Monday, March 22, 2010
Meeting Reveals Need for Referral Marketing
The roundtable discussions at our recent attorney networking meeting in San Francisco included some of the most illuminating discussions yet. After Tammy Kehe reviewed the results from the Key Performance Indicators survey, the attorneys chimed in about what was working and not working for them.
One of the themes had to do with big cases. We heard from several of the attorneys that while their business was profitable from the standard auto cases, it was a few big cases that turned 2009 from a good year into a great year. When asked about where those "big" cases came from, the response was simple - "referrals". Even after paying out a 1/3 referral fee, these cases still made the difference between a good year and a great year.
So, the question came up, how do you generate the referrals? Following are a few of the responses and some ideas to chew on:
One of the themes had to do with big cases. We heard from several of the attorneys that while their business was profitable from the standard auto cases, it was a few big cases that turned 2009 from a good year into a great year. When asked about where those "big" cases came from, the response was simple - "referrals". Even after paying out a 1/3 referral fee, these cases still made the difference between a good year and a great year.
So, the question came up, how do you generate the referrals? Following are a few of the responses and some ideas to chew on:
- Start by being a great lawyer. You will never get big case referrals unless you can establish yourself and/or your firm as being able to handle the bigger, more complex, cases. You have to start with a track record of success.
- You have to network with potential referring attorneys - lawyers who are in your jurisdiction who either don't have the expertise or the resources to handle big cases, and lawyers in other jurisdictions who might be looking for a lawyer or a firm to handle a big case for them in your jurisdiction.
- Develop a reputation as the "go-to" lawyer or law firm for the big case by giving seminars, writing articles, publishing press releases on successes, highlighting your verdicts and settlements on your website, etc.
- Send out e-newsletters and collateral marketing material to noncompeting attorneys -and to your client database. Network presented several case studies on how these efforts led to a very high ROI in both leads and referred cases.
- Become active in your state AAJ society.
- Pay to be included in the AAJ Leaders Forum.
posted by
Harlan Schillinger
at
3:25 PM
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