You want to stand out from other attorneys. Get noticed so you can show people an advantage to choosing you.
But you don’t want to be so different that you scare off prospective clients.
So, you need to fit in. Look like a lawyer who does lawyer things. But if you only do that, if there’s nothing to differentiate you, you become a commodity. Just another option among many.
You give people no reason to notice you or choose you.
You want to stand out, but you also want to fit in. Look like an attorney, not an anomaly.
How do you achieve that balance? How do you stand out and at the same time fit in?
That’s what you need to figure out.
If you do anything different in your practice, make sure people know about it. Tell the world what you do that other lawyers don’t do.
And if you do nothing different, you can make it appear that you do.
How’s that?
If you do what everyone else in your field does, but the other citizens of lawyer-town don’t talk about that subject, when you talk about it, you own it.
For example, if you handle plaintiff’s personal injury claims and your competition doesn’t talk about all the things they do to investigate a case, and you do, the world will see that you are different and better.
Even if you’re not.
When you are the (only) lawyer who uses a 12-point checklist to ensure all the facts and evidence are collected and documented, you appear to offer your clients an advantage.
Yes or yes?
But there’s another way to stand out and also fit in.
When you look at your competition, you probably notice that not only do most of them appear to do the same things, they also tend to look and sound the same.
Like identical cousins, Patty and Cathy Lane. You can lose your mind.
But they’re not identical. One likes the ballet, the other rock and roll.
All of us were humans before we went to law school, and most of us still are. We can use our humanness to stand out and also fit in.
And it’s easy to do.
Don’t hide your personality or personal interests from the market. Let the market see that you like the ballet or rock and roll, and that while you do the same work other lawyers do, you are different individuals.
Market yourself first, your services second, and your firm a distant third.
Because people buy you before they buy your services.
