A question on social caught my eye: “What’s the best way for a lawyer to get a raise at their law firm?”

There were many suggested answers, such as finding a mentor, making alliances, working late, staying out of trouble, and so on. Basically, show the partners you are a team player and can bill 40 hours a day.

Nobody said, “Bring in more clients.” Which is the most obvious way to show your partners that you can fatten their bottom line.

A firm can always hire more worker bees to crank out the work and increase their profits. Good bees are valuable. The lawyer who brings in new clients (and keeps them), however, is worth their weight in Gold Pressed Latinum.

Look at it this way: if a firm decides they need to make some cuts, who do you think will be the last to go?

Right. The rainmaker.

And, when it comes time for raises, who do you think will get the biggest?

Right again.

Because partners are smart and know that if they don’t take care of their rainmakers, said rainmakers will take their marketing chops and go somewhere else.

So, that’s my answer to that question.

Prince’s song, Purple Rain, is supposedly about Armageddon. Which might be the fate of the lawyer who doesn’t understand the importance of marketing.

If you are in a firm and doubt this, go talk to a sole practitioner. They know.

Take your marketing to the next level

Are you willing to admit that there are other lawyers who do what you do and are better at it than you are? That you’re not the best lawyer in town, or even better than most?

And yet clients still hire you and refer you and love you.

Because hiring a lawyer or firm isn’t a completely rational process.

Clients meet you or hear you speak or read something you write, or they see your ad or a friend recommends you (or your article or post), and they visit your website to learn more.

If they continue to like what they see (and what you offer), they take the next step. And eventually hire you.

Most clients don’t do a lot of comparison shopping.

Which means you don’t have to be the best there is, or even better than your competition. You just have to be good enough to get looked at and not blow it.

Sure, some clients are sophisticated and will scrutinize you down to your shorts. But most don’t.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to get more people to look at you and not give anyone a good reason to not hire you.

Be the best you can be, but don’t worry about being the best there is.

The quantum leap marketing system (for lawyers)

If you want people to do something, start by asking for something easier.

Asking followers on social media to Like and share your blog post, for example, makes it more likely they will eventually be willing to sign up for your newsletter. When they subscribe, it makes it more likely that they will eventually watch a replay of your webinar. When they do that, it makes it more likely that they will contact you for a consultation.

Not just because they learned something from your post or newsletter or webinar, but because they’ve become acclimated to complying with your requests.

Start small and eventually, you can ask for—and get—something big.

The thing is, while it’s better if they actually do what you ask, it isn’t always necessary. Just asking makes it more likely that they will eventually do that or something else you request or offer.

Give your clients some of your cards and ask them to hand them out when they talk to someone with a legal question. If you want a colleague to recommend you to their clients, start out by asking them to share the link to your latest blog post.

Whether or not they do that, when you later ask them to introduce you to their accountant, they should be more open to doing that.

You can start by asking for anything. Ask people to recommend a restaurant or a good book, to tell you which of two headlines or titles they prefer, or to fill out your survey.

The more you ask, the more you (eventually) get.

They hire you. They pay you. They’re happy with your work. But they don’t talk to you again until they have another legal issue.

They have no reason to contact you, but you have a reason to contact them.

Building relationships with your clients is one of the best ways to bring in more clients and cases, increase your income, and expand your network, with less effort or expense than anything else you could do.

Want more referrals? Stay in touch with your clients. Want to know who they know (and could introduce you to)? Stay in touch with your clients.

Have you ever signed up a client, asked them who represented them on their previous case, but they couldn’t remember? They couldn’t remember because their previous attorney didn’t stay in touch with them after they completed their case.

I’ve signed up a lot of clients who would have gone back to their previous attorney if they had remembered their name.

But don’t just stay in touch with your clients, get to know them personally. Find out about their business and personal life. They’ll tell you what you can do to help them.

If you someone needs help with a tax matter, for example, you can send them information and refer them to a tax professional they can trust. If a client tells you their business is struggling, you could introduce them to people (customers, advisors, vendors) who can help.

Things you might not know if you just did the legal work and called it a day.

Is it worth taking your valuable time to do this? As someone who built a big practice primarily through repeat business and referrals, I would say it is.

No matter what kind of practice you have, you’re in the people business. If you want to get to know more people, get to know the ones you already know a little better.

The Attorney Marketing Formula