Originally published on November 22, 2010 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.
I've been practicing law for 23 years, and I've been marketing since day one. It started with lunches with referral sources. I then started attending seminars and sending big batches of direct mail to referral sources. In 1995, I built a Web site. Some time later, we took up advertising in business publications, then newspapers, followed by radio and even some television. Lately, we've been blogging and tweeting.
It's all good. It all worked to a greater or lesser extent. I have no complaints, and we've built a thriving practice. But one activity stands out from the others, which I've returned to over and over in this column.
Lunch With Referral Sources
When I think back on the money we've spent on advertising, I have no regrets. But it was spent long ago. It's gone, and it did its thing way back when we spent the money. We got a favorable return on our investment. The ads either worked or they didn't. Clients called for a day or two after seeing the ad, and that was that.
Lunch, however, pays dividends. Lunches we scheduled two decades ago benefit our practice today.
You see, we're still getting referrals from people we met that far back. They still send their clients to us for help. In some cases, those lunches were a one-shot deal. One lunch, no follow up. We made enough of an impression that we continue to reap the rewards.
Actually, I don't imagine we made that much of an impression way back then. I'm guessing — thankfully — that no one else has bothered to call that person and ask for his or her referrals.
Even after all this time, I'm guessing we're the only name the person knows for our area of the law.
No other form of marketing that will have the long-lasting impact of getting to know someone in a position to refer business to you. These people are the backbone of a highly profitable practice. Regardless of your approach to marketing, you should always nurture referral sources. They're that important.
Many of us shy away from one-on-one referral source meetings. We'd rather pay someone to build a fancy Web site, film a sophisticated TV ad, or tweet for us. Talking about ourselves and building relationships is hard. Many of us went to law school thinking it was a good path for avoiding what we perceived as a life of selling.
Realistically, however, building a law practice is about sales. Sales are required to grow and thrive. We've got to be willing to get out there and meet people to drive new business to our doors.
Sales doesn't have to be a dirty word. It can be fun; it can be lunch. Lunch can lead to a friendship. The friendship can grow so that your spouse gets to know your referral source's spouse. Their children get to know yours. Sleepovers happen. Family picnics take place. You're at their kid's high school graduation party; they're at your kid's wedding. You vacation together. You commiserate about the empty nest. You study retirement communities together.
All the while, referrals keep showing up at your door, and you do what you can to send some back to your referral source's door as well. Your practice grows. You can afford the kids, the houses, the vacations, and the retirement. That's the lunch dividend at work.
It all starts with lunch.
Written by Lee Rosen of Divorce Discourse.
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