The Visible Lawyer
How to Raise Your Profile and Generate Work
Published: 2016
Pages: 194
eBook: 9781787427260
Lawyers today need to be more proactive in winning client work. To be successful in this, they need to think beyond marketing, business developmentâl and selling, and instead strive to be more visible to their target clients.
It shares a variety of tried-and-tested approaches to boosting visibility, so you can choose those that suit you best. Every suggestion is designed to be put into practice around fee earning responsibilities.
Features of this book:
Chapters on how to create visibility and stay visible to clients as well as referrers, how to effectively network to get the best results, and intelligent marketing advice that will aid you and your firm in being more visible.
Practical tips to manage your day-to-day marketing activities that can be implemented easily and without a huge requirement for time or budget.
Highly practical advice you can put into immediate action, including a series of mini-masterclasses with step-by-step guidance and various templates that can be adapted for your own use.
Table of Contents
| Cover | Cover | |
|---|---|---|
| Praise | i | |
| Title page | v | |
| Copyright page | vi | |
| Contents | vii | |
| Executive summary | xi | |
| About the author | xvii | |
| Dedication | xix | |
| Part 1: The theory of visibility | 1 | |
| Chapter 1: Where do you need to be visible? | 3 | |
| Building brand cameos | 4 | |
| Building brand cameos into an effective personal visibility plan | 6 | |
| Choosing the most productive marketing options for you | 11 | |
| What do you know now? | 13 | |
| Chapter 2: How do you achieve a consistency of visibility? | 15 | |
| Little and often | 17 | |
| The ‘marketing mix’ | 20 | |
| How do you turn visibility into interest? | 23 | |
| Creating a solid and attractive client value proposition for your firm | 23 | |
| Creating a personal value proposition | 26 | |
| How do you make sure your (firm’s or personal) value proposition is in line with what your clients want? | 28 | |
| Part 2: Visibility in practice – How do you create visibility? | 31 | |
| Chapter 3: ‘Intelligent marketing’ – Practical marketing activities that really do create visibility | 33 | |
| What is ‘intelligent marketing’? | 33 | |
| What is the difference between ‘intelligent marketing’ and ‘tick-box marketing’? | 34 | |
| Ten low-cost/high-impact business development strategies that really work | 37 | |
| The proven three-step implementation model – Confidence, focus, action | 42 | |
| Chapter 4: How to stay visible to what you’ve already got | 47 | |
| Change your mantra from client management to client development | 48 | |
| Ten client development strategies that really work | 49 | |
| How to grow your existing client relationships | 56 | |
| Chapter 5: Don’t just stay visible to clients, stay visible to referrers | 63 | |
| Why referrers are as valuable as clients | 64 | |
| How do you build a referrer relationship model that really works? | 66 | |
| How do you convert your relationships into work? | 74 | |
| Chapter 6: How do you create the visibility that wins new clients? | 79 | |
| Make sure your firm is visible to potential new clients | 80 | |
| Get your web presence right | 81 | |
| Adopting a sector strategy | 84 | |
| Choosing the right sectors | 89 | |
| How do you build an effective sector team? | 92 | |
| Part 3: Mini-masterclasses | 95 | |
| Mini-masterclass 1: Networking | 97 | |
| Five things to remember so you establish the right mind-set | 97 | |
| Five ways to get the very best return from any networking opportunity | 99 | |
| Four ways to plan the conversations you’ll have | 101 | |
| Five things to remember once you’re in a conversation | 103 | |
| Ten ways to follow up | 104 | |
| Five alternative ways to network | 108 | |
| Mini-masterclass 2: Presenting | 111 | |
| Five facts that will help you get into the right mind-set to present | 111 | |
| Eight ways to make sure your presentations actually deliver a tangible return | 111 | |
| Seven ways to inject more impact into your presentations | 115 | |
| Five physical changes you can make to your delivery to immediately improve your presentations | 118 | |
| Two ways to follow up and make sure your presentations turn into instructions | 119 | |
| Ten ways to avoid ‘death by PowerPoint’ | 122 | |
| Eight ways to improve attendance at your firm’s seminar programme | 123 | |
| Mini-masterclass 3: Writing | 129 | |
| Three reasons you must engage in writing | 129 | |
| Seven potential publishing platforms | 131 | |
| Three things to remember when you’re writing | 134 | |
| Three ways to conquer writer’s block | 137 | |
| Mini-masterclass 4: PR – Become an industry expert | 141 | |
| Harnessing the tools to become a thought leader across PR and social media | 141 | |
| Tips on maximising value from the PR tools | 144 | |
| Harnessing the tools to become a thought leader Social media tools | 149 | |
| Achieving the joined-up formula for success | 152 | |
| Mini-masterclass 5: Research | 155 | |
| Which seven things do you need to research? | 156 | |
| What are the 11 best sources of information? | 160 | |
| What are the four golden rules for any researcher? | 166 | |
| The final word: What gets measured gets done | 169 | |
| How to set objectives | 169 | |
| Measuring yourself | 172 | |
| Multiple measuring (and motivating) | 174 |
After graduating in marketing and post-graduating in advertising, Douglas went into sales thinking that if he could sell he'd never be out of work. Although it was meant to be a temporary step – a purely education-finishing assignment – he has never looked back.
His association with the professional services began in 1994 when he joined Intellectual Property Publishing where he soon became sales manager of the IP portfolio, and ultimately sales and marketing manager for the owning group, Armstrong. When Armstrong was sold to Lloyd's of London Press, Douglas was promoted to commercial director of the Lloyd's Marine Intelligence Unit with full responsibility for promoting, packaging, and selling Lloyd's of London's market-leading shipping data output. This role saw him continue to work closely with the professional services, most notably the international Admiralty Law, marine underwriting, and marine finance and actuarial sectors, across the world's major shipping centres. In 2010, Douglas joined Bernard Savage at Size 10½ Boots, a business development agency that works solely with the professional services, helping professionals to win more new clients and more work from the clients they already have.
The tips, tricks, and shortcuts in The Visible Lawyer are the result of a combination of Size 10½ Boots' partners' corporate and professional services experience and the no-nonsense, plain speaking, straightforward approach they have developed alongside their constantly growing client list.
Because of the nature of self-employment, there is never a lot of spare time, but any time Douglas does have is spent with family, coaching youth football, collecting obscure soul records, and swearing profusely at Chelsea Football Club.