Practice Management

I could say, I guess, because you are no good at it, but that would be cruel.

It is the truth, however, when you think in context with how most people starting out approach this task.

First, they treat it like a task. Hence, it tends to be too mechanical, too outwardly aggressive, and not at all that friendly. Nobody likes being sold on anything, and really you should not be selling. Think about it from a Twitter or Facebook experience where you invite someone in that asks, and then they are all over you with in your face marketing. Nobody likes it. It rarely works. And, nobody is going to refer cases to someone they do not like being around. You need to work at building relationships for no other reason than you want to meet people, get to know people, have a connection with people, and be involved with those doing what you want to do. If your goal is to have relationships, then the referral part will take care of itself.

Of course the opposite of this, and the one that really affects most new lawyers in particular, is that you do not want to hard sell, you are more reticent, and you do not like the soapbox. For the reason that you have an image of yourself as having to do these things in order to succeed, most do not try. Because of this image, most make an occasional meeting or two, or a visit or two, they get no immediate success, and they quit or undertake it so infrequently that it does not work effectively.

Second, when I ran a large marketed law firm that dealt primarily in TV spots, the lesson I learned was that for advertising to work effectively, it takes frequency and saturation of your target audience. If you only had limited advertising dollars, for example, it was better for you to concentrate your spots on one TV station, no matter how small, and run your spots with a large degree of frequency so as to saturate that market held by that one TV station. It was not good to spread the limited resources out over a large number of stations in a way where there only ever a few spots playing infrequently on each. Likewise, if you could not afford the run of a station, you would concentrate the frequency and saturation levels on day parts, or just morning or afternoon spots.  Maybe if it was a very limited budget, you would only target one TV show, but you would always be on that TV show. This is because no matter the urgency of your message, it is familiarity that gets one to make the call needed to become a client. So, the more the viewer sees you, and for the longer period of time they see you, the better.

The same is true for relationship building. You cannot generally make a visit or two or attend a meeting or two and expect anything to much happen. It takes involvement. It takes showing up and being seen with a great deal of frequency, and following up, shortly and politely to those you know and have identified with a degree of saturation. You do not sell, as much as you inform. It is what makes them comfortable with you and reminds them to refer you a case or a client.

So, if you depend on Realtors to refer you cases, for example, you do not want to just be a member of their local organization and occasionally get around to attending a meeting or two. You want to always be there. That is what leads to the first casual introduction. After that, seeing you, and being around you, is what leads to the familiarity necessary to get a case referred. The frequency of the seeing you or hearing from you is what reminds the referral source to send cases and clients over.

Sure, when you show up to the meetings you will see other attorneys that do what you do, and that sometimes leads to discouragement. But, do not be discouraged. Just keep plugging away. First, as to the other attorneys you might find a mentor, a friend, a future partnership. Who knows. Like minded people get along. Second, what you will find generally is that the lawyers you meet pay dues and occasionally show up, but they do not do so with any degree of frequency. They maintain no form of saturation in following up with their contacts at these organizations. And, even if another lawyer is doing this, people change relationships all of the time. Only, they will not know to give you a chance when this happens if they are not familiar and comfortable with you.

This is one of the concerns that I feel when I hear new lawyers discuss how they are going to fan out far in regard to territory or practice areas. There is just not enough time to do this right if they do either.

Over time you get to know these people so when you see them you have other things to share other than "I want your business". "Joan, how are the kids?" "Bob, tell me about that house you just sold on Vine Street". "Betty, what Mass do you attend at Sacred Heart Church? I attend the 10 o'clock service on Sunday, but I was thinking about changing." "Fred, how's the real estate biz treating you?" "George, how is everything is the beautiful Woodlands, Texas?" "How was your summer trip to Cancun"?

The point is that you learn and earn people's trust because you are with them, you are reliable, and they see you. You know about them generally and they have learned about you.

Following up in between meetings is simply providing them frequent, short and useful information between your meetings.