Marketing Coaching for Lawyers

Here’s the fundamental thing about legal counsel at a company. They are hired by a business to be a specialist in a functional area - the laws and regulations for the industry they operate in. There prime directive is to help the business achieve their business goals.

It’s not rocket science and it’s no different from any functional area within a business. The head of sales is responsible for selling the product, the head of R&D responsible for new product development. All functional areas, whether legal counsel, marketing, or product development, are about making money, lowering risks, and kicking your competitor’s butt. It’s about winning in the marketplace.

What does that mean for a lawyer who approaches legal counsel? Sure, it helps that you come from a well-reputed firm that has done work within the specialty area say intellectual property. Yep, it counts that have some decent cases under your belt and the requisite experience to do the job. So, you are competent, smart, and accomplished, why aren’t these legal counsel folks just knocking at your door? Well, it’s because they are busy. A good pedigree is just the minimum bar to entry. Legal counsel is no different than you. What do you do when you are new to town and need a good doctor? You ask someone you trust for advice. Whether it is finding an attorney to help them on their overload of work, to handle a regional case, or to deal with specialized work (litigation, tax), it’s all about networking. It’s about who you know.

I know it’s disappointing, but it’s reality. The legal counsel has someone on staff that knows of another guy who he was opposing or co-counsel and thought was good. Or you ask the guy from NYC from the firm you generally work for, “We have a case that needs someone with gaming expertise in Boston, do you know a guy you could recommend?” Once in a blue moon that legal counsel may pull out a card of a guy he met at a conference. But, this is how it works. It’s about networking and who you know (link to article on networking), and building a personal brand or niche for yourself, which the rest of the article addresses.

So how the heck are you supposed to build your brand? It basically involves marketing. It’s about knowing your audience and then marketing yourself to them. Here are 7 steps to get you started:

1. Figure out the industry you love: Think about a couple of things you love to do. Things you naturally love to read, do, think about. Something you have a natural passion for. Next, figure out which of these passions are in industries that are profitable and growing. This is the start of your specialty.

2. Start meeting with people within the industry: Get your Rolodex out and see if you know anyone who knows people within the industry you have selected. Meet these people and find out what their pain points are, where they have needs that you can meet. Ask them what are the top business issues they are facing? What periodicals or online sites are hot? What conferences do they attend? What newsletters do they subscribe to? Understand your audience inside and out.

3. Be the “go-to” person in your firm: Be the resident expert on any issues related to you area (e.g. computer gaming, telecom, music, etc). That means tracking and knowing all the cases within a certain industry area. Let’s say you are the software guy focusing on IP litigation. That means you are reading relevant online/offline periodicals, you are going to conferences, you are reading blogs, and you are the expert on what is going on in the software industry.

4. Start writing biz related articles about your area: Now that you are the resident expert in that industry, it’s time for you to take your business hat off, and put your legal hat on. Given the trends you see in the industry, what are the legal issues, risks, or potential problems a company can face? Let’s say you see that Google is being sued for a particular issue. How can you look at the court decisions in the case and inform other companies like Yahoo, and Microsoft of the relevant issues? How can you be an early warning system that alerts them on matters they need to keep abreast of? How can these other companies learn from the mistakes of their competitors? If you were to pull out the magic 8 ball, what are your predictions on how the law will evolve?

When writing the article, imagine you are legal counsel at Microsoft: what would you be writing to Bill Gates (or more recently, Steve Ballmer)? Remember that the article should be practical. Yes, it is about you being intelligent, and its equally about adding value. The whole purpose of the article is for you to establish a connection with legal counsel. As such, make sure you close the article with an action item related to calling you for a consultation or to do a presentation, etc. (By the way, if your firm is sending a newsletter to your clients, this is fine, but it is not a replacement for the above. You can send all the firm newsletters you want, but if it isn’t personally relevant… they won’t read it).

5. Promote yourself within your firm: Find all the attorneys within your firm who deal with clients within the industry and start sharing information about your expertise so you are top-of-mind when they need to recommend someone. While it may be that this approach doesn’t get you any credit for the firm’s books, it is building your “brand” as the resident expert.

6. Promote yourself within your community: Start going to the local bar association and become known as the “go-to” person for a certain area. Start extending your “brand” or trademark to other folks within the community. Get contact information and locate legal counsel in the industry (e.g.- major software companies). Start sending legal counsel a quarterly newsletter for free that specializes in customized analysis of current cases, etc.

7. Extend beyond lawyers into businesspeople: For smaller companies, the business people are as relevant as the lawyers, especially in some industries (e.g.- start-ups in any industry). Remember your audience and put your biz hat on when talking to these folks. Go to conferences that have a mix of lawyers or business people. Or go and present to a group of businesspeople on legal issues they need to be educated on.

Are you ready to go out and develop your brand? In marketing this is called “niche” marketing. After you go through all of the above, how will you know if you got it right? Well, you’ll know when you have developed a niche, and can have a clear and narrow focus. By definition you will not be all things to all people. You will know who your audience is and is not. You will be perceived as the only game in town. It’s sort of like becoming the Martha Stewart of your area? Still need more help? Let's arrange a free 40 minute consultation to build your niche-oriented practice.

To find out more, check out our lawyer marketing coaches now.

Articles by CJ Liu on Hot Blue:

Lawyer Marketing Coaching: Using the Power of Permission Marketing in Your Practice

Business Planning and Marketing for Lawyers: Remember the Green-Pea Airplane?

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