Practice Management

Are You A Small Scale Clinton, Obama Or McCain?

By chucknewton

If your response is "Yuk, no" then you are likely not succeeding.

Last year Chris Matthews wrote a book called Life's a Campaign.  I am not sure it did very well and I recall it receiving a lot of criticism from people like Jon Stewart, which prompted Matthews to complain that his book interview on The Daily Show was "the worst interview I've ever had in my life!"  Jon Stewart called it a "self-hurt book" and told Matthews that "I'm not trashing your book, I'm trashing your philosophy of life".  He also called it "a recipe for sadness".

So, I can see the negative sentiment a lot of people have think about how a political campaign has taught them about success.  Maybe life in general should not be run like a political campaign, but is that not what growing a solo practice is much about?

Have you ever played one of those what is your logo I.Q. quizzes? The image of candidate is their logo.  In the marketing world they call it 'branding".  It is the point where your image, or the image of your practice, starts to reflect a certain set of core values in the image you put forth.

We all know this stuff.  You see Hillary now and you think "experience" and "ready on day one".  You see Obama and you think "hope" and "change".  You see McCain and you think "straight talk" and "maverick".  I am not saying that these messages are not accurate reflections of these people.  I am just saying they they spend their ever waking moment and judge their every action in a way to carry this image, this logo, forward for them.

Many candidates fail miserably at this.  Mitt Romney for example ultimately lost because he kept changing his branding and his log.  Or, at least that was the perception.  He could not stick with a brand.  He became in short a generic candidate.  It marginalized him despite all of the money he raised and spent.

That is the reason that I do not understand, in those jurisdictions where this is possible, why lawyers select assumed names.  What value does that buy you as a lawyer?  None.  The goal is to eventually build yourself into a personal logo and brand that can be trusted by your target market.  You throw this away with trade names.

In Texas, for example, Jim Adler has spent years building the image, first, of the "Smart, Tough Attorney" and now as "The Hammer".  It is reflected in how he handles cases and markets his business.

Now, unlike Jim Adler and others you do not have to spend millions of dollars in TV advertising, especially in this day of the Internet and blogs.  But, what you have to have a constant and reliable message.  You have to have what they call an "elevator speech" of what you do that excites others to respond.  Then, and most importantly, you have to have a constant and consistent method of getting that message out to those you need to reach - at saturation levels.  You have to stay top of the mind with your referral sources, and those referral sources need to have a particular image in their mind when they think or hear from you.

When you think about it, that is the main function of a successful political campaign.  It is to turn that candidate into a logo of sorts, to brand that logo to an image, and to diligently get that message out.  You do not have to do this in the exact same way or through the same means as these candidates, but you need to get up every morning thinking how do you advance your campaign forward.

You need to wage a campaign to get your necessary referral sources to elect and reelect you for head of your practice niche.

Full post as published by Chuck Newton on February 10, 2008 (boomark / email).