20 being the �major leagues� and
this second list being the farm team in training for moving up
to the big leagues of the Top 20. Your Farm Team List consists
of those legal marketing referral sources who are between
having at least tried to send you someone up to whatever you
have set the threshold of being a Top 20 list member. This
trying to send you someone can be as casual as a friend asking
if his or her neighbour called you after being given your card
by your friend. We all know that lawyer marketing is sometimes
this accidental.
The third list is the �Who You Know� List and is similar to any
standard networking list. It includes everyone you know, even
everyone your spouse knows, as well as those people known by
your family and your staff. Take this one out as far as you
like. The bigger it gets the better for lawyer marketing.
Finally, there is the lawyer marketing �Categories List�. This
is a list of professions and occupations in general that would
have the capacity to refer business to you. There are no names
on this list, only general occupations/professions. For
example, a PI lawyer might list nurses, physical therapists,
medical technicians, chiropractors, neurologist, plastic
surgeons, orthopaedists etc. while a family lawyer might list
psychologists, social workers, marriage counselors, CPAs,
hairdressers, real estate lawyers, etc.
Working a Lawyer Marketing Referral Base
Now you have measured your lawyer marketing referral network
what do you do with that list? Just to be sure I need to say
every lawyer has as their best referral source category other
lawyers so be sure to list all other practice areas that would
have a particular ability to refer to your practice area on
your categories list. Also every lawyer marketing system needs
to list �current clients� as a category and put those clients
on the Top 20 and Farm Team list as they move out of the Who
You Know List since clients should be on the Who You Know List.
Also some of your clients are in the categories you have listed
and they need particular attention first in legal marketing.
The way you use the list in lawyer marketing is to pay
particular attention first to building and maintaining
relationships with your Top 20 and Farm Team List members. As
you deepen and develop those relationships they will send you
more clients than ever before since you are building �know,
like, trust, relationship, credibility, and top of mind
awareness (TOMA)� with these people. Ask the Top 20 and Farm
Team members to introduce you to other people they know in the
categories that have the ability to refer to you and they will.
See if any of the Who You Know List members are in the
categories you are seeking and cultivate those members. See if
the Who You Know List members can introduce you to people on
your categories list. You get the idea here. Over time you will
fill your Top 20 and Farm Team lists thus only have time to
devote to maintaining and building from them I am sure. Not
sure how to do this entire legal marketing building from a
communications perspective? Well, that is the subject of future
articles, worth a visit to my website for more information or
contact me and we can work on that together. You can master
lawyer marketing I am certain.
About The Author: Henry has individually coached well over 500
attorneys. You can get more free, in depth and objective
information on increasing your revenue while reducing your work
hours available now at http://www.law-firm-marketing-coach.com
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