Any lawyer who wants to develop new business must keep in touch with a large number of people. That’s the only way to find the small number who may some day need your services. It takes time to build relationships, and legal needs increase and decrease. If you keep in touch on a regular low-key basis, it will maximize the chances that you will be “top of mind” on the day someone starts thinking about a new lawyer.
It has always been difficult to stay top of mind. In a world filled with too many emails, blogs, and newsletters, it is only getting harder.
The question is: what type of system will help you to stay in touch with many prospects, efficiently and effectively? While every lawyer must find his or her own answer to this question, the best systems have three elements in common:
Focus on the right people. Lawyers have a natural tendency to focus on the people they already know. That is fine when you know people who buy the services you provide, or who can help you find them. But if your list is limited to neighbors and old college friends, this probably won’t work. You must start from a clear vision of the type of people who may some day need your specialized legal expertise, and then create lists of the actual people you’d like to do business with. If you don’t know them already, your job is to find a way to meet them. Nobody said it would be easy.
Provide value. The most obvious way to provide value is to keep people informed about legal changes and decisions that may be relevant to their business. But some may have no direct connection to the law. For examples, see my posts on “the zen of selling by not selling.”
Make it personal. According to one survey: “Clients are fed up of being bombarded with newsletters; many cite them more as an irritant than an asset.” If you get an email that has been sent to 50 people at the same time, how much does it strengthen your relationship with the sender? Now suppose you get the exact same message, but it goes just to you, starts with your name, and maybe even ends with a personal reference to your kids? The idea of keeping in touch is to build relationships, and that must be done one person at a time.
If you are going to stay in contact with large numbers of people, you’ll need a filing system or software. Next week, I’ll talk about Customer Relationship Management software and the alternatives.
This material was adapted from my book The Legal Business Development Workbook.
Great post, clear and extremly realistic. I´ll wait for your next post, because at this momment I am looking for a CRM software.
Posted by: ivan cavero | February 10, 2007 at 01:45 PM