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: Chuck Newton

Want To Make A Living, Stop Pussyfooting Around And Tell People Straight Up What You Can Do For Them!

By chucknewton

I will not mention names, but I was communicating with a young lawyer about the sorry state of his practice.  I seem to get a lot of this as if I am the guru of non-profitable law practices.  I guess I do not mind because everybody needs a sounding board sometimes to allow them to just think through the problems and solutions.  I have always been willing to be that sounding board and offer my unfiltered advise, for whatever it is worth.

The lawyer was practicing out of a one room office, in a large metropolitan area and he was having difficulty finding business.  I asked him what law did he practice?  He said he practiced "business law". 

H-m-m-m-m.  Business law.  Is that not a rather abstract term that means what exactly?

He seemed confused.  "You know, I provide legal services to businesses".

"Yes, I understand that", I said.  "But, if I am a businessman you are soliciting, it still does not tell me what you can do for me".

The term "business law" seems to me to a bit muddled.  It is blurry.  It leaves my mind a bit jumbled or scrambled.  It is fragmented.  The term is not sticky.  My feeble brain has trouble coalescing around what it is that you are trying to relay to me that you do.

Feeling a little provoked, I think, he asked me how I defined what I do?  I told him that "I am an attorney dedicated to defending the automatic stay, discharge injunction, and the rights of consumers gained in filing bankruptcy."

I was the exact same question I am asked by bankruptcy attorneys and others all of the time, and I now had an opportunity to give this lawyer my elevator speech.  It is specific, it relays very explicit information as to what I do, and it is represents some degree of passion.

My point to this young lawyer is that people are naturally curious as to what others do.  You make yourself available to businessmen and women for even a short period of time, and they will almost always ask you what you do.  People are naturally curious.  But, they are also not going to sit there forever and engage in an in depth discussion with you to discern exactly what it is you do.  To them it is similar to asking, "How are you doing"?  Sure they have a passing interest in you wellbeing, but they do not want an itemized list from you of all that is right and all that is wrong in your life.   The same is true here. We are an hyperactive people.  We are all a little self-absorbed. Nobody wants to sit down with someone that is almost a complete stranger and engage in an exhaustive discussion about what it is exactly that you might or might not be able to do for them.  Solicitude only goes so far.

You have got less than a minute - maybe 20 seconds - to tell this business person not that you are a lawyers (because who is not), that you like to work with business people (because business people do so many different things and have a variety of differing problems and issues), but exactly how on earth you are going to help them.

So, how is this lawyer communicating with these contacts?  He is telling them nothing that they understand, other than he has some conspectus affinity with business people generally.  To me it comes across as telling business people that "I want your money".  How unpleasant is that?  This is so because the pitch does not relay any solution with which a business person might need help.

So, what say you?   The informatics that you lay on your prospects in the few seconds that you actually have their attention had darn well be bull's-eye exact.  With one swing of the verbal hammer you had better nail down the point you want -- you need -- for them to remember.  You need something that is short, crisp and passionate enough that these business people can remember it almost verbatim.

How you describe your practice needs to be a little eloquent in its straightforwardness.  What are you dedicated to doing?  It does not need to be loquacious.  It had better not be some babbling, jabbering, verbose, yacking up exhortation on everything you might be able to do for somebody in the right position.  That is not talking up yourself. That is dressing-down your listener.

This is marketing and rainmaking 101.  This is how it is done.  The reason this is important is because it is this for which you will become known.  You will use this in everything you do and in every way you will market.

Maybe this is niche marketing, but is not everything niche marketing?  Big ideas anymore are all about small things.  For example, telecommunications is no longer a big idea.  However, ViOP, one small portion of telecom, is.  Likewise, business law is no longer a big idea.  It means nothing it is so large in scope.  It is no different than a restaurant saying that it serves food.  Well duh!  What kind of food?

This attorney finally told me that he likes to help burgeoning tech companies determine their best business structure.

BANG!!!  THERE YOU HAVE IT!!!  Now that is something you can start to refine and sell!

But, I then hear the protest that the lawyer can do so much more than that.  To this I said, "Of course you can, and after these burgeoning tech companies get organized they are going to need you to do so much more".

My point is that you cannot sell your solo practice by just hanging up a shingle, and even if you could your shingle in this day and age needs to tell the World what it is you are dedicated to doing.  Joe Smith - Lawyer no longer does the job.  Joe Smith -- Business Lawyer is not much better.

If you go through your life as a lawyer as a wondering generality, you are not going to be a lawyer very long.  Doggonit!  You have got to stand for something in your life!  You must decide to be something specific.

So, if you are a solo and you are having trouble finding enough clients to make ends meet, ask yourself what is your message?  What am I not doing to properly relay to those I meet, what I do?

Full post as published by Chuck Newton on February 16, 2008 (boomark / email).