Our advice covers some of the issues lawyers face when promoting their activities in an increasingly competitive environment: – Lawyers: the challenges of differentiation – How do you sell yourself when you’re not a salesman? – Communication for lawyers: new rules for a new way of thinking
1. Lawyers: the challenges of differentiation
Nothing is more like a law firm than another law firm. The same is true of chartered accountants, notaries and even beyond the regulated professions in many consulting professions. If you do a Google search and ask the question in English: « What makes a law firm different ? » For pages and pages, law firms explain why they are different. The problem is that none of the arguments presented is a differentiating factor. Pell-mell the technical quality of the lawyers, their availability, their ability to provide irreproachable service…. and so on.
What if the difference consisted simply in saying who you are and doing what you do best?
Why do so many firms make the same two mistakes? Mistake no. 1: trying to be like everyone else. Mistake no. 2: Saying you know how to do everything, for fear of missing out on a customer with a specific need that the firm can’t meet.
The key to differentiation – and therefore to successful communication – starts with accepting to make choices. In other words, deciding in which areas the firm can provide a better service than its competitors. Here, “better” means the service best suited to the expectations and needs of the clientele the firm can access. It also means the service that the firm is capable of delivering under acceptable conditions of profitability. Once these strengths have been identified and nurtured, it’s important to have the courage to emphasize them to the detriment of the firm’s other areas of expertise. By taking this approach, the firm is not giving up part of its business. It’s simply putting all the chances on its side to be known and recognized for the right reasons.
By analogy with psychoanalysis, this involves “working on oneself”. You have to be willing to question your habits, and sometimes even your convictions. This introspective work is always fruitful.
2. How do you sell yourself when you’re not a salesman?
This is the “big question” for anyone working in the professional services sector, whose status as an expert is traditionally difficult to reconcile with that of a “sales representative” of his or her activity.
Having worked extensively on this issue in relation to lawyers, I have also noticed how many expert professionals (accountants, asset managers, recruiters, management consultants, etc.) feel uncomfortable, not to say paralyzed, when it comes to “selling” their talents to potential clients.
It’s a fact, however, that the professionals who succeed in building successful, long-lasting firms are those who have mastered the art of rainmaking, marketing and customer development. Whether working alone or with others, the pressure to generate sales and renew clients is relentless. Whether you want to set up your own business, are looking for new partners or simply want to stay where you are, you’ll all have to answer the question: “How big is your customer base?
The paradox is that all these professionals are in professions for which they have received no “sales” training. So, how do you make progress?
– Start by trying to answer the following questions: What do you sell?
– Have you tried to formulate your offer clearly?
– How does this offer (really) stand out from the competition?
– What areas are you best at? What areas do you want to develop? (Are they the same?)
Make a list of your objectives:
There’s no such thing as a serious project that isn’t associated with precise objectives. If you’ve never thought in terms of specific objectives, now’s the time to start. Don’t set big goals, small ones are enough and you’ll be able to reach them more easily.
Always be in “development mode
It’s tempting not to do any marketing when you’re not very busy. Why try to sell when your order book is full? But you need to be constantly mobilized to promote your business. It’s precisely when the engines are running at full throttle that the professional feels confident and speaks with conviction about his or her business. Often, your slow periods will be the same as those of your competitors. The hunt is less effective when everyone’s on edge. Prospecting and development time is just as important as time spent on customer files.
Don’t force your nature
Some people are good talkers and good with people: they’ll have to go to cocktail parties. Others write: they’ll publish articles. There are highly technical approaches and, on the contrary, more pedagogical ones. Whatever your style, you need to act using the means best suited to your personality.
Social networking to cure the shy
Will social networks put expansives and introverts on an equal footing when it comes to self-promotion? Perhaps. By making good use of the many possibilities offered by social networks, professionals can continuously promote their knowledge and know-how. The aim will be to systematically disseminate any information likely to be of interest to a target clientele. This will not be promotional information but, on the contrary, useful information, “generously” offered by its authors … and all from the privacy of one’s office.
3. Communication by lawyers: new rules for a new way of thinking
Whenever new rules appear – especially when they move in the direction of liberalization – there are always conservative voices to raise their heads. Despite those who believe that the new deontological rules concerning lawyers’ communications risk undermining the profession’s credibility, these rules are an opportunity. It will always be possible to caricature the progress represented by these rules by imagining law firms promoting themselves with posters along the Périphérique or avalanches of e-mails from lawyers saturating all inboxes. The reality will undoubtedly be different.
Personal solicitation now authorized by the Hamon law of March 17, 2014 and its decree of October 28, 2014 are first and foremost a clarifying factor. Indeed, faced with practices that are often out of step with rules that have become obsolete, the new article 10 of the RIN will first help to re-specify the boundary between what is authorized and what is prohibited. The second benefit of these new provisions is to awaken the profession to the urgent need to reflect on the notions of positioning, messaging and how the firm’s offering meets the needs of its clientele. These issues are the same for individual lawyers as they are for large corporate law firms.
In the field, the lawyer will be less restricted in his ability to approach those who may need him. They will be better equipped to fight the competition. The legal market has long been a sellers’ market, in which the lawyer dominated the relationship with the client. The balance has shifted, and it is now the client who sets the conditions. In a more competitive environment, these new rules are a spur to reflection and action for all law firms.
Once the preserve of an elite group of firms, marketing and communications are now open to all. The main weapon of the new “personal solicitation” will undoubtedly be email. For a negligible cost, all firms will be able to deploy prospecting and marketing initiatives. The beneficiaries of a more open market will certainly be clients … but also lawyers.
About the agency:
Eliott&Markus is a marketing and communications consultancy dedicated to professional services firms, consulting and intellectual expertise professionals.
Our skills are organized to meet our customers’ objectives: creating and implementing marketing and communications strategies, managing communications and implementing operational plans, creating operational communications media.
Contact : Gwénaëlle Henri, g.henri@eliott-markus.com
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