Have your marketing methods failed to get you known in your city ? Do you wish that your marketing could get people to know you personally and as a legal expert? Well, you are not the only attorney with these kinds of feelings. Many attorneys tell me that their marketing is not getting a good response from the public. These attorneys have great legal skills, but their marketing doesn’t convince people to trust them.
Let me give you some examples of “weak” and “strong” marketing. First, “weak” marketing leaves you feeling that nobody knows you or trusts your legal skills. Here, a good example is to try to imagine that people are looking at one of your typical advertisements. Now, besides learning that you are a lawyer, what does the public learn about you from this type of marketing ? Were they able to get to know you as a strong expert in your field? Or, are you still an unknown attorney to them, as your advertisement failed to get them to really know you ?
At this point, let’s try to analyze this topic a little deeper. Traditional marketing methods usually fail to introduce you personally and professionally to the public. People still don’t know who you are and they don’t even know if they like and trust you.
This type of impersonal marketing doesn’t tell people enough about you and it will not motivate them to hire you as their attorney. It addition, they will not be motivated to find out more about you and your law practice.
So, we have to change our marketing strategy. We will need a more personal approach to our marketing plan. Here, you will have to demonstrate and show the public who you are and let them have a chance to ask you questions about their legal problems. Here, it is important to offer question / answer sessions, so that people can understand how you plan to solve their legal concerns.
Now, one of the best ways to answer their questions, is by offering “public speeches” to a variety of groups and organizations. During your speeches, you will have many opportunities to answer questions from people in the audience. Furthermore, you will discover that public speaking is a stronger and more personal method for marketing your attorney skills. This type of marketing will really help people get to know you as a professional attorney. You will also have the opportunity to shake hands with many people in the audience and answer their questions. Here are a few of the reasons that make public speaking very effective for attracting new clients to your law practice :
1. You will be able to give speeches to a variety of groups several times per week. Your professional staff members and office employees can also be trained to give speeches in your city and surrounding areas.
2. Each audience will see you as a legal expert in your field. In addition, they will respect you for answering many of their legal questions. It is this type of personal attention that will motivate them to hire you for their legal problems.
3. Many successful attorneys will want to give at least two speeches each week. This will result in you giving around 100 speeches in a twelve month period. Some attorneys, with large goals, try to speak 150 to 200 times per year. In addition, many of your employees can be trained to give speeches when you are busy. This could include other attorneys that work in your office, paralegals, office managers and secretaries.
4. Attorneys have the choice of speaking to small groups and large groups of people. Many attorneys set-up speaking engagements at groups that range in size from 10 to 1,000 people. So, always start with smaller groups and gradually try larger groups of people, as you become a confident speaker. It is also important to try and get speaking engagements at the following kinds of groups : Associations, corporations, conferences, organizations, conventions, schools and colleges and associations for other kinds of professionals that have the ability to make referrals to you. – This will take some work and effort, in order to acquire speaking engagements at good “targeted” groups for your speech topic ( There are many attorneys that fail to choose good target markets, when they set-up their speaking engagements ). This is one of the big reasons that their public speeches do not produce good results. Here, you will discover that they are wasting their time speaking to groups that are not really interested in their speech topic. Furthermore, they have not taken the time to analyze the kinds of “target markets” that would be good for their type of law practice. It does take a lot of effort and work, but it will be worth it when you become a very well known attorney. In addition, your employees can help you with the busy work that is required for booking speaking engagements.
5. Many people have a fear of public speaking, so they usually try to avoid giving speeches. However, you can conquer your fear of speaking by practicing in small groups or seminars. Here, it is very important to rehearse “short” parts of your speech while you are in front of a small group of people. As you become comfortable with short parts of your speech, you can gradually increase the length of time that you speak in your rehearsal sessions. – I usually have attorneys start by practicing just a few minutes of their speech and gradually we can increase their speaking time, as they become more comfortable. Afterwards, we can also slowly increase the number of people that they speak to in their rehearsal sessions. Finally, we discover that traditional public speaking classes fail to help you develop and rehearse a speech on a legal topic. Therefore, they are not getting you ready to give a speech that can attract new clients. Instead, they usually have you speak about an irrelevant current event topic. This will not get you comfortable and ready to give a speech on a legal topic in the next three or four weeks. In addition, we have to remember that public speaking is one of the most common fears for many people. So, we need a smart strategy that can help attorneys become confident speakers. Then they will get motivated to achieve their financial and practice goals, by giving speeches on a regular basis.
6. You can start setting a goal of being a well known attorney in your city. Here, public speaking can really help you become a well known lawyer to thousands of people in your city and surrounding areas. Giving speeches can also help you make many strong contacts with other kinds of professionals and business people, who have the ability to send referrals to you. Lastly, giving many speeches will make you a very recognized attorney that people want to meet.
7. Here are a few more bonuses that your speeches will help you attain: Being hired for paid Keynote speeches, receiving paid freelance consulting and training jobs in a variety of industries, receiving many referrals for more speaking engagements and being hired to give many seminars and workshops at conferences and conventions. All in all, you will have the opportunity to speak locally and nationally at many kinds of events.
8. Let us conclude with one final point that will show the power of public speaking. We will begin with a “small” goal of speaking to 100 groups in a year. Here, you will discover that this goal would require that you give two speeches each week. Now, if you speak to 100 small groups that have around fifty people in the audience, you would have spoken to 5,000 people in a year.
Now, can you imagine if you continued to give 100 speeches every year ? Just think about the number of potential new clients that you might acquire by speaking to 5,000 people each year ? Furthermore, when you are speaking to each group, your audience will get to know you and they will start to trust you. They will also have a chance to ask you questions about their legal problems.
Now, this is just the beginning, as you can always decide to find speaking engagements at much larger groups. You can also increase the number of speeches that you give to different professions and industries, that have the potential to send you referrals. Finally, many of your office workers and staff members will also enjoy giving speeches, as they will be helping you attract more clients to your law practice.
So, take the first step and become the well known attorney that you have always wanted to be. Public Speaking can help you achieve this goal.
