Referrals are the lifeline to any business, particularly a law firm. Over the last 18 years in practice, I have found many ways to generate referrals. This new economy, however, has changed the impact on each and garnishes different results. The following is my observations from "the trenches".
There are generally three ways to lead people to contact you: (1) retail marketing, a direct call to the consumer; (2) relationships, both personal and business; and, (3) branding, what you stand for in the marketplace.
Retail Marketing. Retail marketing has had a diminishing return over the last 10 years, but still proves to a viable approach. Ads in newspapers, radio, or other publications, must call awareness to the services you provide to target those needing your services now. Chet Holmes International did a multimillion dollar study and learned that at any given time 3 % of the population needs what you have to offer right now. An additional 6 % will need it in the near future, typically less than 30 days. Of the remaining 91 %, the study revealed, approximately one third, doesn’t know whether they need your service or not (they hadn’t considered it). One third needs it but doesn't know they need it, and one third does not need it. When totaled, approximately 70 % of Americans need what you have, will need it, or would consider it if they knew about it. That is what your retail marketing is going after.
When running retail ads, I found it important to include words like “protect” from government, taxes, lawsuits, nursing homes, and in-laws, or a combination of those. It is also important to stress you will keep the client in “control” and you will “keep it simple”. Another important factor when running retail ads is to make it about the reader, not you. Most ads I have seen start with the law firm name at the top or a general statement like estate planning services. This is a big mistake. The most prevalent part of the ad must be something relevant to the consumer's world. For example, an ad beginning with estate planning, many people would look at and glance over assuming they don't need it, while in reality they don't even know what it is. On the flip side, an ad beginning on top with protect your family, or protect from the government, or avoid nursing homes, are much more relevant to the consumer. After reading those headlines, they are much more likely to read the body and content underneath it to see how it impacts them. I typically have my law firm name at the bottom of the ad, so they have to read thru the ad to find it. That being said, your ad should not have so much copy they get lost in it. You should utilize bullet points and bolds strategically. Pictures are also important to tell a story. Chose pictures people can relate personally to.
The most critical element of retail marketing is it must have a call to action. Typically you can invite the public to a free seminar or workshop or a free consultation. In this recent economy, I have found retail marketing is actually getting a greater response than usual. The general public has a lot of concerns with the current economic condition. We have found, it is more difficult to get them to do planning, but many are in an information-seeking mode to determine if they need to be doing something they’re not. Recently, in a local newspaper, in addition to my ad, three other estate planners ran ads. I'm not sure how they made out, but we had the highest response from a retail ad in recent memory. I don't believe they did as well and here is why I believe so. All of their ads were invitations to go to their office for a consultation. Ours was a call to come to a workshop to discover the “7 Threats to their Family Security and How to Avoid Them™”. Many people who attended the workshop found it informative and empowering. We discovered that current consumers are very interested in Family and Asset Protection Planning and they are hiring us for our iPug™ Trusts. Believe it or not, the thought of going to sit with a lawyer for a personal consultation is not on most people's top ten list. In fact, I wonder if it hits their top 100. Most of them will wait until crisis. Our job, in this slow economic time, is to remind them that there is still strategic advances to doing planning without having to wait for crisis occur. A workshop is a great format to show that.
Referral Relationships. The second element to generate referrals is relationships. Relationship referrals are personal, including family members and friends, or business, including allied professionals, nursing homes, home care agencies, etc. Over the last year I noticed referrals from professional relationships have dropped off significantly. As I examined this, I discovered, like us, most of them are scrambling to save their practices, protect their relationships, and are struggling to create value for clients. The idea of referring a client to an attorney is not on their top ten list as well as most clients are crying poverty, fear, and holding on to everything they have.
Like the retail advertising, your conversations with your referral sources must also be in their perspective. Many are struggling to maintain relationships. Sitting down with them to discover ways to create value for them and their client and create a win, win, win situation is warmly received. Recently, I sat down with four different advisers whom were operating their practices from a realm of fear. After a one-hour MPS Strategy meeting, they were excited to sponsor private workshops for their clients for us to put on (one commitment to getting 50 clients to come). The success of this was because we identified the advisors pain and offered topics important to the clients (i.e., The 7 Threats™). We targeted their client base and asked the clients to "invite a friend". Instead of being overwhelmed and concerned, they saw the value in time management savings doing a group workshop which would enable them to see many of their clients in a one to two hour setting, to reestablish relationships and to meet their clients' friends and create opportunities for new business relationships. I highly recommend in this down economy, you consider discussing these types of private workshops with your referral sources.
Branding. The last and most important element in getting referrals is branding. Unfortunately, branding is a high cost and little immediate reward. Branding represents who you are in the marketplace. Currently, if you were to needed to buy a new car where would you be going in your community? The answer you just put in your head is that company that probably had the best branding. The strongest element of branding in and of itself may or may not be clients call you when needed. You know your branding is working when potential clients are talking to their financial advisors or others in the community. When your name is raised from multiple sources, it creates agreement and helps build confidence in consumer’s decision to call you. I had three clients in the last month tell me they knew me from my advertising and then checked with their advisor who also had nice things to say, and they had a friend that was happy with what we did for them. This multiple prong approach of having people think of you is ultimate success in generating an ongoing referral base.
So what can you do now? I recommend the following three things to start getting your referrals moving:
Consider running an ad in a newspaper periodically, or swap sheet that serves your target market. The ad should relate to the consumer’s current pain (i.e. their need to protect from government, nursing home, lawsuits, or the in-laws). It should be a call to action to come to a workshop which is less confronting than a consultation.
Have three Synergy, or Strategy, meetings per week with allied professionals and discover their frustrations, and identify ways you can support them. Consider doing a private workshop for them with the “invite a friend” approach.
Get out of your office. Create opportunities to speak anywhere and everywhere possible. Raise awareness, and make it about the consumers’ needs not yours.
No comments:
Post a Comment