A few years ago, I saw a few episodes of a program called, “Life After People”. It depicted what the earth would look like in 25, 50, 100 and 300 years (I think) if mankind was extinct.
It showed our tallest skyscrapers decaying and eventually crumbling into dust. It showed the forests overtaking our cities. It showed some animal species thriving, and others becoming extinct.
It was both a fascinating and frightening portrayal of nature reclaiming the earth, and it made me realize all of things humankind does to maintain and nurture our planet.
Thinking about this program made me think about what would happen if professionals stopped marketing. If we no longer did anything to bring in new clients and keep them happy, what would our practices look like in a few years?
What would happen if you pulled all of your advertising and stopped networking, writing, and speaking. If you never added anything new to your website, posted on social media, or sent your clients and prospects another letter or email?
What would your practice look like if you did nothing more for your clients than the legal work you were hired to do? If you did nothing else to inspire your clients to tell the world about their great experience with you?
If you stopped all marketing, what would your practice look like in a year? Five years? Ten? Would you still be open for business or would the weeds overtake you and hasten your extinction?
Just as mankind maintains the world’s infrastructure and continually creates new and better ways to add quality of life to our days on Earth, so must every lawyer maintain their practice and make it grow.
Do yourself a favor and make a list of everything you do that could be considered marketing. Big things and small things. Old things and new things. Easy things and challenging things. Making this list will help you see how much you do to keep your practice’s engine in good repair.
Then, imagine what would happen if you stopped doing these things and let the practice run on it’s own. No doubt the image you see in your mind’s eye would be sobering, even if you haven’t seen “Life After People”.
Finally, look at your list again and imagine what your practice might look like in a few years if you made a little extra effort to do the things we call marketing a little better, and found some new things you could do to help your practice grow.
And grow you must, because if your practice isn’t growing, it’s dying.
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