Imagine you’re a lawyer (OK, that was easy).  Now imagine you want to bring in the best possible clients for your practice (still simple).  You learn the law, create a form bank, study procedure and map out a work flow that will make you as productive as possible.  You hire the finest people in the field to sit at your side, and you plug in your phone.

Your business and marketing model consists of the following:

1. You create a website that contains a silly picture and nothing more;
2. You pick up the phone when it rings, and do not have a voicemail system or answering machine;
3. You perform your services in advance of invoicing or accepting payment – in fact, you do not accept payment prior to performing work;
4. You accept personal checks as the sole method of payment – no credit cards;
5. You send out an invoice and simply wait for it to get paid.

Sounds like bad business, right?  I used to think so too.  That is, until I had the experience of purchasing a Greenberg Smoked Turkey.

This is a company based in the Dallas (TX) area, and all they do is smoke turkeys and ship them out to people.  When the turkey arrives there’s an invoice attached.  It invites you to send in a check and provides you with an address to mail your payment.

That’s it.  Order by phone only, no credit cards accepted.  And don’t bother to pay in advance, either.

Totally blew my mind, it did.  Who does business like that anymore?  It’s destined to failure!

Tell that to the Greenberg family.  They ship about 200,000 turkeys a year all across the United States, smoking 2,500 a day from early November through Christmas.  On the company’s busiest days they’re shipping out 25,000 turkeys a day.  This, for the past 70 or so years from their plant in Tyler, TX.

What’s their secret?  How do they do it without the Internet, no social media, no blog?  To channel John Houseman, “they did it the old-fashioned way.  They earned it.”

Seriously, folks.  They started out very small, produced an excellent product, and let word-of-mouth spread over time.  It took years, but it worked.  Now they’re shipping to families who have been making Greenberg Smoked Turkeys a table fixture for so long the grandchildren are ordered just like grandma and grandpa used to.

Maybe this isn’t the right model for you to use in marketing your law firm, but it gos to show that:

• Produce a quality product or service and create evangelists out of your clients – it will come back to you over and over;
• Word of mouth takes time;
• Even a generic product or service can be turned into something spectacular if you care about it;
• There’s a lot to be learned from a turkey.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving to you, my dear reader.  I am thankful to have your attention, your comments, and your support.

Photo courtesy of dasmart.