September 8, 2006
Divining for New Law Firm Markets
Peter Darling’s article “Seeking Out New Markets” in the September 2006 issue of Law Practice will spark your imagination.
While your peer firms engage in “mantra marketing,” delivering the same old tired message to the same clients and prospects, you can engage in divining for business. You can use Darling's three questions as a divining rod to seek out new business and even entirely new markets. Darling calls it “spotting what’s less than obvious”.
The trick is looking at new events, regulations, and laws from three different angles. Look at them as a lawyer, as a marketer, and as a strategist. Darling uses the example of a new law. There are three questions:
- A Lawyer: What does this new law mean?
- A Marketer: Who will it affect, and is there anyone new in this group?
- A Strategist: Do we have expertise in this area that we can leverage and market?
The test can be applied to anything: Avian flu, new laws regarding computer disposal, outlawed duck liver in Chicago, immigration changes, etc. Sarbanes-Oxley is a classic example. Law firms who initially approached SOX with the eye of a marketer and strategist as well as an attorney reaped the greatest rewards. Where will your firm be when the next Sarbanes-Oxley is signed by the President? Will you just respond to the needs of your existing clients when they turn to you as their trusted advisor or will you take the initiative to seek out new markets and opportunities with an effective strategy to marshal the needed knowledge and expertise.
I would kick Peter Darling's approach up another notch by applying his three questions to possible future events. In a previous post about pursuing opportunities, one entrepreneurial approach discussed was “Getting there first with the most”. Doing so requires the firm to have a strategy in place to mobilize quickly when opportunities arise. To do that, the law firms needs to anticipate possible future events and have a basic plan in place to move faster and with more resources than the other guy. I suggested that the partners prepare their minds by practicing “thinking out of the box.” For example, have a weekly lunch or a monthly evening session devoted to nothing but thinking about things that could happen and then thinking about how they could happen differently. The mission would be to identify strategies that would allow the firm to benefit rather than suffer from these events.
Suppose a one-payer health system is adopted by the U.S. government. What problems and opportunities occur if Mexico nationalizes American businesses? How should your firm respond to a news release that a major U.S. corporation is relocating its headquarters to your area? Could your firm have anticipated the wave of refinancing sparked by falling interest rates? Does the fact that over three million Americans turned 60 last year open opportunities for your firm?
Have fun thinking out of the box. View each event from the eyes of the lawyer, marketer, and strategist. Consider how the firm could capitalize rather than suffer from uncertain future events. Chance, Luck, Opportunity—whatever you call it—“favors the prepared mind.”
Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc. For information about Juris® products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income, go to www.Juris.com.
Related posts
Filed under Marketing by Tom Collins