And Marketing

And Marketing<br /><br />Face it. Financial bottom lines are affected by the fact we live in a world that judges a book by its cover. Pretty singers sell more records, court cases rank higher in the news if the person is attractive, and politicians are elected based on their image as much any other factor.<br /><br />Looking at your own industry, dont you have to fight the publics perceptions? We see it on TV and in movies every day. More often than not, young lawyers, paralegals, and others just starting out in the profession are portrayed as cheap, petty, low rent, and usually called ambulance chasers.<br /><br />Lets cut to the bottom line which is this: In todays business climate, everyone should realize that a professional image is crucial to reputation and everyone could stand to improve theirs to some degree or other. Its what you need to do to keep your individual firms alive.<br /><br />Letterhead The level of professionalism demonstrated in your printed marketing materials.<br /><br />Information Accuracy and honesty; the keys to presenting the data gathered during a case.<br /><br />Voice How you communicate to everyone youre associated with.<br /><br />Education The continual improvement to your professional knowledge base.<br /><br />Appearance: People base a large percentage of their first impression on your appearance. When a client meets you for the first time, theyre sizing up your credibility, your ability as a legal professional, and deciding just how well you might conduct yourself in public. As the saying goes, you only get one chance to make a good first impression, so lets look at a few pointers.<br /><br /> Always dress in a professional manner. For men and women both, the attire should be business professional, which for men means suit and tie whenever possible, and for the ladies, business suits, nice skirt and blouse, or dresses. If you look unkempt or second rate the client will wonder how youll represent them while working their case.<br /><br /> A close cousin to dress is personal grooming. Simply put, make sure your hair, facial hair, hands, nails, and teeth are all clean and well kept. By the way, hows your breath? Always keep some mints handy.<br /><br /> Keep jewelry at a minimum. Jewelry should follow the rule on colognes. Its best to smell of nothing than to overpower with the wrong thing. A general jewelry guideline is no more than 2 rings per hand, no more than 2 thin necklaces, and either post or small ring earrings. And. you guessed it, visible exotic piercings or tattoos are out if youre going to be taken seriously by the legal community. Also, youll find some good books and magazines on business and professional image at your local library.<br /><br />Letterhead: In some cases, the first contact someone may have with you might be one of your business cards. For our purposes though, letterhead refers to any printed material paper or electronic anyone outside your office might see.<br /><br /> Business cards are a must. Make them distinctive, but with minimal content. Let your website or brochure carry the heavy content.<br /><br /> On business cards, stationery, and your website stay away from trite, clich, or negative icons such as someone running after an ambulance.<br /><br /> For stationery, choose quality paper and have your letterhead and envelopes, as well as your contracts, professionally produced by the same people who do your business cards. Make sure their color themes match. Your local print shop or office supply store should have everything you need. If theres any one place you want to spend a little money, this is near the top of the list.<br /><br /> If your stationery has a particular logo or color scheme, it should be reflected on your website, or vice versa. As with business cards, your website should be an exercise in minimalism after its done its job of relaying all the necessary information about your firm. Avoid animation, sound files, heavy graphics, flash, or anything else that makes your site slow to load. Slow loading or busy looking sites are more an annoyance than an attraction. Relatedly, though they might provide a tiny bit of pocket change per year, try to stay away from banner ads and other outside links on your home page. If you have outside links, put them all on your links page. You dont want your client clicking off into cyberspace before theyve read what a good job you can do for them.<br /><br /> Stay away from blank notepads and manila folders. Theyll both get too messy too soon and not only will that make you look unprofessional and disorganized, but blank notepads make you look unprepared, and lost or disorganized notes lead to inaccurate reports and invoices. Invest a little time and/or money into buying or developing a comprehensive set of forms or an organizer system to use while assembling your case.<br /><br />Information: In the legal business, the glass is neither half full nor half empty. Its 50%. And, unless you know whats in it, dont speculate. Just the facts Maam. One of the biggest opportunities for a good impression, and naturally the most important, is the timely delivery of honest, accurate, information. Nothing will kill your image, reputation, and livelihood, like incomplete, inaccurate, biased, or late case work. Likewise, an inaccurate invoice can cost you by being either too low or too high.<br /><br /> Rule one is, always has been, and always will be, Use a good case management system. Make sure everyone working for you uses the same system, and that your standards of accuracy start at the beginning, and continues through the whole case and through any follow up you may ever have with that client. Then treat all of your other clients the same way.<br /><br /> Use nice presentation folders for all your reports; even the small dollar ones. Each client is important to you from a marketing standpoint and therefore deserves to be treated with respect. Putting your work product on better stationery, in a well organized format, and in an attractive presentation folder will provide a greater perceived value to your client. These people have probably paid a hefty sum for your service and a more professional report will help assure them that it was money well spent.<br /><br /> With any kind of information transfer, the key word in todays legal climate is PRIVACY! Reassure your clients in your contract, and in your final report that your relationship with them is as private as the law allows, and everything you do in connection with their case, before, during, or after the fact, will remain confidential. Loose lips not only sink ships, they destroy good client relationships.<br /><br />Voice: Voice is a general term used to describe not only the actual verbal communication you have with your clients and others, but the tone your business has with those it deals with.<br /><br /> When you answer the phone, do so cheerfully and actually smile. You can tell when someones not happy to be on the phone and so can others. This phone call might be your first contact with the next big client, so make it count.<br /><br /> If you cant personally answer every call, the next best thing is to have a receptionist or answering service. A person is always better than voice mail. Go with what you can afford, but since the phone call is one of your opportunities for a first impression, anyone answering the phone should be trained to be courteous, cheerful, informative, and as professional as possible.<br /><br /> If voice mail is your only option, make the best of it. First, be smiling and cheerful when you record the message. Second, have the message convey your high standards. Say something like As were extremely devoted to all our clients, were probably working a case on their behalf right now. However, YOU are just as important to us so please leave us your name and number and well get back to you within the hour. Then, if you say youll be back to them within the hour, actually do it. Prompt personal attention is a major plus in any business.<br /><br /> Education and intelligence are just as necessary as a cheerful hello. You want people to know that you are every bit as qualified and capable as they could hope for. Therefore, when speaking with people, speak clearly, and choose your words carefully. They dont have to be big words, but they do have to make sense, and grammar is important.<br /><br /> The written word should follow the same rule. Make sure your business cards, letterhead, brochures, reports, invoices, and all other written documents use correct spelling and proper grammar. Though your client may be enamoured enough with your abilities as a legal professional to overlook a minor grammatical error, you never know who else of importance might see your report or correspondence.