Legal Research

"Question for Lawyers: What Are You Selling?"

Posted by Arnie Herz: "Yes, I know. A lot of lawyers recoil at the thought of being salespeople. We develop business. We network. But, we don't sell our legal services.

With the economy remaining tight and consumers becoming even more discerning, maybe the time has come to reconsider this hardline stance. Or, maybe it's time to rephrase the question to make it a bit more palatable.

How about: What are your clients buying?

According to marketing expert John Jantsch; no matter what's in the sales hopper (greeting cards, HVAC supplies or legal services), "at the end of the day, [people] buy some variation of the same five things." They buy products and solutions that:

• Make them more money
• Save them more time
• Allow them to avoid the frustration of doing stuff they don't like
• Help them save or not lose money today and in future
• Help them feel better about themselves

Jantsch goes on to note that we can focus our energy on just one of these selling points or "come up with ways to mix and match" them. Of course, no matter how we decide to go, we need to have a solid sense of who our clients are and the problems they have that we can and want to help them solve with our legal services.

If you need some insight into the psyche of today's consumers (a/k/a our clients), this article on recession-proof products offers some good food for thought (think chocolate and alcohol)."

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Sanity, 17 August 2009

Full post as published by Stark County Law Library Blawg on September 15, 2009 (boomark / email).