Marketing your law firm is often thought to begin with an ad or some promotional piece – a blog, an article, press release, whatever. And the legal marketing ends when the client signs the retainer agreement. We breathe a sigh of relief. Game over.
Not so much.
Have you ever had a client who was just perfect? Showed up in your office with everything organized, fee in hand, patient and happy to be with you?
Maybe they brought along all the documents on CD-ROM as well as in hard copy, just in case you wanted them on your computer?
How did that make you feel about how well you were marketing your law firm – the fact that you could attract such a PERFECT client?
How much easier did that make your job?
Now . . . why couldn’t ALL bankruptcy clients be just like that? The world would be a better place, roses would smell sweeter, and you’d whistle as you walked into the office each morning.
The mantra of the consumer bankruptcy lawyer is, “If I can get ‘em in the office, I can get ‘em to sign up with me.”
Though that’s laudable, it’s only a small portion of the equation. Marketing your law firm begins here, it doesn’t end here.
Why? Because the real work starts the minute the prospect becomes a client and signs a retainer agreement. Whether $100, $200 or more changes hands it is not enough to compensate you for the work you need to do merely to get the Petition into shape for signature.
Tax returns, bank statements, bills, financial information . . . not to mention the seemingly endless barrage of phone calls from clients demanding your attention.
But that’s only the beginning. Your client is undoubtedly paying your fees in installments. So that means you’ve got to chase the client down for money. And if that money doesn’t come in fast enough you’re looking a whole new round of documents to be provided.
Round and round it goes.
If you’re lucky, the client comes back (eventually) and signs the Petition.
But we all know there’s a decent chance Mr. Debtor is gonna fall off the dark side of the moon. Someone put a bug in his ear that bankruptcy is the end of the world, or maybe he thinks his world is better merely for having hire you in the first place.
Let me ask you to do this simple exercise:
- List the number of clients who have retained you in each month since June 2008;
- List the number of clients from each month who have paid your fees in full as of February 25, 2009.
Is there a disparity, even a small one?
There’s a reason WHY this phenomenon occurs in the world of the consumer bankruptcy lawyer.
It’s called . . . the effective marketing of your law firm.
Ouch!
Every day I hear a bankruptcy lawyer tell me that he or she doesn’t need and legal marketing strategies . . . there are plenty of clients. The problem is in juggling the workload!
But here’s the rub. If you have solidified your marketing into a system designed solely to attract your most compliant and desirable clients then they will make your life easier.
Market like a blindfolded kid playing “Pin The Tail On The Donkey,” however, and you’re going to get people you don’t want – people who are just not a good fit for you, and who will be tougher clients to work with.
Do the exercise. Let me know how it turns out.
