Stop Selling Your Practice Area And Start Selling Results

First, let me say that I understand many attorneys take offense at the thought that they are selling anything.  I know the spiel.  "We are professionals".  Save me the wag of the finger and do not write me if you are offended by my statement that attorneys sell services.  If I offend you with this, I apologize.  But, it is true.

When attorneys shows up in Court looking their best, when they place a sign outside their offices, when they have stationary printed up (does anybody still do that), when they go to group meetings, take out a yellow page listings, start practice blogs, send out emails, or mail thank you notes they are selling.  And, if that is not what you are doing, then my question is why in the hell not?

I make it a point not to sell at church, but then I know a number of wills, trusts and estate attorneys that do.  (I am not naming names, so do not worry).  It is called network marketing or relationship marketing, but it is selling nonetheless.

Call it what you will.  Whether it is marketing, or advertising, or speech making, or showboating, or whatever, its purpose, ultimately, is to get paying clients through the front door (or in my case over the phone, fax or email).

There is a key difference, however, in just marketing and advertising, and effective marketing and advertising.  I know lawyers that go through all of the right moves, that do not gain a lot of new or good clients, and bemoan the process.  It is unfortunate because often the problem is that they are not selling the right thing.  They are selling a generic product or service.  (Can you call a practice area a product?  I guess I just did).

The difference is that some lawyers sell their practice area, such as bankruptcy, or family law, or wills, or personal injury.  "Hi, I'm Joe and I'm a family lawyer.  Yep, I do divorces."  The problem is that people generally do not want to file bankruptcy, or pay for a will, or file for divorce, or sue an insurance company.  Most people think of a lawyer like a mortician.  A mortician maybe a necessary evil, but you do not want to hire one.  That is what you do when your emphasis is focused on the selling the label of your practice area.

This is not a legal services example, but it applies anyway.  I once knew a plastic surgeon who saturated the local radio market with an spot that described what he procedurally had to do to accomplish a face lift.  The spot was a gruesome minute long and stated the words "slice", "tug", "stretch", "suture", and "blood".  He then told me that advertising does not work.  You know I doubt Jimmy Dean could sell sausage if he focuses on how it was made.  It is probably less gruesome to describe law, but the effect is the same, and that is what most lawyers are doing.

You see, the plastic surgeon was selling a face lift.  Jimmy Dean does not necessarily sell sausage.  He sells the sizzle, the flavor, the taste, the comfort of eating his product.  The plastic surgeon needed to do that.  He needed to sell youth and beauty, revitalization or whatever plastic surgeons offer.  Well, the problem is that most attorneys make the same mistake as the plastic surgeon.  They sell the process and not the outcome.

People do not want to file bankruptcy.  They could care less about the product or the procedure.  They want financial freedom.  You just go out there and sell bankruptcy (meaning make that your dominant theme), just like all of the other attorneys you are competing against.  See how far that gets you, especially if you have little cash to spare on marketing and advertising.  Now if you sell financial freedom, or consolidating and lowering bills, you have sold something positive that people want to achieve.

People do not want a divorce.  Sure they want to get rid of that vermin they call a spouse, but that is not the point.  They are looking for some type of personal freedom, enjoyment, or peace in their life.

If you think that a family wants to hire a closing attorney on their new home purchase, you are sadly mistaken.  They do not need another expense.  But, they are looking for problem free home ownership.  That is what the attorney needs to sell.

There is that old tired story about the son of a drill bit company owner taking over the business and telling the sales force they will no longer sell drill bits.  In the future they will only sell holes.  This is because people do not want to buy drill bits, they want to create holes.  I do not know if the story is true, but it does certainly illustrate the point.

I think that professionalism is an attitude and demeanor that attorneys should not lose.  But, do not pretend to me that attorneys do not sell their services.  Whether they want to or not, whether they are good at it or not, whether they are successful or not, that is exactly what they are doing.  In fact, those who do not think they are selling are the ones probably doing the worse job of it, because attorneys are projecting to the public whether they want to or not.

Selling your practice area gives prospective clients no substantive reason to hire you over any of your colleagues.  Unlike the plastic surgeon, do not sell the product or the procedure.  That is exactly what you do when you sell the practice area or label.  Like Jimmy Dean, sell the sizzle.  This means, like the drill bit company, sell the end result.  After all, it is that end result for which prospective -- paying -- clients are looking.

Comments

[Dan Nunley]

Great post Chuck. I'm going to try to make it a point in all of my marketing to focus on communicating to potential clients exactly how they will benefit from my work. Maybe I'll put up a sign in my home office to remind me. "Be like Jimmy Dean, sell the sizzle!"

[Tim Evans]

You'd be a good sales coach, Chuck. When I was selling life insurance, we were coached that we weren't selling insurance policies, we were selling peace of mind, or the ability for a spouse and children to stay in their house.

These pictures create emotions. People make buying decisions (including buying legal services) based on emotion and then use logic to justify that decision.

[Valencio]

Excellent post Chuck.. I agree that we need to sell the outcome and not the process. I am working on rewriting the descriptions of my software products just to do that.

Valencio

[Christopher J. Berry]

Good post, Chuck. We are in the benefits business not the feature business. Noone cares about our features, they only care about the benefits to them.

[Will Geer (Workin' Out Hard: Business Bankruptcy and Technology Blog)]

Wonderful post. I see so many firms now integrating marketing classes and seminars for their associates and this is some of the best and most concise advice I've seen yet.