How Do I Build A B-2-B Law Firm?
—–Original Message—–
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2007 8:51 PM
To:
Subject: Question
I’ve been subscribing to your e-list for a while now.
It’s great — and congratulations on a great website.
I’m now working full-time at an insurance company in Xxxxxxxxxxxx, but would
like to start a solo practice concentrating on legal research and writing and
especially appellate practice. I
currently do this work for two practitioners, an immigration practitioner who
specializes in political asylum cases and a personal injury lawyer, for whom I
perform pretty extensive brief-writing and research services.
I’m trying to market to develop more clients (who of
course are other solo and small-firm lawyers) but I’m finding it a tough
process. I know it’s possible to develop
a practice like this, because I know people who are doing it, but I don’t know
how to market myself to achieve this goal. I just did a direct mail campaign with a reply card addressed to 200
lawyers, and I have not received a single response. I’m thinking maybe my letter needed work, but
I don’t know how to craft a more effective letter.
I’ve also sent ads around on Solosez and on
emplawyernet’s network mail and run ads in the Law Journal, but without any
success.
Can you think of any things I should be doing? I would appreciate any ideas you might have.
Thanks.
Mxxx Rxxxxxxx
—————————————My Response Below——————————————————
Hello Mxxx,
you listened to any of my programs? Read
the e-book?
I agree that it’s very possible and very profitable to develop
a B-2-B law firm like the one you’re describing, because I’ve helped several
lawyers build them from just an idea into extremely profitable businesses that
lend themselves amazingly well to leveraging the efforts of others to generate
income for the owners of those businesses.
It seems to me though, from your marketing efforts so
far, that your focus has been on trying to make a homerun when instead the way
to build your practice is by concentrating on base hits. Sending out an e-mail blast or a direct mail
piece doesn’t generally make good economic sense for a business unless you are
already in a position to leverage yourself. That’s because, as you have already had a taste of for yourself, there
is a tremendous amount of preparation, testing, revising, more preparation,
testing, revising etc. required to develop an effective advertising piece. And if all you’re trying to do is keep
yourself busy, there are other faster, easier, less expensive ways to do that.
When you’re ready to handle a flood of business, THEN you
do the direct mail/e-mail routine. If
you’re just trying to get enough work to keep yourself busy, I think you’d be
much better off with old-fashioned networking & sales calls. Sorry to disappoint you, but these tried
& true methods for building a professional services business are called
"tried & true" for a reason. Concentrate on these reliable basics, get enough business to keep
yourself busy & THEN experiment with other approaches when your mortgage
payment isn’t dependent upon results. That way, you can actually have FUN with your experiments.
At the risk of stating the obvious, I should point out
that all of this infor
mat
ion and a
lot more, including instructions for how to actually execute the tried &
true approaches I’ve described here, are all in the programs I sell &
you’ll get as much or more by joining the Bronze Attorney Coaching Program, which only
cost $39/month. The Silver & Gold
groups will be open again in a few months.
Hope this helps,
RJON
Helping Lawyers In Small Firms Make Alot More Money