It is widely believed that to be a successful lawyer it is enough to be intelligent, competent and qualified. But it’s not like that, just look around. In all sectors of the liberal professions, the ranking of the top ten best professionals does not correspond to that of the most successful (economic) professionals.
Success has its own characteristics separated from professional ability which is indispensable but not sufficient to achieve success. This is based on mastering three critical skills: legal marketing, business growth and development, leadership. In turn, are these skills favored by the ability to understand the people with whom? collaborators, colleagues and customers – you work.
It is important for a lawyer to also understand the best way to relate to clients, understand the most suitable way to serve them and how to acquire new clients interested in the legal services offered. When you start the legal business you don’t have to sink your head into the books to study cases, regulations or anything else.
Legal marketing
Marketing isn’t just about communication. The core lies in the discovery of the problems that customers have and for which they seek a solution. The most common marketing mistake is to focus on yourself and on the ability to master certain legal situations, instead of focusing on the customers that you can help. It is an error that directs marketing activities towards the sale of their services and not to the promotion of the solution that customers are looking for.
Clients are not looking for a civil lawyer or a criminal lawyer but for a lawyer who will give a solution to their problem. Communicating that you have the solution that customers are looking for is the most effective way to market the services provided.
Marketing goes beyond simply communicating the message, it starts from a strategy to determine a good market niche within which to operate as a leader and be recognized as lawyers who give customers concrete answers for the company or for their personal situation. .
The niche can be built around:
- a specific problem (for example: expropriation of ownership, urban changes, permits, debt collection, custody of minors);
- a specific type of customer (musicians, logistics companies, fresh food producers, fruit and vegetable growers);
- a specific combination of client and problem (single parents with child custody problems, start-up companies that need patent assistance, banks seeking regulatory compliance of their investment or savings proposals);
- an economic niche (following the example of private banking)
The key lies in finding a niche with enough numerous customers to ensure sufficient turnover to remunerate the activity of the entire studio and cover expenses. Here, when working on new cases by type or talking with other lawyers at a conference, possible niche opportunities must always be identified. Having found a potential niche, it is important to elaborate a marketing message to get people and check the answers obtained. The alternative to specialization in the services offered and customers sought – consists in following the “market wind” and accepting any proposed assignment.
It is a paying choice, but profitable only for short periods. When the trend changes, the difficulties for the study intensify.
Young lawyers should seek out a niche and strive to become its niche leaders. However, many dismiss the niche a priori because they see the loss of job opportunities rather than the opportunity to acquire a satisfied, repetitive and loyal clientele towards the studio.
