How to Sell Legal Services Without Selling
As a lawyer, there's only so much time to spend on marketing and business development, so you have to use it wisely.
So, how should you spend your limited time in order to achieve the most success?
Charlie Munger, a lawyer who became legendary as Warren Buffett's business partner, has a simple prescription:
"You have to figure out what your own aptitudes are. If you play games where other people have the aptitudes and you don’t, you’re going to lose. And that’s as close to certain as any prediction that you can make. You have to figure out where you’ve got an edge. And you’ve got to play within your own circle of competence."
Munger wasn't speaking about marketing, per se, but his advice is universal to any domain in which someone is trying to achieve success.
We all have a "circle of competence"—a body of skills and knowledge that gives us an edge. And we can expand the circle over time, slowly and incrementally.
If we try to do too much, too fast, we spread ourselves thin and our effectiveness diminishes.
We see this when a lawyer tries to serve too many types of clients across too many practice groups.
And it happens in marketing when we dabble in too many areas, using too many tactics, across too many platforms.
Yes, there are many things you can do to market a legal practice. But the question is: What’s the best way to spend your limited resources of time and attention?
For many lawyers, and perhaps for you, too, thought-leadership marketing is the most effective way to gain awareness and build trust with prospective clients and referral sources.
The best part of selling your services as a thought leader is that it doesn’t really feel like selling at all—to you or to your audience.
That’s because the point of writing articles, creating videos and podcast episodes, and sharing other forms of thought-leadership marketing is not to persuade a prospective client to make a buying decision.
It's to allow them to persuade themselves.
Thought leadership content helps prospective clients convince themselves by discovering their own reasons for wanting to buy.
Creating content is a long-game strategy that involves educating one's ideal-client audience about the risks and opportunities they face. By sharing ideas and insights, content creators position themselves as experts capable of helping mitigate risks and capitalize on opportunities.
In short, content helps the reader, listener or viewer visualize a better future and the content creator's role in helping to realize it.
It's not easy. It requires patience and persistence. But "selling" legal services is far easier when clients sell themselves on the idea that you're the right expert for the job. And becoming a thought leader who builds trust with an audience is a way to make that happen.
What’s often overlooked, however, is that thought-leadership content, like a tree that falls in the forest, won’t have much of an impact if it’s not visible to your audience. So what’s the best place to create content that reaches your audience?
We believe that it’s LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network, where business decision makers are searching for ideas and solutions and the experts who put them forth. Becoming a thought leader on LinkedIn requires a unique skill set and approach, and that’s why we created the Thought Leader Collaborative, a new online membership community where we provide training and resources to help lawyers like you gain the skills necessary to grow legal practices on LinkedIn.
Focus on less. Do it better. Gain traction. Build a practice.
Learn how in the Thought Leader Collaborative.
You have ideas. Your market is looking for solutions.
Finding that intersection between your expertise and those seeking it is the most promising pathway to growing your practice.
When you generously share what you know with the world, without expectation of reciprocation, the world rewards your generosity. You become recognized as an authority...eventually, as a thought leader. You then naturally make connections with those seeking your expertise, whether through prospect discovery or referral.
Domain expertise and a willingness to share it are among the fundamental traits of successful thought leaders.
Share your best ideas for free. Become a thought leader. Build a practice. And you'll never have to feel like you're "selling."
Check out this related content:
Instead of Coming Up with the Perfect Plan, Just Start Taking Action
Create Structure and Routine to be Effective Amid the Chaos
7 Statistics That Prove How Valuable Thought-Leadership Marketing Is
Jay Harrington is president of our agency, a published author, and nationally-recognized expert in thought-leadership marketing.
From strategic planning to writing, podcasting, video marketing, and design, Jay and his team help lawyers and law firms turn expertise into thought leadership, and thought leadership into new business. Get in touch to learn more about the consulting and coaching services we provide.