As an attorney, you should be focused on providing your client with positive results, working hard to obtain a high settlement or jury award. There’s nothing wrong with this approach, but if you really want your clients to appreciate your services – enough so that they can communicate them to other people – you should go the extra mile, by offering insight into your practice and the various services you can offer. Your client may assume that you only work on cases like theirs, not realizing that you in fact have other legal expertise that could be useful to them and their friends and family members. It’s a good idea to prevent this narrow misunderstanding by speaking-up and educating your client about the work you do and the value it can provide.
Marketing and Conversational Practice
To effectively communicate your skills, you can employ a number of methods, including a mixture of marketing tactics and one-on-one conversation. Thinking about marketing can be stressful for some, but without an effective strategy, you may lose out on future referrals and increased revenue.
Expanding Your Marketing Strategy
To that end, you may want to take your current marketing strategy and expand on it. Offering a single promotion doesn’t usually cut it. People might seize upon the opportunity, but beyond that, it probably won’t yield long-lasting results. Instead, you should devise ways of integrating marketing into your daily practice. For instance, you can place informational pamphlets in your reception area or you can send out a monthly e-newsletter with updates about your firm. If you don’t have a law firm website, now might be a good time to invest in one. Altrumedia offers affordable professional websites that contain useful marketing materials including testimonials and ongoing blog content.
An effective marketing strategy requires an ongoing investment, but in the end, it is well worth it. If you feel unable to take on this task, please contact one of our attorney marketing professionals.
Communicating Directly
Diversifying your marketing strategy is one route you can take. You can also have straightforward conversations with your current clients. It’s easy to forget that people are generally not forthright about all their needs. They may be shy or anxious; they might assume you can’t help them; or they might simply not think to ask. Whatever their reasons, it’s important to speak up and ask them questions about their circumstances and needs. Once you open the door, they will feel more comfortable volunteering information. You can, for example, ask them if there’s anything you can help them with that you aren’t already doing. In the end, you want them to know what you’re capable of, so that when they go out into the world, they can adequately explain your services to other potential clients. The bottom line is this: you want to be as clear as possible about what you have to offer your clients.
If you have a larger team, you should take the time to train everyone on best practices for client interactions. You want to take every opportunity to provide grade-A customer service, so why not get the whole team on board?
Interpersonal Skills
Communicating value isn’t everything; you also want to exercise strong interpersonal skills. You can do this by talking with your client about their lives. If they mention a wedding one week, you can take the next opportunity to ask about the wedding. Or you can send gifts or handwritten notes to show your appreciation. Showing that you care about them as a person is a good way to build trust. They want to know that you’re a good person, someone who will act in their best interests. By building trust you also create the potential for more referrals and return clients.
In the end, it’s about being there for your client, showing that you appreciate them and clearly communicating what you have to offer.
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