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| Marketing in Less Than 90 Seconds |
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| by Sara Holtz |
One of the myths about business development is
that it needs to be time-consuming in order to be
effective. Nothing could be further from the
truth!
With the appropriate "marketing mindset," you can
effectively market in under 90 seconds. To do
this, simply be aware of the marketing
opportunities that arise in your daily activities.
Here are five examples of how you can quickly and
easily market yourself and your practice.
1. Develop a business-building response to "What's
new?"
Most of us are asked "What's new?" dozens of times
each week. Unfortunately, most lawyers choose to
answer this question with one of two ineffective
responses: "Nothing" or "I'm swamped!" Instead of
letting such responses be your default, look at
this question as an invitation to either do a bit
of self-promotion or build a relationship.
Try an answer like one of these:
- "I'm working on an interesting matter involving
alternative energy investment credits" or
- "I just read this terrific book about the 10
happiest places in the world" (and yes, I just
did; and no, one of them is not Disneyland).
This approach will help the listener either better
understand what you do or allow the listener to
get to know you better because the responses
inspire further conversation.
Make a habit of taking 90 seconds at the beginning
of each week to plan in advance how you will
respond to the question "What's new?"
2. Turn ordinary interactions into
relationship-building opportunities.
Think of how much you could learn about your
client's business and life if, at the end of each
conversation, you took 90 seconds to ask about
something unrelated to the subject of the call --
whether it was about a business-related topic or a
personal one. Over time, questions such as "How
are your executives responding to the proposed
health care legislation?" or "How did your
daughter's lacrosse team do at the tournament?"
will give a greater dimension to your
relationship.
One year, this was the only change made by one of
my clients. Her result? A book of business that
doubled. Coincidence? I don't think so! Over the
course of that year, she learned a lot about the
client's company and its challenges, which enabled
her to identify marketing opportunities while
strengthening her personal relationship with the
client. Since people prefer to do business with
people they like, this made it an easy "sell" as
she offered more service to the client's company.
3. Be strategic about where you sit.
At the last bar association lunch or partners'
meeting that you attended, whom did you sit next
to? Someone you usually sit with or someone you'd
like to meet? I suspect it's the former. The next
time you're attending a meeting, spend 90 seconds
before entering the room to consider with whom you
would like to deepen your relationship and then
make a point of sitting next to him or her.
4. Make the most of what you're already doing.
Most lawyers spend part of each day reading
professional magazines or newsletters, industry
blogs, or work- related websites. If you make a
conscious effort to consider who else might be
interested in what you have just read and then
forward the item to them, you will have created a
"marketing touch" in less than 90 seconds.
Just today, as I was working my way through my
e-mail inbox, I forwarded an article to a client
about a company that I knew was on her "A list,"
an article about helicopter parents to a client
with whom I had discussed this issue in the past,
a San Francisco restaurant review to a client who
frequently travels to San Francisco, a job posting
to a colleague looking for a job, an event
announcement to a prospect and a video on "mathemagic"
from Ted.com (one of my favorite guilty pleasures)
to a referral source. Each one of these
connections took less than 90 seconds and was
based on content I was already reading or viewing.
To increase the effectiveness of this strategy
even more, take 90 seconds right now to make a
list of the top 10 clients or prospects with whom
you'd like to keep in touch and post it by your
computer. Refer to it just before starting to
review your e-mails each day and make it a point
to send something of interest to at least one of
those people once a day.
5. Keep your contact management database
up-to-date effortlessly.
You've just come back from a conference and you
have half a dozen cards from the people you met.
What are you going to do with those cards? Before
you toss them in your drawer, turn them over and
write your plan to maintain contact on the back of
each one. Do you want to add that contact to the
holiday card list, invite him or her to an
upcoming employment law seminar or remember that
the person is an OSU fan? Write it down on the
card before giving it to your assistant.
Have your assistant enter both the contact
information and a field with the follow-up
activity you want to pursue with each of them.
When the time comes to generate your holiday card
mailing list, the invitation list for the firm's
employment law seminar or your post- game wrap-up
on an OSU game, you will know exactly which
contacts to include.
To make this system even more useful, create a
cover sheet that you use with each card --
indicating the various marketing categories in
your contact management system (e.g., Harvard Law
alumni, in-house tax counsel, foodies, people who
are interested in cycling, holiday open-house
invitees). Attach the cover sheet to the card,
with the appropriate categories checked off.
By developing your marketing mindset, it'll only
take 90 seconds to turn what you're already doing
into an effective marketing activity. By
recognizing the business development opportunities
presented in your day-to-day interactions, your
marketing will become both more effective and more
efficient!
***
What marketing activities do you do that take less
than 90 seconds? Please e-mail them to me at
mailto:holtz@clientfocus.net and I will share them
in next month's issue of Focus on Rainmaking. |
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