Peter Drucker said, “The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself.”
In other words, when there is a close match between what you offer and what your client wants and needs, you don’t need to persuade him to hire you, you need do little more than show up.
Do you know what your clients want? Do you know what keeps them up at night? Do you know what other options they have considered?
Do you know where they live and how much they earn? Do you know what they do for work and what they do on weekends?
You may not know these things if you are like most lawyers who define their target market merely in terms of legal problems. That is, anyone who has a certain legal issue is a potential client. That may be true in a literal sense, but if you stop there, you’ll never achieve the kind of synchronicity that draws clients to you and makes them immediately see you as the best solution.
You need to define your target market in terms of your ideal client. Who is an almost perfect match for you? You need to know your clients and prospects so you can focus your marketing efforts on attracting them.
If I tell you I know lots of clients I can refer to you but I need you to tell me what you are looking for, what would you say? When you can answer this question with specificity, marketing gets a lot easier.
I’ll be able to quickly identify clients who would be a good match for you and I will be able to tell them why they should contact you.
When your ideal client reads something on your website, they will know that they don’t need to look elsewhere, they’ve found the right lawyer.
When you are networking or on social media and someone asks you what you do, you’ll be able to tell them not only what you do but for whom you do it, making it more likely that they will self-identify.
Many lawyers are hesitant to define their ideal client, or publicize it, because they are afraid they won’t attract clients who don’t fit the profile. “If I say my ideal client is in the insurance industry, I won’t attract clients in the transportation field,” they say.
Yes, and that’s the point.
You don’t want to get the scraps in a variety of markets, you want the lion’s share in one market.
Big fish, small(er) pond?
Choose a target market. Define your ideal client. Get to know everything you can about them. And then offer them exactly what you know they want.
When you do, you won’t have to explain why anyone should choose you instead of any other lawyer. Everyone will know.
For help in defining your target market(s) and ideal client, get this.
